PokerStars Festival Manila Main Event Smashes Guarantee; Yang Leads

An impressive 207 players stumped up the PHP55,000 entrance fee for Day 1c of the PokerStars Manila Main Event.

With the format offering unlimited re-entry, there were another 78 bullets fired to bring the total number of entries up to 285 for the day. That brought the total number of entries up to 594, easily surpassing the ₱20 million (~$397,230) guarantee. That astounding figure creates the largest international tournament in the history of the Philippines with a buy-in of ₱30,000 or more, ballooning the prize pool to a hefty ₱28,809,000 (~$572,190).

However, it is the ₱5,515,000 (~$109,536) first prize that all will have their eye on and the man best positioned to take that down is Woohyuk Yang. The Korean bagged up a monstrous 417,400, nearly five times the average stack and over 110,000 in chips more than next closest rival – Day 1b frontrunner Michael Falcon (307,100).

Yang made the majority of his chips after clashing in a huge hand with one-time chip leader Mazyar Misaghian, who made an ill-timed river bluff shortly before the last break of the day with a missed straight draw.

Unfortunately for Misaghian, Yang had flopped top two pairs and made the call to send the Australian player to the cash desk to re-buy, though he was unable to recreate his early run of form and bowed out before the close of play.

Japan’s Masatoshi Tanaka finished the day as Yang’s next closest rival after a late gift from Vietnam’s Chien Huu Nguyen on the last hand of play.

Tanaka – who had flopped the nut flush holding a suited ace-eight – moved all in on a paired turn in a three-bet pot, with Nguyen making the call with top pair and an open-ended straight draw.

The Japanese player faded Nguyen’s full house re-draw to bag up 287,800 while Nguyen took a big hit but finished the day with a stack of 117,600. It was another Japanese player, Yo Seb Rhee, who rounded out the day’s top three stacks, finishing with a very respectable 265,300.

Just 87 of the Day 1c entrants managed to successfully circumnavigate the tournament minefield to join the 38 Day 1a survivors and 43 Day 1b survivors.

Other notables to make it though included High Roller Shot Clock champion Peter Plater (40,900), Manila Megastack 7 champion Po-Yi Wu (30,200), Malaysia’s Boon Leong Tan (260,600) and Sam Nee (99,500), Finland’s Antti Halme (159,900) and Australia’s Geoff Mooney (82,500).

Notables who failed to make the cut included India’s first (joint) World Series of Poker bracelet winner Aditya Sushant as well as fellow countryman Dhaval Mudgal, Japan’s Iori Yogo, the Philippines’ top eight tournament earner Flo Campomanes and High Roller Shot Clock final tablist Hermann Lee.

With 73 unique players, the Philippines dominated the player pool, representing 22% of the total players. Following closely behind were Korea and Singapore which each brought in 34 unique players and roughly 20% of the total field together. India and Malaysia also showed up in full force with 25 (roughly 7% of the total field) and 33 (roughly 10%) unique players respectively.

A total of 167 players will be returning for Day 2 when play resumes at 2pm local time (GMT+7) on Sunday 6 August as Brandon Shim made it through on Day 1b and 1c. Shim will pilot the larger of his two stacks with the other being removed from play.

The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor all day as the PokerStars Festival Manila Main Event plays into the hallowed money spots and beyond so join us then.

Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Name	Country	Chips	Big Blinds
1	1	Xingbiao Zhu	China	125,500	52
1	2	Pete Chen	Taiwan	165,300	69
1	3	Ddingxiang Ong	Singapore	96,400	40
1	4	Tran Hung Manh	Vietnam	180,700	75
1	5	Kien Seng Loo	Malaysia	24,900	10
1	6	James Mendoza	USA	29,900	12
1	7	Yii Shyang Lai	Malaysia	53,500	22
1	8	Boon Leong Tan	Malaysia	260,600	109
1	9	Segundo Barte	Philippines	151,000	63

2	1	Jensen Chow	USA	52,300	22
2	2	Kian Weng Choong	Malaysia	169,600	71
2	3	Vikram Palanisamy	India	79,600	33
2	4	Corbin White	USA	44,300	18
2	5	Kuldeep Pawar	India	71,800	30
2	6	Jiunn Ng	Singapore	50,200	21
2	7	Richard Marquez	Philippines	117,900	49
2	8	Changha Woo	Korea	102,500	43
2	9	Trung Hieu Le	Vietnam	118,000	49

