Singapore’s Siong Boon Heng became the newest Manila Megastack champion after overcoming a record-breaking field of 646 total entries to capture the Main Event championship title and the PHP2,771,000 ($55,840) first place prize.
The sixth installment of the Manila Megastack saw 157 players return to the PokerStars Live Manila room in City of Dreams Manila, Philippines for their final battle to reach the top. While Aurelius Tan entered the day with the largest stack, Heng was nowhere near the leaders. But not for long.
Bubble
Heng made headlines when he delivered the bubble, Ben Soon Yun, to secure the 95 remaining players with a guaranteed payout. Immediately after, players began to drop out in mad fashion and the final two tables were quickly reached.
18 players remaining
With 18 players remaining, Heng did his part in downsizing the field. He eliminated two players, Darius Normontas and Franklin Nuguid. After other players took care of the rest, the final table of nine was established when crowd favorite John Tech, the last remaining local pro, dominated Anders Hellberg in a showdown with 
over 
.
Final Table
Much like his status entering the day, Heng entered the final table distanced from the leaders, and running seventh in chips. He wasted no time getting his chips in the middle, and in turn, earned all of Kevin Chia-Wei Chang’s short stack with his 
nut flush against Chang’s 
on a board of 
. Chang finished in 9th place.
John Tech: 8th
Taking a very hard fall next was Tech in 8th place. Tech and Yi Te Wu were all in preflop with Tech holding 
and Wu with 
. When the board ran a dramatic 
quads, Wu’s ace had the higher kicker and Tech was stunned and crippled way down. He busted out two hands later. Japan’s Tomofumi Watanabe was next, eliminated in 7th place by Sidney Gilpatrick; then Heng claimed his second head at the table with his crushing Soo Ghee Lim’s when one of his two outer eights showed up on the river. Lim finished in 6th place.
The lone Hong Kong player, Wing Fung Tsao, entered the final table as the chip leader but with action moving in rapid pace and players dropping left and right, it took several hands before he joined the shove fest. On a completed board of 
, Tsao’s 
nut flush sent Yasuyuki to the rail in 5th place.
Final Four
At this point, it was Wu who began to take over the final four. He landed a massive double up with his full house against Tsao’s trips on a board of 
. Wu proceeded to rail Tsao in 4th place with 
outdrawing Tsao’s 
, then he finished off Gilpatrick in 3rd place.
Heads Up Round
Entering the heads up round, Wu had an over 5:1 chip advantage against Heng. But as the line, all you need is a chip and a chair. Heng acted fast, winning the first hand, then a double up on the next hand. The third hand was the most crucial with Heng’s 
staying ahead of Wu’s 
for another double up. And just like that, the tides reversed, Wu was on the defense with a 5:1 chip disadvantage. Two hands later, it was all over.
The Manila Megastack 6 crowned Heng as its newest victor with defeating Wu’s 
on a board that ran 
.
More: Manila Megastack 6: Final Day Live Updates
Article by Triccia David
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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