GOP 2026 Manila Main Event Heats Up; Verbruggen Wins Gauntlet

Day 6 of the 2026 Gods of Poker Manila festival has concluded and the tables inside of the Grand Ballroom at the City of Dreams Manila Luxury Hotel Resort & Casino have become more busy for the tail end of the flagship PHP 82,500 Main Event. The overall attendance was more than doubled to 168 entries with five late entrants for Flight B and another 80 entries for Flight C, after which a combined 18 players locked up their share of the PHP 30 Million guaranteed prize pool already.

In Flight B, which recommenced Day 2 with several new faces, only David Wang from Australia was able to spin up his late entry stack of 30 big blinds into a cash finish. He was the chip leader after the first break before slowing down and eventually bagging up 500,000 in chips.

Local player Rodolfo Dela Fuente (pictured) finished as the chip leader with 1,296,000 after he notched up two of the last three eliminations of the flight. He first cold four-bet jammed pocket aces from the big blind and three-bettor Lukasz Jankowski couldn't get away from pocket kings. In the final hand, he then prevailed with ace-king against the ace-queen of Cheng-Pin Hsu.

The bubble burst at blinds of 5,000-10,000 / 10,000 and that means the restart of Day 2 in the money will roll back to at least that level for the race towards the final table.

South Korea's Seunghee Park was the chip leader going into Day 2 of Flight B and carried over the momentum with a lot of preflop aggression to advance with 1,219,000. He was joined among the six survivors by fellow countrymen Eunseok Choi (1,007,000) and San Kang (171,000). Jonald Garcia completes the line-up of those making it through with 482,000 in chips.

Notable casualties Aj Acdal, David Erquiaga, Dmitrii Belikov, Rudy Edenata and Ronald Haverkamp then all jumped into Flight C which kicked off at 2 p.m. local time and almost all of them found more success with the exception of Edenata and Haverkamp.

Vietnam's Viet An Nguyen ran riot at the tables in Flight C and stormed to the new overall lead with an incredible 2,515,000 in chips to his name. He was the chip leader at the end of the late registration with more than six and a half starting stacks, very much enjoyed his presence at the tables and never really looked back.

Russia's Dmitrii Belikov was among the Flight B casualties before the money but his exploits in the afternoon heat were crowned by success, as he bagged up the second-largest tally of 1,890,000. Belikov was in fact responsible for bursting the Flight C bubble when he dominated Kenneth Isip with sevens versus treys all-in preflop.

Former Formula 3 race car driver Gary Thompson also had a busy day, as he was eliminated right from the get-go in Flight B. He then jumped into Event #48 Omaha Dealer's Choice to win the trophy and top prize of PHP 126,000 to then use these funds for another bullet in the Main Event. Thompson spun that up to 960,000 in chips at the end of play to secure his third cash of the festival and become eligible for leaderboard prizes. However, his points tally would be far higher if he didn't "stone bubble four High Roller Events" as per direct quote after bagging up his chips.

Gary Thompson

David "Dave Spade" Erquiaga followed a similar path when his short-lived entry into Flight B ended before the money and notched up several knockouts along the way to finish with 846,000 to boot just after midnight. Aj Acdal doubled close to the bubble and made it through with albeit with a still playable stack of 325,000.

End of Flight C chip counts:

Ryan Hong, Emmanuel Derecho, Aleksandr Gorichev, Ronald Haverkamp, Lok Ching Li and Rudy Edenata were some of the late night casualties who are very likely expected to give it another shot tomorrow in the final two flights of the flagship Main Event.

The festival dubbed as The Arena of Champions awaits a surge of players for Flight D and E which are both scheduled to take place on Thursday, Augusst 27, 2026 with schedules starting times of 12.30 p.m. and 6 p.m. local time respectively.

Flight D kicks off the scheduled events with one 60-minute and one 120-minute level before the late registration closes at 4 p.m. local time followed by 30-minute levels throughout thereafter. Flight E then follows the same late registration level structure before the door shuts at 9.30 p.m. local time with 20-minute levels once the registration is over.

Side Events for as little as PHP 13,200 and as high as PHP 110,000 await for Hold'em and Omaha lovers in case they don't want to jump into the Main Event or have already bagged up chips. Advancing multiple times is also possible with the larger stack being carried into Day 2 and a min-cash to be awarded for each inferior bag taken out of play.

Tom Verbruggen Claims the Rose Gauntlet

Speaking of Side Events, if there was a trophy hunter that certainly needs to look into purchasing a cabinet to display all the goodies, it would be Dutchman Tom Verbruggen. He has been kind of a nomad the last few years and travels the Asian poker circuit, notching up numerous victories along the way.

However, his trophy in Event #40 Titan Stack High Roller may perhaps be the most stunning to date and he definitely enjoyed splashing the chips with the Rose Gauntlet during the winner shots. Out of a field of 29 entries for the PHP 275,000 buy-in, only five players returned in the money and had locked up a portion of the PHP 6,960,000 prize pool.

The first player to bust was Muk Pin Lai from Malaysia after which Verbruggen then doubled to bring three-handed play to a staggering average of more than 90 big blinds with very similar stack sizes. Hiroyuki Otake then doubled off Ryan Hong to leave the Aussie very short and then busted to Verbruggen via stop-and-go with J ♠️ 10 ♠️ against an ace.

Verbruggen ran away with the lead soon after while Otake was left on just nine big blinds before Verbruggen jammed king-five into the ace-deuce of Fendy Kosasih. A king on the flop gave Verbruggen the lead, but Kosasih hit an ace on turn and river.

Otake bowed out thereafter and the stacks between Verbruggen and Kosasih were almost even again. However, three times the Dutchman hit the river including with 7 ♦️ 4 ♦️ for a flush and ace-ten with a ten on the river to storm into a nearly ten to one lead.

Kosasih doubled once before he got it in with A ♠️ 4 ♣️ against the A ♣️ Q ♠️ of Verbruggen. The Q ♣️ 9 ♠️ 6 ♠️ 7 ♠️ 10 ♦️ board kept the superior preflop hand ahead and Kosasih was denied a second gauntlet during the festival after his victory in the Demigods Challenge.

Final Result Titan Stack High Roller

Fayez Jarrad not only won the Medusa's Head Hunter but also celebrated his birthday with a cake brought directly to the table. Indonesia's Steven won his second trophy of the festival in a PHP 165,000 Single-Day High Roller while Mark Marriott was a Big O Turbo winner.

The local players Martin Astorga and Terry Gonzaga claimed wins in late evening Hyper Turbo Events, as did Manila resident Kosasih in a PHP 55,000 High Roller for the top prize of PHP 270,000 to conclude a successful day at the tables.

For a full overview of all winners and the remainder of the GOP 2026 Manila festival, click on the following link right here.