Pinoy Newsflash: PS Manila Super Series, Edoc Tops National GPI Rankings
Poker is surely churning all around the Asian circuit with back-to-back events quickly filling up the days of the calendar. We decided to zone in and focus our attention on what’s heating up the Philippine poker scene. Here’s a quick newsflash on a few of those stories.
719 entries for the first edition of the PokerStars Live Manila Super Series
It was a historic moment at the inaugural PokerStars Live Manila Super Series with the Main Event (Php10K buy-in) attracting a monumental field of 719 entries to obliterate the advertised guarantee (3M GTD) and amass a PhP6,137,384 prize pool. After four days of Main Event action, Korean player Hyungtaek Jo came out victorious and shipped in the PhP1,107,000 first prize.
Right from the starting gun, the weeklong festival attracted big numbers to eventually draw in a total of 1808 entries over nine events. The highly successful series ran from February 27th-March 5th at City of Dreams Manila.
In addition to the main, there were two tournaments that offered a guarantee, the Warm-Up (1M GTD) opener and the Megastack (400K GTD) with both also seeing the proposed prize pool easily surpassed. Korea’s Jongmoon Park and Swiss national Mathias Schell won those events respectively.
Other event winners were USA’s Yohn Paredes for the NLH; Vietnamese players Danh Nguyen for the Turbo event and Thai Lai Le for the Knockout event; and locals Antonio Abesamis for the PLO event, Trifie Montebon for the NLH Freezeout, and pro John Tech for the Bubble Rush.
More: PokerStars Live Manila Super Series – Official Results
Lester Edoc at the top of the GPI National rankings
Asian pro Lester Edoc is off to a great start in 2017 as he sits atop the GPI National rankings for the Philippines. He is currently topping both the GPI Overall Ranking and the 2017 GPI POY race. He surpassed well-known pro, Mike Takayama, whowon the 2016 Philippines GPI POY last year. In just two months, Edoc has already cashed in seven events with his latest at the Baby Dragon event of the Macau Poker Cup 26, finishing in 10thplace. In January, he claimed an incredible three side event titles at the APT Kickoff, and nearly won the Metro’s first festival of the year.
GPI Overall ranking – Philippines
| Ranking | Player | Score |
| #1 | LesterEdoc | 1,231.00pts |
| #2 | MikeTakayama | 1,078.66pts |
| #3 | JohnSayo | 826.32pts |
| #4 | JovenHuerto | 820.63pts |
| #5 | JohnTech | 761.49pts |
| #6 | AdrianBrion | 713.61pts |
| #7 | Jose“Boyet”Drilon | 706.23pts |
| #8 | AndrewGaw | 653.17pts |
| #9 | EdwinMarzan | 645.45pts |
| #10 | JessieLeonarez | 619.70pts |
Save the Dates: Next three events in Manila
Coming up in April to May, expect nonstop poker festivities in Manila, Philippines with three big events already lined up.
- Metro Summer Event 3 Million Guaranteed
Celebrating its 10thyear in the industry, the Metro Card Club, the biggest poker room in the Philippines, will be hosting its second festival of the year, the Metro Summer Event 3M Guaranteed. Through the years, the Metro has been known for their low buy-in tournaments with highly enticing prize pools. This upcoming event will be no different with an affordable PhP3,000 entry fee. Expect to see a large turnout of enthusiastic locals filling the room from wall-to-wall. The event runs from April 19-24, 2017.
- Asian Poker Tour Championships Philippines 2017
From April 26th– May 7th, the Asian Poker Tour will be hosting the inaugural APT Championships Philippines 2017 at Resorts World Manila. This event falls during Japan’s Golden Week where four national holidays are celebrated within the span of seven days. This is expected to be one of the biggest APT festivals of the year with many exciting events on the schedule such as:
- APT Main Event US$1,100 entry fee
- APT Champions 2017 US$2,200 entry fee
- Sam Razavi’s Champion’s Cup (Invitational)
- Super High Rollers HKD1M entry fee (Special Event)
In addition, the festival will feature 18 side events including the APT-RWM US$50K Guaranteed Opening Event and the High Rollers US$3,300 entry fee.
- PokerStars Live Manila Super Series (P3M Guaranteed)
Ever since poker online giant PokerStars opened a hub in Manila two years ago, the brand has been producing some of the biggest and most highly attended live events in the country. Just last night, their newest festival concluded, the PokerStars Live Manila Super Series (P3M Guaranteed) with players from all over the Asian region in attendance.
The second edition of the series is already mapped out and set to take place on May 8-14, 2017 in City of Dreams Manila. The Main Event features a PhP3M guarantee with a PhP10,000 entry fee. If the highly successful inaugural event was an indication of what’s to come, then expect the prize pool to be much more lucrative than the advertised guarantee.
Article by Triccia David
