Super Stack (15,000 PHP)

Japan's Naoaki Ishihara booked a smashing victory at the Super Stack event, where another 103 entries came to chime in the festitivies, more than enough to push past its published guarantee and arrive at a PHP 1,318,812 prize pool. While thirteen runners locked in a share, it was Ishihara who picked up the largest prize on the list, earning PHP 329,812 in cashes along with the coveted PokerStars spadie for besting the field.

"I'm very happy and excited to play more tournaments here. The staff are very nice and the players are very good and strong. I will definitely come back and see if I can win more trophies.", commented Ishihara following his victory.

A dramatic three way cooler saw the money bubble burst by early evening, with Matsubara Junji being the unfortunate final elimination to walk away empty-handed after his pocket queens ran right into Yasuhiro Waki's pocket aces along with Michihiko Matsuda's pocket kings. Junji the shortest amongst the three, bound for the rails, leaving the rest in the money.

After just four more eliminations, the final table was set with Israel’s Adam Shriki leading the pack. Ishihara's breakthrough on the other hand, came during three-handed play, where he managed to catch two lucky doubles, eventually taking a 4:1 chip advantage into heads up against Shriki. Despite being at a disadvantage, Shriki put up a strong fight and even had a chance to flip the script. In a crucial hand, Ishihara was at risk with mid-pair 9♣ 5♣ against Shriki’s two-pair K♥ 6♠ on a board of K♦ 6♦ 4♠ 9♥ . While close to securing the win, Shriki was unable to fade the river 9♠ , giving Ishihara trip nines for the win together with all the chips on the table. Shriki was left with a single big blind and succumbed to a runner-up finish the following hand.

When asked who he found to be the toughest opponent, Ishihara reflected, "It was Adam Shriki because before the final table we were seated on the same table and I saw he was very strong and aggressive. I decided I needed to make adjustments on my play style to beat him."