Gods of Poker Manila 2026 Concludes; Martijn Gerrits Wins Third Player of Series Title

After ten days of thrilling live poker action, the fifth edition of Gods of Poker has concluded on the home soil of its founder, Lloyd Fontillas in the Philippines. The festival took place inside the Grand Ballroom of the City of Dreams Manila Luxury Hotel Resort & Casino not far away from the international airport and the Mall of Asia. Held in cooperation with the Soul Poker Club, the series boasted a total of 82 tournaments with PHP 60 Million (~ USD 1 Million) dubbed as The Arena of Champions.

While it was only the fifth time Asia's newest series has taken to the felt, it produced a total of 1,976 entries and PHP 100,678,400 in overall prize pools with some events giving participants extra value via overlay. Some players have already etched their name into the history books. In most remarkable fashion, Dutch mixed game aficionado Martijn Gerrits has claimed the Player of the Series title for the third time and he is actually three for three, as he didn't attend the other two stops.

We have also seen the iconic gauntlet trophy awarded to the same player for the second time as Lester Edoc joined fellow Pinoy poker pro Marc Rivera as the only one to have achieved that feat twice. He did so on the final day of the series in the GOP High Roller one day after he bowed out of the Main Event in fourth place, followed to the rail by none other than Rivera.

Gauntlet Number Two for Lester Edoc

Let's take a closer look at some of the key events of the festival and standout performances throughout these past two weeks.

The Gauntlet Winners in Manila

The very first player to pose for a winner shot with one of the gauntlets was Fendy Kosasih in the PHP 682,500 Demigods Challenge. It was an all Indonesian affair in heads-up against Harry Halim with the latter having to settle for a consolation prize of PHP 2,837,300. Long-time Manila resident Kosasih “finally got his gauntlet” after several close calls and took home the top prize of PHP 4,728,700, he was also a force to be reckoned with for the remainder of the festival.

Up and coming Australia-based Emmanuel Derecho has Filipino roots and still speaks the language fluently. He had more than half a million US Dollars in cashes prior to this series according to The Hendon Mob and took down the PHP 428,000 Super High Roller in a field of 21 entries to claim the largest slice of the PHP 8,148,000 prize pool. As the chip leader heading into the final day, Derecho went wire to wire for the top prize of PHP 3,564,700 whereas Halim was doomed to yet another runner-up finish in a high-stakes contest.

Emmanuel Derecho

With more than $1.2 million in recorded cashes, Tom Verbruggen has been notching up several victories in the last few years on the Asian live poker circuit. He added another one to the resume in the PHP 275,000 Titan Stack High Roller, which paid out PHP 6,960,000 to the top five finishers. Verbruggen came out on top of heads-up play with Kosasih to win his first gauntlet and deny the Indonesian his second-ever (and for the series).

Kosasih ran deep in the Main Event and then jumped into the GOP High Roller on the penultimate day of the series, earning another cash prize with fourth place for PHP 685,700. Ryan Hong, David Wang and Gary Thompson all earned a slice of the money, too, but it was Lester Edoc who finished the series with a trademark victory for PHP 2,400,000, which is actually more than what his final table appearance in the Main Event paid (PHP 1,886,100).

Speaking of Main Event, that gauntlet will have a long travel ahead because Dakota Anderson earned “the coolest thing ever” in his poker career so far. The flagship Main Event with a buy-in of PHP 82,500 needed 400 entries to cover the PHP 30 Million guarantee and produced a small overlay of 17 entries with 54 players out of 383 entries earning a cash prize.

It was a stacked final table with the top local pros Edoc and Rivera who were chasing another GOP gauntlet trophy for their resume and both were first and second on the leaderboard heading into the final day, up until the first break with eight players remaining. Anderson and Joris Michl were among the shorter stacks with 24 and 12 big blinds respectively but the next two hours on the felt changed the dynamics entirely.

Michl knocked out three opponents and Anderson doubled through Aleksei Zhukov to jump into second place to leave just four players remaining. Michl was the run-away chip leader by then and knocked out Edoc in a flip when they come back before he flopped top set in three-handed play. Rivera's top two pair went down in flames and he headed straight to the airport to catch a flight – not figuratively speaking.

Heads-up play saw Michl with more than 80% of the chips in play, but he was unable to close out the victory. When the chips went in the first time, Michl's seven-six suited had straight and flush outs against top pair but two bricks later Anderson had the comfortable lead. It was all over a few hands later and Anderson was visibly excited and perhaps even somewhat overwhelmed. The PHP 6,304,500 top prize was his far largest in live poker so far, while it was just another day at the office for Michl with a runner-up consolation worth PHP 3,840,600.

