PokerStars Qualifier Arthur Kocher is off to a blazing start on day 2 of the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event, picking up two handy pots early on.

With blinds at 500/1000 and around 20,000 chips, Singapore player Fam Kai Yat raised to 2600 in early position. Kocher called, and PokerStars Sponsored Player Celina Lin called from the small blind. The flop of Ah-2h-Qc brought no joy to Lin or Yat, and Kocher, in position, bet 4000. Lin and Yat folded, with Yat flipping J-J as he did.

Shortly afterwards, Kocher limped under the gun and fellow PokerStars Qualifier David Salgado from the United States pushed all-in for an additional 10,200 chips. The action folded around to Kocher, who, after a few moments of deliberation, announced a call. Kocher held As-Jd, and Salgado held 4d-4c.

The board came 5d-8c-9h-10d-Qh, and initially many observers had thought that the pocket fours had won the pot Ð but Kocher's Jd made a straight to the Q. Salgado walked away from the table, and Kocher now holds over 50,000 chips and has a chance to run deep into this tournament.

The race for the money gets serious tomorrow when we return to the ballroom at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino in the Filipino capital for the penultimate day’s play in the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event. Just 77 of the 285 players who took their seats on the two flights of day one will return for day two – their first aim will be to reach the payout stage.

The total prize pool is PHP 26,790,000 (approximately USD $542,856), with the top 32 players set to receive a payout. Our winner will take home PHP 8,037,000 (approximately USD $162,856) and the title of 2008 PokerStars.net APPT Manila champion.

The day 1B field of 136 ensured that the total number of players surpassed last year’s figure by 30, underlining the growth in the popularity of poker regionally in the past 12 months (all set against the backdrop of a financial woes across the globe).

The big names were out in force today, led by the only Team PokerStars Pro to find his way to Manila, New Zealand’s Lee “Final Table” Nelson. The field also included PokerStars Sponsored players Celina Lin, Ivan Tan, Van sirens Marcus, JJ Liu, 2008 APPT Manila champion Brett Parise and Japanese duo Yoshihiro Tasaka and Hidenari Shiono.

There was also a massive local presence – FPT3 winner Neil “Dirty Ice Cream” Arce, 2004 Miss Earth Priscilla Meirelles and pool legend Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan were just a few.

Other prominent names playing were James AndyMcLEOD Obst, Nali “Iraqi Nick” Kaselias, David Steicke, Roger Spets, Eddy Sabat and Casey Kastle.

The player best placed to add their name to the APPT honour roll from day 1B was Scotland’s Natasha Ellis. The PokerStars Supernova made her move during the mid-stages of day 1B, and shot to the chip lead when she KOed three players in one hand just before dinner. She lost a big pot to Van Marcus shortly after the main break, but was back in the lead shortly before day’s end.

Paul Kim raised from early position, and Ellis called from the small blind. The flop came 9h-2c-3h, Ellis bet 2100 and Kim raised to 7500. Ellis pushed all-in, and Kim called with a further 20,000 chips behind. Ellis made a set of deuces on the flop, while Kim held A-9. The turn came Kh and river Ad, delivering Ellis a solid chip lead, with 112,100 chips.

Other players prominently placed included Marcus, who final-tabled here last year (69,700), Denmark’s Jeppe Drivsholm (65,400), Canada’s Dimitrios Pappis (63,300) and Chris Roh from Korea (57,500).

Tomorrow’s day 2 field will also include Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson (32,000) and PokerStars Sponsored players Ivan Tan (37,300), Priscilla Meirelles (24,100), Celina Lin (27,400) and last year’s winner Brett Parise (13,300).

We’ll be back at 12.30pm tomorrow for the continuation of play in the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event, plus updates from the APPT Manila High Roller event.

Poker players tend to come in two categories – the ones who could talk underwater and have little hesitation regaling banal details of hand after hand after hand. And then there’s Jeppe Drivsholm.

Like new WSOP main event champion Peter Eastgate, Drivsholm hails from Denmark. We first met Jeppe in Macau, where he made the final table of the APPT Macau main event and finished fifth, taking home USD $81,000. But getting a word out of the 24-year-old student was like pulling teeth.

It’s safe to say Jeppe is happy to let his stack do the talking, and it’s speaking volumes after a stunning 15-minute period in the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event, in which his stack went from a few thousand to more than 60,000.

