The PokerStars Live Manila poker room at City of Dreams Manila was in full swing with both cash tables and tournament tables filled up. Quite a number of alternates were in line waiting for their chance to get in the P1M Guarantee Main Event. By the end of late registration, there were 198 entries in the books. As the day progressed, many of them fell to end day 1b with only 36 players.
Today’s hustle and bustle saw Korea’s Young Chull Kim earn the chip leader’s position late in the day to further seal his status after landing a set of jacks. Kim ended the day with 203,600 chips.
Out of all the craziness at the felt today, by far, the wildest was Timothy de Leon’s last level rush that sent him from going from rags to riches. The young Filipino moved all in four times, almost all were back-to-back, and won every single one of them. His first one was a jack-eight offsuit that survived when it found a pair in the board against Francis Villamar’s ace-king. On another all in, he tripled up with K♣ 6♣ against Villamar’s Aâ™ Q♦ and another player when the board ran 6♥ 7â™ 8♣ J♦ 8♥ . Just before bagging, de Leon shoved again and Villamar, who now had a very short stack, called. De Leon had A♦ 9♥ which held up all the way. Despite Villamar’s many attempts to eliminate de Leon, it just wasn’t meant to be. De Leon went from 8K chips to 189,500 to become second in command at the end of tournament play.
Among the day’s top qualifiers were Ashley de Guzman (Philippines) in third position with 182,600 and Pasi Heinanen (Finland) in fourth with 169,800. Heinanen held the chip lead position for some time but when he was moved to Kim’s table, he was unable to amass more. David Erquiaga (Philippines), winner of the P200k side event four days ago, also survived. He ended the day with 105,500 chips.
A few of the high-ranking Asia Player of the Year 2015 contenders who were unable to qualify in day 1a were back for another try. Ka Cheong Wong (Hong Kong, Alan King Lau (Hong Kong), and Pete Chen (Chinese Taipei) were all present today including Yang Zhang (China) who already qualified at day 1a but with a short stack. By the end of the night, Lau made the cut with a healthy stack of 117,700 chips behind him. The rest were not so fortunate.
Previous P1M Guarantee champion Wally Sombero also made his way to the felt today. His fate however was the same as Rey Concepcion’s, the other P1M Guarantee champion. Concepcion played in day 1a and failed to advance, and Sombero didn’t have any success in day 1b. Other notables who didn’t catch any good breaks were Jung Keun Kang, Hui Yao, Gerald Casey, and locals such as Regie Ann delos Reyes, JR Villanueva, and Richard Marquez.
Congratulations to all the qualifiers!
Top 10 Day 1b Qualifiers:
Young Chull Kim – Korea – 203,600
Timothy de Leon – Philippines – 189,500
Ashley de Guzman – Philippines – 182,600
Pasi Henanen – Finland – 169,800
King Lun Alan Lau – Hong Kong – 117,700
Rommel Ortigo – Philippines – 114,800
David Jensen Erquiaga – Philippines – 105,500
John Riad – Denmark – 102,100
Almond Cabral – Philippines – 99,500
Masayasu Tomiyama – Japan – 96,400
Check out the P1M Day 1b Updates posting for some of the action in day 1b. See you all tomorrow for the final day. Main Event begins at 12:15pm.
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