The final table is set for the 2023 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Cambodia $1,500 Main Event is set. Out of a field of 476 entries, only nine players remain to battle for the biggest slice of the $623,322 at the luxurious NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh. The finalists have locked up a min-cash of $10,908 already, while the eventual champion can look forward to a payday of $120,300 and the golden shard trophy.
A trio is separated by just ten big blinds at the top of the leaderboard and Junnie Pamplona leads the way with 3,015,000, closely followed by Ting-Yi "Eric" Tsai (2,960,000) and Jimmy Torres (2,725,000).
Pamplona's far biggest cash prize on the live poker circuit came right here in the grand ballroom of Naga 1 when he was part of a three-way deal in the 2022 WPT Prime $1,100 Main Event, taking home $ 106,482 for the efforts. The last pinoy player in the field can top that payday if scores an outright victory.
Chao-Ting Cheng can be found right in the middle of the pack while there is then a gap to several short stacks, who all still have between 14 and 36 big blinds at their disposal.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eric Tsai | Taiwan | 2,960,000 | 99 |
| 2 | Evgenii Nekrasov | Russia | 1,080,000 | 36 |
| 3 | Curtis Lim | Singapore | 850,000 | 28 |
| 4 | Bien Mai | Vietnam | 410,000 | 14 |
| 5 | Chao-Ting Cheng | Taiwan | 1,825,000 | 61 |
| 6 | Kien Tat Heng | Singapore | 795,000 | 27 |
| 7 | Junnie Pamplona | Philippines | 3,015,000 | 101 |
| 8 | Hua-Wei Lin | Taiwan | 600,000 | 20 |
| 9 | Jimmy Torres | Colombia | 2,725,000 | 91 |
There are 07:38 minutes left in level 24, which features blinds of 15,000-30,000 and a big blind ante of 30,000. With the blinds moving up almost immediately, short stacks Bien Mai and Hua-Wei Lin will be under immediate pressure while the duo atop the leaderboard has plenty of wiggle room for hours to come.
Second-placed Tsai was building a stack throughout the day and also had a camera crew around to film content for social media and coaching purposes. The same applied for Lin as well with her husband Yu-Chung "Nevan" Chang on the rail, as both are known under the moniker "winpokercouple". Chang himself cashed in 38th place and was the chip leader heading into the final table of this very event in 2022.
The final table is set to resume at 1 p.m. local time on Monday, May 15, 2023 and it will be the second time in APPT history that a Main Event winner is crowned in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Defending champion Alexander Puchalski was knocked out by Torres in 48th place when the Canadian flopped trips jacks only to run into a turned full house by the Colombian.
Day 2 saw 132 survivors of the three starting days return to their seats and the top 71 spots were paid. Notable casualties before the money included Julian Warhurst, Konstantin Generalov, Victor Chong, side event champion Thijs Hilberts, Aladin Reskallah, and Sven McDermott. On the bubble, WSOP bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer couldn't get there with jacks against the queens of Adrien Tantaro, becoming the last player to leave empty-handed.
From there on, the eliminations kept coming at a rapid pace and it didn't take long to reduce the field to the final three tables. Rapid-fire all-in showdowns reduced the field further and among those to depart during a very frantic period was also Ashish Munot. He lost a big pot with ace-queen suited against the ace-king of Philip Tan, while eventual Day 2 chip leader Pamplona was forced to let go of dreadful pocket jacks that would have won.
Tan became a contender for the lead, which changed several times in the final stages. Following the redraw of the final two tables, the field was rapidly cut down to just 11 hopefuls and the action then came to a screeching stop. Ultimately, Singapore's Tan eventually became one of the short stacks to then bubble the final table and conclude Day 2.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the final day to provide as many key hands as possible en route to crowning a winner here in Cambodia.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $120,300 | ||
| 2 | $75,795 | ||
| 3 | $54,290 | ||
| 4 | $42,760 | ||
| 5 | $33,597 | ||
| 6 | $26,242 | ||
| 7 | $19,759 | ||
| 8 | $13,775 | ||
| 9 | $10,908 |
