The happiest man of the day was undoubtedly Team PKC’s Hong Kong pro Jason Wai Tung Lo who captured the Poker King Cup National’s Main Event at Solaire Resort and Casino in Manila, Philippines. With 279 total entries and a prize pool of P3,880,000, Lo scooped up the biggest chunk of the pie, the PHP857,100 ($18,566) first place cash prize.
Final Day Recap
The final day began with 18 players returning to the felt. New Zealander Paul Hockin entered with a massive lead holding over 1M chips and continued his day where he left off last night, that is, shipping in numerous pots. As many short stacks were sent to the rail, the first to burn out was Singapore’s Kif Hwee Hua Lo (18th place), joined shortly after by Filipino players Mark Pagsuyuin (17th place) and Johnson Tan (16th place) then USA”s Nickolai Alexandrov (15thplace). Two more short-stacked Filipino players were unable to get anything going and soon exited the field, Joven Huerto (14thplace) and Dennis Gamboa (13th place) followed by Korea’s In Chul Sin in 12th place. As for Filipino player Jon Jon Lumanian, he took a painful blow to his stack against fellow countryman Jessie Leonarez when his ace-jack lost to ace-three with a three finding a pair on the board. He bowed out on the next hand in 11th place and the final table was established.
Final Table
Jason Lo’s rollercoaster ride to victory
By this time, Hockin had amassed nearly half of the chips in play and was sitting with around 2.5M at the final table. Looking to take down more pots, he called Lo’s all in on the flop holding jacks against Lo’s ace-four suited clubs. Unfortunately for him, the river would be kind to Lo as it produced the clubs needed to complete his nut flush draw, awarding him a big double up to around 1.5M chips.
As action resumed, the first player on the chopping block was Iranian player Roosbeh Namvarasl falling in 10th place, followed by Filipino player Christian Ortanez in 9th place. Leonarez’s run ended in 8th place when his ace-eight offsuit against Jaivin’s pocket tens found an ace on the board but was still way behind Jaivin’s set on the river.
Jaivin continued to rise after banking a huge double up with two pair on his king-ten suited against Lo’s ace-queen offsuit. This sent Jaivin up to 2.7M while Lo fell to 290k. Not long after, Filipino player Franklin Nuguid eliminated short-stacked Veterano Tan in 7th place but couldn’t hold on to the chips he picked up, losing a nearly all of it when he doubled up Malaysia’s Alex Wong Wei Cheong. But like Nuguid, Cheong too couldn’t hold on to his chips and was eliminated in 6th place by Korean player Jae Wook Shin. With this win, Shin climbed over the 1M chip range.
Now back to Lo whose short stack needed a big adrenaline boost. He found the right spot in a hand against Hockin with his nine-eight suited pairing up on the board. Hockin seemed to be in the business of being the ATM machine because Nuguid doubled up through him as well. Lo then surged to 1.4M chips when he doubled up through monster-stacked Jaivin who shoved on the small blind with jack-four offsuit hoping Lo would fold the big blind. This was not the case as Lo held king-queen offsuit, he called, and completed a straight on the river. Lo earned more chips after eliminating Nuguid in 5th place.
With four players remaining, Hockin tumbled into a very short stack after losing a hefty pot to Jaivin who held pocket tens. He was put out of his misery in 4th place by Shin. The three-handed quickly ended with Lo seizing all of Shin’s chips with a straight on the turn and Shin missing his nut flush draw on the river.
At heads up, Lo was ahead with over 3M chips and Jaivin with 2.5M chips. In asking Lo how he felt upon entering the heads up round, he shared:
“I was worried at heads up because I was ahead in chips but not by very much. He is also a very good player.”
Lo proceeded to rake in the chips, showing total domination over Jaivin. At one point, he claimed six consecutive pots while relinquishing very little to Jaivin. The winning hand had Jaivin all in on the turn with a straight draw holding three-six clubs suited on a board of two-queen-five-ten with two clubs on the board against Lo’s pair with ten-eight clubs suited. The river of seven of clubs gave them both a flush with Lo way ahead to claim the first-ever PKC National Main Event championship title.
Jason Lo expressed:
“This feels very good, I am very happy winning this because I plan to go to the WSOP after. I was playing really well at the heads up round and I got lucky. This is the first Poker King Cup National event and they sponsored me. I feel very happy.”
Top Ten Payouts
1st – Jason Wai Tung Lo – Hong Kong – PHP857,100
2nd – Jaivin – Singapore – PHP601,400
3rd – Jae Wook Shin – Korea – PHP386,800
4th – Paul Hockin – New Zealand – PHP286,300
5th – Franklin Nuguid – Philippines – PHP215,000
6th – Alex Wong Wai Cheong – Malaysia – PHP171,900
7th – Veterano Tan – Philippines – PHP142,800
8th – Jessie Leonarez – Philippines – PHP114,500
9th – Christian Ortanez – Philippines – PHP85,700
10th Roosbeh Namvarasl – Iran – PHP62,500
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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