PPWC: Alpheus Chan ends Main Event Day 1B at the top of 46 survivors; William Ysmael close behind
It was an action-packed Sunday at the PPPoker World Championship with Main Event Day 1B dragging out 143 players to host venue Resorts World Manila. The draw of course was none other than the meaty PHP 20 Million (US$382,000) guaranteed prize pool. By the end of the scheduled 10 hours of play, only 46 had chips to bag. Owning the leader’s status was Canada’s Alpheus Chan with 273,500 in chips.
During the first half of the day, Chan eliminated WSOP champion Mike Takayama, one of the most well-known figures in Philippine poker. In the latter half, he delivered a double knockout with his 
spiking royalty on the board 
to bounce out 
and 
. Chan has now overtaken Day 1A chip leader Abhinav Iyer (230,400) and will be the player to catch up to for Day 1C players.
Trailing close behind the leader is Filipino pro William Ysmael with 266,500. Ysmael catapulted to the top of the rankings after taking down German pro Marvin Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier raise-shoved on the river board 
. Ysmael found the guts to call it and shipped the massive pot with 
over 
. Ysmael takes second rank in the combined starting days.
The only other player to settle above the 200k marker was Ireland’s Mark Gruendemann with 204,100. Gruendemann’s stack swung all day until his 
paid off with a straight to ship all of a player’s stack. He completes the top three leaders of the day.
Other notable players coloring the survivors list were: Lester Edoc, Alex Lee, Kiat Lee, John Tech, Tzai Wei Phua, Ying Lin Chua, Si Yang Phua, and Hung Sheng Lin.
You can read up on the action the Day 1B Live Updates post.
PPWC Main Event – Live Updates
Day 1B chip counts
| No. | Name | Chip Count | Nationality |
| 1 | Alpheus Tin Ho Chan | 273,500 | Canada |
| 2 | Ysmael William Lim | 266,500 | Philippines |
| 3 | Mark Gruendemann | 204,100 | Ireland |
| 4 | Daniel Lankford Smith | 185,900 | New Zealand |
| 5 | Marquez Richard Serrano | 184,300 | Philippines |
| 6 | Lester Edoc | 178,000 | Philippines |
| 7 | Mendoza James Uy | 173,600 | USA |
| 8 | Alex Lee Xiang Wei | 148,700 | Singapore |
| 9 | Pena Jharome Capito | 145,200 | Philippines |
| 10 | Olsson Per Douglas | 143,600 | Philippines |
| 11 | Guillem Ivan | 138,100 | Spain |
| 12 | Samuel Santa Puche | 130,000 | Spain |
| 13 | Kim Choong Kon | 128,400 | Korea |
| 14 | Haydar Merih Arkun | 121,500 | Turkey |
| 15 | Lee June Kiat | 115,100 | Malaysia |
| 16 | John Zendrick De Guzman Tech | 110,900 | Philippines |
| 17 | Loo Junzhong | 107,000 | Malaysia |
| 18 | Tan Yongquan | 104,400 | Singapore |
| 19 | William Tjokroprawiro | 100,800 | Indonesia |
| 20 | Georges Chehade | 88,800 | Lebanon |
| 21 | Benedict Koh Gek Chiang | 84,000 | Singapore |
| 22 | Rajeev Kanjani | 82,800 | India |
| 23 | Inclan Elijah John Legarde | 82,100 | Philippines |
| 24 | Dypvik Borge | 79,200 | Norway |
| 25 | Yoo Yong Hyun | 74,900 | Korea |
| 26 | Phua Tzai Wei | 60,700 | Lebanon |
| 27 | Khalife Hanna | 60,500 | Lebanon |
| 28 | Witcha Wïtoonchart | 56,600 | Thailand |
| 29 | Ugur Ozgur Secilmis | 53,300 | Turkey |
| 30 | William Allyn Schrodeder | 50,100 | USA |
| 31 | Chua Ying Lin | 47,000 | Malaysia |
| 32 | Benjamins Gregory | 45,200 | Netherlands |
| 33 | Ruben Mar Ongnclamares | 45,100 | Philippines |
| 34 | Vamerdino Abad Magsakay | 44,100 | Philippines |
| 35 | Usawad Pakinai | 43,800 | Thailand |
| 36 | Yammin Tarek Jack | 41,200 | Denmark |
| 37 | Damrongsak Pruksakit | 40,600 | Thailand |
| 38 | Teoh Ming Hong | 39,200 | Malaysia |
| 39 | Phua Si Yang | 39,200 | Singapore |
| 40 | Orjan Skommo | 34,200 | Norway |
| 41 | Lin Hung-Sheng | 29,800 | Taiwan |
| 42 | Joseph Ty Sia | 26,800 | Philippines |
| 43 | Ong Jingxiang | 26,400 | Singapore |
| 44 | Moses C Saquing | 23,400 | Philippines |
| 45 | Joven Ingente Huerto | 22,200 | Philippines |
| 46 | Tor Anton Welo | 16,900 | Norway |
All of these players advance to Day 2 taking place on Tuesday, February 19 at 12pm.
Day 1B casualties
With the field downsized considerably from 143 to 46 players, the list of fallouts included well known players: Pete Chen, Linh Tran, Lim Yohwan, Pham Bao, Simon Burns, Gabriela Belisario, Florencio Campomanes, Marcuss Liow, Kai Paulsen, Dhanesh Chainani, and Sumit Sapra. All is not lost though, they will have one more chance to get back in the running with Day 1C (last starting day) coming up next.
Day 1C is on Monday, February 18 at 2pm. Buy-in is PHP 55,000 (US$ 1,050) So far, a combined total of 68 players out of the 207 runners have advanced to this upcoming elimination round.
Article by Tricia David
