Edwin Dela Cruz Leads Final Nine in Manila; David Erquiaga Chases Next Major Title
The stage is set for the grand finale of the 2023 Poker Dream Manila live poker series in the Grand Wing Casino at Newport City in Metro Manila, right across the international airport of the international airport in the capital of the Philippines. Out of a 499-entry strong field, only nine players from six different countries remain in contention to claim the biggest slice of the PHP 28,751,382 ($519,578) prize pool after they navigated their way through an action-packed Day 2 in the PHP66,000 Main Event.
Three local card sharks are aiming to keep the title and trophy on home soil and Edwin Dela Cruz sits atop the leaderboard by some margin, as he accumulated an impressive stack of 4,325,000. David "Dave Spade" Erquiaga, one of the hottest-running players in Asia in the last few years, advanced with 1,335,000 while veteran Terry Gonzaga made it through with 1,180,000 which puts them both in the middle of the pack.
Norway's Tor Welo is second in chips with 2,080,000 and the always dangerous William Teoh has 1,470,000 at his disposal. Day 1b chip leader Ryan McAllister, Valeriy Pak, and the two Italians Alessandro Taranto as well as Nicola Montalbano round up the final table line-up.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nicola Montalbano | Italy | 640,000 | 16 |
| 2 | David Erquiaga | Philippines | 1,335,000 | 33 |
| 3 | Tor Welo | Norway | 2,080,000 | 52 |
| 4 | Edwin Dela Cruz | Philippines | 4,325,000 | 108 |
| 5 | William Teoh | Malaysia | 1,470,000 | 37 |
| 6 | Terry Gonzaga | Philippines | 1,180,000 | 30 |
| 7 | Alessandro Taranto | Italy | 1,690,000 | 42 |
| 8 | Ryan McAllister | United States | 1,165,000 | 29 |
| 9 | Valeriy Pak | Belarus | 1,090,000 | 27 |
There are 35:03 minutes left in Level 25 at blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a big blind ante of 40,000, which makes for an average of 41 big blinds and a potentially long night ahead to crown a winner.
The final casualty of the evening was Malaysia's High Roller regular Kok Weng Beh, who triumphed in back-to-back Side Events during the festival already. His pocket kings were outflopped by Dela Cruz and Beh couldn't get away from it anymore on a nine-high turn to end the proceedings for Day 2, vaulting Dela Cruz into a comfortable lead for the nine-handed final table.
South Korea's Won Jae Lee was another player to make strides throughout the day as he soared ahead of the competition on the final three tables only to crash out in 13th place. Henrik Tollefsen came up short of the final table when his pocket aces were cracked by the flopped straight of fellow countryman and friend Welo.
Among the 76 Day 1 survivors across three starting days were also the likes of Jose Drilon, Linh Ran Nguyen, Lijun Zhang, Jason Magbanua, Ngoc Anh Cao, Hal Rotholz, Junnie Pamplona, and Richard Sheils to name all but a few.
Nguyen and Zhang were the last two women in contention and came up short of the final four tables. The elimination of Nguyen came in a three-way all-in showdown when her jacks could not beat the pocket aces of Wee Shen Tay. Zhang made a move with an inferior kicker versus Montalbano on a jack-high board and couldn't get the Italian to fold.
The conclusion of the fourth-ever Poker Dream Main Event in history will be streamed on a security delay of 30 minutes with cards-up coverage and commentary available on the Poker Dream Facebook page. All finalists will be back in their seats at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, May 7, 2023, and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the key hands according to the delay until a champion has been determined.