It was a big day at the felt with PokerStars Live Manila Anniversary Special Main Event running two day one flights, day 1b early in the afternoon and day 1c early evening. Day 1b was a big hit with many players in attendance for a total of 129 entries in the books. By the end of regulation play, the field dwindled to 17 players remaining with Norway's Henrik Tollefsen bagging a massive 528,000 chips.

Tollefsen's insane rise came in just two big hands. He had pocket aces that bested China's Jayson Lo's pocket kings plus earning a bit more with another player in the pot. He followed that up with another huge takedown against Dr Han who was the other big stack at the table. Tollefsen had pocket kings against Han's ace-king. Han's stack went straight into Tollefsen's arms when a king landed on the flop.

Claiming the second spot of day 1b was Swedish player Bo Mikael Baudin with 139,000 chips. Baudin ousted a player during the last half hour of regulation play, and proceeded to claim another sizable pot when he shoved at the final hand of the night.

Filipino player Richard Marquez ended third in chips, 134,000, with a large chunk of it earned by a bluff that turned lucky. Filipino pro Lester Edoc also made the cut with a fairly decent stack of 82,000 chips.

At day 1c, there were a total of 76 entries recorded with 12 remaining past the midnight hour. In the lead with the largest stack was Hong Kong's Jayson Lo with 221,000 chips. Filipino player Chris Mateo was second-in-rank with 162,000 chips. Rounding out the top three was Soo Jo Kim from Korea who ended with 129,000 chips. Filipino players Joven Huerto and Jessie Leonarez also survived the heat of the last flight of the day.

Among the fallen were Filipino player John Tech whose bluff was called out by Woo Young Kim and was unable to recover from there. Frenchman Rebei Karim also hit the rail, several times it seemed. Filipino player Edilberto Gopez, Denmark's Kristian Faiering, Yao Hui, and Edgar Angelo Felix also fell by the wayside.

For a read on some of the action at both of these flights, head to these links
Day 1b Updates
Day 1c Updates

Here are the chip counts of both flights:
Day 1b Survivors: 17
Henrik Tollefsen - Norway - 528K
Bo Mikael Baudin - Sweden - 139k
Richard Marquez - Philippines - 134K
Francis Villamar - Philippines - 121K
David Stephan - USA - 112K
Yongqi Ren - China - 102K
Noam Fater - Israel - 94K
John Joyce - Ireland - 90K
Michael Bueza - Philippines - 88K
Jeorge Lagatuz - Philippines - 83K
Napoloeon Pena - Philippines - 82K
Lester Edoc - Philippines - 82K
Yul Angel Maravilla - 77K
Angelou Roy - Philippines - 68K
Knoffler Carillo - Philippines - 58K
Lowell Umusig - Phillippines - 53K
Anthony Gabitan - Philippines - 43K

Day 1c Survivors: 12
Jayson Wai Tung Lo - Hong Kong - 221K
Christopher Mate - Philippines - 162K
Soo Jo Kim - Korea - 129K
Joven Huerto - Philippines - 125K
Jessie Leonarez - Philippines - 110K
Wen Peng Dai - China - 108K
Munesh "Kushty007" Sharda - UK - 86K
Woo Young Kim - Korea - 59K
Zhinning Chen - China - 45K
Martin Angelo Ealdama - Philippines - 37K
Ernesto Camerino - Philippines - 34K
Ben Carey Abrahams - UK - 30K