His short-stack was initially halved when an opponent made a runner-runner straight to overtake his pair of queens, then he rivered a higher pair a few hands later to restore his stack above 20,000.

Then the real drama started. With a short-stack all-in for 10,000, Drivsholm shoved in over the top for almost 25,000. The crowd came running when Melvin “The Miracle” Matibag said he was also all-in for 59,000.

The short stack showed Ac-Kd, Drivsholm pocket queens and Matibag Ad-Qh. The board stayed low – 5d-2c-4c-7s-7c – sending one player to the rail and Matibag down to less than 35,000. We warn you Jeppe, there might be another interview tomorrow.

As play is about to tick into level 9 (30 minutes to go) and with 42 players remaining, it’s a good time to preview the massive day of action we have planned at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino tomorrow.

Highlighting the day’s action is day 2 of the APPT Manila main event as we head towards the final table. There’s also the PHP 250,000 buy-in APPT Manila High Roller event at 8pm, and early indications are there may be as many as 30 players in action. Completing the line-up is the PHP 40,000 Seven-handed event from 6pm.

In addition to our coverage of the main event, the PokerStars blogging team will also be keeping a close eye on play in the High Roller event. Should be a great day at the Hyatt.

Van Marcus is one of those players who sneaks under radar. It seems he’s been on the scene for ages, but he’s still in his mid-20s. This established Melbourne pro and PokerStars Sponsored player made two final tables at the ’07 Aussie Millions (fourth in the $1500 No Limit Hold’em Feature and $3000 Pot Limit Omaha events).

PokerStars Sponsored player Van Marcus is on the move at the APPT Manila main event.

The most impressive result on his tournament CV is a third in the 2007 WSOP $1500 Pot Limit Omaha w/ rebuys. As sirens, he is a PokerStars Supernova has an imposing online record both in cash games and tournaments.

He is also building an impressive APPT record, with a fourth in last year’s APPT Manila main event (after carrying favouritism into the final table) and then took ninth in the 2008 APPT Macau High Roller event.

Marcus has been the big mover since the dinner break on day 1B of the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino, with pockets aces twice helping take his stack well above 70,000. Most of the chips formerly belonged to chip leader Tasha Ellis.

In the bigger of the two hands, action started with a raise to 1700 from Ellis pre-flop, Marcus bumped it up to 5000 and Ellis called. They saw a flop of 3h-Qs-6d; this time Marcus bet 7000 and Ellis called.

Both players checked the turn (9d), and another 9(c) fell on the river. Marcus brought players streaming from across the tournament floor when he announced he was all-in for 24,100. Ellis thought long and hard before Marcus called time, forcing her to a decision.

“I call,” she said, and a nano-second later Marcus slammed down pocket aces. Ellis calmly mucked her cards, but Ellis was clearly hurting as she counted out another big pile of blue 1000 chips to ship across to Marcus.

The green 25 chips have just been raced off and we’re into level seven (300/600 with a 75 ante). There are 51 players remaining, with less than 90 minutes to play.

The table currently attracting the most attention is Table 7, which features the defending champion and PokerStars Sponsored player Brett Parise, and the current chip leader and PokerStars SuperNova, Natasha Ellis.

Parise has been picking up some solid small pots, but recently lost a couple of towers of chips to a local player.

In early position, Ellis raised to 1700 with blinds at 300/600, and Parise and the small blind called. The flop of 7c-4d-3c generated action, with the small blind leading out for 2200, Ellis folding.

Interrupted by the tournament director on the speakers briefly, Parise decided to raise to 6300. Shortly afterwards, the small blind pushed all-in for an additional 8075 chips, and Parise resigned himself to calling.

Parise flipped over pocket jacks, and was relieved to see the small blind reveal Ac-4c. Even though Parise was now a slight underdog, it was certainly a lot better than seeing his opponent with a set.

The Qd on the turn allowed Parise to fade one of the outs, but the river As gave the small blind a bigger pair and a large tower of chips from Parise.

The last crumb has been cleaned off the dinner buffet and the 70 remaining players on day 1B of the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event have returned to the tournament area for the final 150 minutes of play.

The break gave Tasha Ellis a chance to reflect on the most remarkable hand of the tournament, in which she eliminated three rivals in the final minutes of level six.

With two short stacks all-in pre-flop, APPT Seoul champion Yoshihiro Tasaka also moved all-in before Ellis made a brave move over the top.

