Shaun Deeb did not hold the record for most career COOPs for very long before Calvin "cal42688" Anderson tied Deeb with eight. Anderson took down Event #62 to win his second WCOOP bracelet and 8th overall COOP. He had previously been tied with Deeb at seven until Deeb pulled ahead with an 8th win in Event #44 earlier this week. Just as Deeb notched 8th, Anderson quickly caught up.

When the final table for Event #62 PLO Hi/Lo was set, cal42688 was one of the short stacks but managed to keep his head above water long enough to get down to the final two. At that point, cal42688 had to overcome a sizable deficit to beat Mexico's Ogom3z heads-up for the victory.

2015 WCOOP Event #62 $320 PL Omaha H/L attracted 649 runners. They created a prize pool worth $194,700. It nearly doubled the initial $100K Guarantee. The top 84 places got a cut of the prize money with $36,019.50 initially set aside to the champion.

Team PokerStars Eugene Katchalov cashed in this event. When the money bubble burst, Eugene Katchalov was in the Top 15 in chips. Katchalov ended up busting in 41st place. Katchalov got it all-in on the turn with [Ad][6c][5h][2c] against neilcaterham's [Ah][Jd][Jc][3s]. neilcaterham scooped with a set of Jacks an a better 6-4-3-2-A low against Katchalov's two pair and 6-5-4-2-A low. Katchalov earned $895.62 for 41st place.

With 20 remaining, Hungary's tracyer battled Ogom3z (Mexico) for the lead. Both players held approximately 360K. With 12 to go on the final two tables, ismo<3seppo (Finland) seized the lead and became the first player to pass 500K in chips. With 10 to go, Ogom3z passed 800K.

With seven left in the hunt and action hand-for-hand, short-stacked Afrodita2014 failed to double up with [Ac][Td][4s][2s] and got outkicked by cal42688's [As][Qd][9c][2d]. With Afrodita2014's bustout in seventh place, the final table was set.

WCOOP Event #62 - Final Table Chip Counts:
Seat 1: neilcaterham (428,772)
Seat 2: Ogom3z (1,013,687)
Seat 3: kedvedert (386,942)
Seat 4: fish_san (283,578)
Seat 5: cal42688 (350,423)
Seat 6: ismo<3seppo (781,598)

The final table commenced during Level 27 with blinds at 5K/10K. Mexico's Ogom3z led with 1M and Japan's fish_san was last in chips with 284K.

The final table featured Calvin "cal42688" Anderson with 7 COOPs (1 WCOOP and 6 SCOOPs). Anderson was one win away from tying Shaun Deeb with a record 8 COOPs. Also of note at the final table was Hungary's kedvedert, who made a WCOOP final table back in 2007 at a final table that included both ElkY and Bill Chen! Talk about blasts from the past. Meanwhile, Finland's ismo<3seppo final tabled a 2014 SCOOP and fish_san made a TCOOP final table and had a few cashes in this year's WCOOP.

LIVING THE DREAM: neilcaterham eliminated in 6th place

Action progressed for nearly a full level before we saw out first exit... Short-stacked neilcaterham had slipped to under 167K when he tried to double up... ismo<3seppo min-raised to 24,000, neilcaterham re-raised to 90,000, and ismo<3seppo called. The flop was [Kd][Qh][6h]... ismo<3seppo fired out 148,500 and neilcaterham called all-in for 76,986.

ismo<3seppo: [Ac][Jd][7c][5d]
neilcaterham: [Ah][Td][5h][3c]

Both players flopped a Broadway straight draw, but neilcaterham also flopped a nut flush draw. The turn was the [Ks] and the river was the [Ts]. Without a qualifying low, neilcaterham lost with two pair against ismo<3seppo's rivered Broadway straight. The U.K.'s neilcaterham was was knocked out in sixth place, which paid out $5,841.00.

With five to go, Ogom3z held 1M and ismo<3seppo was second with 944K. Meanwhile, fish_san was last with 326K.

TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN: fish_san eliminated in 5th place

Short-stacked fish_san attempted to double up but was thwarted. cal42688 opened to 40,765, Ogom3z raised to 152,295, fish_san called all-in for 70,789, and cal42688 called. The flop was [Qc][7d][2c]... cal42688 checked, Ogom3z fired out 405,379, and cal42688 folded. Two-handed. Both players tabled their hands...

Ogom3z: [As][Qd][Qh][2s]
fish_san: [Tc][Th][4h][3s]

Ogom3z flopped a set of Queens. The turn was the [9d] and the river was the [9h]. Without a low qualifying hand, Ogom3z won with a full house against fish_san's two pair. Japan's fish_san busted in fifth place, which paid out $9,735.00.

With four remaining, Ogom3z led with 1.25M, followed by ismo<3seppo (880K), kedvedert (650K), and cal42688 (462K).

LONG WHITE LINE: kedvedert eliminated in 4th place

Another shorty bowed out... kedvedert min-raised to 50,000 and Ogom3z called. The flop was [Qd][9s][6s]. Ogom3z checked, kedvedert bet 112,500, Ogom3z check-raised to 450,000, kedvedert shoved all-in for 626,125 and Ogom3z called.

Ogom3z: [Kd][Qh][9d][8h]
kedvedert: [As][Td][Ts][8d]

Ogom3z flopped two pair and kedvedert flopped a nut flush draw (and a gutshot draw). The board finished up [Qd][9s][6s][9c][5c]. Without a qualifying low hand, Ogom3z won the pot with a full house versus kedvedert's two pair. Hungary's kedvedert was knocked out in fourth place, which paid out $13,629.00.

With three to go, Ogom3z held more than 50% of the remaining chips in play with 1.7M. In second place was cal42688 with 951K and ismo<3seppo brought up the rear with 552K.

IT AIN'T ALL FLOWERS: ismo<3seppo eliminated in 3rd place

Super short ismo<3seppo opened to 90,000, Ogom3z re-raised to 270,000, and ismo<3seppo called all-in for 91,793.

ismo<3seppo: [Qs][8h][6h][2c]
Ogom3z: [Ah][7h][5c][4s]

The board ran out [Kc][Kh][3s][6s][7d]. Ogom3z scooped the pot and won the high with a seven-high straight and dragged the low with a 7-6-4-3-A. Alas, ismo<3seppo's two pair and 7-6-5-3-2 low were no good. Finland's ismo<3seppo was dunzo in third place, which paid out $19,956.75.

HEADS-UP: Ogom3z (Mexico)  vs. cal42688 (Mexico)
Seat 2: Ogom3z (2,690,925)
Seat 5: cal42688 (554,075)

It was the "battle of Mexico" with cal42688 trailing Ogom3z by a noticeable difference. Heads-up only lasted 18 minutes.

First blood was drawn by cal42688, who tripled up inside of a few hands and pulled almost even after cal42688 scooped with the Wheel. The two swapped the lead a few times before cal42688 pulled away. A visibly frustrated Ogom3z had better hands run down on numerous occasions and remarked: "So freaking unreal lol!" Alas, Ogom3z rallied to pull ahead with a slim lead. That would be the last time cal42688 trailed. In two hands it would be all over.

A LITTLE LIGHT: Ogom3z eliminated in 2nd place; cal42688 wins WCOOP Event #62 for second WCOOP and 8th COOP!

On the penultimate hand... cal42688 won a 1.3M pot without a qualifying low after flopping a set of sixes. Ogom3z was down to 972K and cal42688 surged to over 2.2M.

On the final hand... Ogom3z made a valiant final stand with Kings but they were unable to hold up against cal42688's monster hand with a Wheel low and an Ace-high flush... cal42688 opened to 80,000, Ogom3z re-raised to 240,000, cal42688 bumped it up to 720,000, Ogom3z shoved all-in for for 972,163, and cal42688 called.

