Main Event (45,000 PHP)

Right the next hand David Rene Mar shoves with 7♠ 3♣ and Richard Marquez decides J♦ 8♣ is good enough to win the tournament right here and now. The dealer makes his premonition come true by hitting the felt with 2♣ K♣ T♥ K♥ 4♠ crowning him new Manila Megastack 20 Main Event Champion.

After a few small pots went to David Rene Mar to take the lead it is Richard Marquez who kicks off the action with a raise to 250,000. BB David Rene Mar jams his massive stack to put Richard all-in. After some deliberation he decides it's go-time and calls his remaining 6,400,000 with Q♦ 9♦ . David flips over K♥ 6♦ for a close race. The dealer keeps it interesting until the end with T♣ 3♥ J♦ T♥ 8♠ to give Richard a straight on the river and pushes this massive pot into his direction.

With the BU opening 270,000 and SB Richard Marquez calling in SB, BB William Ysmael jams 2,430,000 with A♦ 2♠ . Richard calls with 9♥ 9♦ and it is looking dire for the defending champ. The dealer agrees by tabling 9♠ A♣ 7♣ Q♥ A♥ to take us heads up.

#135 and #136 both get picked up by Alvir Inocentes with min opens from BU an CO.

#137 kicks off with CO Richard Marquez raising to 200,000, BU William Ysmael calls and Alvir Inocentes puts down the hammer with a jam for 2,800,000 to scoop up the pot.

#138 is a walk for Richard Marquez

#139 has David Rene Mar raise to 225,000 to take BU Alvir Inocentes to the flop A♦ T♠ J♣ where a 175,000 c-bet gets called for the turn 4♣ that gets checked to the river A♠ . David slides out another 425,000 with A♣ 9♠ that's called by Alvir who mucks.

Opening 225,000 from BU, David Rene Mar takes both blinds to the flop J♦ T♣ 9♠ that gets checked all the way to the river 3♣ 2♠ where BB Richard Marquez tries to bluff with 270,000, but immediately mucks when David says call.

#131 gets picked up by Alvir Inocentes with a min from BU.

#132 is a limped blind battle to the flop A♥ 5♥ 2♠ with BB David Rene Mar sliding out a 100,000 winning bet.

#133 has BU William Ysmael raise 200,000 and both blinds defend to see the flop 5♥ J♣ T♠ that gets checked round to the turn 3♥ where SB David Rene Mar leads 225,000 and only William continues to the river 7♠ . Separating another 500,000 from his stack with Q♠ J♠ , David gets paid by William who mucks.

#125 goes to Richard Marquez with a min from BU.

#126 has Alvir Inocentes raise 250,000 in SB to take it down.

#127 is another walk for William Ysmael.

#128 kicks of with SB William Ysmael limp, but decides to let it go after BB David Rene Mar pumped it to 300,000.

#129 goes to Alvir Inocentes with a walk.

#130 starts with David Rene Mar raise to 225,000 from BU and SB Alvir Inocentes calls to see the flop K♥ 4♠ 6♠ that gets checked to the river T♣ T♦ where Alvir takes over the reins with a 350,000 lead holding A♠ 9♦ , but gets called by David with J♥ 6♥ .

Jamming his remaining 245,000 with K♠ 8♠ from UTG, Sham Wing Sheuk watches BB David Rene Mar fill up and show K♣ 4♦ for a good chance to double up. The dealer has other ideas and flips over 3♦ 7♣ 4♥ 7♠ A♥ to bring us down to six players.

David Rene Mar opens hand #65 for 135,000 from UTG, Yohei Katsuragawa jams his remaining 320,000 with A♥ Q♠ and is flipping against David's J♦ J♠ . The Dealer tables T♦ K♦ 9♠ 7♣ 4♣ and delivers the first knockout of the day.

Hand #55 gets open-limped from BU Richard Marquez and BB William Ysmael waives his option to see the flop 5♣ 6♦ J♥ that gets checked around to the turn 8♠ . Will leads 70,000 and gets called for the board to complete 7♠ . Another 425,000 lead gets the job done.

Hand #56 is taken down by Alivir Inocentes with a 120,000 open from the LJ.

Hand #57 has William Ysmael back in the drivers seat, making it 120,000 from the button and BB David Rene Mar defends his big to see the flop 4♠ 6♦ 5♠ that gets checked to the turn 5♣ . David decides to switch gears with a 100,000 lead that gets called for the river T♣ to be revealed. Back to a check, David faces a 485,000 bet from Will and decides to fold, losing a time bank in the process.

#40 has William Ysmael recover by taking down the pot with a 100,000 raise from CO

#41 sees William Ysmael kick off with another 100,000 from HJ to take CO and BB to the flop 3♦ 8♠ K♣ where he takes it down with a 125,000 c-bet.

#42 starts with David Rene Mar opening 110,000 to take CO Sham Wing Sheuk to the flop 5♦ T♥ 9♦ where a 110,000 c-bet and a call take us to the turn 8♥ . Slowing down to a check, David Rene Mar watches Sham Wing Sheuk consume two time banks before jamming his remaining 595,000. With the aid of one of his own time banks, David lets it go.

Hand #13 goes to Alvir Inocentes with an 80,000 raise from +2.

Hand #14 kicks off with William Ysmael opening from HJ to take BU Rene David Mar to the flop 3♠ K♥ 5♠ that gets checked to the turn 5♥ , where a delayed c-bet of 125,000 slides over the line. Mar makes the call to see the board complete A♥ , is faced with another 285,000 barrel and goes in the tank before finally declaring raise to 750,000 with the addition of a time bank. Now it is Ysmael who has to brood, coming to the conclusion that fold is the best option and also hands two time banks to the dealer.