The short stacks showed Jh-10s and pocket 10s, Tasaka held pocket nines while Ellis’ Ad-Kc also trailed. But not for long – the flop came Ah-2c-8h and the turn 5h to give one of the short stacks a flush draw. But the brick 6s meant a mass exodus from table 7 as Ellis began the laborious task of piling her huge stack.

Ellis isn’t the only female making her mark today. The novelty value of beauty queen Priscilla Meirelles has been long forgotten as she strides confidently into the evening session.

Since arriving at table 17, Canadian PokerStars qualifier Dimitrios Pappis has been the aggressor but he just shipped a pile of chips to the PokerStars Sponsored princess.

Meirelles bet both the turn and river, with calls coming from Pappis. He showed A-J for two-pair, but Meirelles showed Q-10 for the nuts, an ace-high straight. That pot takes her above 30,000, while Pappis is down to about 37,000.

Other PokerStars Sponsored players still in the hunt are Ivan Tan (27,000), defending champ Brett Parise (26,000), Van sirens Marcus (21,000) and Celina Lin (18,000) while the sole Team PokerStars Pro, Lee “Final Table” Nelson, is just below the chip average on 16,000.

And a special shout-out to Melvin “The Miracle” Matibag, who reached the final table at the first two events of the PokerStars Filipino Poker Tour and finished second in FPT1. He’s up to 46,000 and proudly waving the flag for the local contingent.

Eddy Sabat came here with a big opportunity, but has been knocked out of contention after calling an all-in bet on the river and losing.

A player in early position raised to 625, and Yoshihiro Tasaka re-raised to 1950. Sabat took the unusual decision to cold call the re-raise, and seeing the prospective pot size, the initial raiser called.

The flop came Ah-5h-Qc, and all three players checked with this very large pot and a scary board. Kh came on the turn, and the initial raiser bet 6000, Tasaka folded, and Sabat called again.

The 2h came on the river, putting four hearts on the board. After some consideration, the initial raiser went all-in, with comfortably covering Sabat.

Sabat considered the situation at some length, and his opponent eventually called the clock on him, giving him just one more minute to make his decision. Sabat began to think out loud, saying that he could beat a pair of black fours.

Then, in a controversial move, he lifted his chips, and motioned to call, but held on to the chips. This didn't perturb the stony-faced bettor, who stood silently.

After further consideration, Sabat finally announced that he would call, and was devastated to see his opponent flip over Jh-9h for the second nuts. Sabat left the room quickly, with nothing to show for his valiant efforts today.

Japanese poker identity Yasuhiro Waki has been on a short-stacked roller coaster that eventually ran off the rails midway through day 1B in the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino.

On the high profile table that includes James Obst, Max Bloom, Eddy Sabat and Yoshihiro Tasaka, Waki has been a very aggressive short stack. Not long ago, he tripled up in a hand against Obst.

The pot was raised in early position to 600, Obst re-raised to 1800, and Waki went all-in for 1275 chips remaining. On the flop of 4h-2c-4s, Obst went all-in and pushed the third player out of the pot, and Waki's 3-3 held up against Obst's A-K as the board ran out Jd and then 7s.

Soon after, Waki doubled up with A-8 all-in preflop against 6-6. However, he was knocked out a handful of hands later, after running A-T into Q-Q (all-in on a T-2-4 flop) and then his K-3 lost to T-T all-in preflop when short stacked. Waki's day may be over, but with plenty of Japanese players remaining (including Yoshihiro Tasaka who has a very healthy stack) the sun may rise on a Japanese player yet.

Gotta love poker – here we are, in the tropics of South-East Asia following the PokerStars.net APPT in the exotic city of Manila and our chip leader is a 30-something blonde woman from Edinburgh, Scotland. Name another sport that you’d find such a contrast!

But in poker circles, the name of Natasha Ellis isn’t such a novelty. The former travel writer quit her day job for poker shortly after the poker boom and has made a living playing online. Indeed, her Supernova status on PokerStars shows she is a player of considerable standing, underlined by a recent $60k score in a $215 rebuy event on Stars.

“Although the perks of my old job were good, the hours were bad and the money awful. I was always broke. I now have the perfect job. I can work when I want, for as long as I want, and take a week off whenever I like,” she said.

A major live result is the only thing missing from Ellis’ resume, but she’s ideally positioned here to set that right over the next two days.

Recent eliminations include APPT Macau main event winner Eddy Sabat, PokerStars Sponsored duo Neil Arce and Hidenari Shiono, along with a colourful character from Australia who, in the tradition of Madonna, Prince and more R&B artists than you can poke a stick at, prefers to be known just as “Sheldon”.