Ogom3z: [Kd][Kc][7c][4d]
cal42688: [As][Js][3d][2d]

The board finished up [5s][4s][3s][8h][9s]. Ogom3z's Kings were snapped off on the flop and cal42688 scooped the pot with an Ace-high flush and a Wheel low.

Mexico's Ogom3z took home $26,868.60 for second place.

Congrats to Calvin "cal42688" Anderson for winning Event #62. First place paid out $36,019.50. This win marked a second career WCOOP bracelet and an 8th overall COOP title for cal42688, which now puts him in a tie with Shaun Deeb for most career COOPs at eight.

WCOOP-62: $320 PL Omaha H/L
Entrants: 649
Prize Pool: $194,700
Places Paid: 84

1. Calvin "cal42688" Anderson (Mexico) $36,019.50
2. Ogom3z (Mexico) $26,868.60
3. ismo<3seppo (Finland) $19,956.75
4. kedvedert (Hungary) $13,629.00
5. fish_san (Japan) $9,735.00
6. neilcaterham (United Kingdom) $5,841.00

Visit the WCOOP home page for a schedule of remaining events and find out who is contention for Player of the Series.

Join in on the action at PokerStars! Click here and sign up for an account.

Pauly McGuire is an author and freelance contributor to PokerStars.

The final day one flight of the Manila Megastack 3 has just gotten underway here at the PokerStars Live Manila poker room at City of Dreams Manila. This event has a P10,000 buyin with late registration and re-entries available until the end of level 8. Starting stack is very deep, 30K, and blinds go up every thirty minutes. With a guarantee of PHP2m, which will likely be surpassed, this is the last chance to get into this very lucrative main event.

In addition to the prize pool guarantee, PokerStars has added an event package on top of the first place cash prize - a seat to the Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) 2M GTD Spadie (HKD2,000,000), inclusive of airfare from Manila and some spending cash. Players have been asking if that is deducted from the prize pool. Just to be clarify, this is an added value making the first prize so much more enticing.

In the previous Manila Megastack series, the buyin for this event was at P25k with the same guarantee. Now with a lower entry fee and the same guarantee, players have the chance to get back - in the game in the event they bust out early - for a more affordable re-entry fee. Players may also enter today's flight even if they have already qualified yesterday. If they qualify again, only their higher stack will move on to day two. At this time, Srinivas Polishetty (India) is attempting to do just that. He qualified last night with a short stack of 57,000. Good luck to him today!

At yesterday's day one flight, there were a total of 168 entries bringing the prize pool to P1.4m. At one point there was a long list of alternates waiting to get seated. The room was literally pumpin'. After all was said and done, it was Seung Soo Jeon from South Korea who bagged the most number of chips, a massive 605k chips. Only 29 players qualified into day 2, that means we will be seeing some of them returning today. Among those seen at the felt right now are Alan King Lun Lau (Hong Kong), Pete Chen (Chinese Taipei), Fu Bang Huang (Chinese Taipei), Sammy Bolung (Indonesia), Edmil Marcelo (Philippines), and John Riad (Denmark).

Other notables also in the field are Tetsuya Tsuchikawa (Japan), Mark Benasa (Philippines), Sammy Darshan (UK), and Edgar Angelo Felix (Philippines).

We will be posting some live updates throughout the day so stay tuned for some of those stories.

*There will also be a P50,000 NLH side event at 10pm tonight.

What's a chip lead? It's a snapshot of a moment in time, a promise of bounties to come, and in some cases a lot of pressure, depending on who's holding it. At a deep-stacked final table, it means having the ability to attack as you see fit without worrying about putting your tournament on the line, an advantage that can lead to the win if plied properly. That was the case tonight, where omaha4rollz went wire-to-wire for a WCOOP bracelet.

