William Ysmael ships Asia Poker Championship title for Php 5.4M

The third edition of Metro Card Club’s homegrown Asia Poker Championship wrapped up yesterday with another of its Team Pro members, William Ysmael bagging the latest title. The longtime Filipino pro took home a career-best score to the tune of Php 5,400,000 (~US$ 96,607) after beating Korean Mind Game Members’ (KMGM) Lee Seok Young in heads up play.

“It feels good to be back in the game! It’s actually been a while since my last live victory and all I can say is that the work I put in is finally paying off. Right from the start, I already felt that my time to shine was coming up and true to word, I closed each day with a healthy stack.”, Ysmael commented following his win.

“By the final day, I saw no real threat to the trophy but of course, it also doesn’t hurt to run good!”, he added.

The concluded APC festival ran from August 9-15, 2022, filling in five starting flights to collect a total 502 entries, just enough to meet the Php 20,000,000 (~US$ 358,217) guarantee. Entry fee was slated again at Php 44,000 (~US$ 788) each for a generated prize pool amounting to Php 20,080,000 (~US$ 359,650). The money trickled in early on Day 3 with 60 out of the 66 qualified runners making the minimum payout.

Dates: August 9 to 15
Buy in: Php 44,000
Guarantee: Php 20,000,000
Entries: 502
Prize pool: Php 20,080,000
ITM: 60 places

Final Table Results

Eliminations 9th – 16th

*Full payouts to follow

Final Day Review

The final day saw eight remaining players return to battle it out for a listed Php 5,400,000 up top, led by local runner Jeremy Catalig. Following closely behind were fellow Filipinos, William Ysmael who also ended Day 2 second in chips, and Asia Poker Tour champion Jeorge Lagatuz. Other local notables who fell a few places short of the final table were Dave Erquiaga (9th), Renniel Galvez (11th), Jason Magbanua (17th), Vamerdino Magsakay (22nd), and Florencio Campomanes (26th).

APC Main Event Final Table

The final table featured four Korean nationals looking to bag their maiden APC title including Day 3 chip leader, Hwang Seong Il. Within the first ten hands however, South Korea’s Shin Kyeong Rim would see a bad beat end his run for the trophy. Getting it in with {ac}{kh} against Lagatuz’ {as}{4d}, the board ran {jd}{3h}{jc}{4s}{5s}, giving Lagatuz his much needed pair to eliminate Shin. A few minutes later, Choi Kyong Min found himself with a similar holding {ad}{kc} which faced the wrath of Ysmael’s {ks}{kh} and ended up busting Min out in 7th place.

Shin Kyeong Rim

Hwang Seong Il (6th) and Alexander Lai (5th) soon bowed out in the same fate after losing crucial flips for their tournament lives against big stacked Catalig. Catalig appeared to be dominating the table, pairing his big stack and good run of cards, and was now sitting with over half the chips in play. Continuing with his aggression, Lagatuz answered back Catalig’s open with an all-in who met his demise after Lee Seok Young pushed behind. Lagatuz’ {ad}{10h} wasn’t bound to get lucky this time as Young’s {as}{kc} held on a board of {qc}{qd}{5h}{2h}{7d} and left Lagatuz to collect the first seven-figure payout of the tournament.

With three left in the running, Ysmael soon struck gold after limping the small blind with {ac}{qc} and big blind Catalig moved all-in with a weaker Ace. The flop instantly revealed top pair for Ysmael and quickly boosted his standing to a massive 80 big blind stack. From then on, Catalig struggled to recover and shortly after fell into the hands of his Filipino opponent.

Jeremy Catalig

Heads up play kicked off with Ysmael carrying a 3:1 chip advantage against Young and successfully maintained his lead all throughout. The final hand saw Young jam with {ac}{2d} right into Ysmael’s {ah}{10c} and eventually left the Korean national to settle for a runner-up finish and Php 2,930,000 (~US$ 52,490) in winnings. As for Ysmael, the local pro proudly bagged his career-best cash and another impressive victory for Metro’s own Team Pro.

Congratulations to the newest APC champion William Ysmael and all the other winners!!