It was a big day at PokerStars Live Manila poker room with a record-breaking 212 entries for day 1b of the Manila Megastack 4 Main Event. This was the highest turnout for the Manila Megastack series. Due to the number of players, extra tables had to be set up outside of the poker area. Non-stop poker action was clearly happening all around, and by the end of tournament play, there were only 26 survivors.
Leading at the end of day 1b was Filipino player Anacleto Quijano whose big scoop at the final two hands of the day skyrocketed him into the chip leader’s status.
Just before that happened, chip leader Kejie Ye from China looked like he was going to end the day as the leader but when he decided to bluff against Quijano, that proved to be a very costly mistake. Quijano had the nuts straight and was ready for the big payout. Quijano finished the day with 692k chips.
Another leader who rose up in the ranks during the final few hands of the night was Filipino player Renato Pacayra. Pacayra claimed a massive double up against big stacked Filipino poker pro Florencio Campomanes when his K♥ 10♥ connected on the board against Campomanes K♦ Q♠. Pacayra ended the day second-in-command with 466k chips.
The next top three players were Lee Chung Yeh from Chinese Taipei with 405k chips, Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa with 363k chips, and Filipino player Edilberto Gopez with 331k chips. Other notable survivors of day 1b were India’s Kunal Shetty, Korea’s Jae Kyung Sim aka Simba, and Filipino player Noel Araniel who won a side event trophy at the beginning of the series.
Two players who were quite a thrill to watch at the felt today were Zhen Xiong Lye from Malaysia and Gie Angelo Reyes from the Philippines. Both players came out with guns blazing but it seemed as if they enjoyed battling it out against each other. For Reyes, he controlled the table for quite some time, amassing a very big stack early, but his swings were also quite drastic and eventually he plummeted down when Lye got the best of him. Lye doubled up against Reyes and also won another big pot when he called out his bluff.
With only around ten percent of the field surviving the day, there were quite a big number of notable players who were sent to the rail. Filipino players Lester Edoc, Mike Takayama, and returning champion Euryd Rivera were in that list. Others who also fell were Norway’s Kai Paulsen, Germany’s Julian Hasse, UK’s Ben Abrahams, Welsh player Dave Colclough, and Austria’s Manuel Blaschke.
We will be returning tomorrow for the final showdown. You can read up on some of today’s action in the Manila Megastack 4: Day 1b updates. Congratulations to all the survivors of the grueling day 1b.
Day 1b Qualifiers: 26 players
Anacleto Quijano – Philippines – 692k
Renato Pacayra – Philippines – 466k
Lee Chung Yeh – Chinese Taipei – 466k
Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – Japan – 405k
Edilberto Gopez – Philippines – 363k
Aldrien David Villanueva – Philippines – 331k
Kunal Shetty – India – 330k
Regie Ann Delos Reyes – Philippines – 316k
Zhen Xiong Ly – Malaysia – 294k
Stevie Moon – UK – 269k
Ricardo Camapanario – UK – 258k
Joe Mark Vasay – Philippines – 252k
Franklin Nuguid – Philippines – 248k
Moses Saquing – Philippines – 211k
Stefano de Caro – Taiwan – 190k
Kejie Ye – China – 187k
Jean G. Issa – UK – 185k
Peter Roy Stevens – UK – 170k
Jae Kyung Sim – South Korea – 157k
Chanhee Yea – Korea – 136k
Wzardioline Lazier – Philippines – 130k
Mary Joy Ocampo – Philippines – 124k
Noel Araniel – Philippines – 121k
Semen Barabash – Russia – 103k
George Salud – Philippines – 90k
Anna Clarisse Bajas – Philippines – 27k