The final Thursday Thrill Special Edition of WCOOP 2015 sported a $2,100 buy-in, double the usual, with half going to the prize pool and the other half to the progressive bounty on each player's head. It was an attractive enough proposition to draw 1,216 players, setting up equal $1,216,000 prize pools for bounties and payouts to the top 144 finishers.

After 30 levels of play, Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari was among the 39 players who survived to return for a second day of play. He came into Day 2 ninth in chips with 434,620, about half of chip leader vicenfish, but neither would make the final table. Past Super Tuesday champion Vlad "dariepoker" Darie was reponsible for taking Akkari out after opening with [4h] [4c] and calling when Akkari jammed for about 18 big blinds. Akkari's [Kh] [7d] made an eight-high straight on the turn when the [4d] came, but the board paired on the river to make Darie a full house and eliminate Akkari in 20th place ($5,107.20 + $4,281.25 in bounties). vicenfish left two spots later in 18th place ($6,688 + $27,328.12 in bounties).

The story of the last hour leading up to the final table was the only four-time bracelet winner in WCOOP history, Dan "djk123" Kelly, pushing for his first final table of the series. After making a deep run in Event #55 and coming up short in 14th place, he remained active despite holding on to a short stack for most of the run-up to the final. From 13th place with 13 remaining, he managed to climb into sixth before losing a pot and falling back again. He made his final stand on the final table bubble, shoving all-in with pocket fives from the big blind after two players had limped. Chip leader omaha4rollz called with [Kd] [Tc], caught a ten on the river, and denied Kelly a chance at a fifth WCOOP bracelet.

Seat 1: rojorulez (626,365 in chips)
Seat 2: Killer_ooooo (1,007,736 in chips)
Seat 3: pmahoney22 (995,481 in chips)
Seat 4: omaha4rollz (4,034,734 in chips)
Seat 5: keves1717 (1,630,551 in chips)
Seat 6: dariepoker (2,059,295 in chips)
Seat 7: erikkke (1,184,742 in chips)
Seat 8: TTPlayer18 (130,979 in chips)
Seat 9: deuces85 (490,117 in chips)

It took only 18 hands for the first four players to get their walking papers. The first came on Hand #1 when TTPlayer18 shoved for five big blinds in the hijack seat with [Qc] [9c] and omaha4rollz called in the big blind with [Ks] [7c]. omaha4rollz made a pair of kings on the [Jh] [6c] [Kd] flop, TTPlayer18 couldn't capitalize on the inside straight draw with the [5s] turn or [8d] river, and the German player departed in 9th place ($13,984).

omaha4rollz won the next three pots in a row, too, including one worth 1.27M after raising the minimum on the button, getting calls from both blinds, and getting three streets of value from dariepoker in the big blind after flopping top pair and turning top two with [Ah] [Td]. Killer_ooooo finally broke that streak up with an even bigger pot, winning 1.36M with [Qh] [Qs] against erikkke's [Jc] [Jd] after the latter flopped a set, the former turned one, and both players shut down with a potential Broadway straight on the board.

That left erikkke with 476K and the blinds and antes newly up to 15K/30K/3,750, but the next player to go would be SCOOP 2015 finalist keves1717, who clashed twice with dariepoker and came out on the losing side both times. The first saw both players call a minimum button raise from omaha4rollz, keves1717 in the small blind and dariepoker in the big, and then check through the [4h] [Qs] [5d] flop. dariepoker's [Ah] [2c] made a wheel straight on the [3s] turn, and he got two streets of value out of keves1717 to win a 962K-chip pot.

keves1717 got some of that back on the next hand, but two hands after that picked up [Tc] [Th] in the hijack seat when dariepoker held [Qd] [Qs] in the cutoff. keves1717 jammed for 996K over the top of omaha4rollz's 66K opening raise, dariepoker called, and the [Ks] [Jh] [7d] [8s] [8h] board sent keves1717 to the rail in 8th place ($24,320).

It's the final weekend of WCOOP 2015 - get in on the game while you can! Click here to open a PokerStars account today.

