APPT Manila Championship (165,000 PHP)

With action folded to the blinds, Edgar Asehan shoved all-in from the small blind for 57,000. Marc Anthony Joseph defended the big blind with a call for his remaining 52,500.

Edgar Asehan: 6♦ 6♣

Marc Anthony Joseph: A♣ 3♥

Board: 5♥ 7♠ 5♠ 8♥ 3♦

Prayers for an ace weren't answered by the poker gods, sending Joseph to the rail and boosting up the stack of Asehan.

While a typhoon rages around Manila, the poker action at Okada Manila for Flight B of the APPT Manila Championship is also creating its own storm. 142 entries for Flight B have met the buy-in requirement of PHP 165,000 (~US$ 2,850) in order to compete for a share of the PHP 55,000,000 (~US$ 960,850) guaranteed prize pool. 108 players are still battling it out for a chance to advance to the Day 2 leg tomorrow.

Patrick Crivell sits with the biggest stack at 138,300 and is followed closely by Emmanuel Derecho with 138,000. Rounding up the top three is Marc Anthony Joseph with 136,500, but that's just a spit away for Seonghun Jeong with a near-identical 136,000.

Date/s: October 23 to 27, 2024

Buy in: PHP 165,000 (~US$ 2,850)

Guarantee: PHP 55,000,000 (~US$ 960,850)

Entries: 108/142

Starting Stack: 50,000

After a raising tug-of-war, Edgar Asehan called a 16,000 bet from Marc Anthony Joseph with his remaining 14,400.

Edgar Asehan: Q♠ Q♥

Marc Anthony Joseph: K♠ A♥

Board 6♠ 8♣ 2♠ 3♠ 7♣ .

Asehan wins the coin flip and doubles up.

Itsuki Morita three-bet to 800 from the hi-jack and called the 2,800 re-raise from Marc Anthony Joseph at the cutoff. Both players are given a flop of Q♠ J♦ K♠ . Morita check-raises Joseph's 1,500 bet to 4,800 with Joseph completing to see a 7♣ turn. Both players slow down with a check to see a 2♦ on the river. Morita checks then folds to Joseph's 7,500 shove.

Flight B of the APPT Manila Championship is now playing at the PokerStars Live poker room at Okada Manila. Dealers laid the cards on the felt at 12 noon with 11 one-hour levels to be played. So far 23 hopefuls made the PHP 165,000 (~US$ 2,850) buy-in to compete for a share of the PHP 55,000,000 (~US$ 960,850) guaranteed prize pool.

The weather report may be expecting a tropical storm, but that won't deter poker pros from around the world to seek their chance at winning one of the biggest main event pots in Philippine shores.

Some of the early registrants of Flight B include the likes of South Africa's Marc Anthony Joseph, who made a deep run on yesterday's Flight A, but caught a string of unlucky draws and missed the cut. Joseph was the champion of the NLH-Short Deck event at the U Series of Poker in Hai Phong, Vietnam last month. Joseph has nearly US$ 500K in total live earnings and a big win here should propel him past the half-million mark.

Rishi Mehra of Singapore is also back again from yesterday's disappointment. Mehra was the chip leader through most part of Flight A, but also ran into some unlucky moments. Hopefully, this time Mehra will be able to survive to Day 2. Mehra was a recent runner-up of the NLH APT High Roller 8 Max at the APT Taipei Poker Classic earlier this month, where he made his biggest cash of over US$ 100,000.

Andrej Nagy of Slovakia joins the field today, fresh from a 10th place finish in the PH15,000 NLH Mega Stack event of this series. Last month, Nagy also made an impressive runner-up finish in the NLH-Mystery Bounty event of the Manila Megastack 19 series.

Date/s: October 23 to 27, 2024

Buy in: PHP 165,000 (~US$ 2,850)

Guarantee: PHP 55,000,000 (~US$ 960,850)

Entries: 28/28

Starting Stack: 50,000