Day 2 of the PokerStars.net APPT Season 8 Manila main event will begin in less than an hour with 95 players still vying for the coveted crown.
A total of PHP 3,472,000 awaits the winner in this one, but the first hurdle to cross today will be the 28 person money bubble.
Leading the pack into the hunt is Day 1b chip leader Seung Soo Jeon, the only player to cross the 200,000-chip threshold thus far.
But a pack of hungry rounders lay in wait within striking distance, including Day 1a chip leader Daniel Belov, Ronald Singson, Elan Zak, Thanh Ha Duong, Rajeev Kanjani, Anyang Xu and Mike Takayama - all above the 100,000-chip mark.
Flying the Team PokerStars flag today will be Celina Lin, who comes in relatively short stacked but determined to make her mark here in the Philippines. Plus, the winner the last time the APPT was in the Philippines, Season 7 APPT Cebu champ Jaekyung 'Simba' Sim is still in defending his title.
Play begins at 1 p.m. local time Sunday and the PokerNews Live Reporting team is on site to bring you all the action as the players vie for spots at Monday's PokerStars.net APPT Season 8 Manila main event final table.
Day 1b and overall chip leader Seung Soo Jeon started slow this morning but just woke up, three-betting an aggressive short stack that made a raise at his table to force a fold and pick up a pot.
In the meantime, Day 1a chip leader Daniel Belov, second in chips to start Day 2, hasn't woken up at all. His seat sits empty and his stack is being blinded off with word he has yet to get out of his bed in the hotel across the road.
It's all over for start-of-day chip leader Seung Soo Jeon. He got into a heads-up pot after a preflop raise with Daniel Aldridge. The flop came and Aldrige led for 24,500.
Jeon called and they both checked the turn. The river came the and after Aldridge checked, Jeon pushed all in. Aldridge tank-called with and Jeon mucked and walked.
On the turn of a three-way pot Maria Bernadette Lina fired 45,000 with a sizable amount already in the middle and the board reading .
Both Mike Takayama and Daniel Belov called. Lin checked the river, but Takayama bet 53,000 sending Belov deep into the tank. Eventually he called and after Lina folded, Takayama showed .
Belov turned over and scooped the massive pot to vault into the chip lead.
Christan Haggart open shoved and got the call from Victor Chong on . He doubled up on the run out leaving Chong short.
But Haggart shoved again the very next hand with and got looked up by chip leader Michael Guzzardi with . He was eliminated on the run out that made Guzzardi a flush and pushed him up to one million in chips.
Day 2 of the PokerStars.net APPT Season 8 Manila main event was action packed as they whittled the field down from 95 to just 11 players.
The money bubble burst midway through the day when Renato Villanueva ran queens into Daniel Giang aces to finish 29th. Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin and defending APPT Philippines champ Jaekyung 'Simba' Sim finished short of the money, as did start-of-day chip leader Seung Soo Jeon.
The day truly belonged to 2008 World Series of Poker $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha final table participant Michael Guzzardi, who took the chip lead in the event's 13th level and didn't really look back, busting player after player on the way to building a 1.512 million chip stack and massive lead heading into Monday's final day.
But with PHP 3,472,000 on the line for first, no one expects the other ten players coming back with stacks to give up without a fight.
The closest player to Guzzardi is Thanh Ha Duong, sitting on some 762,000, while bubble buster Giang holds 528,000.
The rest of the list includes Day 1a chip Leader Daniel Belov, Sameer Rattonsey, Mike Takayama, Andreas Rauh, Rajeev Kanjani, Hiroshi Naito, Bernardo Angeles and last woman standing Maria Bernadette Lina.
Play will resume at 2 p.m. Monday and play down to an APPT 8 Manila champion and of course, the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand for all the action from beginning to end.