Down to 296K, erikkke open-shoved with [7d] [6d] in the cutoff on the next hand. Fellow short stack deuces85, a past Super Tuesday and WCOOP 2014 finalist who had been in dead-last place to start Day 2, moved all-in over the top of that and isolated with [As] [8h]. deuces85 picked up top pair on the [Ah] [Qh] [Ks] flop and never looked back, and erikkke left in 7th place ($36,480).

Three hands later, all the chips that been involved in that pot made their way back into the middle again. deuces85 opened for 63K under the gun with [As] [Qh] and then moved all-in for 897K total after Killer_ooooo re-raised to 157K. Killer_ooooo called with [Qd] [Qs], which stayed ahead through the end of the [8c] [3s] [6s] [4d] [5c] board to knockout out deuces85 in 6th place ($48,640).

Argentina's rojorulez, a fixture in the weekend major tournaments here at PokerStars, was next on the chopping block with only 408K in chips as the table shrank to five players. The blinds and antes had whittled that down to 217K when rojorulez picked up [As] [9h] under the gun 15 hands later, making for a trivial call by Killer_ooooo with [Ks] [Td] in the cutoff after rojorulez jammed. The Argentine player caught top pair on the [2c] [4d] [9c] flop, but it turned out be the first building block in a straight for Killer_ooooo. The [Qh] turn and [Jc] river gave Killer_ooooo the 498K-chip pot, and rojorulez was out in 5th place ($60,800).

With so many knockouts coming so close together at the start of the final table, all four remaining players were working with stacks of at least 41 big blinds now. The course of the 28 hands was determined mostly by omaha4rollz, who won both the most and the largest pots, both with and without showdown. Everyone else's stack declined over that stretch, with Patrick "pmahoney22" Mahoney, frequent COOP and Super Tuesday finalist, taking the hardest hit and dropping to 481K. Holding [Kc] [Jd], he finally moved his chips all-in over the top of an opening raise to 78K by Killer_ooooo, who called with [Qc] [9d]. The underdog became the favorite on the [Qh] [7s] [5s] flop, but Mahoney retook the lead with the [Ks] on the turn. Then the [Qs] came on the river, making three of a kind for Killer_ooooo and sending Mahoney to the rail in 4th place ($86,336).

The three remaining players then entered brief negotiations for a possible deal. Killer_ooooo and dariepoker were with five big blinds of one another just below 3M and wanted the ICM numbers, but omaha4rollz had 6.5M and preferred to the bigger prize the chip-chop numbers offered. That meant no deal, and the game was back on.

dariepoker was in last place out of three but soon moved into the lead thanks to one big pot against each opponent. Sitting in the small blind with [Ks] [Qh] on the first hand, he limp-called a raise to 108K by Killer_ooooo in the big blind, check-called 95K on the [Ac] [3s] [2s] flop, and then got a free card when Killer_ooooo checked behind on the [5s] river. The [6s] made a king-high flush for dariepoker, who got paid after check-raising to 556K. Killer_ooooo mucked and slipped to 2.03M, while dariepoker chipped up to 2.55M.

Five hands later, Killer_ooooo opened the action for 90K on the button but soon got out of the way after omaha4rollz three-bet to 265K in the small blind and dariepoker flat-called in the big blind. omaha4rollz led out for 265K on the [6h] Jd] [9h] flop and 410K on the [9c] turn, and then moved all-in on the [Td], and dariepoker called each time. omaha4rollz showed [Ac] [Ad], but the river card had been one of dariepoker's 12 outs after the flop with [Kh] [Qh]. He stacked up to 5.74M with the win, almost exactly 1 million chips ahead of omaha4rollz for the lead.

Being on the short stack three-handed limited Killer_ooooo's options, and the Israeli finally ended up taking a stand with [3d] [3h], limping from the small blind and then jamming for 1.44M after omaha4rollz raised to 110K in the big blind. omaha4rollz called with [Kc] [Qs] and had 14 outs by the time the board read [5s] [Ah] [As] [6s]. The [9s] gave omaha4rollz the flush and the 2.9M-chip pot, and Killer_ooooo exited in 3rd place ($115,520).

