It seemed more like a pound-for-pound boxing match than a poker tournament with New Zealand’s Paul Hockin and Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon going head- to-head for several hands while the rest of the players at the table sat around as mere spectators. That was truly the main attraction of Day 2 at the Poker King Cup National Main Event which resumed today at Solaire Hotel and Casino in Manila, Philippines with 78 players returning to the felt. The day wrapped up with the lone Kiwi on the felt, Hockin, amassing a stack of 1,166,000, earning himself the chip leader’s status among the 18 remaining players.
Hockin gets the best of Falcon to earn chip lead
The Hockin-Falcon bout began with Hockin shoving Falcon out of a mid-sized pot. At the time, Falcon was the massive chip leader at his table. Several hands after, Hockin shoved again, this time on top of Falcon’s preflop raise, and Falcon called. It was a coin toss with Hockin holding ace-king and Falcon with pocket tens. The board ran well for Hockin giving him an ace to take round two of their battle. Wanting to get in on some of the action, Filipino player Bryan Sombero three-bet shove all in but quickly met his end when Hockin turned over pocket aces. Then, it was back to the regular programming with Hockin winning another pot against Falcon with his king-jack second pair besting Falcon’s lower pair. The final round between them saw Falcon check-raising all in on a flop of four-jack-three, and Hockin sticking right in there with him. Hockin dominated with his pocket tens throughout the hand against Falcon’s two-five suited missed straight draw. After cleaning out Falcon, Hockin crossed over the million mark.
A quick background on Hockin, he has several poker titles under his belt, earning his biggest payout of $103,551 at the ANZPT Main Event in October 2012. He also won the APT Asian Series Cebu Main Event in February 2014.
Great day for Jae Wook Shin, Jessie Leonarez, Jason Lo
Finishing the day second in chips was Korea’s rising star Jae Wook Shin with 758,000 chips. Alike Hockin, Shin accumulated a chunk of his chips in several hands against Singapore’s Kif Loh. Shin also eliminated Team PKC Filipino pro Lester Edoc.
Sitting two spots below the chip leader in third position was Filipino player Jessie Leonarez with 561,000 chips. Leonarez shipped in a huge double up against Jaivin when his shove with queen-ten spades flush draw was called on a flop of five-seven-six with two spades showing. Jaivin held eight-seven clubs for top pair straight draw but with a ten turning up on fourth street, Leonarez overtook Jaivin to eventually win the hand.
For Team PKC’s Hong Kong pro Jason Wai Tung Lo, he found himself crippled down to around 40k chips but after winning a series of hands, one of which was two-five suited hitting trips, he rose to 484,000 chips by the end of the day earning him the fourth spot in the chip rung.
Notable players eliminated
With sixty players sent packing today, among those who did see a profit were Indonesia’s Marcel Andhika who entered Day 2 as the chip leader, China’s Hui Yao, Michael Kim Falcon, Filipinos Earl Edison Ang, Lester Edoc, and Bryan Sombero. Among those who walked away empty-handed were WPTN Korea Main Event champion China’s Xu Yiguang, Filipino Euryd Rivera, Korea’s Jeon Seung Soo, and Team PKC’s John Tech who exited in the bubble.
Day 3 will resume tomorrow at 1pm where we will find out who will capture the first-ever PKC National Main Event championship title and the first place purse of $18,588.
Chip counts of Day 2 survivors
Paul Hockin – New Zealand – 1,166,000
Jae Wook Shin – Korea – 758,000
Jessie Leonarez – Philippines – 561,000
Jason Wai Tung Lo – Hong Kong – 484,000
Alex Wong Wai Cheong – Malaysia – 410,000
Jon Jon Lumanian – Philippines – 347,000
Franklin Nuguid – Philippines – 257,000
Christian Ortanez – Philippines – 233,000
In Chul Sin – Korea – 203,000
Jaivin – Singapore – 200,000
Roozbeh Namvarasl – Iran – 199,000
Kif Loh – Singapore – 189,000
Nick Alexandrov – USA – 152,000
Dennis Gamboa – Philippines – 106,000
Mark Pagsuyuin – Philippines – 102,000
Johnson Tan – Philippines – 100,000
Joven Huerto – Philippines – 63,000
Veterano Tan – Philippines – 49,000
You can read up on all the day one recaps provided in the links below.
Day 1A Recap: Filipino player Johnson Tan tops Day 1a of the PKC Main Event
Day 1B Recap: Indonesia’s Marcel Andhika leads Day 1b of the PKC National Main Event
Day 1C Flight A Recap: Christian Ortanez leads PKC’s Main Event Day 1c flight A
Day 1C Flight B Recap: PKC’s Main Event Day 1c Flight B ends with Dong Kyun Nam on
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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