The Manila Megastack 3 kicked off a few minutes ago here at the PokerStars Live Manila poker room at City of Dreams Manila. This event features a PHP2M guarantee with the eventual winner receiving the top cash prize plus an event package to one of the most prestigious tournaments in the region, the Asia Championship Of Poker (ACOP) 2M GTD Spadie (HKD2,000,000) to be held at PokerStars Live Macau on November 4, 2015. So far, quite a number of notables are at the felt such as Pete Chen, Dave Colclough, Kristian Faering, Alan Escano, Trifie Montebon, Renato Villanueva, Sammy Bolung, and sponsored player, local celebrity comedian/singer Anton Diva. The Diva has been known to enjoy her entertainment showdowns, defeating some of the top celebrities in laughter and song. We will surely be keeping a close eye on her at the felt.

While that is underway, let's backtrack a couple of days. On Wednesday September 23, the first side event of the Manila Megastack 3, the P3,000 NLH featuring a PHP250,000 guarantee saw a total of 161 entries fill the room and at the end of the night it was Yao Hui from China who bested the field to take home PHP92,900.

At last night's P6,000 NLH (PHP500,000) side event, it was another busy night at the felt with yours truly getting in on some of the action. Disappointingly I didn't get very far, which only proved that my knowledge of poker is best when used to cover events until I tinker up my rusty skills. Local player, Noel Araniel, however, did not need his engine oiled as he overcame a field of 144 entries to claim the PHP174,000 first prize. Araniel had to defeat Hui at heads up to bag the title and deny Hui a back-to-back trophy.

We will be posting live updates throughout the day.