Warm-up (5,000 PHP)

Norihisa Zaitsu of Japan opens from UTG for 20,000 and gets re-raised to 60,000 by Filipino Michael Cheng. Zaitsu then 4-bet shoves for 252,000 and Cheng still makes the call.

Zaitsu turns over the mother of all preflop hold’em hands: A♠ A♣ while Cheng needs serious help with K♥ J♦ .

The runout goes: Q♦ 5♥ 6♠ J♠ (some hope) 7♦ as Cheng’s stack dwindles significantly. Zaitsu is now among the big stacks.

The hand begins with a raise from UTG to 17,000 and three callers come on board.

The flop goes J♠ 8♣ 9♦ as it gets checked to the +2 position where Michael Cheng of the Philippines bets 25,000. In the CO, fellow Filipino Jonathan Duque raises it 85,000. No one calls.

After bleeding chips during bubble time in Flight B, Duque has slowly amassed at the onset of Day 2 and is in the chip lead conversation.

The Philippines’ Michael Cheng opens from the HJ for 12,000 then gets re-raised by big stack Han Seung Hyun of Korea to 50,000 from the CO. In the SB, fellow big stack Tomohiro Wada of Japan 4-bets it to 105,000 as Cheng elected to not continue and fold. Han makes the call.

The flop is K♥ Q♦ 3♦ as Wada fires anew, this time for 50,000. Han calls. The turn is the 2♠ as now the Japanese player checks. Han goes all-in and Wada snap calls.

The Korean tables Q♣ Q♥ for middle set on the flop while Wada turns over A♥ A♦ .

The river card is the 5♦.

Luckily for Wada, Han took hits in previous hands and he is no longer covered. Unfortunately for Wada, he now has an extremely short stack.

The action gets folded to the blinds where Korea’s Sung Younghwan makes a bold attempt to steal the BB of Filipino Michael Cheng by shoving his stack of 84,000 from the SB. Cheng instantly calls.

Sung flips over 8♣ 7♦ while Cheng unveils K♥ K♦ .

The runout goes: A♠ 4♠ 7♥ J♦ 4♣ as Sung becomes one of the first casualties of Day 2.