APT Philippines Main Event goes to Julius Malzanini

Julius Malzanini had everything stacked against him when he entered the final table of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Philippines Main Event. However, there was one thing that he had going for him: the fact he was there, and that was all he needed as he played almost flawlessly en route to winning the event.

The German player faced a gauntlet of APT veterans and champions at the final table, which included APT Asian Series Cebu Main Event winner Jojo Tech, 2012 APT Asian Series Cambodia Main Event winner Ha Duong and last year’s APT Philippines Main Event winner, Feng Zhao.

Not only were those three accomplished players at the final table, they also had the biggest chip stacks of all of the eight players who made the cut to the final day of play.

While the ‘big three’ all had chip stacks of more than a million on entering the final table, Malzanini had the fifth highest stack with 439,000 chips to his name. That did not deter him though, as play eventually got underway in the Filipino capital of Manila.

Hometown player Flo Campomanes was the first to be eliminated from the final table. The shortstack was sent paking by his fellow countryman Ian Brion after he managed to hit a pair of Tens on the turn.

The defending champion, Feng Zhao, was the next player to go after a major turn of events for the Singaporean. Zhao lost a number of chips to the eventual winner after Malzanini called Zhao’s bluff..

About 20 minutes later, Zhao was knocked out of the event by Tech, after his Pocket Queens were beaten by Tech’s Pocket Aces, which held on the board to put the event down to six.

Sixth place went to Japanese player Yoichi Uesugi, who was eliminated after Duong hit a pair of Jacks on the turn following a pre flop showdown between the two. It only took another 20 minutes for the event to go down to its final four players after Sahil Agarwal was eliminated in fifth spot.

That happened when the Indian moved all-in pre flop with j10 , only to be called by Duong, who had Pocket Tens which held through to the river. Despite Duong having claimed the previous two scalps, it was him who would leave the Main Event next.

It came as he moved all-in pre flop with j6 , presumably as a bluff, only to be called by Malzanini, who was waiting in the wings with Pocket Aces, which held on the board to give him the hand.

Brion was knocked out just five minutes later by Tech after he called Brion’s 89 all-in with kj . Brion’s elimination left Tech and Malzanini in heads-up play, with Tech having held a bit less than a 2-1 chip lead when the play began.

It didn’t take long for the German to take the lead, however, and it was all Malzanini from there. In the last hand of the tournament, Malzanini moved all-in after a series of pre flop raise and reraises between him and Tech.

Tech immediately called and showed aq , while the German was behind with a10 . The q73 flop put Tech further in the lead, but gave Malzanini a flush draw.

He hit his draw on the turn when the 2 appeared; just for good measure, the 6 came on the river, but that meant little as Malzanini had already won the hand and the APT Philippines Main Event together with the $79,200 first prize.

Photo: theasianpokertour.com