Out of 333 entries, we are down to 35 players, each of them vying to get that first place cash prize of P640,000, bragging rights as the first winner of the bigger and better Manila Megastack 5 series, and a seat to the APPT 10 Manila. The P2M Kickoff event easily surpassed the guarantee bringing the prizepool to over P2.8M. Random updates and all the action at the final table will be posted right here.

2:30PM: Pangan rails Kim

Luke Pangan has added more chips to his arsenal after eliminating John Kim. Kim was ace-king and Pangan with pocket tens. The flop landed a king but with the turn slapping a ten, Pangan retook the lead with a set and eliminated Kim.

2:15PM: Bust outs

Early eliminations have dwindled the field down to 27. There will be no table re-draw as it is based on 10-handed. First one out was Jeong Jaeman followed by Yusuke Kakiuchi, Anthony, Gabitan, and Mikiya Kudo. Filipino pro John Tech fell in 29th place and Norway's Henrik Tollefsen in 28th place.

The final day begins, players are eager and in their seats. The clock has just counted down. Level 12 blinds at 1500-3000 ante 500.

Lots of chips will be shuffling around the room early this afternoon at the Grand Ballroom of City of Dreams Manila with the 35 survivors of the Manila Megastack 5 P2M Guaranteed Kickoff event getting underway at PokerStars Live Manila. Players will be looking at a P2,842,488 prize pool, well past the guarantee, with first place clearing P640,000. That's quite a healthy payout for the first event of the series. In addition, the first two finishers will receive a Main Event entry seat to the upcoming Asia Pacific Poker Tour 10 Manila (APPT).

Entering the final day with the largest stack is Filipino player Luke Pangan with 252,000 chips. Pangan was the leader at the end of Flight 1. He is followed by Swiss player Alain Walder with 197,000 chips. Walder ended Flight 2 as the leader. And rounding out the top three is another Filipino player Christopher Mateo with 193,500 chips.

Among the other survivors are Filipino John Tech, Oleg Mordassov from Switzerland, Norway's Henrik Tollefsen, India's Piyush Gupta, and Russia's Andrei Dementev to mention a few. Turbo Flight leader Japan's Daiki Ijima comes in the day with 136,500 chips. Everyone who qualified into today is already guaranteed at a minimum payout of P20,000.

We will post random updates throughout the day, with a full coverage of the final table on our next post. You can also read up on yesterday's late day action and get the scoop on how the qualifiers earned their chips.

Running alongside the Final Day of the Kickoff is the P5K No Limit Holdem Freezeout at 215pm. There will also be Main Event satellites also ongoing, one at 5pm and the other at 10pm. These have a P3K buy-in. At 7pm, there will be a P10K Knockout event, scheduled to run for two-days.

For more information on the schedule, format, and what's heating up the felt at the Manila Megastack, just head to the PokerStarts Live Manila website.

LIVE COVERAGE | CHIP COUNTS | PAYOUTS

* CLICK TO REFRESH FOR LATEST UPDATES
* Day 3: Six 90-minute levels scheduled | SEAT DRAW
* Players remaining: 196 of 1,098 | 159 places paid
* Read Day 2 coverage archive
* CHIP COUNTS | PAYOUTS | EPT LIVE

11am: Bubble bursting

It's Day 3 of the €5,000 main event at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT12 Grand Final. Today is bubble day. The starting field of 1,098 has been reduced to its last 196 players, but only 159 will be paid. We need to lose 37 more players and then they're all in the money. A min-cash is worth €8,890. -- HS

Take a look at the official website of the EPT, with tournament schedule, news and results.

Also all the schedule information is on the EPT App, which is available on both Android or IOS.

PokerStars Blog reporting team on the EPT12 Grand Final main event: Stephen Bartley, Marc Convey, Martin Harris, Jack Stanton, Howard Swains and Nick Wright. Photography by Neil Stoddart. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog