Warm-up (12,500 PHP)

Richard Marquez raises 40,000 from hijack and the blinds call. They all check the flop 8♣ T♥ 6♦ . Small blind Anthony Castro leads out 25,000 on the turn 7♠ , big blind Joseph Sia and Marquez call and head to the river 9♦ . Castro opts to check, Sia slides out a tower of 100,000, only Marquez makes the call. Sia shows Q♣ 2♣ bluff , Marquez rakes it in with J♦ 5♥ straight. Though Castro folded, he also showed his hand 7♦ 8♦ .

Aslan Vainio is on the rise with multiple pots going his way. He claimed a pot of around 300,000 in a hand against Anthony Castro then another pot against Richard Marquez of around 233,000.

Against Marquez, Vainio opened 25,000, got called by two players then they checke to the turn 6♥ K♣ J♦ 7♥ . Vainio's 40,000 bet lost one player while Marquez check-called. On the river 5♠ , Marquez took a stab for 30,000, Vainio called, Marquez had ace high A♣ T♦ . Vainio shipped with K♠ 9♠ .

The PokerStars LIVE Manila Super Series 21 low-stakes festival is off to a booming start at Okada Manila, Philippines. For the second consecutive edition, the Kick Off event guaranteed ₱2M, and like previous, it was crushed. Yesterday’s opening day fielded a combined 283 entries across two flights, and with buy-in at an affordable ₱12,500 (~$215), the prize pool ballooned to ₱3,019,610 (~$51,690).

Entering today’s final stage are 43 flight survivors that have already locked in a piece of the pot but the real battle lies ahead with the spadie and ₱560,000 (~$9,570) in cold hard cash up for grabs. The champion also receives an APPT Manila Main Event seat worth ₱80,000.

At the helm is PokerStars regular, Christian Lortie-Cloutier who brings in a towering 540,000 (90 bb) stack. The Canadian pro is well-positioned for a deep run but will face some stiff competition with fearless players such as Dmitrii Belikov and Joseph Talamayan at the table.

Former Warm-Up champion David Erquiaga will also be one to watch as he shakes up the felt with a formidable 456,000 (76 bb). While he has position over the other big stacks at his table, Royly Oracion (401,000) and Richard Marquez (316,000), locking horns is a high possibility.

Cards start flying at 12pm local time. Players will have some room to gauge the competition with blinds increasing at a slower 30 min pace. Blinds kick off at Level 17: 3000-6000 ante 6000.

For all the action, stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you fresh updates as it unfolds.