At the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Manila Classic, a significant shift occurred during the flop of the PHP 2,680,2013 (USD $2,201.21) High Roller event. This no-limit hold’em side tournament took place on February. The 2202 event drew in 85 participants and featured a prize pool of PHP 11 million, which is roughly equivalent to USD $190,000. Kunal Patni secured the win with a prize of just over $50,000, marking his second win and fourth payout in the series. He won the title by beating Nopparut Piyatassakorn in a heads-up match. This event caught the spotlight due to an extraordinary unfortunate turn of events. Photo credit to Lloyd Fontillas/Facebook. The tournament was nearing the money bubble with 13 players left. Sparrow Cheung, who had a small chip count, pushed all his chips into the pot with a pair of aces, A♦A♠. Patni entered the hand from the small blind holding AxQx, but opted to fold wisely when the big blind pushed all in with K♥K♣, as noted by Lloyd Fontillas on Facebook. Cheung, boasting more than $2.7 million in live tournament earnings, was well-positioned to secure a double-up to help him get through the bubble. His situation improved further when the flop revealed 2♦J♥A♣, which meant the big blind could only win with some improbable runner-runner sets or the short stack surviving. The turn card, K♦, offered a glimmer of hope for the player holding pocket kings, yet he still had merely a 2% chance of winning the hand.
