Flight C chip leader Viet An Nguyen
Three of the five starting flights of the 2026 Gods Of Poker Manila Main Event have concluded and a total of 24 players have now punched their ticket for Day 2 inside of the Grand Ballroom at the City of Dreams Manila Luxury Hotel Resort & Casino for the crown jewel of the festival. The total tally stands at 168 entries for the PHP 82,500 buy-in, but that still leaves it well short of meeting the PHP 30 Million (∼ USD 500,000) guarantee with two more flights to come.
A new overall chip leader has been crowned in Vietnam's Viet An Nguyen, who bagged up an astonishing 2,515,000 in chips. At the end of the late registration, Nguyen was already the largest stack by some margin and never really left the top of the leaderboard.
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 also 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 as like the previous two players mentioned, bowed out from Flight B and then bagged up 846,000 to boot just after midnight. The same alplies to Aj Acdal albeit with a lower stack of 325,000.
End of Flight C chip counts:
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
| 1 | Viet An Nguyen | Vietnam | 2,515,000 | 252 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Dmitrii Belikov | Russia | 1,890,000 | 189 |
| 3 | Manoj Pentakota | India | 1,108,000 | 111 |
| 4 | Gary Thompson | Ireland | 960,000 | 96 |
| 5 | David Erquiaga | Philippines | 846,000 | 85 |
| 6 | Nikolas Rivera | Philippines | 632,000 | 63 |
| 7 | James Bonnano | Guam | 500,000 | 50 |
| 8 | Joemark Vasay | Philippines | 389,000 | 39 |
| 9 | Aj Acdal | Philippines | 325,000 | 33 |
| 10 | Lloyd Locsin | Philippines | 240,000 | 24 |
| 11 | Tatsuki Usami | Japan | 218,000 | 22 |
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.
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.