Each day seemed to belong to one player.
Daniel Spence finished atop the leader board in Day 2 and then Jim Collopy knocked out player after player and ended Day 3 with a massive chip lead.
Today belonged to Jae Kyung "Simba" Sim, who ran through the final table and won APPT Cebu for PHP 3,948,000.
The second the final table started, Simba started devouring the field. Collopy might have started with the chip lead, but Simba quickly took it over. He devoured four opponents, brought the tournament down to five players and held nearly half the chips in play.
The first to go wasn't our start-of-day short stack though, even though he only had a bit more than four big blinds to start the day.
Andrew Nguyen would lose a big pot to Collopy and then become Simba's first victim. Nguyen moved all-in with [as][qh] and Simba called with [ah][kd]. Nguyen was dominated and the board didn't improve his hand. Andrew Nguyen became our first elimination and got PHP 350,000 for his efforts.
Then our small stack went.
Michael Allmrodt had been holding on for dear life, but Simba finally clawed him down. Allmrodt moved all-in and got called by Daniel Spence and Simba.
Simba and Spence checked down to the river and Allmrodt showed king-high. Spence had a pair of threes and Simba had queens. Allmrodt was out in 8th and got PHP 458,000.
Then Timo Kohijoki moved all-in with his short stack and Simba called. Once again, Simba was dominating. Simba turned over [ah][10s] to Kohijoki's [jh][10c].
Kohijoki didn't improve, Simba chipped up and the Turkish businessman became our 7th place finisher, earning PHP 564,000. Simba was dominating, with six players left he held nearly a third of the chips in play.
But Simba wasn't done. Oh no, this was his day. The felt was his kingdom.
Simba went on to get an even larger lead. In a preflop raising battle, Hyunshik Yun moved all-in for about 400,000 and Simba called instantly. Simba showed red aces to Yun's [ac][kd].
Simba won again and held nearly half the chips in play with five players left. The rest of the players were fighting to not be the shortstack, but the high blinds and antes made it difficult. Simba doubled up a few of them and then two of them got all-in.
Daniel Spence moved all-in and Magnus Karlsson called. Spence made his move with [8d][5d] and Karlsson was showing [ad][qc]. Spence would not improve and was eliminated in 5th place.
Then Jim Collopy went out. The momentum Collopy had on Day 3 had left him and things weren't going his way. Then his last hand brought him another cooler. Collopy had been chipped down throughout the day and then moved all-in with pocket queens. Anthony Wright called with pocket aces.
Now help came for Collopy and he was eliminated in fourth place.
Then the tournament hit a lull.
A quick final table with a sudden halt is becoming a trend in APPT Season 7. In the season opener in Seoul, we hit this halt when we got heads-up. The match took more than three hours before Aaron Lim eventually won.
The lull here came when we hit three players. The tournament was flying by, but then we were three-handed for nearly an hour and-a-half. Not much happened until Wright moved all-in with [6d][6c] and Simba continued his destruction. Simba called with [ah][kc] and a flip ensued.
Today was Simba's day and the turn brought an [ad]. Wright was out in 3rd place, and won PHP 1,500,000. Then the tournament was over in three hands. Simba started the match with about 2.5 million to Karlsson's 500,000.
On the third hand of heads-up, Karlsson raised to 60,000 and Simba called, bringing a [4d][7h][5s] flop. Simba checked and Karlsson bet 65,000. Simba came back with a raise to 155,000 and Karlsson moved all-in.
"And Simba snap calls!" the floor member narrating the action blurted into the microphone. "Simba with the nuts."
Simba turned over [8d][6d] for a flopped straight and Karlsson showed [10s][6h] for a straight draw. The turn was a [7d] and then the river brought a [3h] to end the tournament. Karlsson was out in 2nd, earning PHP 2,538,000 and Simba became the champion of APPT Cebu.
Jae Kyung Sim will win PHP 3,948,000 and add an APPT championship to his poker resume. Sim final tabled this event last year but only finished 8th. Now he made it back and took it down.
Congratulations to Jae Kyung "Simba" Sim for his victory here in Cebu.
Lynn Gilmartin and PokerStars.TV caught up with Simba right after his victory. Check out that exclusive interview right here:
Alexander Villegas is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.