PokerStars LIVE hosted the 10th edition of their Manila Megastack, which ran from 7th to 16th December at the PokerStars LIVE poker room in Okada, Manila, Philippines. The 10-day poker fiesta began with a PHP 6K NLH event and concluded with the PHP 30,000 Main Event, which was shipped by Japan’s Yasutake Oka who outlasted a strong field of 417 entries to win the coveted title and his career-best of PHP 2,562,000 along with a PHP 100,000 package to the 2019 APPT Manila.
Day 2 of the Main Event saw 90 players returning to battle it for the top prize. It was the big day for Oka who managed to build a healthy stack and became the strong contender for the title.
Oka reached heads-up with Martin Gonzales who proved to be a big challenge for him. Oka was almost down and out with 1:3 chip deficit against Gonzales. However, he didn’t give up and quickly took the slight lead over Gonzales. On the final hand of the tournament, Gonzales shoved all in and Oka snap-called with Th Td. Gonzales had Ts 9c. The board ran 5h Qd 7c Ad 8h to give the title to Oka. Gonzales had to eventually settle for the runner-up prizemoney of PHP 1,542,000.
Team India
India’s Harsh Dembla was the lone player to cross money line and finish 9th in the Main Event for PHP 243,000 (INR 3.29 Lac). His ride was a little topsy-turvy. He held a healthy stack when the bubble burst. He further extended his stack to 600,000 by the time the field was down to final 22.
Moving into FT, Dembla took a big hit from the eventual champion Oka who beat Dembla’s Jacks with his Kings. After going down to just 11k, Dembla fought back and managed to collect 117,000 chips by hitting trips queens but he was unfortunately knocked out in the very next hand. Dembla holding Ah Ks was called by Oka and Rob Glasspool and Siyoung Lee shoved for 900,000. Both Oka and Glasspool folded and Dembla called Lee, who showed Qc Jh over Th 4s 2h Js 9h board. Lee’s Jack pair was good enough to win the pot and eliminate Dembla in 9th place.
Dembla is India’s well-known pro who has been a regular at DPT and WPT India in the recent times. Last year, he finished 5th in the 2017 WPT India 20K Deep Turbo NLH for INR 1.57 Lac, and this year he followed up that score with his 9th place finish (INR 6.63 Lac) in the WPT India 55K Main Event.
A total of 3 Indians took part in the Manila Megastack series, namely Harsh Dembla, Ankit Jajodia and Rohit Behal. Dembla among them topped the list with 3 scores totaling around PHP 4,89,790 (INR 6.63 Lac). Jajodia too picked up 3 scores at the series, including his sixth place finish in the Kickoff PHP 3M GTD Event. His total earnings reached PHP 2,40,628 (INR 3.26 Lac). So far Behal, he also ran deep and cashed the PHP 15,000 NLH for his ninth place finish for PHP 45,000 (INR60,998).
Final Table Payouts:
- Yasutake Oka – PHP 2,562,000
- Martin Gonzales – PHP 1,542,000
- Robert Glasspool – PHP 952,500
- Flo Campomanes – PHP 730,500
- Siyoung Lee – PHP 541,000
- Joachim Chia – PHP 433,000
- Marius Zalpys – PHP 354,230
- Jessie Supnet – PHP 298,000
- Harsh Dembla – PHP 243,000
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