Philippines National Cup (12,000 PHP)

After a few hands, another elimination went down, which left just seven players at the table.

Both Ashley Patterson from the button and Po Yu Chen from the big blind got their chips into the middle preflop, with the latter being the at-risk player.

Ashley Patterson: K♠ Q♦

Po Yu Chen: A♦ 5♦

The board contained K♣ T♥ J♦ A♣ , which gave Patterson an unbeatable straight, and eliminated Chen in eighth together with a payout of PHP 141,000 (~$2,400).

The chip counts are in for the final table, and it's Marco Espela who surged up the leaderboard and holds a commanding lead over the field.

Espela is one of three local players who reached the final table, along with Maggy Cenon and Alvir Inocentes.

The average stack is 1,210,000, which is just fifteen big blinds, so expect the action to be fast-paced.

Po Yu Chen moved all-in from the button for 170,000, risking his tournament life, and Marco Espela made the call from the small blind.

Po Yu Chen: A♥ K♠

Marco Espela: J♣ 9♣

The flop came down T♠ 2♠ Q♣ , giving Espela an open-ended straight draw and a shot at eliminating Chen. Tension mounted as the turn brought the 5♠ , followed by the river T♥ , leaving Chen’s ace-high as the winning hand. Chen survived, holding his breath as he doubled up and stayed in the tournament!

Here are the current counts with ten remaining. Lun Luo's lead has been eaten into a little, but he still remains the chip leader with a stack of 2,000,000.

Lun Luo opened the action from the hijack with a raise to 80,000, which Po Yu Chen responded to by three-betting to 200,000. The rest of the table folded, and Luo made the call.

Both players checked through the flop and turn, with the board showing A♥ 7♣ K♥ 5♥ . On the 8♦ river, Luo led out with a 330,000 bet.

After careful consideration, Chen made the call, only to muck his hand upon seeing Luo's A♣ 8♣ , giving Luo the winning two pair.

Yen Ting Huang opened to 55,000 from middle position and Po Yu Chen shoved from the button for 175,000. Once the blinds got out of the way, Huang dropped in the call, which put Chen at risk.

Po Yu Chen: A♠ K♠

Yen Ting Huang: K♥ Q♥

Chen looked good for a double-up on the 6♠ T♥ 5♠ flop as he added a flush draw. However, the 9♥ turn gave Huang a flush draw of his own, which made things a little sweaty. A anti-climatic 7♣ hit the river, and Chen doubled his stack to over 400,000.

Maggy Cenon, the only woman in the field, found herself in a tense three-way all-in for her tournament life. The action began when Benjamin Leblond raised to 50,000, only to be three-bet by Po Yu Chen, who made it 140,000 from the cutoff.

Mark Sanchez, sitting on the button, escalated the stakes by four-betting all-in for 300,000. Seokjong Kim in the small blind folded, but Cenon, with just a 2 big blind stack, decided to risk it all by going all-in.

Leblond quickly got out of the way, and Chen called, putting both Cenon and Sanchez at risk.

Maggy Cenon: A♦ J♥

Mark Sanchez: J♦ J♣

Po Yu Chen: T♣ T♥

The flop came down K♥ 7♠ 4♦ , with Sanchez hoping for a double up and to eliminate Cenon. However, the turn revealed the A♥ , pairing Cenon’s ace and shattering Sanchez’s hopes.

The river brought the 5♥, leaving the situation unchanged. In a remarkable twist, Cenon tripled up, Sanchez doubled his stack, and Chen was left out in the cold.

After shoving all in preflop and collecting the pot in the middle for twice, Cutis Freeze pushed all his chips in the middle and announced all in again from middle position .As previous two hands, this was followed by a string of folds from every player. Freeze collected the chips one more time and showed his ace-ten.