With the first three 40-minute levels in the books, the players have headed off on a 10-minute break. Each level will now be 60-minutes in length and there will be breaks after every two.
Elan Zak has vaulted to the top of the early board thanks to a rather big hand.
He busted one opponent and got all but a few thousand from another in a massive set-over-set-over-set debacle.
All the money appeared to go in on the turn with the board reading . Zak held and his opponent's held and respectively. The river came the and since no one made quads, Zak scooped the huge pot and appears to be leading this event.
Hong Kong's Kenneth Yuen Kiong Leong is running pretty good to start out here in Manila.
He already had more than double the starting stack when one short stack mercilessly shoved in for 4,650 over a standard opening raise. Leong was the only caller with and was almost a lock over the short stack's .
He collected his soul and stack after the run out.
Polish PokerStars Player Kamil Czarniecki finds himself at the top of the early leader board here in Manila thanks to a couple of ladies and a little bit of luck.
It appears Czarniecki flopped a set of queens with two hearts on the board and got it all in against one opponent holding . The turn brought a flush completing heart and Czarniecki looked all but done until the board paired on the river making him a full house.
It seems everyone wants a piece of Simba Jae Kyung Sim, the winner of the Cebu event the last time the APPT was in the Philippines.
Between one player needling him for playing at the World Series of Poker and on the PokerStars European Poker Tour claiming Asia was too small for him and others after his stack, it's hard to be the champ.
He fired away at a flop in a three-way pot moments ago, getting one caller. Sim checked the turn, but called when his opponent took a 1,550-chip stab at it.
He checked again on the river and went deep into the tank when his opponent made it 3,200. Eventually he emerged folding and now has less than a starting stack with which to defend his title.