3	1	Sok Meng Hun	Cambodia	82,000	34
3	2	Kenneth Buck	Australia	61,800	26
3	3	Jean Issa	UK	83,100	35
3	4	Peter Plater	Australia	40,900	17
3	5	Yoshiniri Tsuji	Japan	69,700	29
3	6	Yan da Tyronne Soh	Singapore	124,000	52
3	7	Hoang Anh Do	Vietnam	125,000	52
3	8	Yow Hui Ng	Singapore	97,300	41
3	9	Uday Bansal	India	148,300	62

4	1	Jesse Rosen	South Africa	136,200	57
4	2	Euryd Rivera	Philippines	100,500	42
4	3	Ronnie Tate	USA	71,300	30
4	4	Geoff Mooney	Australia	82,500	34
4	5	Sparrow Cheung	Hong Kong	120,200	50
4	6	Andre Peters	Germany	241,500	101
4	7	Duc Nguyen	Vietnam	92,700	39
4	8	Eugene Khoo	Malaysia	95,500	40
4	9	Eric Tsai	Taiwan	112,500	47

5	1	Jae Wook Shin	Korea	71,100	30
5	2	Celine Lee	China	101,200	42
5	3	Hoa Thinh Nguyen	Vietnam	206,200	86
5	4	Jae Chul Chang	Korea	32,600	14
5	5	Seun Oluwole	UK	79,600	33
5	6	Kevin Ang	Malaysia	20,300	8
5	7	Zhi Han Neo	Singapore	104,300	43
5	8	Daryl Loh	Singapore	203,900	85
5	9	Badri Kedar Gosavi	Australia	117,000	49

6	1	Tung Wing Wong	Hong Kong	29,100	12
6	2	Shinji Katsushima	Japan	171,900	72
6	3	Johnson Tan	Philippines	42,400	18
6	4	Jongjun Park	Korea	114,100	48
6	5	Vi Khoa Duong	Vietnam	55,600	23
6	6	Michael Falcon	Denmark	307,100	128
6	7	Ming Ken Thoo	Malaysia	97,500	41
6	8	Sam Nee	Malaysia	99,500	41
6	9	Franklin Acfalle	USA	89,900	37

7	1	Jin Hwang Yong	Malaysia	257,500	107
7	2	Zhe Li	China	102,000	43
7	3	Po-yi Wu	Taiwan	30,200	13
7	4	Xiang Wei Lee	Singapore	212,500	89
7	5	Junghwan Oh	Korea	137,800	57
7	6	Chi Thinh Nguyen	Vietnam	192,900	80
7	7	Paphawin Laodee	Thailand	73,400	31
7	8	Min Soon Lim	Singapore	150,600	63
7	9	Stuart Brodie	South Africa	27,900	12

8	1	Duc Bui	Vietnam	50,300	21
8	2	Woohyuk Yang	Korea	417,400	174
8	3	Dhane Chainani	India	235,200	98
8	4	Jongyoung Moon	Korea	171,100	71
8	5	Du-ming Tsai	Taiwan	66,700	28
8	6	Wai Hong Wong	Malaysia	59,000	25
8	7	Jun Obara	Japan	174,400	73
8	8	Kai Loon Ang	Singapore	126,900	53
8	9	Hoon Chai Ra	Korea	87,100	36

9	1	Hassen Judeh	UK	33,500	14
9	2	Alan Lau	Hong Kong	42,600	18
9	3	van Sang Nguyen	Vietnam	115,400	48
9	4	Lai Heng Foo	Malaysia	78,100	33
9	5	Seung Soo Jeon	Korea	114,800	48
9	6	Tien Than Nguyen	Vietnam	156,700	65
9	7	Naohito Tamaya	Japan	91,800	38
9	8	Mike Takayama	Philippines	118,300	49
9	9	Francis Villamar	Philippines	27,600	12

10	1	Seung Yong Yi	Korea	178,400	74
10	2	Niilo Heinikangas	Finland	84,500	35
10	3	Ming Kee Liow	Malaysia	42,600	18
10	4	Soon Ann Gan	Malaysia	51,900	22
10	5	Zhining Chen	China	4,200	2
10	6	Jack Wu	Taiwan	53,800	22
10	7	Freddy Wei	Singapore	124,700	52
10	8	Wei Han Wang	Taiwan	139,700	58
10	9	Victor Chong	Malaysia	148,600	62

11	1	James Chong	Malaysia	125,100	52
11	2	Aki Virtanen	Finland	156,300	65
11	3	Brandon Shim	Australia	80,500	34
11	4	Heng Seng Lau	Singapore	55,700	23
11	5	Jeffrey Shultz	USA	65,400	27
11	6	Hyung Chul Hyun	Korea	129,400	54
11	7	Michael Brunner	Switzerland	211,400	88
11	8	Alexander Grocott	Australia	157,200	66
11	9	Siddarth Singhvi	India	135,800	57

