Main Event

After 30 levels of play, beating a field of 512, Richard Marquez is crowned the new Manila Megastack 20 Main Event Champion. His tournament took a decisive turn after doubling up against Alvir Inocentes with pocket Nines versus Ace-Four and went on to take out his remaining three opponents all by himself, including the defending champ William Ysmael in 3rd having pocket Nines again versus William's Ace-Two.

In an interview with SMP, champion Richard Marquez shared:

SMP: How does this win compared to your other poker tournament wins?

RM: I had really hard time against Will, that was the main problem for this tournament. My main focus was to eliminate William. I felt I had a good chance versus the other players.

SMP: What was the turning point of the tournament?

RM: I had a chance to win when William was short-stacked and Rene Mar David was getting lucky so I had to change my game plan.

SMP: What strategies did you have during the tournament?

RM: I used my pocket Nines as a trap on a three-way. It worked with Alvir at first so I felt my pocket Nines were lucky so I had to gamble it on the next hand against Will.

SMP: Are you going to be joining any other events soon?

RM: I will be joining the nice events definitely. There will be an event in Taiwan so i will be joining that. I will also be joining World Series Circuit in Canada on January.

Translated from Tagalog by Blaise De Leon.

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.

With a big blind battle against William Ysmael going Richard Marquez' way just the hand before, we see Alvir Inocentes jamming his last 240,000 from CO with 4♣ 4♦. Richard Marquez calls with J♣ J♦ and the dealer has a player at risk. Flipping over K♠ 8♣ 7♣ K♥ 3♥ we are down to the last three players.

With next hands just pushing chips around with not much changing in stack sizes we jump back in when SB Alvir Inocentes open-jams 2,400,000 with A♦ 4♣ and BB Richard Marquez wakes up with 9♦ 9♥ to call and dominate. The dealer flips over 6♠ J♥ 4♠ 5♣ 3♦ to hand Richard a double and leave Alvir with two big blinds.

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.

#117 has David Rene Mar open 250,000 from SB and Alvir Inocentes defends to see the flop Q♦ A♣ A♠ where a 100,000 c-bet is enough for David to scoop the pot.

#118 goes to Alvir Inocentes min raising SB.

#119 kicks off with a 225,000 raise from CO David Rene Mar that gets called by SB Alvir Inocentes before Richard Marquez three-bets 750,000 to scoop the pot.

#120 is picked up by Richard Marquez with a three-bet again, this time making it 600,000 against Alvir Inocentes' min open.

#113 is picked up by Richard Marquez with a raise to 220,000 from UTG

#114 goes to William Ysmael making it 200,000 from UTG and gets a walk in #115.

#116 kicks off with Richard Marquez min-opening the button, SB William Ysmael three-bet 650,000 and the flop 8♥ 8♣ J♦ gets checked all the way to the river 2♦ 5♣ where William lays out another 450,000 to pick it up uncontested.

Richard Marquez min-opens 160,000 from his button and watches BB Yusuf Cassidy jam 985,000 with A♣ J♥ . Richard snaps with K♦ K♣ and the dealer servers another knock out by flipping over 7♥ 4♦ 6♣ 4♣ 3♥ .

#95 goes to William Ysmael with a CO min-open.

#96 is taken down by another min from Richard Marquez in UTG.

#97 gets folded to SB Andy Chan - who made it all the way here after starting day 2 with five big blinds - he jams his remaining 165,000 with 9♥ 4♣ and gets called by BB Richard Marquez with 9♦ 7♥ who is dominating. Having grown up with Disney movies, the dealer wants the Cinderella story to continue and tables A♦ 4♠ 3♣ 3♥ 8♠ to grant Andy Chan a suck out and a much needed double up.

#66 gets min-opened by Alvir Inocentes and both blinds defend to see the flop 7♦ 6♠ 5♥ that gets checked to the river K♦ 7♠ where BB David Rene Mar forks out a lead of 250,000 to take it down.

#67 looks similar with Richard Marquez raising 125,000 from LJ to take William Ysmael to the flop 4♠ 2♦ T♦ and a 150,000 c-bet enters the middle. Will calls for the action killer J♦ and we check to the river 8♥ and further to the showdown where Richard shows A♦ A♠ to scoop the pot.

Min-opening from BU, Richard Marquez takes William Ysmael to the flop 6♦ 7♥ J♠ where a 150,000 c-bet finds a customer to reveal the turn 4♦ that gets checked around to the river 4♣ . Will decides to lead 120,000 for a bluff with T♣ 9♥ , but gets called by Richard with top pair K♠ J♣ .

With a min-open from Richard Marquez and William Ysmael defending big, Hand #53 gets dressed up with a flop 3♥ T♣ 4♦ . A 110,000 c-bet wanders over the line, gets called and the A♠ hits the felt for a check around to the river T♥ . Richard makes a last ditch effort with another 400,000 bet, but gets called and insta mucks.

#48 starts with a limp from Richard Marquez in the HJ, but gets taken down by a 100,000 raise from BB David Rene Mar.

#49 is min-opened by William Ysmael from the CO to take BU Yusuf Cassidy to the flop T♣ A♥ 8♠ where a check-check reveals the turn 8♣ . A delayed c-bet of 100,000 and a call complete the board 9♣ that gets checked to showdown for a split between A♠ 5♥ for Will and A♦ 6♥ for Yusuf.

