Thursday, 28th March 2024 15:42
Home / Uncategorized / Manila Megastack 5: Record turnout of 220 entries for Main Event Day 1a

It was a big day at the Manila Megastack 5 Main Event with a record turnout of 220 entries for Day 1a. This is the largest ever recorded field for a Manila Megastack Day 1a flight. This also brought the prize pool to a massive P4.8M. By the end of eight hours of play, the field dwindled down to 49 players with Chinese Taipei’s Hao-Cha Luo earning the chip leader’s status with 345,500 chips bagged up.

Hao-Cha Luo.jpg
During the last level of the Main Event, Luo was already cradling a hefty stack and it grew even more when he check-raised a player all in on a flop of K♦ 10♥ 7♥ to claim another 70k chips. Luo wasn’t the only one amassing chips in final round of the night, Singapore’s Alex Lee picked up two timely pots, one against Korea’s Soo Jo Kim, and another that sent a player packing. These wins placed him in the chip leader’s zone as second-in-command with 272,500 chips. The 2015 Asia Player of the Year champion, Hong Kong’s Alan “Kinglune” Lau, also amassed towers of chips to claim the third top spot in the chip ladder with 249,500 chips.

One of the biggest fireworks before closing time was when Indonesia’s Sammy Bolung tripled up and catapulted out of the short stack zone. Bolung’s happy hand was A♣ K♣ that connected with a nut flush. Bolung went from 50k chips to a very healthy 241,500 chips.

In addition to the leaders, players such as Malaysia’s Ying Lin Chua (MPC24 Red Dragon Champion), Vietnam’s Thanh Ha Duong, Germany’s Julian Hasse, and Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen all made the cut with above average stacks. For Tollefsen, he scooped up two big pots during the last two hours of the tournament. In one hand he held pocket jacks that doubled him up and the other with trip tens holding ten-eight offsuit against Filipino player Terry Gonzaga. China’s Yongqi Ren and Russia’s Andrei Dementev also made the list but they’ll have their work cut out for them on the Final Day as they will be entering with very short stacks.Luckily for them and the others who hit the rail, there is one more flight to get back in the running.

As there are survivors, so must there be the fallen ones. Filipino pro Lester Edoc, Norway’s Kai Paulsen, India’s Piyush Gupta, USA’s Gerald Casey, India’s Dhaval Mudgal, UK’s Jean Issa, Filipino Mike Takayama, and the Welcome Event champion Japan’s Daiki Iijima all failed to hold on to their chips.

For a read on some of the action at Day 1a, head to the Manila Megastack 5 Day 1a Updates.

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app