Campomanes Looking for Another Win in Manila in the PokerStars Red Dragon Manila Super High Roller
After twelve levels of play, Day 1 of the PokerStars Red Dragon Manila Super High Roller has come to an end with eleven players making it through to Day 2 out of 30 entries in total. Those 30 entries created a total prize pool of ₱14,113,500 ($276,019) with 25 unique players and 5 reentries during the first ten levels of Day 1. Five players will be in the money for at least ₱1,341,500 ($26,236) while the winner will walk away with ₱5,222,000 ($102,127).
Taking the overnight chip lead is Philippines’ own Florencio Campomanes with 1,665,000 in chips which will be worth 104 big blinds at the start of Day 2. Campomanes is a local player with over $600,000 in life time cashes already. He always does well here in Manila, he won the APPT Main Event a few months ago for $218,166 and had a supportive rail all day. “Flo” himself says he doesn’t really travel much for poker anymore but has been playing poker for ten years or so already, racking up cashes all over Asia.
Campomanes was already doing really well with almost a million in chips but then scored a double knock-out just before the final two table redraw when he called a three-bet shove and four-bet shove of Yilu Yuan and Thai Le with pocket tens. Yuan held king-jack while Le was ahead with the rockets but the ten on the flop spelled the end for both of his opponents. Campomanes jumped into the chip lead at that point and didn’t let it go anywhere.
Trailing Campomanes is Nang Quang Nguyen from Vietnam with 940,000 in chips. Nguyen stands in seventh place in the Vietnam all-time money list according to The Hendon Mob with just over $300,000 in cashes over the past twelve years. Nguyen was all-in for his tournament life at one point against Huidong Gu who had turned a full house but Nguyen had rivered the higher one to double up with. After that hand, Nguyen won hands left, right, and center to finish in second place in the chip counts.
Closing out the podium is Lester Edoc with 888,000 with Xiao Ling Li and Phachara Wongwichit completing the top five.
Red Dragon Manila ₱500,000 Super High Roller Top 5 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florencio Campomanes | Philippines | 1,665,000 | 104 |
| 2 | Nang Quang Nguyen | Vietnam | 940,000 | 59 |
| 3 | Lester Edoc | Philippines | 888,000 | 56 |
| 4 | Xiao Ling Li | China | 703,000 | 44 |
| 5 | Phachara Wongwichit | Thailand | 688,000 | 43 |
Day 1 Action
As usual in the High Roller tournaments, the event started with a slight delay to allow players to enter the field. Three players started from the first card off the deck and by the time the first break came, sixteen players had entered with Kirk Steele having had to reenter after busting to Jun Obara. Ryan Yu used two bullets but ended up busting just after the final two table redraw. He did manage to claim a bust-out himself when he took out Edgar Kim with a runner-runner flush.
Yake Wu made it through on his second bullet after being sent to the cashier by Edoc when he five-bet shoved with ace-king and was called. Edoc held pocket kings and those held throughout the board. Wu's second try delivered and got him to Day 2 with 450,000 in chips. Weihao Ma was left with one big blind after he doubled Lei Yu up but managed to win several all-ins in the end to bag 288,000 which is still the shortest stack of all eleven players.
Steele found his Waterloo when he flopped two pair and shoved on the nine-deuce-ten-seven-six board and was called by Yufei Hui who had hit a runner-runner flush. He wasn’t the only one to fall at one of the many hurdles on Day 1. Darren Chan, Gu, Mike Takayama, Ryan Yu, Dong Chen, Obara, and Martin Stausholm were all eliminated throughout Day 1.
When the players return at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, January 5 to the beautiful Okada Manila, they will resume with Level 13 which features a small blind of 8,000, big blind of 16,000, and a big blind ante of 16,000. They will get 2 more time banks at the start of the day worth 30 seconds each and another two when the final table has been reached. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there from the moment the first bag gets opened until the final all-in has been won, so make sure to keep following the action right here!
Day 2 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Florencio Campomanes | Philippines | 1,665,000 | 104 |
| 1 | 5 | Lester Edoc | Philippines | 888,000 | 56 |
| 1 | 6 | Minh Le | Vietnam | 291,000 | 18 |
| 1 | 7 | Weihao Ma | China | 288,000 | 18 |
| 1 | 8 | Xiao Ling Li | China | 703,000 | 44 |
| 2 | 2 | Lei Yu | China | 375,000 | 23 |
| 2 | 3 | Yake Wu | China | 450,000 | 28 |
| 2 | 4 | Yufei Hui | China | 644,000 | 40 |
| 2 | 6 | Phachara Wongwichit | Thailand | 688,000 | 43 |
| 2 | 7 | Meng Li | China | 575,000 | 36 |
| 2 | 8 | Nang Quang Nguyen | Vietnam | 940,000 | 59 |
for Wongwichit to flop trip jacks immediately to double up with. Obara got up from his seat but sat back down when he discovered he has Wongwichit slightly covered.
to not help Chan at all as Li held with the pair of queens.
, Hui check-called the 15,000 bet of Steele.
and Hui checked again. Steele now fired a bet of 60,000 over the line. Hui tanked, used a time bank and then made the call.
for the runner-runner flush. Steele pushed his cards over the line and the dealer revealed Steele held 
for the flopped two pair as he made his way out of the tournament area. Both stacks were counted just to be sure Hui had him covered which was indeed the case.
, Edoc checked and Wongwichit bet 58,000. Edoc took some time and then decided to shove with the bigger stack. Wongwichit snap-called for the 185,000 he had behind with the 
for the same pair of queens with the lower kicker.
for Wongwichit to hold and double up.
