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).

With a pot already at 98,000, the turn has been dealt in an ongoing hand: A♠ A♦ 7♥ 2♥ as Joey Pardales of the Philippines checks from the BB. American Leon Steward bets 60,000 from the D and is called. The river is the K♣ and this time, both players check.

Pardales turns over Q♦ Q♥ while Steward takes it down with A♥ 9♣ as trips were flopped.

The Filipino is now down to just under 80,000 in chips heading towards the homestretch of Day 1A. Steward enter the big stack conversation.

From the +1 position, Leon Steward of the United States raises it up to 5,000 and right beside him in the +2 Australia’s Hatim Hussein re-raises all-in for his last 22,500. Steward calls.

Hussein flips over 6♠ 6♦ and is suddenly the underdog against the American’s 8♠ 8♦ as even the suits are covered. Hussein is the one at risk.

The runout goes 9♥ T♥ 7♥ 7♦ Q♠ as Steward busts the Australian and also advances to the six-figure chip mark.

The action begins from the +1 position for a raise to 2,000 and is called by Leon Steward of the United States from the LJ. In the HJ, Australia’s Hatim Hussein 3-bets it 9,000 and as the original raiser folds, Steward 4-bets all-in for his remaining stack of 25,400.

Hussen tanks but eventually relents.