APT Philippines 2010

After seven levels of play, Day 1B of the APT Philippines 2010 main event is in the books.

A total of 132 players signed up today to push the main event's total to 227 participants.

He wasn't that noticeable throughout the day but a late charge got Somyung Sim to the top of both the day's and the tournament's chip leaderboard with 107,100 in chips.

Next in line for the day is Claude Diel, who wields a stack of 86,350. Meanwhile, Tommy Le, who had been a big stack from start to finish, is third with 84,875.

When the two Day 1 fields merge tomorrow, it will be Somyung in first place followed by Charles "Mr. Macau" Chua in second with 98,950. The two will lead the 118 remaining players into table tomorrow as they all go for the first prize of US $172,200 in cash and an APT Macau 2010 seat worth US $4,500.

The cards get back in the air at 1:00 pm again tomorrow. See you all then!

Pre-flop, Jack Torres shoved from under the gun shoved for his last 6,000 and everybody folded to Mike Takayama in the button, who made the call. The blinds folded and the cards were tabled.

To everybody's surprise, Mike flipped over off-suit, which was way behind Jack's !

Of course, being ahead pre-flop doesn't necessarily mean you will win the hand. That's exactly what Jack found out in heartbreaking fashion as the flop came to give Mike two-pair!

The turn brought a to give Jack hope but the river blanked out, sending him to the rail.

Melvin "The Miracle" Matibag had been nursing a short stack for a while already and finally decided to make a move on a flop of and about 1,200 in the pot by going all-in for his last 3,250.

Charles Choi, the only player left in the hand, stared at the table for a while as he considered his options. Finally, he mucked his hand and Melvin flashed a to the table as he gave his cards to the dealer.

The clock has been stopped at fifteen minutes remaining and we are down to our last eight hands for the day.

Pre-flop, a player in early position made a raise to 1,200 and George Chehadeh made the call. Action went over to Nam Le, who declared he was all-in.

The initial raiser folded and George went into the tank, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, he took his entire stack and banged it hard into the middle, remarking, "You want to gamble?"

Turns out there wasn't much need for gambling, as both players had the same hand. Nam held while George had .

The board ran out and the two players split the pot, much to their relief.

7Win's Charles Choi has just taken out another player with pocket kings.

On a flop of , a player on his table shoved with and Charles instantly made the call to show .

The turn and river blanked out and we lose another player, bringing the total to about 73.

We didn't see what happened, but Johnny Chan is now down to just a couple of chips after losing a big all-in confrontation. Meanwhile, here are some other chip count updates

We caught up to the action with the board showing and J.C. Tran betting out 7,500 into a pot of about 12,000.

His lone opponent in the hand tanked for a while and even asked for a count of J.C.'s remaining chips.

After about one more minute of thinking, he quickly tossed 7,500 into the middle and just as quickly mucked his hand when J.C. showed for top two-pair.

J.C. is now at about 45,000 in chips after seeing his stack dip in the early levels.