Another fun edition of PokerStars LIVE Manila Super Series has concluded at Okada Manila in the Philippines. Taking place over nine days, the 17th edition ran from May 27 to June 4, 2023. Players competed for a total prize pool of PHP 21,125,730 (~US$ 377K) and the seven coveted PS spade trophies.
The festival headliner Main Event was a massive success pulling in 746 entries for a record PHP 9,551,784 (~US$ 170,918) prize pool. Local circuit regular William Ysmael was crowned as champion. Read up on his victory via the link provided.
William Ysmael wins the Main Event
Among the other highlights were Chierro De Leon winning the Super Series Turbo and Japan’s Yukiko Fujiki drawing the largest Mystery Bounty reward. Check out the results below. Relive some of the thrilling moments via the Main Event live updates and via the lens of SMP.
LIVE UPDATES
FESTIVAL RESULTS
FESTIVAL PAYOUTS
FESTIVAL PHOTOS
The 17th MSS was a huge success for PokerStars LIVE Manila, which continues to offer exciting and affordable tournaments for poker enthusiasts in the region. Up next for the brand is the APPT Manila Package Qualifier which runs from June 22 to 25 featuring over PHP 2 Million in guarantees followed by the APPT Warm Up from July 2 to 9 featuring over PHP 6 Million in guarantees. The Main Event brings in half the load with PHP 3 Million guaranteed. Check the link provided for all the details.
Final Side Events recap
Chierro De Leon takes down the Super Series Turbo
Running simultaneously with the Main Event was the Super Series Turbo which drew a strong field of 626 entries over four flights. The final three players struck an ICM deal then Filipino Chierro De Leon went on to claim the win for his career second PokerStars spade trophy and a payout of PHP 276,800.
Buy in: PHP 3,500 (~US$ 63)
Guarantee: PHP 1,000,000 (~US$ 17,850)
Entries: 626
Prize pool: PHP 1,870,238 (~US$ 33,385)
ITM: 95 places
*Final 3 ICM deal
| Rank | Player | Flag | Payouts in PHP |
| 1 | Chierro De Leon | Philippines | ₱276,800* |
| 2 | Yee Shun Jian | Singapore | ₱235,900* |
| 3 | Keith Basso | USA | ₱213,800* |
| 4 | June Nuestro | Philippines | ₱122,000 |
| 5 | Jose Ramon Ramos | Philippines | ₱97,000 |
| 6 | Wo Kui Lam | Hong Kong | ₱76,000 |
| 7 | Jose Cheung | Philippines | ₱56,000 |
| 8 | Jeffrey Pardales | Philippines | ₱38,238 |
| 9 | Jesus Rivera | Philippines | ₱30,000 |
Taiwan’s Liao Pin Hung wins the Super Knockout
improving to a flush on a board 
to oust 
and 
. After William Jones railed Jharome Pena in 3rd place, Liao went on to defeat Jones for the title with 
standing firm against 
on a final board {Kd}
.Buy in: PHP 20,000 (~US$ 357)
Entries: 125 (101 unique, 24 re-entry)
Prize pool: PHP 3,432,500 (~US$ 61,275)
ITM: 17 places
*Payouts do not include bounties
| Rank | Player | Flag | Payouts in PHP |
| 1 | Liao Pin Hung | Taiwan | ₱234,000 |
| 2 | William Jones | Usa | ₱158,500 |
| 3 | Jharome Pena | Philippines | ₱103,000 |
| 4 | Teck Heng Chua | Singapore | ₱85,500 |
| 5 | Rahul Chinchalkar | India | ₱69,000 |
| 6 | Ofer Greenberg | USA | ₱54,500 |
| 7 | Manabu Onda | Japan | ₱41,500 |
| 8 | Ediberto Gopez | Philippines | ₱31,000 |
| 9 | Nomoto Kenjiro | Japan | ₱23,500 |
Yukiko Fujiki draws the largest Mystery Bounty
Buy in: PHP 6,500 (~US$ 116)
Guarantee: PHP 500,000 (~US$ 8,925)
Entries: 307
Prize pool: PHP 2,163,859 (~US$ 38,630)
ITM: 47 places
The last event to complete was the Mystery Bounty with 47 out of the 307 entries earning a piece of the PHP 2,163,859 prize pool. Japan’s Yukiko Fujiki fell in 9th place to eventual champion Hernan Villa however she was still the envy of all for pulling the largest bounty reward of PHP 89,000. The event concluded on a four-way deal with Villa crowned champion.
Ofer Greenberg wins Hyper Turbo Freezeout
At heads up of the Hyper Turbo Freezeout, USA’s Ofer Greenberg grinded down Filipino Christian Relucio to capture the win and the PHP 78,500 (~US$ 1,400) to prize. This was another good finish for Greenberg who placed 6th at the Super Knockout.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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