Sheldon Mayer (we’ll use the surname just once) is one of the friendliest blokes around, and flew down to Manila for the APPT after sampling the cash games at the new Wynn poker room in Macau. Eccentric, yep, colourful wardrobe, you betcha, but the guy has some game, as shown by his third-place in the 2008 Melbourne Poker Championships main event, worth AUD $98,000.

As we tick down to the dinner break, 79 players of the 136 who started day 1B remain, with two hours of play to go.

It’s official – the field for the 2008 PokerStars.net APPT Manila event has surpassed last year’s tally by 30 players. This year’s figure of 285 players is a remarkable statistic given the global financial crisis and underlines that poker in Asia can, for the moment, rise above such adversity.

The total prize pool is PHP 26,790,000 (approximately USD $542,856. The top 32 players will receive a payout, with the winner set to take home PHP 8,037,000 (approximately USD $162,856).

Already 37, of the 136 players who started day 1B have hit the rail, including David Steicke, Sarah Lee, Carter Gill and PokerStars Sponsored player JJ Liu, who was KOed after a tongue-tying hand with Hong Kong’s Phil Lau.

After five players saw a flop of Qs-10d-9h, Liu and Lau went to the turn after Liu bet 800, Lau raised 2400 and Liu called. Liu pushed all-in on the turn (10h), with Lau making the call. She showed Ks-Qh, while Lau had 7h-8h for an open-ended straight flush draw, with the 6s enough to ship the chips in his direction.

John Phan’s hopes of improving his standing in the global Player of the Year standings have also ended. With the board showing Qd-9h-2h-7d, Denmark’s Henrik Hvidberg bet enough to put Phan all-in. The dual 2008 WSOP bracelet winner duly obliged. Hvidberg showed pocket kings, but Phan had outs (7h-8h). But the 3c on the river sent ‘The Razor’ to the rail.

Slowly, some big stacks are starting to emerge. Canadian PokerStars qualifier Dimitrios Pappas tops the chip count on 36,000, followed UK PokerStars Supernova Natasha Ellis (33,000), James AndyMcLEOD Obst (31,000), Dan Alspach (30,000), PokerNews Cup winner Nali Kaselias (22,000) and PokerStars Sponsored player and local model Priscilla Meirelles (20,000), whose not letting the big reputations on table 17 push her around.

PokerStars Sponsored player Celina Lin is mixing things up today, and is "trying a different style" to find her way to the final table.

A self-described tighter player normally, she's hoping to mix things up with a more aggressive style as she is more liberal with raises and re-raises. "I've been on a roller coaster today Ð started at 10,000 chips, then up to 14,000, then down to 6000, and now back up to around 14,000 chips again," she said.

"I'm experimenting today", and, as her opponent fold to another re-raise from Celina, she flips over pocket kings. Sometimes, however, she still has the goods, and with her bold and aggressive play putting her opponents to a decision for some of their chips, they’ll keep all the possibilities in the back of their minds.

The random nature of big buy-in poker tournaments means that a kaleidoscope of characters is assured. That factor is multiplied on the PokerStars.net APPT, where many players are making their first major tournament start or hail from countries where poker is still in its infancy.

We just spoke with a beaming Ursula Holt, a National Pub Poker League (NPPL) player from New Zealand. She qualified for a trip to Manila via a satellite event played at SKYCITY Casino in Auckland – “I can’t believe I’m here – from pub poker to this,” she said as she surveyed the day 1B field at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino.

At the other end of the scale is the always-colourful (and current chip leader) Dan Alspach. The husband of PokerStars Sponsored player JJ Liu, Dan looks resplendent in his usual tournament outfit of matching cap and shirt. Veterans of the tournament scene, Dan and JJ have been great supporters of the APPT and bring more than a touch of class to the entry list.

But while there’s more than a few readily identifiable faces in the field today, a common theme on the APPT this year has been the increasing ratio of Asian players to internationals.

Our Japanese blogger Jenn Barr reports that there is a Japanese player at virtually every table today. “Auckland was a bit far for these players, but after their friends took first and second at APPT Seoul, many players have flocked to Manila for their chance at fame and fortune with the game they love,” Jenn said.

On day 1A, two of the eight Japanese players survived: Tsutomu Nagashima and professional Mahjong player Takashi Ogura. Today there are at least eight more representatives of the “Land of the Gods” and many of them are already making their presence felt.

