GOP Main Event - Final Day - PHP 30M GTD

Dakota Anderson - 2026 GOP Manila Main Event Winner

In the fifth edition of the Gods of Poker live poker series, a new champion has been crowned in the flagship 2026 GOP Manila Main Event here at the Grand Ballroom inside of the City of Dreams Manila Luxury Hotel Resort & Casino.

For the final day of the crown jewel on the schedule held in cooperation with the Soul Poker Club, 12 players out of a 383 entry-strong field returned to claim the biggest slices of the PHP 30 million guaranteed prize pool. Ultimately, it was Dakota Anderson who came out on top after a topsy-turvy final which spanned across more than 200 hands.

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 today when he grabbed the golden gauntlet and lifted it up in celebration after coming back from a major chip deficit in heads-up play against Joris Michl. The Dutchman was essentially on home turf because he resides in Manila 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) represents nearly three times the previous best score according to The Hendon Mob and 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 for a moment.

"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.

Final Table Result:

Dakota Anderson (left) and Joris Michl (right)

Action of the 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.

Dmitrii Belikov

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.

Lester Edoc

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.

Heads-up play was a 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 a ton of equity with an open-ended straight and flush draw. Michl made an inferior pair on the turn and the river bricked. A couple of hands later, Michl was then the at-risk player with both players revealing top pair. There was a sweat with 15 outs on the turn but the river bricked to deny Michl another victory on the Asian live poker circuit.

Joris Michl

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.