Summary:
- Poker Dream Manila kicks off on April 26 at Newport World Resorts, Manila
- The stop features 30 tournaments and offers PHP95 million ($1.7m) in combined guarantees
- The schedule is headlined by the PHP 66,000 buy-in, PHP 20m GTD Main Event
After a successful stop in Malaysia back in January, the Poker Dream tour now heads to Manila, Philippines bringing with it 30 tournaments, with players set to compete for PHP 95,000,000 (approximately US$1,750,000) in total guarantees.
Poker Dream Manila – Key Details and Highlights
Poker Dream Manila takes place from April 26 to May 7 at Newport World Resorts in Pasay, Manila. The schedule features a total of 30 events, with multiple tournaments carrying guarantees of between PHP 2,000,000 and PHP 55,000,000.
The festival opens with a bang with “Event 1: Warm Up”, a PHP 15,000 buy-in tournament that runs from April 26-27 and has a guarantee of PHP 3,000,000. Another key tournament on the schedule is “Event 5: Crazy Weekend” which comes with an entry fee of PHP 25,000 and PHP 4,000,000 in guaranteed prize money. It takes place from April 28-30.
The line-up of events also includes the hugely popular Short Deck format. Event 10: Short Deck Super High Roller costs PHP 1,380,000 to enter and features a massive PHP 55,000,000 guarantee. The tournament is scheduled for April 30-May 1 and is expected to draw a great turnout. It is followed by the Super High Roller event (May 1-2) which has a buy-in of PHP 500,000.
The series culminates in the Main Event, which features a buy-in of PHP 66,000 (US$1,200). Players take a shot at PHP 20,000,000 (approx. US$360,000) in guarantees from May 4-7.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Poker Dream Manila Main Event ends up smashing its guarantee, as was the case with the Poker Dream Malaysia Main Event in January which paid out RM 2,806,695 in total prizes, way above its RM 2,000,000 guarantee.
The tournament was won by Devan Tang for RM 526,100 ($123,420), pushing the popular Chinese poker pro’s total live earnings to more than $6.9 million. Tang could be part of the field in the upcoming Poker Dream Manila Main Event and it would be interesting to see whether he manages to ship another Poker Dream Main Event title.
About Poker Dream
Poker Dream is the brainchild of poker player and businessman Winfred Yu. It was launched in July 2022 via a successful inaugural event that took place in Malaysia and generated almost $3 million in total prize pool. In October 2022, the brand hosted another event in Vietnam and it was equally successful, awarding more than $3.8 million in total prizes.
