William Ysmael Wins Manila Megastack 19 Main Event

William Ysmael of the Philippines bested a field of 521 entries at the Manila Megastack 19 Main Event to claim the title and PHP 3,035,000 (~US$54,188) in winnings. At heads up, Ysmael and fellow Filipino Edilberto Gopez decided to split the remaining prize money and Ysmael be declared as champion. It was the seventh title for the Ysmael and third Main Event trophy of his career.

Interview with William Ysmael

SMP: It’s your third Main Event win. How special is this one to you? 

Ysmael: It’s always fun to win a main event. The ups and downs of a multiple-day tourney where everyone is giving it their best—the feeling is palpable in those couple of days you are going to battle. I played decently well, and once I was able to amass a big chip lead, I was never all in anymore preflop for my tourney life until the FT. Nothing really beats the first ones, but this one is memorable as well.

SMP: You and Gopez opted to chop, how did that come about? 

Ysmael: I had wanted to play heads up as that is one of my favorite variants of poker, nothing like outwitting your opponent 1 on 1, but he asked to get an even chop, and I had been spending a lot of time with him the last couple of months playing cash games, so I happily obliged.

SMP: What was your turning point when you had an inkling that this was yours for the taking?

Ysmael: The turning point was the hand I had versus one of my closest friends in the industry, Kyle Magbanua. At that point we were 7 handed and I was in the middle of the pack for the whole FT. I opened QQ from early position and he was on the SB and opted to jam with AJ as there were two very short stacks on the table. Unfortunately for him, he ran into one of the few hands I would call his jam with. From then on, I had the CL and pretty much was able to play a more aggressive style.  So again, thanks Kyle for the donation!

SMP: Talk about the field and how you navigated it to get this deep

Ysmael: It was a good mix of Filipino players and a host of other nationalities. There has been a surge of Japanese players in recent years, and they play quite well compared to how they used to play in the past. The Philippine player fields are one of the tougher Asian fields.  A lot of the players have been playing for years, and they play a more explorative, unorthodox strategy.

My day 1 was a dream day, as I had built a big stack right away and everything went perfectly. I would make a lot of hands and get max value, then the times I was bluffing, it would get through. By bubble time, I had a 500k stack and was just able to add another 270k without any showdowns.  The second day wasn’t as smooth, but I just stayed patient and waited for the proper spots and played it pretty well. I had a huge hand versus the Japanese CL at that time. I had just moved to his table, and we tangled right away where I flopped a set and doubled through for a massive CL pot.  It was smooth sailing to the FT then.

SMP: What’s next in your poker journey?

Ysmael: I’m going to continue to work and get better at the craft. Life has been great and I understand how fortunate I am to be in the situation I am in right now. I’ve been playing a lot of cash games, as I’m probably a better cash game player than I am a tourney player, but I will join all the upcoming tourneys coming to Manila.  I’m so happy poker tournaments are coming back to the Philippines, and I hope this is the start of bigger and better things to come.

Manila Megastack 19

Main Event – Results

• Dates: September 25-29, 2024
• Buy in: Php 45,000 (~US$800)
• Guarantee: PhP20,000,000 (~US$357,085)
• Entries: 521 (290 unique)
• Prize pool: PhP20,467,485 (~US$365,432)
• ITM: 80 places

Flight Results

• Day 1A entries: 78 / 12 qualified
• Day 1B entries: 130 / 20 qualified
• Day 1C entries: 250 / 38 qualified
• Day 1D (Turbo) entries: 63 / 10 qualified

Main Event Payouts

MAIN EVENT – Full Results

Main Event Recap

The highly popular Manila Megastack was another crowd pleaser at the PokerStars LIVE hub at world class Okada Manila in Manila, Philippines. In total, the 19th edition drew 521 entries across four flights with 80 players advancing to the money round / Day 2. 

Early on, the pressure was on the flight leaders Tasuku Maruo of Japan, Vince Nachor, Filipino Emmanuel Segismundo, and overall chip leader Filipino William Ysmael who topped the biggest flight field to carry in an enormous stack. 

Once Japan’s Ryoya Inokuchi offically became the first bust out of Day 2, the eliminations hastened and pretty soon which included MM 16 champion Terry Gonzaga (76th), and near the end of day, MM 3 champion Euryd Rivera (18th). After the elimination of Yoshifumi Sasaki in tenth place, the Final Table saw Filipino players dominate in numbers with looking to retake the title with previous winner Henrik Tollefsen failing to reach the ITM round. 

Final Table Race To The Title

Entering the final table with the lead was Edilberto Gopez, a whopping 30 big blinds more than his closes challenger. By the 42nd hand, Rishi Mirpuri, who was already guaranteed the biggest cash of his career just by making it to the final table, could not get off the ground to take 9th place. Same as well for crowd favorite Rick Jason Ambata (8th) who dropped to 6 bb and lost all his chips to Ysmael.

Two hands after,  Masanori Ishihara quickly followed out in 7th place with Craig Landry collecting. Landry collected again by winning the flip against Jason Kyle Magbanua (6th). It took some time for the next casualty which was Maxwell Rosete who once again could not go the distance. Last July, Rosete finished 3rd at the APPT Manila Main Event. This time, Rosete had to settle for 5th place with pocket Tens behind all the way against Gopez’s pocket Queens. Jaime Ramon Reyes (4th) met the same fate with pocket Threes behind Gopez’s pocket Queens again.

At three handed, it was anyone’s game with Landry, Gopez, and Ysmael backed by healthy stacks. It wasn’t until Landry hard-bet with J♥5♠ on the turn on a board that completed K♠J♠6♦A♠4♥ that sent him nosediving to 7 bb against Ysmael’s A♣K♥. The rest of Landry’s chips went to Gopez on the next hand.

Heads up never took off with both Gopez and Ysmael opting to split the remaining payouts down the middle. Ysmael took the crown for his larger stack.

Links:

Manila Megastack 19 – Live Updates
Manila Megastack 19 – Photos
Manila Megastack 19 – Festival Results