The second most expensive tournament of the 2023 Poker Dream Manila stop at the Newport World Resorts Integrated Resort in Metro Manila took place alongside the conclusion of the Short Deck Ante-Only Super High Roller and kicked off with a delay of around two hours. Once the first five players were seated, the field steadily grew throughout the scheduled 11 levels of 40 minutes each as 27 entries emerged in the PHP 500,000 ($9,174) Super High Roller.
When the final river card was dealt, only 15 players still had chips at their disposal and Sriharsha Doddapaneni from India emerged as the chip leader with 1,691,000. That represents more than three times the starting stack of 500,000, a feat which Wai Loon Ng (1,470,000) and Fei Chen (1,435,000) narrowly missed.
Other big stacks belong to William Teoh (1,316,000) and Lester Edoc (1,300,000), while notable Day 1 survivors also include Gary Thompson, Takashi Ogura, Poker Dream founder and Short Deck Super High Roller champion Winfred Yu, as well as Wai Kiat Lee.
Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sriharsha Doddapaneni | India | 1,691,000 | 113 |
| 2 | Wai Loon Ng | Malaysia | 1,470,000 | 98 |
| 3 | Fei Chen | China | 1,435,000 | 96 |
| 4 | William Teoh | Philippines | 1,316,000 | 88 |
| 5 | Lester Edoc | Philippines | 1,300,000 | 87 |
| 6 | Gary Thompson | Ireland | 955,000 | 64 |
| 7 | Ajitpal Singh | Singapore | 950,000 | 63 |
| 8 | Takashi Ogura | Japan | 794,000 | 53 |
| 9 | Eng Soon Ewe | Malaysia | 743,000 | 50 |
| 10 | Lun Loon | Malaysia | 664,000 | 44 |
Among those to depart were the likes of Eng Siang Ewe, Florencio Campomanes, Xiaoling Li, Jun Wah Yap, and Wei Hsiang Yeu. They may all jump again as the late registration remains open for the first three levels on Day 2, which is slated to get underway at 1pm local time in the grand ballroom. The blinds in level 12 will be 10,000-15,000 with a big blind ante of 15,000 and that still gives all entrants more than 30 big blinds to compete with.
The PokerNews live reporting team will pick up the action as of Day 2 and until a winner has been crowned. Furthermore, after the first break, the cards-up coverage will also become available on the Poker Dream Facebook page as well.
