Two starting flights remained for the flagship tournament of the 2023 Poker Dream Manila live poker series and the PHP20,000,000 guarantee in the PHP66,000 Main Event was easily surpassed. Day 1b in the grand ballroom of the Grand Wing Casino at Newport City in Metro Manila gathered a total of 265 entries while the turbo heat 1c reeled in another 93 contestants, creating an overall field size of 499 entries.
Only 76 players will take home a portion of the PHP 28,751,382 ($519,578) prize pool after surviving their respective starting flight. A new chip leader was crowned on Day 1b, as Ryan McAllister soared to the top of the leaderboard with an impressive 777,000 in chips. He was well ahead of Terry Gonzaga (483,000) and Nicola Montalbano (454,000) as each of the three chip leaders played a pivotal role during a frantic bubble period.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1b
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryan McAllister | United States | 777,000 | 130 |
| 2 | Terry Gonzaga | Philippines | 483,000 | 81 |
| 3 | Nicola Montalbano | Italy | 454,000 | 76 |
| 4 | Anthony Tacda | Philippines | 423,000 | 71 |
| 5 | David Erquiaga | Philippines | 416,000 | 69 |
| 6 | Minseong Cho | South Korea | 398,000 | 66 |
| 7 | Byungwook Ahn | South Korea | 377,000 | 63 |
| 8 | Ricardo Torres | Philippines | 350,000 | 58 |
| 9 | Dinh Manh Hung | Vietnam | 300,000 | 50 |
| 10 | Andrej Nagy | Slovakia | 278,000 | 46 |
Well-known local poker pro David "Dave Spade" Erquiaga once again confirmed why he is one of the hottest-running players in the Asia-Pacific region throughout the last few years and bagged up a very healthy 416,000 in chips. He did so in style with a double-up on the stone cold money bubble while fellow countryman Edgar Asehan was not as fortunate and became the last contestant to leave empty-handed.
Another big name of the live poker circuit to enter the fray was certainly Tom Dwan, who showcased his talents on the live-streamed feature table. The high-stakes expert couldn't keep up his momentum after the dinner break and bowed out in a three-way all-in against Ikseok Kang and Linh Ran Nguyen.
Several other notables came up short and could have jumped into the turbo heat in hopes of running up a stack at a reduced level duration of 20 minutes each such as Alonso Garcia de Jalon, Florencio Campomanes, Richard Marquez, Valeriy Pak, Sriharsha Doddapaneni, and Patrick Clarke as they all came up empty-handed on Day 1b.
Day 1a: 22 players / 141 entries advanced
Day 1b: 40 players / 265 entries advanced
Day 1c: 14 players / 93 entries advanced
Day 2: 76 players /499 entries to return
WSOP bracelet winner Mike Takayama was eliminated just before the bubble on Day 1c and narrowly missed out on a berth in the money. The bubble burst when Noel Llamedo made a move with ace-high and couldn't get second pair to fold.
Won Jae Lee bagged the far most chips with 622,000 after he won a big pot during hand-for-hand mode against Sriharsha Doddapaneni (195,000). Terrence Dizon (336,000), Jason Magbanua (257,000), Tor Welo (187,000), Lloyd Locsin (145,000), Darren Yu (110,000), Kok Weng Beh (110,000), and Valeriy Pak (83,000) were among the notable survivors.
Since Day 1b reached a rapid conclusion at the end of Level 15, the action is set to continue in Level 16 at blinds of 3,000-6,000 with a big blind ante of 6,000. For the penultimate tournament day, the level duration increases to 50 minutes each, and poker festivities will kick off again at 1 p.m. local time on Saturday, May 6, 2023.
Day 2 is slated to whittle down the field to the nine-handed final table, and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back to provide as many of the key hands as possible en route to crown a winner in the fourth ever Poker Dream live stop.
