Dakota Anderson Triumphs in the 2026 GOP Manila Main Event

On the penultimate day of the fifth edition of Gods of Poker, the crown jewel of the festival with PHP 60 Million in guaranteed prize pools has come to a thrilling conclusion whereas the overall festival leaderboard appears to be destined for a three-peat.

Several more chances await for players to earn a trophy, however, with the festival held in cooperation with the Soul Poker Club set to conclude on Sunday, August 30, 2026 inside of the Grand Ballroom of the lavish City of Dreams Manila Luxury Hotel Resort & Casino.

Dakota Anderson Wins the 2026 GOP Manila Main Event

For the final day of the flagship tournament, 12 players out of a 383 entry-strong field returned to claim the biggest slices of the PHP 30 million guaranteed prize pool and each of them benefited from extra value as there was a pure overlay of 17 entries.

After more than ten hours of play across more than 200 hands on the live stream table, a victory on home turf was denied as Dakota Anderson staged a heads-up comeback to deny Manila resident Joris Michl the win.

The American had already cashed in live events here in Manila all the way back in 2017 before his Hendon Mob resume went on a hiatus for seven years. You may guess where his next recorded result came to be: Right here in Manila, of course, in November 2025. Since then, three dozen cashes followed all over Asia and he reached a final table in Vietnam for his second-largest live poker score earlier this year.

That's until the moment when he grabbed the golden gauntlet and lifted it up in celebration after coming back from a major chip deficit of four-to-one against Michl. The Dutchman was essentially on home turf because he resides not far away from the venue for several years already, but the only gauntlet that will be coming into his apartment after The Arena of Champions is the one of fellow countryman Tom Verbruggen, who won the Titan Stack High Roller on Day 6.

Anderson's top prize of PHP 6,304,500 ($101,322) equals nearly three times his previous best score according to The Hendon Mob and he was visibly relieved and very emotional when the river card bricked for Michl. Once all the winner shots were done and the trolley for the gorgeous Main Event trophy arrived, he was actually flabbergasted even though the magnitude of the win may still take a while to process.

"Dude, I get all that? This is by far the coolest thing I have ever won in my life," the American said and then left the room with a big smile on the face a few minutes later with "time to go home". During the next upcoming Gods of Poker live festivals, his winner banner will be on display.

Both finalists entered the nine-handed final table in the middle of the pack behind the local seasoned pros Lester Edoc and Marc Rivera, who ultimately finished in fourth and third place respectively. Edoc was the long-time chip leader but once Anderson doubled through him, the rapid downfall unfolded.

Michl kind of moaned in the strong finish (once again) because he was among the shortest stacks with eight players remaining during the first break.

"I had such a great spot but then kept losing all of the hands. But now there are still two even shorter stacks behind me," he mentioned after stepping away from the table. During the next two hour session, Michl then knocked out three players and suddenly became the commanding chip leader.

His run-good continued with another two knockouts thereafter but fate would have it that a ton of equity in the first all-in showdown changed it all.

Final Table Result:

Action of the Main Event Final Day

Sangjin An from South Korea returned with fewer than six big blinds and was the first player to bow out inside of the first ten minutes. He got it in with queen-nine against the king-six of Marc Rivera to hit the rail after both missed the board. Mc Yeldarb Mantos then jammed a suited queen from the small blind on the outer table and Joris Michl happily called with ace-king to recover some of the early losses against Lester Edoc.

That brought the field down to the last ten players on the final table bubble. Vietnam's Thanh Cao Nguyen doubled through Manoj Pentakota to get out of the danger zone and Aleksei Zhukov doubled through Edoc. Pentakota managed to triple once with his severe short stack but ultimately busted to set the stage for the grand finale.

Joven Huerto came into the final table as the shortest stack on just ten big blinds and became the first casualty when he got it in with ace-ten only to be looked up by John Matsuda, who prevailed with pocket kings to reduce the field by one. From there on, the shorter stacks evened out and that left two run-away chip leaders to slow down the action a lot.

Dmitrii Belikov doubled once but remained the shortest stack after two blind increases made proceedings more shallow for everyone but the duo atop the leaderboard. With the average dropping below 30 big blinds, Belikov found himself all-in once again with king-ten against the pocket tens of Michl and couldn't escape this time. It sparked a period during which the table dynamics shifted and propelled Michl into the driver's seat.

