Swap Hold`em (5,000 PHP)

"I Deserve This Win"

A fun addition to the festival lineup was the Swap Hold'em where players could change one or both hole cards before folding. After many twists and turns, the event ended with Kai Yi Sun capturing his first ever PokerStars spade, in turn, denying Joseph Sia a 13th career spadie. In a brief interview with the newly minted Sun, he shared,

"I feel rewarded, I feel like I deserve this win because last year I had 20 final table appearances and I always ran short. I didn't win any trophies. There were a lot of times where I had huge lead at heads up I ended up losing everything. So it was a big lesson for me that no matter how much you trip up you still got a chance. This win is a good start for me to grind more trophies."

However, victory was no easy task especially facing 12-time spadie holder Sia. According to the champ, Sia was the best player in the field. Both players faced off in a long heads up battle that saw Sun's lead vanish when Sia swapped both of his hole cards on a board showing 7♣ 4♦ 4♣ J♦ A♣ and got dealt a lucky 7♥ 4♥ for a full house that crushed Sun's pocket Kings.

Battling back, Sun grinded to the lead then swapped both of his cards and was dealt A♥ K♣ . He quickly called Sia's all in who held 9♠ T♦ . The final board ran 6♠ 3♣ A♦ 8♠ 2♦ .

Overall, Sun enjoyed the fun format saying,

"I think this game is a bit tricky especially for the first timer because people kept playing out of turn and it's complicated, but it's a cool game. It's a good addition to the tournament."

The Swap Hold'em event drew 17 evening warriors for a prize pool of PHP 74,205. The bubble burst on Anthony Gabitan in a wild cooler against Tony Khoang. From the big blind, Gabitan swapped then three-bet with K♣ K♠ . Khoang had Ace-Queen, then opted to swap the queen. He called and showed a stunning A♦ A♥ . The board ran blanks.