PPWC Main Event Day 2 ends with Lester Edoc and Mike Takayama leading the final 16 players

SMP EditorEditor-in-Chief

Updated: 2026.10.16

The PPPoker World Championship resumed the Main Event with Day 2 seeing 130 players back on the felt in a race to survive another ten grueling rounds. For many, it was a day that would end before the money with only 60 paid. For some, cashing was better than walking away empty-handed. But for 16 players, it was a day that would bring them closer to glory and the ultimate prize of the massive PHP 20M (US$382,000) prize pool, the PHP 4,850,000 (US$93,000) first place purse.

End of Day 2 chip leaders

Day 2 closed with a very strong lineup of Filipino players at the top. At the helm was Lester Edoc with 1,888,000. Edoc was very active at the felt all day and was the biggest stack at his table for a majority of the time. Down to the final hour, Edoc continued to grind for chips, putting pressure on the rest of the players. At one point, he even won five consecutive pots to help drive his stack to the summit.

Not too far behind Edoc was WSOP champion Mike Takayama with 1,802,000. Takayama had two massive double ups. The first one was at bubble time, he doubled up with pocket jacks against Alpheus Chan‘s king-queen, then prior to the last level of the day, he stormed to 1.6M through Markus Garberg to hold the chip lead until Edoc stole it in the final round.

Rising to third rank was Richard Marquez aka Hotsauce. Marquez rose steadily throughout the day, and just before the close, he delivered a painful knockout to WSOP champion Aditya Sushant with queen-jack cracking aces. He bagged up 1,294,000.

The only other player joining the leaders in the seven-digit range was Markus Garberg with 1,188,000. Garberg knocked out several players including Alexis Lim with queens holding against ace-king. He amassed such a monstrous lead that even after he doubled up Takayama, his stack was still over a million.

End of Day 2 chip counts

Taking a look a the lineup, an impressive 7 players from the Philippines advanced. Here are the final 16 players returning to Day 3 on Wednesday, February 20 at 12pm.

Name	Chip Count	Seating Number	Nationality
Lester Edoc	1,888,000	Table 1 Seat 6	Philippine
Mike Andillo Takatama	1,802,000	Table 1 Seat 7	Philippine
Marquez Richard Serrano	1,294,000	Table 2 Seat 7	Philippine
Garberg Markus	1,188,000	Table 2 Seat 6	Norway
Foo Hsien Loong	1,098,000	Table 2 Seat 8	Malaysia
Auganbayev Daniyar	794,000	Table 2 Seat 4	Kazakstan
Guillem Ivan	779,000	Table 1 Seat 1	Spain
Mark Gruendemann	552,000	Table 1 Seat 4	Ireland
Rajeev Kanjani	516,000	Table 2 Seat 2	India
Seo Dongkyoon	395,000	Table 1 Seat 3	Korea
Mark Anthony Aguilar Amparo	375,000	Table 2 Seat 5	Phillipine
Jeffrey Tan Pamplona	315,000	Table 2 Seat 1	Philippine
Denis Cheremisin	294,000	Table 2 Seat 3	Russia
Hans Jurgen Homner	254,000	Table 1 Seat 2	Germany
Georges Chehade	235,000	Table 1 Seat 5	Lebanon
Ysmael William Lim	225,000	Table 1 Seat 8	Philippine

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

Day 2 – Live Updates

When players return, they will be hunting down a seat to the Final 9. Average stack is 718,125 with 11,490,000 total chips in play. Opening blinds are 10K-20K with ante 3K.

The Main Event drew a total of 383 players which was a very good turnout considering no same day re-entry was allowed. With players sensing there would be an overlay, Day 1C produced the largest field of 176 players. Many newcomers were in attendance from all over the world. With the buy-in at PHP 55,000 (US$1.050), they assumed correct. The PHP 20 Million guarantee was not reached making for a big return to the eventual champion.

Somuchpoker will continue to provide live coverage of the event until a winner is crowned so stay tuned for the Day 3 updates.

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.