Shortly thereafter, the Flying Dutchman picked up pocket aces and Nguyen ran right into them with ace-jack to be left drawing dead on the turn. When both found an ace to go with, Anderson doubled through Zhukov and the latter then busted right after to bow out in sixth place.

Michl had the chance to make it three knockouts in the span of half an hour when he picked up ace-queen against the king-queen of Matsuda. The flop came ace-ten high for top pair against a gutshot, the latter of which never came to send Matsuda to the rail and let Michl further ascend on the leaderboard.

Four-handed play become more active with many medium-sized pots being traded before it culminated in one clash. Anderson jammed ace-jack and Edoc eventually called with king-queen to shake up the leaderboard, all of a sudden Edoc was no longer in the commanding driver's seat that he had maintained all day long. Michl took the lead when Edoc paid off his ace-high flush and they went four-handed into the next break with Michl even further ahead after hitting top pair and two streets of value.

When they came back, Edoc was the shortest stack and he got those chips into the middle in the very first hand. His three-bet jam with king-queen was called by Michl with pocket sixes and they held to bring the field down to three with one commanding chip leader. Nothing much changed within half an hour until Michl's open raise was called twice and produced a king-nine high flop. Rivera had king-nine for top two and walked out of the door already when he got shown pocket kings for top set by the Dutchman.

In the still young history of the Gods Of Poker live tour which commenced in 2025, Rivera is the only player with two gauntlet trophies to his name - the rose and black version. A third triumph would have certainly made for a stunning collection at home.

Heads-up play thereafter was a somewhat cagey affair in which Anderson jammed many a times to keep his dominated stack afloat. When he was called the first time with top pair on the flop, Michl had many outs to his name with an open-ended straight and flush draw. He even made an inferior pair on the turn to pick up more equity but the river bricked. A couple of hands later, Michl was then the at-risk player with both players revealing top pair. There was a (mandatory) sweat with 15 outs on the turn but the river bricked to deny Michl another victory on the Asian live poker circuit.

Joris Michl

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One more tournament day remains where the Player of the Series leaderboard will be decided. Martijn Gerrits is still the odds-on favourite to win his third leaderboard title after already having earned seven trophies during the festival so far with 12 cashes mostly in mixed games.

His tally of 22,474 points is well ahead of Alvir Inocentes (15,709 points), but Edilberto Gopez jumped into third place 14,578 points after he scooped his second win of the festival in Event #62 GOP X ZSOP Mini Main on the penultimate tournament day.

Out of a field of 128 entries, Gopez defeated fellow Pinoy Aj Acdal in heads-up to claim the top prize of PHP 1,006,600 and received two winner trophies as once to grow his collection at home. Runner-up Acdal had to settle for PHP 560,800 and sits just behind Gopez on the festival leaderboard with 14,329 points.

Indonesia's Steven (seven cashes and three trophies) and Main Event runner-up Michl (three cashes and one trophy) are within earshot of reaching the top three spots in case they record another cash on the final day of the series.

Edilberto Gopez (left) and Aj Acdal (right)

Former Player of the Series winner Hanh Tran was denied a trophy once again after Japan's Akihiro Kawaguchi won the Limit Triple Draw Mix. China's Yichen Zhu earned the first win of the series in 5-Card PLO Turbo and the same applied for Tony Khoang in the PL Drawmaha Mix and Hazel Timonera in Hyper Turbo Head Hunter.

On the final day of the festival here in Manila, the PHP 5 million guaranteed Kraken Stack returns with 13 players in the money all having locked up at least PHP 116,600. There is PHP 1,394,700 up top along with the very fancy golden Kraken trophy.

The final day of the PHP 220,000 GOP High Roller is also determining a champion as well with five players taking home a portion of the PHP 6 million guaranteed prize pool. David Wang leads the way and has the chance to earn a third trophy during the festival, but he has stiff competition from Main Event fourth place finisher Lester Edoc, fellow Aussie Ryan Hong, gauntlet winner Fendy Kosasih and Gary Thompson.

Several other new tournaments with a turbo one day structure are set to play down to a winner and you can find the full overview of all available events right here.