Day 1b of the PokerStars Live Manila Anniversary Special Main Event has just gotten underway here at the PokerStars Live Manila poker room in City of Dreams Manila, Philippines. This event has a P2M Guarantee for an affordable P5,000 buy-in fee. Unlimited re-entries are available until the end of level 12 or 3 hours of play. As determined by day 1a, regulation play will end five minutes into level 20.

Today will also see day 1c take flight at 7pm this evening and will also run the same length of time as the other flights. There will be a 9-table max to accommodate for the lucrative cash games on the floor. We will also be posting updates on the action at Day 1b and Day 1c so be on the lookout for that on the blog site. Day 1a updates area also available on the site.

At day 1a, UK's Carlos Aziz Hassan bagged the largest stack with 190,000 chips. Filipino player Joseph Sia came in second with 165,000, and in third was Filipino player Anacleto Quijano, who was the runner-up at the Manila Megastack 4 in December. There were a total of 8 players out of 59 qualified into day 2.

Running alongside the Main Event was the second side event of the weeklong festival, the P300,000 Guarantee. There were a 132 entries for this event, bringing the prize pool to P345,708. Coming out on top was Detlef Heckenbach from Germany who claimed the first place cash purse of P78,400 and a seat worth P25,000 to the Manila Megastack 5. Norway's Kai Paulsen, a regular in the Asian circuit, came in second and earned himself P53,200 plus a seat to the MM5 as well. Other notables who saw a profit were USA's John King, Filipino player Edwin Marzan, and UK player Jean Issa.

Among those who entered but found the rail instead were Filipino players John Tech, Mike Takayama, Joven Huerto, Noel Araniel, Regie Ann Delos Reyes, Korean players Soo Jo Kim, Ilkwon Kim, Seonghwan Ahn, and others such as Stuart Brodie from South Africa and Srinivas Polishetty from India to mention a few. These are all well-known players in the Asian circuit.

After roughly around 5 hours of regulation play, day 1a of the PokerStars Live Manila Anniversary Special Main Event ended with 8 players out of 59 surviving the night. Sitting on top with the largest stack was Carlo Aziz Hassan from the United Kingdom with 190,000 chips.

Hassan climbed to the chip leader's seat when he eliminated Filipino player Adora Gonzaga to close out day 1a. Hassan had pocket eights and Gonzaga had pocket kings. The board gave Hassan an eight for a set and enough chips to surpass Filipino player Joseph Sia who finished in second rank with 165,000 chips.

Taking third position was Filipino player Anacleto Quijano who was the runner-up at the Manila Megastack 4 in December. Quijano was very active at the felt and eliminated Filipino player Joven Huerto with a flush of clubs late in the night. Quijano bagged up 129,000 chips.

Without a doubt, Filipino player Elmo Celi experienced the most ups and downs that we saw all day. Celi avoided elimination numerous times with his ace hole card seeming to always find a match on the board against players holding fairly big pairs. Another player to survive day 1a was Korean player Juyoung Lee. Lee had a big chip lead in the middle of regulation play when he railed Filipino poker pro Lester Edoc and doubled up against Rebei Karim. He skyrocketed to over 150k, well past all the other players still left in the field. He would lose a chunk of it though to end the day just under six digits.

Out of the three other remaining survivors, Filipino player Edel Pajarillo, Australia's Kenneth Buck, and USA's Michael Melendres, it was Melendres who brought up the rear with the shortest stack. Melendres had some tough battles during the final hands of the night where he gave up two hands that he had initially raised.

The day also saw its fair share of fallen notables such as Filipino poker pros Lester Edoc and John Tech. For Tech, we did catch him lose to Ronnnie Tate with his pocket eights landing a set but Tate connecting with a top pair that turned into a wild backdoor nut flush.

The Anniversary Special Main Event ended during Level 20 with the blinds at 4000-8000. Day 1b will also end at the same level. For a read on some of the action at day 1a, head to the Day 1A Live Update story.

List of Day 1a Survivors
Carlo Aziz Hassan - UK -190K
Joseph Sia - Philippines - 165K
Anacleto Quijano - Philippines - 129K
Elmo Celi - Philippines - Philippines - 103K
Juyoung Lee - South Korea - 96K
Edel Pajarillo - Philippines - 94K
Kenneth Buck - Australia - 66K
Michael Melendres - USA - 41K

Just as a reminder, Day 1b will begin at 215 pm tomorrow and Day 1c will begin at 7pm tomorrow.

You don't have to be a high-roller to pick up some big money in PokerStars cash games. Just look at the people who collectively pocketed more than $1 million during the month of January in the PokerStars Cash Game Quests.

The idea was simple. Players signed up for simple daily PokerStars challenges while playing cash games with $0.05/$0.10 or higher stakes. That made them eligible for prizes, and some people cashed in big.

If you need proof just ask the likes of zeugasg7, c.y.chiang88, maryjan72, VeryLaw, Mr'Up'n'Down, Vi_Koak, lp2306, Flagellator, radzio28ku, and F.Kruger420 who all won $10,000 in cash during the Cash Game Quests offer.

Meanwhile another 55 people picked up $1,000 prizes.

All in all, PokerStars handed out more than 400,000 cash prizes during the promotion. PokerStars awarded $1,107,997 in prizes throughout the month of January.

While the Cash Game Quests have ended for now, that doesn't mean the winning has ended. Right now, PokerStars is running the PokerStars 100M Player Celebration. To see how you can cash in, visit, the 100M Celebration home page.

Good luck!

The PokerStars Live Manila Anniversary Special Main Event has begun. We will have random live updates for you on the action at the felt. Players will begin with a 15,000 stack, 15-minute levels, and will play until the end of level 12, that's a total of 3 hours of regulation play.

