Thursday, 28th March 2024 17:53
Home / Uncategorized / Manila Megastack 2: A Winning Memory for Takaaki Umemori

Written by Triccia David

We’ve all had those serendipitous moments of being at the right place at the right time. Some people coin it as being lucky, some say blessed, some believe it is karma working on our side. Well, whatever you call it, those moments strike unexpectedly, and they feel pretty amazing. At Day 3 of the PokerStars LIVE Megastack Manila 2, Japanese player Takaaki Umemori found himself to be a recipient of one of those unexpected glorious moments.

Strolling his way into City of Dreams Manila, Umemori walked up to the PokerStars reception desk, looking to claim his online winning ticket to the upcoming Main Event. Due to the language barrier, he was assisted by one of the PokerStars staff and was made aware of Event #3, the PHP15,000 No Limit Holdem already running. Deciding to get his feet wet before tomorrow’s big game, Umemori signed up and four hours later, he walked away with more than he expected. Here is a quick recap of that event.

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With a total of 20 entries, the game took on a very rapid pace that by the end of the third hour, it was down to the final table of nine. Shortly after, several more fell, including Danish player Michael Kim Falcon and Filipino poker pro John Tech.

When the table further compressed to three players, it was only then that action changed to a snail’s pace, though this is probably due to the blinds being so low compared to the amount of chips they all had to play with. Umemori and UK player Darshan Sami were clearly sporting big hefty stacks over Canadian player William Gordong Mcauley however this would shift dramatically when Sami lost a big chunk to Umemori. During the hand, Sami had pocket kings but with an ace showing on the board, he folded it to a bet by Umemori on the river. After that, Sami shoved with A-9 and was eliminated in third place by Umemori holding pocket jacks.

Heads up, Umemori held a sizeable chip lead against Mcauley and therefore wasted no time in taking care of business. In just five hands he railed Mcauley with a higher full house, and was awarded the first place cash prize of PHP112,600 plus the third trophy of the Megastack Manila 2. Congratulations to Takaaki Umemori!

Umemori will be returning tomorrow for the Main Event. He will be joined by South Korean player Kwangyeop Choi, Ka Cheong Wong from Hong Kong, and Filipino player Gie Angelo Reyes who all won seats at the Main Event Satellite which ended late this evening.

The Main Event PHP25,000 buy-in with a PHP2,000,000 guarantee will begin at 2:15pm on Saturday. See you all then!

For more information on the upcoming events, just proceed to the Manila Megastack 2 Home Page.

Event #3 PHP15,000 No Limit Holdem Results
20 entries
Prize Pool PHP261,900

1st Place: Takaaki Umemori, Japan (PHP 112,600)
2nd Place: William Gordon Mcauley, Canada (PHP 70,700)
3rd Place: Darshan S. Sami, UK (PHP 44,500)
4th Place: Yi Won Lee, South Korea (PHP 34,100)

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