3 Filipinos Make Final Poker Table

THREE Filipino aspirants made it to the final table past three Korean hotshots in the penultimate day of the second season of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Saturday night at the Hyatt Hotel in Malate, Manila.

Ramil Tandoc, Benjamin Lim and first-timer Rainier Aquino were among the nine finalists after they showed enough patience to keep pace with their Korean foes Hyoungjin Nam, Chang Young Suk and Noh Taeh Jun.

Tandoc, who turned professional two years ago, reached the final table with 184,000 chips, while Lim and Aquino had 115,000 and 40,000, respectively.

The three assured themselves of a minimum payout of $9,228 (P461,400) for making it this far in the tournament, which drew a record field of 285 vying for prizes totaling P30 million.

The 33-year-old Tandoc, who is also known as Richard Malikan among his peers, got his biggest break in the 16th round when he busted out Iraqi foe Nali Kazelias, who went all-in.

Kazelian, who had a king of hearts and a 10 of spades, went all-in on Tandoc’s ace of club and king of club. The flop showed a king of diamonds, which went with a jack of clubs, six of diamonds, nine of hearts and a seven of clubs.

The win put Tandoc’s total to 3,800 chips, good enough for seventh spot.

“Sana mayroon pang kasunod,” said Tandoc, a father of three.

The 33-year-old Nam, a business administrator from Seoul, emerged as the chip leader in 17 rounds after ousting Filipino standout William Te Jr. in a three-way showdown with Canada’s Dimitrios Pappis.

Te’s hand revealed a 10 of hearts and a king of hearts, to Pappis’ seven of diamonds and eight of diamonds.

But the flop’s 10 of diamonds, four of clubs and six of diamonds favored Nam, who showed a pair of sixes.

The play had Nam collecting 500,000 chips and gain a total of 561,000 when the night was over.

Chang had 539,000 chips for second spot at the expense of Pappis, who showed a jack of clubs and a king of hearts to his ace of kings and 10 of diamonds. The Korean took 6514 chips after the river card showed a jack of diamonds.

The two Koreans gun for the top purse which had reached around P8,142,800 ($162,856), with Noh trailing with 466,000 chips. Peter Atencio