Tournament coverage Poker

WPT Philippines nears 400 runners

Written by Ben Blaschke

The opening flights of the inaugural WPT National Philippines Main Event are in the books with a total of 369 runners creating one of the biggest fields ever seen in a major tournament here in Manila and a prize pool of US$738,000.

Another quality field on Day 1b saw the likes of WPT commentator Mike Sexton, WPT analyst Tony Dunst, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates and 2013 APT Macau champion Henry Tollefsen among the 228 starters.

Just 123 players will return for today’s Day 2 with Sexton, Tollefsen and Japan’s Ioro Yogo among them. Leading the way, however, is Malaysia’s Sam Nee with a huge stack of 192,200 – just ahead of Angelo Reyes with 185,900 and Delfin Cruz with 183,200.

The women’s contingent is headed by Canada’s Xuan Liu with 143,700 – good for eighth overall – while Sexton finds himself sitting 24th with 90,000 after firing all four of his available bullets.

The current field of 369 players could still grow with players still able to register right up until the start of play. We’ll keep you updated with all the happenings from the Grand Ballroom of Manila’s Solaire Resort and Casino as we go in search of our first ever WPT National Philippines champion!