Or-Paz Leads PokerStars Festival Manila High Roller Shot Clock Event

Day 1 of the PokerStars Festival Manila High Roller Shot Clock saw 36 players (including re-entries) pony up the PHP215,000 (~$4,260) buy-in to grow the prize pool to an enticing PHP6,790,000.

However, with re-entry still open until the start of level 12 at 1pm local time (GMT+7) when play resumes on Thursday 3 August this figure could increase further.

Players started with 50,000 in chips and 18 players managed to hold on to the majority of them to lock up their Day two seat. After eleven 40-minute levels, it was Israel’s Tom Or-Paz who finished in front, bagging up an impressive 219,000.

Or-Paz seized the lead after ousting the UK’s Simon Burns not long after the last seven hands had been announced during the last level of the day, flopping top two pairs against the open ended straight draw of Burns and improving to a full house on the river to send the Brit to the rail.

"It's only because I was looking at my girlfriend’s [SMS] messages,' joked Or-Paz when asked about his good run.

"I had ten eight. I called from the button against a pre-flop raiser [Burns]. I checked it. The guy was betting it with a straight draw, I raised 25,000 and he went all in and I insta-called with the top two pair. He was up and down. Looked at my girlfriend’s [SMS] messages, turn is an ace, river is an eight — Boom! Full house," said Or-Paz.

The 29-year-old Israeli is vice president of one of the biggest sports betting companies in the world, SBTech Israel, and is clearly enjoying his time at the PokerStars Festival Manila.

“I wasn’t very lucky in most of the tournaments. I did a pre-qualifier to a satellite and I won it for $5, and I won it and I won the satellite so I have a ticket for the main event already… This so far [the High Roller Shot Clock] is the best one,” said Or-Paz.

Sathesh Muthu also enjoyed a good day at the felt, bagging up a very respectable 156,700. While the Singaporean’s tournament started poorly and he busted his first buy-in at the hands of Japan’s Yo Seb Rhee after the latter flopped a flush versus Muthu’s ace-king suited on an ace-high flop, the second time was the charm for Muthu.

On his second bullet, the Singaporean won the majority of stack from the unfortunate Van Sang Nguyen when the two became involved in a huge pre-flop raising war with all the chips finding their way into the middle. Muthu, holding pocket aces, had Nguyen’s ace-king crushed and the Singaporean shot into one of the top spots on the leaderboard, where he remained until play concluded.

The tournament’s only two satellite qualifiers, the United Kingdom’s Peter Plater (133,000) and Russia’s Timofey Asmolov, (156,700) both made it through to Day 2 with Asmolov concluding play with the third biggest stack.

While play began with three Nguyens in the field – with Bach Hoang Nguyen and Hoa Thinh Nguyen the other two – only one made it through to Day 2 with Hoa Thinh Nguyen (147,900) rounding out the top four stacks. Other notables to make it through included Taiwan's Pete Chen (33,700), Canada's Linh Tran (144,400) and Malaysia's Victor Chong (96,400).

Day 2 re-commences at 1pm local time on Thursday 3 August with blinds starting at 1,000/2,000 with a 300 running ante. The tournament will play out until a champion is crowned and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to cover that and Day 1A of the PokerStars Festival Manila Main Event, which kicks off at 2pm local time.

Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	2	Timofey Asmolov	Russia	154,400	77
1	4	Linh Tran	Canada	144,400	72
1	5	Sathesh Muthu	Singapore	156,700	78
1	7	Lester Edoc	Philippines	103,900	52
1	8	Tom Or-Paz	Israel	219,000	110

2	1	Victor Chong	Malaysia	96,400	48
2	3	Yo Seb Rhee	Japan	45,800	23
2	5	Jun Obara	Japan	85,500	43
2	6	Aki Virtanen	Finland	56,900	28
2	7	Mansour Matloubi	UK	113,900	57

3	4	Konstantin Pogodin	Russia	35,400	18
3	5	Hermann Lee	Singapore	81,000	41
3	7	Celine Lee	China	105,900	53
3	8	Ken Okada	Japan	43,000	22

4	1	Peter Plater	UK	133,000	67
4	4	Antti Halme	Finland	24,700	12
4	6	Pete Chen	Taiwan	33,700	17
4	7	Hoa Thinh Nguyen	Vietnam	147,900	74