Christos Vlahos Leads Final Nine at 2020 WPTDeepStacks Philippines; David Erquiaga In Contention

The final table of the 2020 WPTDeepStacks Philippines PHP75,000 (~$1,500) Main Event at the five-star resort Okada Manila is set and three local players aim to keep the trophy on the Philippines. However, it is Melbourne’s Christos Vlahos that leads the pack after a day in which he “ran incredibly hot.”

Vlahos lists fellow Australian Luke Martinelli as his favorite player and is the only finalist with more than two million in chips, as he bagged up 2,105,000. He is followed by South Korea’s Kunwoo Kim (1,695,000) and David “Spade” Erquiaga claims the final spot on the overnight podium with a stack of 1,440,000.

Erquiaga is not only looking for another major cash after a string of deep runs in the Asia-Pacific region, he also has his eyes set on the Season 18 WPT Asia-Pacific leaderboard. If he finishes at least second, Erquiaga would take over the top spot in the ranking and overtake Hari Varma, Hamish Crawshaw and Brian Tougias who all have 1,500 points to their name.

Fellow Filipinos Rogel Del Rosario (1,385,000) and Mark Dela Cruz (1,200,000) follow right behind Erquiaga while the remaining finalists all hail from different countries. Bulgaria’s Dimitar Blazhev is here on vacation and jumped into the event, and he made it through to the final day with a stack of 850,000.

Japan’s Ryo Naito (600,000), Vikaash Shah from India (595,000) and South Korea’s Jongjun Park (450,000) are the short stacks. There will be 11:20 minutes remaining at blinds of 15,000-25,000 with a big blind ante of 25,000 when the action is set to resume at 1 p.m. local time on Monday, February 17th, 2020.

Final Table Seat Assignments:

While nine players remain, 70 had to leave The Coral Room throughout the penultimate tournament day as nearly half of the Day 1 survivors failed to secure a portion of the prize pool.

Especially in the early stages, the all-in showdowns kept coming at a rapid pace and several big stacks and notables were sent to the rail without anything to show for. Familiar names such as Linh Tran, Marc Rivera, Jessie Leonarez, Jaeho Kim and Zheko Dinev were all gone before the money bubble.

On the money bubble itself, several players survived until the min cash of PHP115,000 was locked up. The last woman standing in the field, Yuka Asaka from Japan, tripled up after she was all-in for two big blinds and out of the big blind and it was then Kyungkun Lee who lost a flip with ace-king against the pocket tens of Zackery Lowrie to reduce the field to the final 43 hopefuls.

Among others, Johnnie “Vibes” Moreno had to settle for a min-cash and Sebastian Schade jammed at the wrong time with ace-king as Naoya Fujihisa snap-called with a flopped set of nines. Si Yang Phua’s bid to earn vital points for the Season 18 ranking ended in 30th place when he lost a flip with king-queen versus pocket sixes, and Jun Obara had to settle for 25th place.

That left Erquiaga as only hot contender for the top three spots and the local poker pro propelled himself towards the top of the leader board on the final two tables. Markus Garberg, runner-up of the last WPT National in 2016, was also among the chip leaders but the Norwegian hit the rail just shy of reaching the final table.

Christos Vlahos doubled into the lead after winning a flip with ace-king against the pocket tens of Fujihisa and never surrendered a top three spot anymore. He two-outered Daniel Sammarco with fives versus aces, rivered a straight with king-eight against the ace-nine suited of Joshua Chargualaf and was also responsible for the final elimination of the night when his bottom pair and flushdraw in a three-way limped pot got there to best the top pair of Yeongpil Han.

Remaining Payouts:

It won’t be an easy ride for either of the nine finalists if they wish to claim the trophy and top prize of more than $95,000, and you can follow all the action until a champion is crowned right here on WPT.com. Further updates can also be found on Somuchpoker.

David Erquiaga