Player of the Series and Serial Winners

The Player of the Series (POS) leaderboard went all the way to the wire on the final day with one exception. Two-time winner Martijn Gerrits had already locked up the third victory with a staggering seven trophies to his name throughout the ten tournament days and will have a third banner displayed during future GOP stops in Asia. He cashed for 13 times which is almost double of those behind him.

However, the race for the remaining two spots on the podium and leaderboard prizes was a close-knitted competition. Lester Edoc defended Gary Thompson in heads-up of the PHP 220,000 GOP High Roller via classic flip with pocket nines against king-queen suited whereas Main Event runner-up Joris Michl chopped the Big O Turbo with Brad Bowden to earn more points to his tally.

Alvir Inocentes made it to seventh place in the Kraken Stack and the points from that virtually locked up the second place, even though he still jumped into the Titan Stack Turbo which ended up being the very last tournament to finish inside of the Grand Ballroom. Inocentes even took it down in heads-up against Emmanuel Segismundo for his second trophy. Prior to that, Edilberto Gopez had finished second in The Closer Mystery Bounty for PHP 161,600 and the points from that propelled the local just ahead of Edoc to snag third place.

1^st Place: Martijn Gerrits (13 cashes, 7 wins) – 24,595 points

2^nd Place: Alvir Inocentes (6 cashes, 2 wins) – 20,313 points

3^rd Place: Edilberto Gopez (5 cashes, 2 wins) – 17,240 points

Indonesia's Steven (three trophies) and Australia's David Wang both cashed seven times with the latter flying in half-way through the series from Malaysia to bag up on his first try on Flight B of the Main Event before claiming two trophies. Several other players cashed six times including Thanh Cao Nguyen, who reached the Main Event final table and took down his second trophy in heads-up against Tom Verbruggen on the final day of the festival.

A productive visit to Manila for David Wang

Ryan Hong may have fallen short of making Day 2 of the Main Event three times by two spots but he was successful in the Side Events with six cashes and three wins. China's Chiyuan You and Mark Mariott were the only other ones with three titles to their name. Aforementioned Thompson would have a third if he had defeated Edoc in heads-up but had to settle for two wins across four cashes. Instead, Edoc became the second player after Marc Rivera to win a second gauntlet trophy.

Other Notable Events Throughout the Series

The first victory of Alvir Inocentes came in the PHP 33,000 Pandora's Mystery Bounty in which he claimed PHP 1,013,100 for his efforts thanks to pulling some huge bounties in a field of 116 entries. Runner-up Lukasz Jankowski (PHP 456,500) actually earned less than Japanese businessman and poker newcomer Takamasa Kojima, who earned one of the top bounties and cashed for PHP 696,000 total.

Czardy Rivera finished in fifth place and was the first one to pull a bounty, claiming one of the three PHP 235,000 instant payouts. He claimed another two trophies in GOP X League of Poker Turbo High Roller and the Kraken Stack with it's very unique golden kraken for the cabinet at home to cap off a very successful week in Manila.

Czardy Rivera

In the PHP 3.5 Million guaranteed Mini Main Event, Edilberto Gopez won a Filipino heads-up duel against Aj Acdal to claim the top prize of PHP 1,006,600 out of a field of 128 entries. While former Formula 3 race car driver Gary Thompson “stone-bubbled” several High Roller tournaments, he took down the PHP 38,500 Titan Stack for PHP 1,037,700 in heads-up against ... Acdal. And Inocentes bowed out in third place after laddering up a severe short stack for the last podium spot and PHP442,300.

For a full overview of all champions during the 2026 Gods of Poker Manila series, check out the following link.

The next festival is already right around the corner as GOP Taipei 2026 II takes place from September 18 to 28, 2026 at the Asia Poker Area in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold'em Poker Association (CTP Club) in Taipei City. For all those interested, it is just a short flight away from many hubs in Asia and many international airlines are regularly heading to Taiwan as well.

The Trial of Wisdom features a total of 77 tournaments with NT$ 25,000,000 in guaranteed prize pools throughout the entire festival. In the flagship Main Event, five different flights are available from September 22 onwards and the crown jewel of the series costs NT$ 33,000 to enter (~ USD 1,050). The full tournament schedule is available on the GOP website and in the mobile app, so you can start making travel arrangements already.