#50 is a quick one again with a 735,000 jam from Oliver Duran that finds no takers.

#51 kicks off with a 100,000 open from Sham Wing Sheuk that gets countered by a 570,000 jam from SB Yohei Katsuragawa to recover a bit.

#52 sees another min-open from Richard Marquez in UTG and +2 William Ysmael tags along to the flop 8♠ 7♣ J♥ , A 50,000 c-bet gets raised to 175,000 by Will and Richard pays to lay eyes on the turn 3♣ . Checked to Will, 410,000 slide over the line, enough to make Richard fold and Septembers Main Event Champ is back over 3M.

#47 kicks off with Richard Marquez opening 100,000 from CO to take BB Yusuf Cassidy the the flop 8♠ 9♣ 6♥ that gets checked to the river J♥ 4♣ where Yusuf leads 100,000, gets called and tables the winner Q♦ 9♥ .

#45 is a walk for Oliver Duran.

#46 starts with Richard Marquez raising 100,000 from BU and BB William Ysmael defending big to see the turn 4♣ 5♠ K♣ where a 100,000 c-bet gets called to see the turn 4♦ that gets checked to the river 2♦ where, after two more checks, Richard tables the winner A♠ 8♥ against William's 8♦ 6♥ .

Hand #11 is taken down by a 125,000 open from William Ysmael in SB

Hand #12 starts with Yohei Katsuragawa raise 80,000 to take HJ Richard Marquez to the flop 7♣ 6♦ 6♥ where a 100,000 c-bet gets the job done for the short stack.

Trying to make history with back-to-back victories, Manila Megastack 19 Main Event Champ William Ysmael defends his big blind against Richard Marquez' 80,000 open from the button to see the flop 7♥ 5♠ 8♣ that gets checked all the way to the river J♠ K♦ , where Marquez tries to steal with a 50,000 bet in position, but gets called by Ysmael with T♣ 8♥ to scoop the pot. Marquez insta mucked but said he had queen ten.

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 :

Andy Chan decides to open-limp his SB and fills up when BB Richard Marquez wants 200,000 to continue. The flop 3♣ 9♦ 7♥ has Chan check-call 185,000 to the turn 4♥ and another check-call for 350,000 to complete the board 4♦ . Faced with a third barrel of 700,000, Andy Chan lets it go.

After making it 60,000 from UTG and sharing the flop 8♠ 4♦ T♦ four-way to a checked turn 5♣ , Vito Tjahyadi jams 245,000 with Q♦ J♦ against BB Richard Marquez' 100,000 lead who fills up with 8♥ 7♥ . Not finding any of his gazillion outs on the river 3♠ , Vito Tjahyadi is joining the crowd at the rail.

Continuing to be very active, Richard Marquez opens 60,000 from +1 and William Ysmael defends his big to see the flop T♣ 2♣ 2♥ where he check-raises the leaders 40,000 c-bet to 125,000 and gets called for the turn 6♦ that gets checked around to the river 7♥ . William Ysmael lays out a 285,000 lead with A♥ T♦ , gets called by Richard Marquez, who mucks after seeing top-pair top-kicker.

Chip leader Richard Marquez puts 56,000 in the middle from BU, Benjamin Ebarle looks at A♦ 4♦ and jams 150,000 from BB and Marquez fills up showing 5♥ 5♠ . The dealer keeps it interesting till the end, spicing up the felt 8♥ 3♠ 2♥ K♣ Q♦ to eliminate Benjamin Ebarle and take us down to the last two tables.

With an open to 18,000 from the button, Richard Marquez induces SB Sergius Santos to jam 120,000 with K♠ T♠ and calls the remainder with A♦ 8♣ . The dealer flips over 8♥ J♥ 6♠ 3♣ 7♦ to catapult Richard Marquez into the lead.

Making it 15,000 form UTG, Fransisco Sanchez continues to four-bet for 105,000 after BB Richard Marquez pumped it to 43,000 and then filling up to have two big stacks share the flop 2♦ 6♥ 7♣ . Checked to Sanchez, another 80,000 go over the line that are called for the turn 4♠ and another check from Marquez. Sanchez slides out 125,000 that gets met with a check-raise-jam of 560,000 and goes deep in the tank, but lets it go with the aid of a time bank and Richard Marquez shows nines while scooping up the pot.

Similar pattern as the hand before, CO opens 13,000, BU Richard Marquez three-bets 38,000, Alang Fu Zhenbo jams 101,000 from SB with 4♠ 4♥ and only the BU pays up with Q♣ Q♥ . No surprises on 6♠ 6♣ 8♠ 2♦ A♦ and the tables loses another player.

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:

An open limp from the SB provokes a 9,000 raise from BB Renniel Galvez and gets called from limper Richard Marquez to reveal the flop J♣ T♥ K♣ . He check calls another 6,000 c-bet to see the turn 9♥ and takes over with a 10,000 bet of his own. Galvez calls, the river 5♦ drops Marquez is back to checking and Galvez lays out 30,000 with A♠ Q♦ . Having a straight himself, Richard Marquez makes the call with Q♠ 5♣ but has to surrender the pot.

Richard Marquez starts us off with a raise to 1,600 from UTG with A♦ K♦ and BU Chua Woo Hian says all-in for 38,300 with Q♥ Q♠ for a massive flip to be decided by the dealer flipping over 8♣ J♦ J♠ 6♣ 5♣ that has the ladies stay on top.