Manila Megastack 19: Koki Itabashi, Daijiro Tomoto, Keita Kitamura Win Spadies; Jolando Auza Bags Mystery Day 1B

Day 4 of the Manila Megastack 19 series fell on a Sunday. Like most Sundays, it was a day of rest and relaxation outside but at Okada Manila in Manila, Philippines, PokerStars LIVE was buzzing with poker chips flying in every direction.

The day opened with the Double Stack (PHP 1 Million Guaranteed). Double stacks plus comfortable blind levels is just the right amount of relaxation for any poker player. True enough, the event brought a huge turnout of 208 entries (177 unique) that pushed the prize pool to over PHP 2.1 Million, doubling the guarantee. Certainly, a great rewarding start to a Sunday.

Of the 208 entries, 31 players made it into the payout circle with champion Koki Itabashi of Japan grabbing the biggest payout worth PHP 440,500 (~USD 8,000) plus a ticket to the Manila Megastack 19 Main Event that plays in a few days.

The Mystery Bounty (PHP 2 Million Guaranteed) Flight Day 1B, kicked off later in the afternoon. The Mystery Bounty was the second multi-day event and it was the last chance to advance to the final round the next day where everyone would be guaranteed a payout plus the chance to win a mystery bounty prize for every player they knocked out.

140 players signed up with the top 21 survivors advancing to the Mystery Bounty final to join the 11 players of flight Day 1A. The top chip leader of the Day 1B flight was Jolando Auza who bagged 417,000 chips and will lead all players when the Day 2 Final begins.

The supposed relaxing Sunday got a little more intense with two Turbo events opened. The very unique 6+ Hold’em Turbo  was the first to kick off. 6+ Hold’em has a different set of rules. All the cards below a 6 are removed from the deck, and only high cards are played. A flush beats a full house and A-6-7-8-9 classifies as a low straight. All players must post an ante and only the dealer posts a blind known as a “button blind”.

While the variant is not as familiar as the regular Hold’em, there were still 17 players who gave it a go with the top 4 getting a share of the prize pool. The biggest winner was event champion Daijiro Tomoto, who won a first place payout of PHP 93,500 (~USD 1,600). Incidentally, Tomoto is also the chip leader of the Mystery Bounty Day 1A flight.

If turbo wasn’t intense enough, the Sunday capped off with a Knockout Hyper Turbo (PHP 2,000 Bounty). As one can imagine, the poker action for this was meant to be brutal, aggressive and intense. Hold’em on steroids with a chance to cash in on some bounty without getting deep in the tournament. 95 players signed up for the event with the top 13 places being paid a share of the prize pool above their collected bounties. While there were a lot of bounties collected, the only bounty that was kept safe was that of Knockout Hyper Turbo champion Keita Kitamura, who bagged the top share from the prize pool of PHP 165,240 (~USD 2,900) on top of the bounties he made.

Tomorrow will bring the top poker players back for the Mystery Bounty Final among other events.  The Manila Megastack 19 runs from September 19 to 29 and offers 40 numbered events and 11 qualifiers. That’s a lot of poker and a lot of chances to earn.

Article by JJ Duque

Links:

Manila Megastack 19 – Schedule / Player Guide
Manila Megastack 19 – News
Manila Megastack 19 – Daily Updates
Manila Megastack – Photos
Manila Megastack – Festival Results