One year ago, PokerStars opened up its newest hub in Asia, the PokerStars Live Manila poker room at the highly prestigious City Of Dreams Manila in Pasay City, Philippines. Since then, they have held several festivals such as the highly attended Manila Megastack events, the P1M Guaranteed tournaments, and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour 9 (Manila stop), which saw a massive Main Event turnout the country had ever seen.

Celebrating the successful year that has passed, PokerStars Live Manila is currently hosting its weeklong Anniversary Special, running from February 2-8, 2016. On the schedule is a P2M Guaranteed Main Event plus five exciting side events. Kicking off the festivities was the Anniversary Freeroll Shootout and Main Event Mega Satellite. These two events saw a total of 32 players - 20 from the Anniversary Freeroll and 12 from the Mega Satellite - claim seats to the Main Event.

On the next day, the first side event, the P2,000 Deep Stack (P200,000 Guarantee), pooled in 158 entries bringing the prize pool above the guarantee to P275,868. Well-known Filipino players Edilberto Gopez, David Erquiaga, and Regie Ann Delos Reyes were amongst those who were in attendance however they all failed to reach the money. Korean player Soo Jo Kim also fell before any profit.

On the other end of the scale however was Filipino player Conrad Lumaban who was awarded the first PokerStars Live Manila side event trophy of 2016 plus a cash prize of P65,168 and a seat worth P25,000 to the Manila Megastack 5 (MM5). Filipino players Wyngard Brillo, Christopher Luke Pangan, and Stefano de Caro from Taiwan also earned themselves a cash profit.

Early this afternoon, there were 132 entries for the P3,000 NLH (P300,000 Guarantee). This brought the prize pool up to P345,708 with 12 players looking to get paid. The eventual winner will receive P78,400 plus a seat worth P25,000 to the MM5. The runner-up will also get that coveted seat to the MM5.

At 9pm this evening, day 1a of the Main Event P2M Guarantee will be underway. Buy-in is an affordable P5,000. For those eager to play, make sure to register as early as possible because there is a 6-table cap for this qualifying heat. We will also be posting some random live updates on the action at day 1a. Additionally, there will be four more day one flights running the next days, information on those are in the PokerStars Live Manila tournament page.

So what's the single best quality you can have to ensure success in the TCOOP Main Event? Easy according to Dinesh "NastyMinder" Alt: Karma.

Well, sort of.

Last Sunday Alt did what 4,076 other players tried to do. But while they fell short Alt went all the way, winning a first prize of $396,691 in about five and a half hours - somewhat more than two big bets an hour.

But Karma, really? Where's the beef?

"I started being completely vegan since I watched Cowspiracy (I can recommend this movie to everyone, even if you don't wanna be a vegan/vegetarian). So I guess my karma was the one factor why I won!"

TCOOP Main Event winner Dinesh "NastyMinder" Alt

Alt was kidding, just in case we were about to put anybody off their Happy Meal. The real reason was perhaps more poker orientated.

"I'm playing many tournaments online and pushed my volume a lot in the last couple months," he said. "It's important to stay focused and be patient in poker to finally have a success and bink something big. Meditation definitely helped me with my patience."

The extent of that effort was significant. The TCOOP Main Event is one of the jewels of the online calendar, and the finale of the first of three 'COOP series on PokerStars. These wins can make a player. TCOOP involves a lot of energy, and a lot of effort, all condensed into a much shorter period of time.

As Martin Harris's report explained , the action in the Main Event was intense. First there was the field of thousands to outrun, then a volatile final table, plus the paper work, in this case Alt's attempts to protect his profit with a deal. No easy task.

"Turbo tournaments, especially when the blinds are huge compared to the stack size, are very swingy," said Alt. "One single bad beat, mistake or losing a flip could cost you some 100k at the final table in this tournament."

It meant Alt was the vocal proponent of a deal during the final.

"The money jumps are also too big in my opinion," he said. "I personally would prefer a flatter pay-out structure in general in any poker tournaments. That's why I proposed to make a deal at different stages of the final."

It wasn't until heads-up when Alt got his way (ironically in such cases, benefitting him), with runner-up KungKroon agreeing to numbers, or as he put it joyously: "Agreedio!"

The win was the biggest of Alt's career, (he's had four other six figure wins) and came with the prestige of a COOP title, something not lost on the Swiss. "It was the nicest and fastest score I had!"

His approach, going into TCOOP, had been a positive one. Like many players, Alt can't help but love a Turbo, and has played plenty of them over the past few years. His series started well, with some deep runs, including a runner up finish in TCOOP-11, a heads-up event, a source of pride according to Alt who has less experience in that format.

This all seemed to put Alt in a positive mental state.

"Having hopes is one of the most essential things in poker, especially in such a large turbo tournament," he said. "The Variance is definitely higher in these structures than in slow tournaments. That's why my expectations weren't too big for the main event."

He did, and whether that was down to a vegan diet or meditation (performed during every five minute break) only he really knows. Either way it was cause for celebration.

"I just told it to my family and some close friends. I'm not the kind of human proclaiming loudly my winnings, because I know how hard variance and swings in poker can be. I just needed some hours to realise that I really won such a huge amount of money in such a short time. Besides friends I also got many congratulations from people around the world which was really nice."

Looking ahead 2016 could be a big year for Alt, who has yet to decide between another year on the poker circuit, or the start of a degree in medicine in Switzerland.
"I will still play poker trying to get another coop title this year and playing some live circuits events," he said. Although after such high profile success - and arguably such good karma -- he can be forgiven for not wanting to leave the game just yet.

Read the full story of Alt's TCOOP Main Event win on the PokerStars Blog.