The heads-up match would last a relatively short 45 hands, but it was a roller coaster ride the whole way. A fifth of those hands resulted in seven-figure pots, the first two of which both went to omaha4rollz on the river - the first with a raise on a paired board, the second with a bet on a four-flush board. Then Darie struck back, three-betting out of position with [Ah] [Jh] and leading out on the [3h] [7s] [3s] flop and [Ad] turn. omaha4rollz called both of those bets and then fired 1.12M into 1.35M when checked to on the [7h] river, but showed down [Ks] [Tc] for a pure bluff as Darie scooped to 3.6M-chip pot and got the chip stacks back to where they'd been at the start of heads-up play.

Darie picked up a few more big blinds in the next few hands but would get no closer. He bluffed tried to steal a pot in position with [Ad] [8h], but omaha4rollz check-called 1.88M on the river of the [6d] [3d] [7c] [4d] [2c] board to win with [9s] [4s]. That pair of fours gave omaha4rollz 9.59M chips, but Darie trimmed 2.5M off by doubling up four hands later with [Tc] [Td] against [Ah] [Jc].

From that point, the rest of the big pots - and the majority of the smaller ones - would go omaha4rollz's way. The final one began with omaha4rollz holding 8.9M chips and [Ac] [8d] on the button. The player from Hungary raised the minimum to 100K, then called a re-raise to 320K to see the [4d] [Jc] [8s] flop. omaha4rollz called when Darie led out for 254K, and then did the same after catching three of a kind on the [8c] turn. Darie finally checked on the [Kh] river but still called all-in when omaha4rollz bet 2.85M on the river. Darie had [Qh] [Qs], but they'd been cracked, and the tournament came to its end.

Vlad "dariepoker" Darie collected $154,432 for second place, a new personal best even before adding in the $24,273.43 in bounties. omaha4rollz's $212,556.80 top prize was also a new personal best, and if the $78,945.28 in bounties were a separate prize it would rank as third-best in the Hungarian player's career. Congratulations to both on their fine performances.

WCOOP 2015: Event #60, $2,100 No-Limit Hold'em (Progressive Super-KO, Thursday Thrill SE)
Entrants: 1,216
Prize pool: $2,432,000 ($1,216,000 regular, $1,216,000 bounty)
Places paid: 144
1. omaha4rollz (Hungary) $212,556.80 + $78,945.28 in bounties
2. Vlad "dariepoker" Darie (Romania) $154,432 + $24,273.43 in bounties
3. Killer_ooooo (Israel) $115,520 + $43,632.79 in bounties
4. Patrick "pmahoney22" Mahoney (Mexico) $86,336 + $18,523.43 in bounties
5. rojorulez (Argentina) $60,800 + $7,250 in bounties
6. deuces85 (Canada) $48,640 + $5,765.62 in bounties
7. erikkke (Hungary) $36,480 + $8,531.25 in bounties
8. keves1717 (Israel) $24,320 + $31,078.12 in bounties
9. TTPlayer18 (Germany) $13,984 + $10,937.50 in bounties

Jason Kirk is a freelance contributor to PokerStars Blog.

Seung Soo Jeon from South Korea was clearly the man of the day. We don't even know how many players he railed but with a massive stack of 605,000 at the end of day 1a of the Manila Megastack 3 at the PokerStars Live Manila poker room in City of Dreams Manila, he amassed a total of twenty starting stacks, and a good number of those were from merciless scalping.

In the Manila Megastack 3 updates, Jeon had crossed the 200k chip mark well before registration closed and then proceeded to dominate the table for the rest of the day. He eliminated most of the short stacks at his table, sometimes multiple players at a time, and gave some of the average stacks a difficult time earning their chips. Of course Jeon had hands, and most of the time they were simply unbeatable. The last player he eliminated tried to take a stand with his short stack by going all in with ace-three off suit, but Jeon's pocket eights were too good as it landed a full house.

