PPWC: Main Event Day 1A ends with Abhinav Iyer leading the 22 survivors

SMP EditorEditor-in-Chief

Updated: 2026.10.16

Saturday at the races attracted 64 players to Main Event Day 1A of the PPPoker World Championship at Resorts World Manila.

This was the first of three starting days. No same day re-entries were allowed leaving only 22 players at the end of the scheduled 10 hours of play. Owning the chip lead was India’s Abhinav Iyer with 230,400 in chips.

Iyer stacked up slowly all day then towards the latter half, he shipped all of Alex Lee’s stack with a set over two pair. From there, Iyer continued to grind to close the day in command.

Another player from India also navigated to the upper ranks, Kalyan Chakravarathy. Chakravarathy was a dominating force at his table, often seen collecting chips by putting pressure on his opponents. He sealed up 206,200.

PPWC – Kalyan Chakravarathy. Chakravarathy

Filipino player Mark Amparo was out of the media radar until he eliminated Randy Yap. This was all the ammo he needed to boost his momentum. He proceeded to rail Mark Pagsuyuin on a lucky catch on the river to complete a flush. Just before the day ended, fueled in another good pot against David Erquiaga to close with 197,700 in chips.

Other notable players making it through were WSOP champion Aditya Sushant, Thomas Lee, Hajime Nakagawa,and Marco Alvarez.

You can read up on the action in our Live Updates post.

PPWC Main Event – Live Updates

Day 1A chip counts

No.	Name	Nation	Chip Count
1	Iyerabhinav Nataraj	India	230,400
2	Kalyan Chakravarthy Cheekuri	India	206,200
3	Mark Anthony Aguilar Amparo	Philippines	197,700
4	Sushant Aditya	India	116,200
5	Foo Hsien Loong	Malaysia	113,100
6	Veterano Burgos Tan	Philippines	112,500
7	Ha Carson	Canada	104,700
8	Hajime Nakagawa	Japan	81,800
9	Mark Daniel Larson	Usa	80,400
10	Auganbayev Daniyar	Kazakstan	78,400
11	Hans Jurgen Homner	Germany	72,100
12	Erquiaga David Jansen Camba	Philippines	71,000
13	Thomas Lee	Canada	54,800
14	Niilo Veli Olavi Heinikangas	Phillipines	54,000
15	Alexander Jay Yap Cruz	Philippines	52,400
16	Marco L Almerez	Philippines	45,000
17	Thananat Therdtakoonrat	Thailand	43,400
18	Liubov Orlova	Ukraine	42,300
19	Koh Myoungsoo	South Korea	35,000
20	Jimmie Melo Javier	Philippines	33,500
21	Kim Jiyoung	South Korea	33,300
22	Jasven Saigal	India	19,800

All of these players advance to Day 2 taking place on Tuesday, February 19 at 12pm.

Day 1A casualties

Among the early bust outs was German pro Marvin Rettenmaier. As the day progressed, Vietnamese pro Linh Tran joined him on the rail, so did Nicandro Filart, Inaki Santos, and late entry Alex Lee. Lee had a very short day, he played less than one level falling to Iyer with set over two pair. Lim Yohwan also met his end. All of these players can jump back in on any of the remaining starting days, and they should, seeing that the guarantee is a whopping PHP 20 Million (US$382,000). The event needs 400 entries to meet this figure.

Day 1B takes place on Sunday, February 17 at 2pm. Buy-in is PHP 55,000 (US$1,050).

More : PPWC Full Coverage

Article by Tricia David

About the Editor

SMP EditorEditor-in-Chief

The SMP Editor covers international poker and iGaming for SoMuchPoker, providing news, tournament coverage, and industry insights. With a focus on accuracy, clarity, and relevance, the editor helps readers stay informed about developments across the global poker community.