12	1	Roger Spets	Sweden	42,100	18
12	2	Abhineet Jain	India	75,200	31
12	3	Masato Nikawadori	Japan	145,400	61
12	4	Yo Seb Rhee	Korea	265,300	111
12	5	Jaehyun Lim	Korea	125,100	52
12	6	Mark Pagsuyuin	Philippines	61,600	26
12	7	John Dalessandri	Australia	76,300	32
12	8	Tzu Chieh Lo	Taiwan	86,900	36
12	9	Yau Shern Yen	Malaysia	99,100	41

13	1	Toshifumi Hashimoto	Japan	124,100	52
13	2	Anna Bajas	Philippines	149,600	62
13	3	Kunal Patni	India	10,300	4
13	4	Anton Widjaya	Indonesia	41,300	17
13	5	Sam Razavi	UK	57,200	24
13	6	Andy Xueyan Li	Singapore	218,000	91
13	7	Tze Yen Wong	Malaysia	15,400	6
13	8	Pranay Kapoor	India	115,000	48
13	9	Van Tran Thanh	Vietnam	51,900	22

14	1	Reigin Leongson	Philippines	33,800	14
14	2	Antti Halme	Finland	159,900	67
14	3	Jun Yi Ong	Singapore	61,600	26
14	4	Bruce Fabillaran	Philippines	24,900	10
14	5	Christopher Morrison	UK	70,100	29
14	6	Daniel Benor	Israel	53,600	22
14	7	Wendell Barte	Philippines	102,900	43
14	8	Joseph Sia	Philippines	41,800	17
14	9	Tsun Ming Chan	Hong Kong	74,200	31

15	1	Rajeev Kanjani	India	11,600	5
15	2	Kwangyeop Choi	Korea	66,800	28
15	3	Anthony Gabitan	Philippines	64,400	27
15	4	John Sayo	Philippines	23,200	10
15	5	Anh Nguyen	Vietnam	56,300	23
15	6	Si Yang Phua	Singapore	92,400	39
15	7	Jun Zhong Loo	Malaysia	50,000	21
15	8	Mark Amparo	Philippines	73,100	30
15	9	Kwok Chun Lai	Hong Kong	28,400	12

16	1	Mc Yeldarb Mantos	Philippines	80,900	34
16	2	Linh Tran	Canada	194,300	81
16	3	Adones Carmona	Philippines	236,100	98
16	4	Joohyun Park	Korea	49,400	21
16	6	Wenceslao Sombero	Philippines	59,100	25
16	7	Khanh Le Ngoc	Vietnam	80,400	34
16	8	Wendell Garcia	Philippines	148,000	62
16	9	Raphael Gall	Germany	141,400	59

17	1	Elan Zak	Philippines	234,000	98
17	2	Frederick Dimayuga	Philippines	42,200	18
17	3	Wai Kiat Lee	Malaysia	26,300	11
17	4	Kok Hou Toh	Malaysia	150,100	63
17	5	Ming Suan Tan	Malaysia	92,600	39
17	6	Manuel Mascunana	Philippines	85,200	36
17	7	Vikram Verma	India	61,900	26
17	9	Tom Or-Paz	Israel	186,500	78

18	1	Chien Huu Nguyen	Vietnam	117,600	49
18	2	Jannodin Riga	Philippines	184,800	77
18	4	Mun Fei Chow	Malaysia	56,700	24
18	5	Thanh Ha Duong	Vietnam	137,600	57
18	6	Hisashi Ogi	Japan	90,300	38
18	7	Thomas Lee	Canada	156,100	65
18	8	Sejin Park	Korea	261,300	109
18	9	Masatoshi Tanaka	Japan	287,800	120

19	1	Soo Jo Kim	Korea	56,500	24
19	2	Chee Sun Tong	Singapore	99,100	41
19	4	Romit Advani	India	38,100	16
19	5	Kenny Shih	USA	67,400	28
19	6	Vijay Narula	Australia	146,700	61
19	7	Ken Okada	Japan	121,000	50
19	8	Hoang Huy Tran	Vietnam	93,300	39
19	9	Wan Yusuf	Malaysia	57,500	24

Tags: Chein Huu Nguyen Michael Falcon Woohyuk Yang Yo Seb Rhee

2017 PokerStars Festival Manila

2017 PokerStars Festival Manila

PokerStars Festival Manila Main Event Smashes Guarantee; Yang Leads