Czardy Rivera Wins APT Manila for PHP 4,270,000

With all the attention in Europe for the recently ended EPT London and the current WSOP Europe, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) made its way to Resorts World Manila in Manila, Philippines for the final event of the year.

The PHP 50,000 Main Event saw two day one flights yield a 389 player field to form a prizepool of PHP 17,357,000 (roughly $420,500) that would be split amongst the final 45 players. In a unique format, players could play both flights, and they could survive both starting days, they would begin Day 2 with the bigger of their stacks while sacrificing the smaller one. Day 1a would see 69 players survive with Craig Sloan on top as Jihad Bejjani lead the 86 Day 1b survivors while only one player – Jordan Westmorland – manage to sneak two stacks into Day 2.

The action began fast on Day 2 with players eliminated at a quick rate as the bubble loomed once the dinner bell rang. Once the remaining 52 players returned, it would take just a few orbits to leave the final 45 players guaranteed a PHP 69,000 payday once Alistair Duff was reported as the bubble boy and play ended for the day.

The penultimate day of play would end once a final table of eight was formed. Like the previous day of play, action was intense as players exited quickly with Bryan Huang falling in 31st when he pushed with but couldn’t outdraw his opponent’s . Asian tournament regular Julian Hasse fell in 26th when he pushed his but ran into pocket jacks, while Graeme “Kiwi G” Putt lost a three-way all in to bust in 22nd. As the final two tables were reached eliminations steadily fell before dinner break was reached needing just one more elimination. Once play resumed it would be Sebastian Sim pushing with and being called by . Unfortunately for Sim, the board would run out to see him sent to the rail as the final table bubble boy after being out-drawn with a two-outer.

On the final day of play Arnold Bathan would be the first to fall in 8th place when he three-bet shoved with but was called by Victorino Torres’ . The walking sticks would hold true and Torres would climb into the chip lead. However that chip lead would soon be relinquished when Lester Edoc found a double holding on a flop against Jerry Lai and his . The turn landed the changing nothing, but the on the river saw Edoc strike a pair to jump into the chip lead. Lai would then be next to be eliminated when his was outdrawn by Torres’ on the turn. Day 1 chip leader Sloan would finish in 6th when his lost a race to Edoc’s as Franklin Acfalle Jr was outdrawn by Haresh Kukreja’s straight. Kukreja would be out in 4th when his was outdrawn by Czardy Rivera’s as Torres fell shortly after when his couldn’t spike against Edoc’s .

With the heads-up battle between Czardy Rivera (4,245,000) and Lester Edoc (3,255,000) it wouldn’t take long for chips to fly as Rivera furthered his lead to a six-to-one advantage before eventually capturing the title when he flopped a flush. For Rivera’s efforts, he collects PHP 4,270,000 (roughly $103,000) and the title of APT Manila Champion for 2013!

APT Manila Final Table Results

*Information and live updates courtesy of The Asian Poker Tour.

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