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).

From the +1 position, India’s Parikshit Jain goes for it all as he pushes all-in for his last 75,000. It doesn’t get very far as he is called from the HJ by big stack Ryuki Shirase of Japan. No one else joins the pot.

Jain shows A♠ 7♠ while Shirase holds pocket fives.

The flop comes 8♥ J♥ 5♠ as Shirase’s bottom set now has the Indian needing a biblical miracle. That is shut down on the turn as the 2♠ seals Jain’s fate. The meaningless river card is the 9♥ as Jain is out and with only 35 players remaining, Day 1A is now at the stone bubble.

China’s Qi Xia is all-n preflop from the +1 position and he draws a customer in chip leader Ryuki Shirase of Japan in the BB.

Qi tables A♣ 8♠ while Shirase shows 5♥ 4♥ for very live cards.

Shirase hits one of them on the flop: Q♦ 9♥ 5♠ but the Chinese player rebounds on the turn when the 8♥ appears, but that gives Shirase a backdoor flush draw. The River, however settles matters as the A♦ gives Qi aces up and a double up as the money bubble nears.

Korea’s Park Sangsub limps in from the +1 position and right beside him in the +2 position, big stack Ryuki Shirase raises it to 20,000. It folds back to the Korean who makes the call.

The flop is 8♦ J♠ K♣ as both players opt to skip this betting street. The turn is the J♥ as this time, Park leads out for 5,000 and gets raised to 20,000 anew by his Japanese opponent. Park still calls. The river is the Q♥ as Park goes back to checking. Shirase goes all-in and Park can’t m ake the call.

The chip lead once again goes back to Shirase.

The Philippines’ Eugenio Bestil, Jr. opens from the +2 position for 11,000 and the blinds call.

The flop goes 5♠ 4♦ 6♣ as former chip leader Park Sangsub is in the SB and leads out for 7,000. Big stack Ryuki Shirase of Japam makes the call from the BB and Bestil also calls. The turn card is the T♥ as Park continues firing, this time for 18,000. Now, Shirase folds but the call is still made by the Filipino. It is Heads-Up to the river which shows the 5♣ . Park once again bets out for 12,000 and still gets the call from Bestil.

Park turns over K♠ T♠ for top pair on the turn. Bestil mucks and is back to five digits in chips.

Taiwan’s Chou Kuan Jui raises from the +1 position for 8,000 and gets calls from chip leader Ryuki Shirase of Japan on the D and Filipino Edgar Asehan in the BB.

The flop comes 4♣ J♥ 9♠ as Asehan checks. Chou continues for 12,000 as Shirase calls. Asehan then check-raises it to 40,000 as Choi re-raises all-in for his last 83,000. Shirase folds but Asehan makes the quick call.

Chou tables J♦ T♦ for top pair on the flop while Asehan unfurls J♠ 8♣ for top two pairs on the flop. The turn card is the 8♦ giving the Taiwanese players more outs on the redraw to the open-ended straight. However, the river card is the 3♠ ending his campaign in Day 1A and installing Asehan as the new chip leader.

The action folds to the HJ where China’s Li Zhouji shoves his last 37,000. It gets all the way to the SB where chip leader Ryuji Shirase of Japan makes the call.

The Chinese player flips over T♣ T♥ while Shirase shows A♠ K♠ .

Li puts the mater beyond doubt: 5♥ T♠ 6♣ 3♣ 9♦ and doubles up. This time, the dent wasn;t as big for the Japanese player, but it is a dent nonetheless.

Timothy Ferrari of the United States opens from UTG for 8,000 and it folds to the D where chip leader Ryuki Shirase 3-bets it 20,000. In the BB, Edgar Asehan of the Philippines 4-bets all-in for 114,000. Ferrari calls all-in for his last 107,000 while Shirase sees that this is the biggest pot of the tournament thus far and joins in.

Asehan tables J♣ J♠ while Ferrari has A♠ K♠ . Shirase is in bad shape with 9♣ 9♥ .

The runout goes Q♣ Q♠ 7♠ 2♥ 3♥ to give the Filipino a virtual triple up as Ferrari is eliminated and Shirase’s chip lead is not as imposing as it was prior to the start of this hand.

The action opens from the CO as it gets raised to 6,000. It folds to the D where China’s Li Zhuoji 3-bets it to 16,500 and when it gets to the BB big stack Ryuki Shirase, he goes into the tank and eventually 4-bets it to 35,000. The original raiser folds as now Li goes into the tank and makes the call.

The flop is J♥ 4♠ 6♥ as Shirase bets 100,000. Li once again tanks but this time elects to fold, leaving only 51,000 in his stack.

Shirase is now the Day 1A chip leader.

With a pot of 10,700 and a board reading 6♦ 6♣ 7♥ K♣ A♦ , Australia’s Nicholas Andrews bets 20,000 and is raised to 65,000 by Ryuki Shirase of Japan. Andrews snap calls.

Shirase shows K♠ K♥ for a full house on the turn while the Australian turns over 7♦ 7♠ for a lower full house on the flop.

The loss on the set up drops Andrews’ stack considerably as Shirase breaches the double century chip mark.