Manila Megastack 17 Main Event Flight B breaches guarantee, Philippines’ Rick Jason Ambata bags the lead; Last chance to qualify today

Another action packed day landed at Okada Manila, Philippines with the Manila Megastack 17 festivities kicking through its headlining Main Event. The second flight on schedule drew in a staggering 235 entries and sent 36 players through to the Day 2 games. Once the qualifier wrapped up, local runnerRick Jason Ambata found himself bagging the biggest stack forward with a 428,000 chip count to top the field. The PHP 10 Million guarantee was already breached yesterday, December 8th with the prize pool currently standing at PHP 12.2 Million with one more flight to go.

Manila Megastack – Coverage
Manila Megastack – Festival Results
Manila Megastack – Schedule

This Saturday’s schedule sees Flight C play down beginning at 13:00, accompanied by side events Superstack Freezeout, Super Knockout Turbo, High Roller Day 1, Megastack Turbo Flight D, and Short Deck Turbo to cap the night.

Main Event Flight B Recap

Off to a strong start in Flight A, Flight B surpassed this record early on and closed registration with a total of 235 entries to break the Main Event’s PHP 10,000,000 (~USD 180,830) guarantee. More than half of the field had already exited the tables by the time the final numbers were in with only 15% of the field at 36 players slated to advance through to Sunday’s Day 2 games. Local runner Rommel Angeles sat atop the ranks at this time and consistently led the pack up until the last hour of the flight. Angeles lost two sizable three bet pots to Japan’s John Matsuda to chip down slightly and lose his chip leader status. Angeles survives through and remains to top the list ranking 6th in the overall counts as of writing.

Singapore’s Joseph Chong similarly bagged a healthy stack after delivering back to back eliminations to fast track to bubble time. Chong however, lost a chunk of his stack after running trips into Jayvon Carreon’s boat. Carreon then carried this momentum through to deliver the bubble, eliminating Kim Jaejoong with vs the latter’s . Carreon stands amongst the top players as Flight B wrapped up with Rick Jason Ambata in the lead. Ambata grew his stack late in the game after South Korea’s Shin Hyeonho paid off his straight all the way through. This followed with a blind vs blind battle against Ivan Tan where Ambata triple barreled with a set of to claim the pot. The Filipino pro returns to the felt this Sunday bringing in a 428,000 chip count to put him in a great position to run deep and potentially take it down.

Date: December 7 – 11, 2023
Buy-in: PHP 35,000 (~USD 630)
Guarantee: PHP 10,000,000 (~USD 180,830)
ITM: 15% of the field

Flight A: 167 entries, 26 qualified
Flight B: 235 entries, 36 qualified

Flight C: December 9, Saturday
Day 2: December 10, Sunday
Final Day: December 11, Monday

Flight B Top Chip Counts