Poker Dream Manila opens with PH₱ 4.1 Million Warm Up prize pool; 48 advance to Final Day led by David Erquiaga

Poker Dream has finally made landfall in Manila, Philippines with opening games hitting the felt on April 26 and running through May 7 at the Grand Wing of Newport World Resorts.

It was a slow start at opening Warm Up Flight A then picked up pace during the last two heats as locals poured in for a piece of the PH₱ 3M guarantee. At the close, 314 turned up to build a richer prize pool of PH₱ 4,158,000 (~US$ 74,870). Filipino pro David Erquiaga bagged up a monstrous stack of 811,000 (100 big blinds). Erquiaga will return on the final day as overall chip leader.

Buy in: PH₱ 15,000 (~US$ 270)
Guarantee: PH₱ 54,000
Entries: 314
Prize pool: PH₱ 4,158,000 (~US$ 74,870)
ITM: 48 players

Flight A: 60 entries / 9 advanced
Flight B: 179 entries / 27 advanced
Flight C: 75 entries / 12 advanced

1	David Jansen Erquiaga	Philippines	811,000
2	Xiyu Xie	China	352,000
3	Ephraim John Guevarra	Philippines	316,500
4	Christopher Mateo	Philippines	313,000
5	Victor Guevara Lansag	Philippines	289,000
6	Tsai Wei-Jung	China	257,000
7	Jessie Leonarez	Philippines	249,000
8	Edgar Asehan	Philippines	246,000
9	Ferdinand Aguinaldo	Philippines	227,000
10	Cezar Quiambao Ii	Philippines	221,000
11	Duhan Lee	Korea, South	213,000
12	Wai Keong Yong	Malaysia	208,000
13	Geeheon Lee	Korea	207,500
14	Janno Eliel Alvarez	Philippines	199,000
15	Michael Bueza	Philippines	199,000
16	Ricardo Singapan	Philippines	198,000
17	James Leong Theng Aik	Malaysia	197,000
18	Maxwell Rosete	Philippines	194,000
19	Edwin Dela Cruz	Philippines	191,000
20	Joseph William Magnotti	USA	170,000
21	Mike Takayama	Philippines	162,000
22	Alfredo Boligor	Philippines	148,000
23	Junnie Pamplona	Philippines	137,000
24	Wai Loong Lee	Malaysia	128,000
25	Ryan Patrick Mc Allister	United States	120,000
26	Jeffrey Calonge	Philippines	118,000
27	Aifonso Baja	Philippines	116,000
28	Alan Tsang	Hong Kong	116,000
29	Danilo Ola	Philippines	112,000
30	Joseph Talamayan	Philippines	105,000
31	Cheong Yew Lee	Malaysia	97,000
32	Chao Yan	China	97,000
33	Chierro De Leon	Philippines	97,000
34	Edmil Marcelo	Philippines	93,000
35	Xia Oi	Philippines	86,000
36	John Paul Flores	Philippines	70,500
37	Jester Intia	Philippines	70,000
38	Kannapong Thanarattrakul	Thailand	70,000
39	Li Jun Zhang	China	69,000
40	Richard Marquez	Philippines	66,000
41	Wai Loon Ng	Malaysia	65,500
42	Bryan Khoo Hou Hyin	Malaysia	63,000
43	Kenny Kevin Richard	Malaysia	62,500
44	Renato Alcano	Philippines	61,000
45	John Niko Costiniano	Philippines	56,000
46	Jie Jun Zhang	China	52,000
47	Siew Key Yee	Malaysia	42,000
48	Ahmadi Muqsith	Indonesia	31,000

The 48 survivors return on Thursday, April 27 at 1pm to chase down the bragging rights first title of Poker Dream Manila. Everyone is guaranteed PH₱ 23,700 (~US$ 426) but all eyes will be on the handsome top prize of PH₱ 807,000 (~US$ 14,530). Somuchpoker will provide Live Updates until the champion is crowned.

Flight recap

Briefly recapping the day, each flight played down to ITM which was 15% of the field. Flight A drew the lightest turnout of 60 entries with 9 at bagging time. Alija Halkic‘s ran into Ferdinand Aguinaldo‘s to bust on the bubble. Ephraim Guevarra  bagged the first big stack of the day.

Flight B was the most popular with 179 entries. The bubble burst on Chin Dickson with dominated by Edwin Dela Cruz‘s . 27 players advanced led by Erquiaga.

Last chance was at Flight C Turbo with 75 signing up and 12 making the cut. Decorated local Christopher Mateo cleaned out short stacked Edilberto Gopez on the bubble while China’s Xiyu Xie racked up the most chips.