After a lengthy television spot and player introductions, we're underway! 21:42 is left on the clock in Level 19. The button will start with Liz Lieu in Seat 8.
Tweaks, adjustments and final preparations are still being made for this final table. Right now we can't even guess when cards will be in the air. Sit tight...
Welcome back one last time to the Dusit Thani Hotel in the Makati section of Manila, Philippines. It's Day 3 of the Asian Poker Tour Philippines Main Event, and that means that it's Final Table Day.
The far and away leader in this one is Steve Yea, who brings 754,000 chips to the final table. That's more than a quarter of the chips in play. Look for Yea to start hammering the short stacks early and often, in an effort to repeat the final table performance of APT Macau winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who single-handedly demolished that final table and eliminated Yea in second place to take home the trophy.
Trying to prevent Yea from going wire-to-wire are a host of notables, including fellow APT Macau final-tablist Casey Kastle, local hope Neil Arce, and six others. The table draw and chip counts are as follows:
Seat 1: Ron Kluber - USA (310,000)
Seat 2: Cicurel Didier - Switzerland (182,000)
Seat 3: Steven Yea - Korea (754,000)
Seat 4: Vesa Leikos - Finland (94,000)
Seat 5: Neil Arce - Philippines (377,000)
Seat 6: Kim Tae Hyung - Korea (168,000)
Seat 7: Susumu Toge - Japan (102,000)
Seat 8: Liz Lieu - USA (144,000)
Seat 9: Casey Kastle - Slovenia (503,000)
Play is scheduled to kick off at 12 noon local time, in about 45 minutes. Given that this is a televised final table, expect things to run a bit late. Whatever time it is that play gets underway, PokerNews will be there to provide coverage of all the action.