Warm-up (5,000 PHP)

The biggest guarantee among the six events slated today at the Manila Super Series 22 had its first qualifying sortie launch as 175 entries were logged in (Event #3A) Warm-Up Flight A with 27 making it through to Day 2 in this PHP780,000 (~US$13,970) GTD event here at Pokerstars Live in Okada Manila.

Among the notable who saw action were Manila Megastack 16 High Roller titlist Niroshan Loganathan from Canada, Pokerstars Open runner-up Kai Danilo Paulsen of Norway, Australia’s Andrew Xu who took down the Super Deep title in Manila Megstack 22 and international campaigners Ronnie Hoffman of the Netherlands, Ireland’s Damien, and Filipino hopefuls in APPT National Open winner Alvir Inocentes, Manila Megastack 19 Super Stack titlist Lenart Ecarma, Manila Super Series 18 Superstack champion Chierro de Leon, and WSOP veteran Tony Abesamis.

The action was riveting from the get-go with the chip trading hands in a frenzying pace until Korea’s Han Seung Hyun came back from certain demise when he shoved his Q♥ J♥ on a Q♣ 8♦ 5♥ Q♠ board and was called by Filipino big stack Segundo Barte who tabled K♥ Q♦ . Han rivered the J♠ to improve to a full houise and claim the overall chip lead that he would not relinquish for the rest of the proceedings.

In the end, the bubble was burst by Japan’s Tomohiro Wada when his steal shove from the SB with 5♦ 4♠ was rewarded by a hit on the flop against the K♥ 7♦ of Cypriot Anastasios Pavlou to ensure that the 27 left would be guaranteed to be ITM.

Han’s stack of 461,000 is closely followed by Wada’s 418,000. Sitting in third is Inocentes with 337,000.

Day 2 is on Sunday at 12:00NN (UCT+8).

Meanwhile, Flight B commences tomorrow (June 7) at 5:00PM.

Finland’s Ville Vallenius open shoves from UTG for his last 49,000 and going all-in for less is the recently crippled Kang Myeonghwa of Korea for 34,500 in the +2 position. Pushing the blinds out of the way is Raymond Enriquez of the Philippines who 3-bet shoves to isolate. The blinds fold.

Vallenius turns over A♠ J♣ while Kang is in bad shape with A♦ T♥. However, both are in dire straits against Enriquez’s A♣ K♠ .

The runout goes: 6♣ 2♦ 7♦ Q♣ 7♥ as the Filipino not only finishes off Kang but also eliminates the Finn in the process.

With the action folded to the D of Korea’s Kang Myeonghwa, he open shoves but gets called on the BB of Filipino Raymond Enriquez who is at risk with his last 54,000.

However, Enriquez likes his chances when Kang turns over A♣ 8♦ against his A♦ J♦ .

True enough, the runout made it official for the Filipino: 9♠ 2♣ 5♣ 3♥ 7♠ . Enriquez gets his much coveted double up and sends Kang’s stack spiraling to dangerously low levels.

India’s Acharya Anant opens from UTG for 5,500 but right beside him in the +1 position, Rodrigo Enriquez of the Philippines 3-bet shoves his remaining 16,500. Folded to the D, American Timothy Ferrari isolates with a 4-bet shove, forcing Anant out of the hand.

Enriquez unfurls K♦ K♣ while Ferrari shows A♠ J♥ .

The Filipino successfully avoids any complications in his double up attempt: 9♥ 3♣ 4♥ 2♠ 4♦ .

The loss, however, sinks Ferrari’s stack to below 15,000.