Main Event (18,500 PHP)

The smoke is barely clearing from the battles on the felt for Main Event Day 1A in the Manila Super Series 22 at Pokerstars Live here in Okada Manila but in the end, 34 players from 224 total entries move on to Day 2 with the chip lead changing favors multiple times before the money bubble was eventually burst.

It looked to be a cruise for the Netherland’s Germ de Haas as he was the first to breach the 200,000 chip mark in the early levels but it slowly became apparent that Park Sangsub was out to control the proceedings as he gained the chip lead in the midway mark. Then came Ryuki Shirase of Japan following the outmuscling he did of China’s Li Zhouji. Edgar Asehan of the Philippines also momentarily sat atop the leaderboard but then de Haas began regaining traction and officially stamped his name on the chip leader position after busting Japan’s Takahashi Miyamoto with quads.

But the tournament was still waiting for the money bubble to be burst and Filipino Buds Ampatuan did just that when he flopped a set against Motoya Sato of Japan and it ensured that the 34 left would all be ITM.

De Haas amassed 715,000 in chips and is followed distantly by Shirase with 589,000. Third place is shared by Taiwan’s Yang Chih Chun and Edliberto Gopez of the Philippines with identical stacks of 369,000.

Day 1B commences tomorrow (June 13) still at 12:00NN (UCT+8).

The Philippines’ Alma Aguila opens from the +2 position for 5,000 and the action is folded to SB where Arjun Dhingra 3-bet shoves his remaining 26,000. It gets back to the Filipina who tanks and consequently makes the call.

Dhingra flips over A♥ K♣ while Aguila shows 6♥ 6♦ .

The flop immediately changes the favors for the Indian: A♦ J♣ 2♦ and the last two community cards are of no help to Aguila as the 8♣ and the 8♠ complete the runout and the double for Dhingra.

Alma Aguila of the Philippines limps in from the +2 position and one more joins from the HJ before the player in the CO raises it to 400. England’s William Rogers makes the call from the SB as does Aguila and the player in the HJ.

It is four ways to the flop of 8♦ 4♦ 9♦ as Rogers leads out for 500. Aguila raises it 2,200 as the two other players fold. Rogers calls. It is now Heads-Up to the turn where the 6♠ appears. Rogers checks and the Filipina lays out 5,000. Rogers calls again. The river is the K♣ as the Brit checks a second time. Aguila fires 10,000 and is check-raised all-in by Rogers for his remaining 16,100. Aguila covers him and makes the snap call.

Rogers unveils A♦ 3♦ for the nut flush on the flop while Aguila shows 8♠ 4♥ for two pairs on the flop.

The loss reduces Aguila’s stack significantly.