Warm-up (5,000 PHP)

In a three-way all-in preflop situation, Taiwan’s Chen Chun Yuan tables A♦ K♣ dominating (and covering) his two opponents in Nguyen Van Dong An of Vietnam and Filipino Raymond Tiu who show A♠ 9♠ and A♣ Q♣ , respectively.

The flop, though, turns the tides as it comes Q♥ 6♣ 6♦ giving Tiu the lead. The turn is the T♠ rendering Nguyen dead in the water but the river is the K♠ , handing thw victory to Chen. The Taiwanese player KOs two adversaries and is just under thr 300,000 chip mark.

Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Dong An limps in from the +1 position and is met by a shove from Filipina Alma Aguila for her last 17,000. It gets to the CO where Anastasios Pavlou of Cyprus makes the call. Nguyen folds.

Aguila tables 5♠ 5♥ while Pavlou has two over cards with A♦ J♣ .

The window card immediately makes it even a steeper uphill climb for the Cypriot as the 5♦ shows along with the A♠ and the 7♠ to give Aguila bottom set. Needing running cards to come from behind, the turn card is the 8♦ to effectively shutdown Pavlou’s chances. The river card is the 4♣ to make it another official double up for Aguila who continues to stay afloat.