Kickoff (16,500 PHP)

Peter Chung raised all-in on the small blind for his last 138,000 and was looked up by Czar Ian Marcos right behind.

Board Q♥ 8♠ 4♥ Q♦ 8♦ ran dry for both, leaving Marcos' ace-high good for the bust.

Mike Takayama defended his big blind against Peter Chung's 35,000 open, and headed to flop 7♣ 8♣ T♦ . Action checked round to turn Q♣ , where Takayama led 60,000. Chung called, and paid another 160,000 on river J♦ , only to muck as Takayama revealed flush 4♣ 3♣ .

Joris Michl defended his big blind against Peter Chung's 20,000 utg open, and check called another 20,000 on flop Q♠ 2♣ 9♦ . No bets went in on either turn 3♦ or river 3♥ , revealing Mich's 8♦ 8♥ good for the pot.

The Manila Megastack 21 has officially commenced at the PokerStars LIVE Manila poker room inside of Okada Manila and the hunt for the spadie trophies is now underway. One of several marquee events on the schedule is the PHP 16,500 Kickoff Event, which captures the attention of local poker enthusiasts and visitors from nearby countries in South East Asia during the first three days of the festival.

There are three starting days available and the opening flight gathered a total of 66 entries to nearly reach one third of the PHP 3 Million guarantee in the pot already. Only the top 15% of that field were set to advance and that equaled to the top ten finishers. It took around eight hours including breaks to reach that threshold and Canada's Peter Chung who went from average stack at the end of the late registration to chip leader when all was said and done.

Chung's 395,000 put him at the top of the leaderboard ahead of John Jay Magadan (351,000), both of which are well ahead of their nearest followers. Daito Kamei (258,000) and Michihiko Matsuda (202,000) hope to follow into the footsteps of fellow countryman Keijiro Shimojo, who topped a field of 337 entries during the previous edition of Manila Megastack in December 2024.

Another Japanese player also advanced through Day 1a as well in Akihiro Kawaguchi, who bagged up 145,000 and was responsible for bursting the bubble. Sham Wing Sheuk was the last player tonight to leave empty-handed when he was forced all-in out of the big bling, made trips deuces only to be out-kicked by Kawaguchi.

Other notables to bow out on the first of three starting days were Jongmin Kim, Mike Takayama, John Costiniano, Lemmor Patulot as well as Jose Cheung. They have another two chances to do better, both of which await on Tuesday, January 21. Day 1b kicks off at 1 p.m. local time while the 1c heat with a reduced level duration of 20 minutes follows later in the evening. Both of these flights will also play down to the money, bringing back all survivors for the final day in the money.

Stay tuned right here on SoMuchPoker for all of the updates from the Kickoff Event and, as of January 23, the Main Event as well!