It’s a petite field here in the Waterfront Airport Casino for Day 1a but it’s a field that’s certainly full of quality. The big screen is currently showing 71 entrants, but with nine tables setup, there are quite a few playing short-handed until a few late registrations take their seat.
Some of those in action here this afternoon include Michael Marvanek, Jesse McKenzie, Victor Chong, Jacky Wang, Octavian Voegele, Claudia Yum, Michael Kanaan, Daniel Laidlaw, Haifeng Xue, Stewart Ballard and Mishel Anunu, fresh off his victory in the PokerStars Warm Up earlier this week.
We also have a couple of past APPT champions with 2007 APPT Sydney champ Grant Levy and 2009 APPT Sydney winner Aaron Benton both taking their seats, while Team PokerStars has one representative here this afternoon with Raymond Wu flying the flag for the red spade.
An introduction from the staff here at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino and from APPT President Danny McDonaugh has seen the cards start flying around the felt.
As usual a great structure sees players start with 20,000 in chips and blinds at 50-100. Today will see seven 60-minute levels, so it won't be too long a day.
And with that, the APPT Cebu Main Event has begun!
Play was set to begin a couple of minutes ago at 12:15 p.m. local time, but a slight delay has seen the tournament clock paused.
In other news, a suckling pig has been wheeled onto the tournament floor as the players have been told they will be able to try the traditional Filipino dish very shortly. It's not often you see a cooked pig in the vicinity of a poker tournament, but nobody here is complaining.
It’s time once again for the Asia Pacific Poker Tour to descend upon the Philippines as Day 1a of the APPT Cebu Main Event is set to begin!
Players have been filing into Cebu from all corners of the world over the last few days and will continue to do so over the next couple. It is expected that this year’s event is going to be the biggest yet and we certainly hope that ends up being the case.
The season four leg of APPT Cebu was held all the way back in late 2010. That year saw 236 players create an almost US$500,000 prize pool and it was none other than Team PokerStars Pro Vivian Im who became the champion. In just under a week’s time one player will join Im on the winner’s podium as the season five champion and we really can’t wait to find out who that player is.
Today is the first of three day one flights and it is expected that a capacity field may be met. Only time will tell, but what we can tell you is that the excitement is starting to build in the Waterfront Hotel & Casino! We suggest you don’t miss all the action, so sit back, relax and enjoy every bad beat, bust-out and suck-out as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on the floor all day long.
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