The Manila Megastack 3 saw a total of 168 entries with a buyin of P10,000 each. This brought the total prize pool just for day 1a to over PHP1.4m. This event has a 2M guarantee, and with today's numbers, it is looking very much like this will exceed the guarantee after tomorrow's final day 1 flight, especially that only 29 players made the cut into day 2. Additionally, there is an added value for the winner, an Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) 2M GTD Spadie (HKD2,000,000) package inclusive of airfare from Manila and some spending cash.

Coming in second in chips, though far behind Jeon, was local player Jester Intia with 363,000 chips. Although we seemed to miss Intia's hands, we did notice that his stack kept growing steadily at each level. Upon speaking to Intia , he kindly gave us the scoop on how he earned some of his chips. Having already accumulated over 250k, during the last level of the day he railed two players simultaneously. Intia had pocket aces versus two lower pocket pairs held by the other players in the hand. With everyone all in preflop, the board ran four spades, and with none of them having a spade, and none improving, Intia claimed the pot and eventually bagged up a hefty stack well above average stack for day 2.

Other notables who made the cut into day 2 were Renato Villanueva (Philippines) with 256,000 chips, John King (USA) 231,000 chips, and Yang Zhang (China) with 145,000 chips. Zhang is currently third in the Asia Player of the Year 2015 leader board.

Local player Bruce Wayne Fabillaran was also making waves at the felt. At one point he overtook Jeon as chip leader after claiming two big pots nearly back-to-back in level 12. We are glad to have caught the action on those hands just before the shipping. Fabillaran ended the day with 302,000 chips, fourth in chips just behind Bernardo Angeles with 308,000.

Though not very many women participated in the main event, one of them did qualify, Maria Cristina Argao, who is in fine shape, currently in fifth in chips with 264,000.

Among the fallen were Per Douglas Olsson, runner up of the APPT 2015 Manila main event, Jesse Leonarez, third place finisher at the APPT 2015 Manila main event, APOY 2014 winner Pete Chen, Alan King Lun Lau who leads the APOY 2015 leader board, Team Asia PokerStars pro Bryan Huang Diwei, local pro Lester Edoc, and local celebrity sponsored player Anton Diva.

The final flight will begin earlier so for those looking to get in and possibly avoid being an alternate, the event will begin at 1230pm, Saturday September 26, 2015.

Congratulations to all the qualifiers!!

Day 1a Survivors: 29
Seung Soo Jeon - South Korea - 605,000
Jester Intia - Philippines - 363,000
Bernardo Angeles - Philippines- 308,000
Bruce Wayne Fabillaran - Philippines - 302,000
Maria Cristina Argao - Philippines - 264,000
Jae Wook Shin - Philippines - 257,000
Renato Villanueva - Philippines - 256,000
John King -USA - 231,000
Takahiro Abe - Japan - 213,000
Felix Michael Weis - Luxembourg - 191,000
Nickolai Alexandrov - USA - 176,000
John Niko Costiniano - Philippines - 158,000
Michael Campos - Philippines - 151,000
Yang Zhang - China - 145,000
Byeong Jun "Tom" Cho - Korea - 143,000
David Colclough - UK - 138,000
Grogorii Kavin - Russia - 134,000
Christian Mabalot - Philippines - 125,000
Cecillio Hodreal - Philippines - 121,000
Edwin Marzan - Philippines - 100,000
Kwangyeop Choi - South Korea - 94,000
Sebastian Jonsson - Spain - 89,000
Wei Chieh Chang - Taiwan - 77,000
Aldrien David Villanueva - Philippines - 77,000
Teofisto Pelayo - Philippines - 76,000
Paul Gianfriddo - Australia - 71,000
Tyler Huff - USA - 68,000
In Sin - South Korea - 57,000
Srinivas Polishetty - India - 57,000

You might have heard someone say, "So, I turned my hand into a bluff."

