Thursday, 28th March 2024 12:11
Home / Uncategorized / PAGCOR Chairman’s Cup: Day 2, levels 8 and 9 (600-1,200, 100 ante)

2.35pm: Break time
Players are taking a ten minute break. When they return blinds will be 800-1,600 with a 200 ante.

2.30pm: Hail Franco
After some intricate pre-flop jousting Martin Gonzales got his chips into the middle with J♣ 10♣ , called by Franco Mabanta who showed A♥ Q♥ . They each braced themselves for the board which ran out 7♥ 4♣ 4♦ 9♣ K♠ . Gonzales was gone while Mabanta moves up to 133,000.

2.25pm: Caught stealing?
Overnight chip leader Mike Takayama raised to 3,200 into the big blind of a player who was away the table on a penalty. Next to Takayama was Chris Parker and he said “So you’re stealing the big blind again are you?” before making the call. Heads-up to the J♣ 6♣ 3♦ flop where Takayama continued with a 4,500 bet. Call. The turn came J♥ and Takayama bet 10,000 only to see Parker move all in for 43,300. The local guy thought for a while and folded. Takayama on 195,000, Parker on 61,000.

2.15pm: Regis runs
The board was already dealt, 9♥ J♠ 10♠ 4♠ 10♥ . Two players were all in and a third, Ronald Regis, was umming and ahh-ing over whether to join them.

In seat two was Raul Aquino, standing up. He’d just moved all-in for 25,000 prompting Regis to tank. Joshua Rivera meanwhile was standing too, slightly away from the table, his chips all ready in the middle and sweating a side pot.

Regis would be calling for his tournament with just 14,000 behind. But after several minutes he passed, leaving it to Aquino and Rivera.

Aquino showed 9♣ 4♥ for two pairs. Rivera simply mucked without a fight and made his way to the rail. Aquino up to 55,000.

2.05pm: Spilkin chips no more
Michael Spilkin just informed the blog that his day got off to a bad start that saw his stack dip as low as 21,000. He’s now back up to 60,000 after eliminating a player. Spilkin held pocket tens to his opponent’s pocket sevens. The pair of tens alone would’ve been enough but he made a flush as well. I shared a taxi with Mr Spilkin this morning and he hopes we get the chance to do so again on Thursday when it’s final table day.

1.55pm: Reynolds Huntly down
Gordon Huntly’s day hadn’t got off to the best of starts as his stack dipped below the 100,000 mark but that just changed as he eliminated Thomas Reynolds to go back up to 110,000. All the chips went in pre-flop with Huntly holding Qâ™  Q♦ to Reynolds’ 10♥ 10â™  . The board ran J♣ 4♣ 7â™  A♣ 9♦ . Reynolds shook Huntly’s hand and made his exit.

1.45pm: Quiet victory
Jardine Gerodias allowed himself a fist pump, one of the silent kind, after just doubling up through Hirohide Oka.

On a flop of 4♠ 10♣ 8♥ Celina Lin had checked to Oka who bet 3,000. Gerodias called, as did Lin, for a 7♥ turn. Lin checked again before Oka bet 10,000. Gerodias shoved all-in. Lin passed leaving Oka to call. He did, showing K♣ K♥ but Gerodias had him beaten with 4♥ 4♦ .

1.35pm: LEVEL UP
Blinds are up to 600/1,200 with a 100 running ante.

1.30pm: Sunshine on a rainy day.
It’s not actually raining here in Manila but it probably feels like that for Wilfredo Maliksi after Sunshine Samson eliminated him. He led for 6,000 on a 9♥ K♦ 8♦ board and then pushed when Samson raised to 14,000. She called with her drawing Q♦ 9♦ and was up against the top-top A♦ K♥ of Maliksi. The Jâ™  turned missed but the flush came in on the J♦ river. Samson up to 81,000.

1.25pm: Felix flounders
Another player out, the 32nd to go in 49 minutes. It was Edgar Felix on his way to the door, his ace-jack beaten by Choon Kwang Kim’s ace-king. An ace on the flop changed nothing. Handshakes and that was that.

1.15pm: Pagulayan sunk
Pool star Alex Pagulayan is out. “I’m all in, I can’t take it anymore” brought our attention to the fact he was at risk. He moved his short-stack in with 9â™  5â™  but ran into the A♥ Aâ™  of Chang-hau Huang. The flop came 8♥ J♣ 6♣ to open up a gutshot for Pagulayan and this prompted him to yelp in such a high pitch voice that TD Danny came running over and announced over the PA system “That’s not a woman we’re hearing”. The turn came 10♦ to open up even more outs but the river came 3â™  to seal the deal.

Pagulayan said “Mother flopper” and left to a round of applause.

1.05pm: Not so great Scott
Andrew Scott is down to 45,000 after doubling-up Eric Cheung. It all went in pre-flop with Scott holding pocket eights to Cheung’s pocket queens. The board changed neither player’s hand and Cheung doubles to 50,000.

12.55pm: Chow time
Elsewhere Hing Yaung Chow got it in with the best of it, suddenly had the worst of it, then the best of it again. He had pocket jacks to Chris McHugh’s pocket threes. A three hit the flop but the jack found its way to the river. Chow doubles up to around 60,000.

12.50pm: The art of happiness
A lot of happiness in the early stages, most of it coming from Jane Manglapus who just doubled up with ace-three against queen-four. Manglapus chanted “black, black”, up against a flush draw and was delighted to survive. Happy? “Of course, it’s my first hand!” Manglapus up to 28,000.

12.45pm: Grateful Gerodias
Jardine Gerodias has more than doubled-up his short stack of 15,000. He raised from early position and received three callers to go to a 9♦ 6♥ 3♣ flop. Vartan Ohannesian led out for 5,000 from the big blind and was the only player to call Gerodias’ push. Gerodias tabled Aâ™  9♥ and he had Ohannesian’s Q♦ 9♣ out-kicked. It stayed that way through the 4♣ turn and 4♥ river.

12.35pm: All-ins all-ins
With so many short stacks it’s no surprise to hear the dealers shouting “All in” from every corner of the room. The first player to bust wasn’t even a short stack though. It was Kevin Petersen from the USA who fell to the hands of Charles Chua. We don’t have the details but Chua took all of Petersen’s 58,000 stack to put him up to 115,000.

12.30pm: Play begins
As we’ve come to expect, play starts bang on 12.30pm. Cards are in the air.

12.20pm: Before the start
Straight to it on day two of the PAGCOR Chairman’s Cup. The 211 players remaining will play, at the most, nine levels today as we head towards the money. A few empty spaces may indicate traffic trouble or trouble with the early start. We’ll find out soon enough. Blinds are 500-1,000 with a 100 ante.

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PokerStars Blog reporting team in Manila: Stephen Bartley and Marc Convey.

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