Having reached the Final 9 down from 77 that started Day 2 Richard Marquez came to life towards the end running up a massive chip lead that resulted in him bagging 3,070,000 in first, but Alvir Inocentes - the only player that qualified for day 2 twice - mounted a late charge that included the last minute elimination of Christopher Mateo on the final table bubble and brought him close to the leader with 2,825,000 in chips.

With an exiting journey through the ITM stage down to the final table done, we give the players some time to recover before we resume play tomorrow at 13:00 with the contenders battling over the lion share of the P20,113,920 prize pool and P3,713,920 on top.

We will see you here tomorrow for the live updates again and leave you with the chip counts of the final 9 :

Starting the day as massive chip leader, followed by a bumpy run to the lower end of the field in the past two hours, Jonald Garcia picks up A♠ 9♠ in the BB and jams 335,000 into HJ David Rene Mar's 85,000 opening. Mar fills up with A♥ 8♣ and the dealer delivers four hits on 8♣ 9♠ A♣ 8♥ T♥ letting the underdog emerge as the victor with eights full.

Open-jamming 175,000 with K♠ 9♠ from UTG, Wu En Ching watches BB David Rene Mar call and flip over K♦ J♠ to dominate the player at risk. The dealer has no help for the underdog on K♥ 7♦ 5♥ 4♠ 6♣ and we have 15 players left standing.

David Rene Mar opens 55,000 from the HJ and takes BB Daijiro Tomoto to the flop Q♣ K♣ 2♦ where a 35,000 c-bet gets called to see the turn A♣ . David Rene Mar puts his opponent all-in, who pays up with his remaining 225,000 but is at risk of being taken out of the tournament, showing Q♥ T♣ against David's A♥ Q♦ . The dealer only has a blank to offer 8♥ and sends Daijiro Tomoto on his way.

Announcing all-in for 176,000 with K♦ Q♣ , Seongjin Kim needs a miracle when BU David Rene Mar calls and flips over K♠ K♣ . Nothing noteworthy on 8♥ 8♦ T♠ 4♠ 9♣ and we lose another player.

Starting us off with a raise to 25,000, David Rene Mar takes BB Andy Chan to the flop 3♦ A♥ 3♠ and continues for 18,000. Andy Chan pays up to see the turn T♣ that gets checked for the river 4♠ to be revealed where Andy Chan switches to a lead, value-betting for 76,000 holding 5♣ 2♥ . After taking his time, David Rene Mar makes the call to muck against Andy Chan's big blind special, losing a time bank in the process.

UTG David Rene Mar lays out 10,000 with A♠ 3♣ and +2 Jimin Lim shoves for 23,000 holding K♣ Q♠ for a heads up showdown. The dealer keeps it interesting till the end by tabling 4♣ 9♥ 5♥ Q♣ A♣ but sends Jimin Lim packing all the same.

After another 15 levels of Day 1 play in the Main Event are under our belts we reached the final 19 out of a starting field of 126 advancing to Day 2 on Saturday 13:00.

With the top 5 eclipsing yesterdays Flight A chip leader we saw Mystery Bounty's biggest winner Fransisco Sanchez come out on top with 379,000 to his name, after another stellar performance. In close quarters we have 2nd in chips Kim Jaejoong bagging 367,000 and David Rene Mar in 3rd with 341,000.

For all the players missing out today, we have Flight C on Friday at 13:00 with the usual 10 levels of late registration until around 20:10.

Enjoy the rest of your night and see you tomorrow for another round of live updates!

Our 19 qualifiers all in on place:

David Rene Mar raises to 8,500 with 7♠ 7♦ from CO, Eva Zhang jams 29,500 with K♦ Q♥ and we have a flip on our hands. The dealer turns over 8♦ J♦ T♣ T♠ Q♣ for a last minute hit, granting Eva Zhang a much needed double up.

Koga Takayuki continues to make plays with another open from UTG for 6,500 to take SB David Rene Mar to the flop A♥ 4♠ 7♦ with the latter donk-betting 5,000 and be met with a call to see the turn Q♥ . Another 16,000 lead from David Rene Mar ends the hand.

With 24 out of 126 remaining we are inching closer to the cut-off with 19 players qualifying for day 2. Here are the top chip counts:

Hisashi Yamanouchi opens 3,000 from CO and takes the remaining three players to the flop 4♣ 2♦ 5♦ . Checked to the preflop raiser, a 6,000 c-bet goes over the line and only SB David Rene Mar pays to see the turn J♥ that gets checked around to complete the board 9♣ . When David Rene Mar checks and is faced with another 18,000 bet he gets suspicious and makes the right call with A♥ 4♥ against 7♦ 6♦ from Hisashi Yamanouchi.

Raising to 700, HJ David Rene Mar takes the button and BB to the flop J♠ Q♠ 4♣ with a 1,500 continuation going in the middle that gets countered by a raise to 3,500 from BU Yusuf Cassidy to see the turn 7♣ heads up. Cassidy lays out another 3,700 to complete the board K♠ with two checks and reveal David Rene Mar's winner A♦ Q♣ .

Picking up the action on the flop 5♦ 8♣ 6♦ and 7,500 in the pot, Sham Wing Sheuk lays out a winning bet of 5,800.