Maybe you haven't been around the block as many times as other folks, and maybe that's a phrase that doesn't necessarily show up in your how-to-poker books.

Well, we thought you could maybe use a video of how it works.

Below, you will see Bryn Kenney at the 2015 PCA in a perfect example of turning a hand into a bluff. Does it work? See for yourself below.

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When all is done with WCOOP 2015 there will be 70 new bracelet winners. Some have been there and done that before, but for others, the experience of winning a major title is a new one, as two players explained after their recent success.

"Such deep run feels awesome," said Gieras, who found himself second time lucky after reaching and winning his second WCOOP final table, in Event #39. "Winning it was so far the best moment of my life."

The 29-year-old from Poland, won $26,000 in the NL Omaha hi/lo event last year, which was all the incentive he needed to get more involved in WCOOP this time around.

"I assumed that even if I won't satellite into particular main event, I'll spend big part of my bankroll to attack a bracelet," he said. "I've played few tournaments and didn't even cash, therefore 2-7 triple draw supposed to be one of last events to play."

Like most players who find themselves the last players standing, looking back there were moments that had they gone differently, could have changed everything. The deep structure, the fixed limits and experience worked in Gieras's favour, but not all the time. There were coolers

"After few first levels at day 1, I got down to 4 big blinds. I doubled up, got good run and ended day 1 at 2nd place. And - what was most important - I got great run when playing heads up.

"At the beginning of final table, I was certain I can take it down. Of course after each elimination I felt like being one step closer to winning it, but when I was short stack with 3 players left, I knew I had to hit few draws in order to stay alive and outplay my opponents later.

"I must say I stayed calm for most of the tournament. However, getting few coolers at important moments, lead to few "whys" and f-words."

Also winning his first bracelet was Manos "hangoverdose" Halkiotis from Greece, this time in Event #43.

Manos Halkiotis

"When we reached final three my goal was the bracelet and I can't describe how happy I was to win it."

As far as Halkiotis was concerned, this was a change from his usual routine.

"It was like taking a day off from work because I almost exclusively grind no-limit hold'em, and playing mix games is entirely different.

Halkiotis, who created his username while suffering the effects of a night out, jumped into some satellites, bubbled some and then won a seat.

"In general in WCOOP I play outside of my roll because it is a fest and I don't want to miss it. So I go up to $215 events with direct buy-in and try to satellite my way to bigger ones. I think I was pretty calm in the final table. When I make it to the Sunday Million final I'll let you know if something is different!"

Equally there were key moments that turned things in his favour, on the bubble and at the final table.

"With 65 remaining (64 were paid) the game was razz at that time I was around 45th in chips. I was dealt three wheel cards and hit another wheel card on 4th street but bricked in 5th and 6th. I was priced in so I couldn't let it go, so the eight I hit on 7th was pretty magical. It was the only hand in the tournament I played for my tournament life.

"Then at the final table, three or four hands before the finish, the game was stud and I defended my bring-in with ace high, but bricked in 4th and 5th. I decided to check raise, because I thought the scary card could make my opponent fold the small pair I expected him to have.

"So I barrelled in 6th and also in 7th, where he let it go. I'm waiting for the replay to see whether my opponent actually folded a pair."

It was a great win for Halkiotis, who turned pro just a couple of years ago. But he's left in no doubt about how hard it is to survive in such a difficult environment, one that seems to get tougher each year.

"I think that I chose poker as a way of making a living because it gives you a lot of room to evolve, which is really important. I am struggling to find my way as a poker player in today's games. I am always asking why God didn't I discover it earlier. I hear the games where so soft!"

***

Two new winners for the WCOOP archives. There's still time for you to join them before WCOOP ends this weekend. Visit the WCOOP homepage to find details of the remaining events and satellites. And if you're still new to all of this and want to try it yourself, you can open a PokerStars account in minutes by clicking here.

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.