The third edition of the International Poker Open (IPO) has been well underway at Resorts World Manila, Philippines with players taking part in the scheduled weeklong festivities running from November 27- December 3, 2015.
257 entrees in the Main Event
With a wide variety of events on deck, the side events were seeing some decent action however, the US$250,000 Guaranteed Main Event seemed to have a very slow start. Day 1a of the Main Event only saw 42 players take to the felt followed by 66 players at day 1b. With a possible overlay brewing, day 1c turned it all around with a big turnout of 149 entries, bringing the combined total up to 257 entries. Now that all the day one flights are in the books, a big chunk of the field was shaved off leaving a total of 135 players making the cut into day 2. In breakdown, day 1a had 20 qualifiers, day 1b with 32, and day 1c had 83 remaining.
Great success for IPO Manila 3: 257 entrees in the Main Event!
Hajime Iwakura leads the field
Leading the entire pack with the most number of chips overall was Japanese player Hajime Iwakura. Despite having the least number of player’s attending day 1a, Iwakura amassed a hefty pile of 144,500 chips, practically dusting all the other qualifiers that day. Running second overall in chips was day 1c’s leader, Kim Do Kwuen from Korea with 138,000 chips. Joining them in crossing the six-digit chip mark were Wang Shih-Ciao (day 1b chip leader) with 118,200 chips, Phat Nguyen with 118,000 chips, and John Tech with 101,400 chips. In addition to the leaders, there are quite a number of notables who will be returning as well for another battle at the Main Event felt such as China’s Yang Zhang, Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa and Iori Yogo, Singaporean pro Bryan Diwei Huang, Canadian player Linh Tran, Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung, and several victors from Team Philippines i.e. Lester Edoc, Martin Gonzales, Marc Rivera, Czardy Rivera, and Euryd Rivera. Another player returning to day 2 is the highly notable Men Nguyen “the Master”. Nguyen had a steady run at day 1c and ended the night with 55,300 chips. We will surely be keeping an eye on these players as the Main Event continues. Day 2 of the Main Event will resume at 1pm on Tuesday, December 1, 2015. With lots of short stacks and over half the field with below average stacks, it will most likely be a day of heavy action early as they play down to the money.
SJ Kim runs good in the side events
With the series holding side events daily, the High Roller Event, slated for November 28, 2015, intended to run side-by-side the Main Event, was cancelled due to the lack of players. The other side events though were up and running with Korea’s SJ Kim claiming himself one trophy at Event 2: ALLnewPoker Challenge NLH Turbo and a runner-up finish at Event 8: NLH Turbo. Kim was seen battling it out at day 1c’s Main Event and qualified into day 2 with close to an average stack of 43,900 chips.
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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