The Manila Megastack 5 Main Event hosted by PokerStars Live Manila and Asia Pacific Poker Tour, came to a close at the Grand Ballroom of City of Dreams Manila with Chinese Taipei’s Tzu Chieh Lo reigning victorious to capture the massive first place cash prize of P2,392,350 and the championship trophy.
The fifth installment of the Manila Megastack series promised to be bigger and better than its previous installments, and it certainly did not disappoint. There were a total 478 entries at the Main Event generating a prize pool of P10,432,350, well exceeding the guarantee of P6M. After three intense days of Main Event action, it came down to the final table action with some of the toughest players in the Asian poker scene. Entering the final table as the chip leader was Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen followed by Germany’s Julian Hasse.
It was Japan’s Eichi Mizuno who delivered the first blow, eliminating Chinese Taipei’s Fu Lung Hung in 9th place. But immediately after, it was Lo and Chinese Taipei’s Shih Chieh Su who began to dominate the action, taking down pots with several aggressive bets and raises. Lo eliminated Canada’s Karl Thorson in 8th place, Tollefsen railed Mizuno in 7th place, and then Tollefsen took a painful blow to his stack when his big slick lost to Su’s set of threes. Tollefsen managed to gain some of it back but after Lo eliminated Australia’s Angelo Peter Scicchitano in 6th place, Lo had a dominating lead. With the blinds quite high, the only action seen at the felt was the all-in shove. Eliminations went by quick with Tollefsen railed in 5th place by Hasse, then Hasse eliminated by Lo in 4th place, and China’s Keiji Ye in 3rd place after falling to Su’s straight.
The heads up round had Lo ahead in chips against Su but after ten hands with a few flops hitting the felt, Su overtook Lo by nearly 2M chips. But in heads up, there is usually that one crucial hand that turns the tide and it happened when Lo moved all in on a board of 5♥ 7♣ 8♣ and Su snap-called. Lo had Aâ™ 9♦ and Su with A♥ 6♣ . When the turn of Jâ™ and river of 5â™ completed the board, Lo was awarded the biggest double up of the Main Event, climbing to over 12M chips while Su fell to 1.8M chips. Two hands after, the last hand saw Lo eliminate Su in 2nd place with his K♦ 8♦ against 9♥ 6♥ on a board of 2♦ 10â™ 2♥ A♦ J♣ . Impressively, this is Lo’s second Megastack triumph this year having won the Macau Poker Cup 24 HKD5000 NLH Megastack in February.
Prior to the final table, there were 108 gunners who entered the final day. Holding court at the top was Su, and Lo within range in fourth position. With 45 players seeing the money, reigning Asia Player of the Year champion Hong Kong’s Alan “Kinglune” Lau finished in a respectable 12th place, Japan’s Kenichi Takarabe (Red Dragon winner in July 2010) took 25th place, and Australia’s Ken Demlakian just made the money in 39th place. Another player who ran well was Korea’s Seung Soo Jeon who nearly bubbled to the money (almost railed by Su), then made it to 10th place, one spot shy of the final table. Indonesia’s Sammy Bolung finished in 14th place, he was one of the many players Su eliminated throughout the day.
The Main Event drew in an international crowd representing 29 countries led by the Philippines with 104 players, Japan with 84 players, Taiwan/Chinese Taipei with 51 players, Korea with 40 players, and the USA with 34 players. The Main Event also posted some record-breaking numbers with 220 entries at Day 1a, the largest number of entries for a first day flight of the series-to-date. The total entries of 478 also surpassed the previous record turnout of 375. To cap it all, this was the largest prize pool for the series, over P10.4M, crushing the past record of P3.2M.
Final Table Payouts:
1st Tzu Chieh Lo – Chinese Taipei – P2,392,350
2nd Shih Chieh Su – Chinese Taipei -P1,526,000
3rd Keiji Ye – China – P966,000
4th Julian Hasse – Germany – P773,000
5th Henrik Tollefsen – Norway P585,000
6th Angelo Peter Scicchitano – Australia – P433,000
7th Eichi Mizuno – Japan – P331,000
8th Karl Thorson – Canada – P280,000
9th Fu Lung Hung – Chinese Taipei – P234,000
*The top five finishers won a Main Event seat to the upcoming APPT 10 Manila.
You can read up on the Final Day action and previous days via these links below.
Final Day Updates
