Super Deep (15,000 PHP)

One of the guaranteed events on schedule, Super Deep, racked up a total of 93 entries, enough to bring its prize pool to PHP 1,190,772, shared amongst the top 13 finishers. The bubble burst after eight hours of intense play when Hasegawa Umi’s long grind came to a heartbreaking end. Umi made a 20 BB shove from the big blind against Jeongmin Park's button open, only to see Park call with Q♠ Q♣ , leaving his Q♦ 8♠ in the dust once the cards were revealed.

Just a half hour later, the final table was set with Australia's Andrew Xu leading the hunt. With over half the remaining field sitting around the 10 BB mark, short stack eliminations flew by fairly quickly. Local runner Edilberto Gopez went on an impressive tear five-handed, knocking out Edwin Dela Cruz, Albert Muir Jr., and Shohei Kuroda in rapid succession, yet came into heads up play against Xu, still at a deficit.

Xu dominated the duel from start to finish, closing out the win in under ten minutes with the final hand seeing Gopez commit his last 7 BB with T♦ 2♥ , called by Xu with K♠ 5♥ . Xu undefeatable, clinched the victory just as board 7♥ 8♠ Q♠ K♥ 2♣ left Gopez drawing dead right by the turn. For his victory, Xu banked PHP 296,272 in winnings, nearly breaking his best live cash record of $5,879.

"It feels great, it's my first time in Manila! I've really enjoyed it, everyone has been very nice.", Xu shared after his victory.

"People here play well from what I've seen. They are very strong and aggressive and they also play tight especially when it's close to ITM, so I made adjustments on my play style and tried to stay patient. On the final table, I waited out the short stacks and let them bust, and remained aggressive when I had good hands.", he added.