We’ve already mentioned Japanese high roller Yasuhiro Waki PokerStars.net APPT Seoul winner, Yoshihiro Tasaka. On the main floor we find APPT Seoul runner-up, Hidenari Shiono, dressed in his trademark flame-shirt and blue hat.

A few tables away is his younger brother Takashi, in matching flames. On the other side of the room is the 2007 APPT Manila eighth-place finalist, Kazuhiro Sato, back again to better his score from last year.

Also back for their second APPT experience are Itaru Kaneko and Taiyo Akagi. Akagi qualified on PokerStars and is here celebrating his first anniversary as a poker player. They practice their live skills in the Japan Poker League and playing online at PokerStars.

Kaneko has even taught his 11-year old son how to play and has a poker table in his house. He supervises play-money games for his son’s friends and teaches them about the mind-sport of poker.

PokerStars Sponsored Player and defending APPT Manila Champion, Brett Parise, is here with his brother Rob. The two brothers have come out from the USA together, and the older Rob is taking good care of his younger brother. The Parises are sitting back-to-back on neighbouring tables.

In recent hands, they’ve had radically divergent results. Brett has been running well, picking up a number of weakly contested pots. One hand saw Brett raise to 225 in early position, and for only the button to call him. The board came out As-5d-3s, and Brett bet the pot of 525. The other player folded.

By contrast, on Rob's table, a player raised to 200 from the cutoff, and Rob elected to re-raise to 800 from the button. The board came 9d-6d-Jc and the other player checked to Rob. Rob bet 1300 into the 1675 chip pot, and was soon check raised to 3,000. After an agonising consideration, Rob elected to fold with 6800 chips remaining.

The table of death: it’s one of those annoying poker expressions but there’s an element of truth to that cliché in the list of players that took the short walk from the main tournament area to the TV studio at the start of play on day 1B of the PokerStars.net APPT Manila main event.

The line-up included David Steicke (one of only two players to have cashed in three APPT events), Eddy Sabat (the reigning APPT Macau main event champion), Yoshihiro Tasaka (the reigning APPT Seoul main event champion), Japanese poker identity Yasuhiro Waki and mild-mannered Aussie teenager by the name of James Obst, also known online as AndyMcLEOD.

The 18-year-old from Adelaide, South Australia has amassed one of the most daunting records in online tournament poker. He won the $215 Pot Limit Omaha (w/ one rebuy and one add-on) event in the recent PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP). Triumphing over a field of 1223 players, he won USD $98,280. He cashed in four other WCOOP events.

Obst’s first taste of big-time live poker came at the 2008 WSOP Europe and PokerNews Cup, and this is his first foray to Asia – the youngster said he’s enjoying his debut APPT experience, especially with his tablemates tearing each other limb from limb.

After Bryan Huang was denied his chance to become the first player to cash in four APPT events yesterday, David Steicke’s hopes of achieving the same goal have ended early on day 1B.

In a hand with Sabat, the American raised to 250 and Steicke called before they saw a flop of 2-2-5. Steicke bet 250, Sabat raised to 550 and Steicke called. A third deuce fell on the turn, Steicke bet 1000 and Sabat called.

The river was a 4, Steicke pushed all-in and after some careful deliberation, Sabat called and showed A-J, good enough to take down Steicke’s Q-10.

Another well-known APPT personality, Carter Gill, was one of the first players to hit the rail today. He made trip sevens on a board of 7-4-2-7-Q, but so did his opponent. Incredibly, his opponent’s kicker (7-6) played against Gill’s 7-5, and the likeable young American was headed for the cash games.

Players are enjoying their first break of the day, and when they return, the blinds will be at level 3 (100/200). We should have details of the final number of players and prize pool in the next hour.

Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson has started sailing through today's events, and has been confronted by some choppy waters.

On the third hand of the day, with blinds at 25/50 and an unchanged starting stack of 10,000 chips, after one player limped in, Nelson raised the pot to 200. Everyone else folded, except for the player who had limped.

The board came Jc-Tc-2d, and the pot was checked to Nelson. He bet 325, and was quickly called.

The 6c on the turn completed a possible flush, and both players checked. A 5h on the river generated no betting, and both players checked again.

Nelson was defeated by Q-T for a pair of tens, and Nelson mucked his hand. Having lost only 525 chips, he is certainly still in the battle.