Christian Ortanez leads PKC’s Main Event Day 1c flight A

Earlier today, the first-ever Poker King Cup National held the third qualifying round – Day 1c flight A – of their PHP4,000,000 Guaranteed Main Event with 98 entries turning up at Solaire Hotel and Casino in Manila, Philippines. There were many notable players who graced the felt, however, it was a Filipino recreational tournament player who rose in the rankings, bagging up the largest stack of 139,900 chips.

It was a great day at the table for Ortanez who amassed his stack after eliminating Filipino pros Marc Rivera and Renato Villanueva simultaneously with his pocket aces. Later, pocket aces did well for him again, cleaning out another player to end the day at the top of the charts.

Second-ranked Korea’s Heedon Han had a different run from Ortanez, shipping in a massive double up when his pocket sevens cracked pocket aces. Although a round after he lost a big pot to Filipino player Lito Quijano with his ace-king losing to Quijano’s set of eights, the cards would make it up to him later, dealing him a winning big slick to finish the day with 126,100 chips.

Joining the top two leaders was Hong Kong pro Jason Wai Tung Lo from Team PKC who ended the day with 120,300 chips. Lo grinded his way through the day, picking up many pots, and closed it out by railing a player with his pocket aces holding strong for a happy takedown.

Just a few chips behind Lo was Korea’s Kyoung Min Kim who bagged up 119,700 chips. Kim had a late round surge by first doubling up his short stack, and then earning two additional big pots with his mediocre hole cards finding success on the board.

There were two other players who crossed the six-digit chip mark, namely, Filipino player Don Carmona with 117,300 chips and Korea’s In Chul Sin with 114,400 chips. For Carmona, he first banked it in with a flush while holding queen-nine suited, and then increasing further when his pocket jacks landed a set against pocket kings. For Sin, he picked up momentum after railing Korea’s Choongkon Kim with his pocket kings, and then followed it up by taking all of Edilberto Gopez’s chips with ace-ten besting Gopez’s kings. He also swept Ben Abrahams chips his way when his pocket tens (one of which was a club) connected with a flush to defeat Abrahams pocket jacks.

Among the many players sent packing today, quite a number of them were well-known players from the Philippines such as the brothers Marc Rivera, Czardy Rivera, and Euryd Rivera, as well as Adrian Brion, Florencio Campomanes, and Eric Sia.

List of Day 1c Flight A survivors

Christian Ortanez – Philippines – 139,900
Heedon Han – Korea – 126,100
Jason Wai Tung Lo – Hong Kong – 120,300
Kyoung Min Kim – Korea – 119,700
Don Carmona – Philippines – 117,300
In Chul Sin – Korea – 114,400
Lito Quijano – Philippines – 94,800
Vincentius Ricky Setiawan – Indonesia – 94,600
Regie Ann Delos Reyes – Philippines – 89,400
Gwang Hui Ye – Korea – 88,700
Alex Wai Cheong Wong – Malaysia – 82,500
Hui Yao – China – 70,000
Ellezer Castillo – Philippines – 66,100
Nick Alexandrov – USA – 66,100
Benjamin Wu – USA – 55,700
Lim Jin Hong – Korea – 55,300
Jae Wook Shin – Korea – 53,100
Michael Kim Falcon – Denmark – 50,900
Hui Wai Kwok – China – 43,700
Kian Seen Lim – Singapore – 43,200
Sungmin Kim – Korea – 37,500
Nominel Maturan – Philippines – 36,800
O.P.M. King – Japan – 34,400
Navid Ostadsraei – Iran – 32,500
JC Sayo – Philippines – 32,400
Joven Huerto – Philippines – 29,700
Vilma Goldman – Philippines – 25,100
Jaivin – Singapore – 24,400
Joachim Chua – Singapore – 20,400

Day 1A Recap: Filipino player Johnson Tan tops Day 1a of the PKC Main Event

Day 1B Recap: Indonesia’s Marcel Andhika leads Day 1b of the PKC National Main Event