Pokerstars live room hosted the latest edition of the Manila Megastack event this week, and with a field size of 375, it is fair to say that the tournament lived up to expectations, and perhaps surpassed them, as the guarantee figure was breached with ease. Manila Megastacks have enjoyed a reasonable level of popularity previously, but the field this time around was a record turnout. The prize pool generated reached PHP3,201,000 ($67,954).
32 players in the Money
Only 48 players survived the first day's action, with only 32 of those eventually getting paid. There were many familiar faces in the field, but the most famous name to reach the final table was Japanese pro, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa. The final table featured 3 players from the Philippines, and only one from Japan, with those players eventually making up the top 4 finishers. All in all, a good day for Asian poker. Tsuchikawa entered the final table with only the 7th largest chip stack, leaving himself a mountain to climb if he was to take the title. Showing the mark of an accomplished winner, he immediately put his limited stack to work, slowly growing in strength as play progressed. As one of the more experienced players at the table, Tsuchikawa made sure that his opponents were kept on the back foot, but eventually, an all in confrontation came. Despite being the slight underdog, he doubled, and from that point, never looked like losing. He defeated Anacleto Quijano heads up, and took home PHP752,500 ($15,975) for his victory.
Tetsuya Tsuchikawa (Photo Chris Librojo, Courtesy of PokeStars)
A great accomplishement for Tetsuya Tsuchikawa
For those who aren't already familiar with Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, he has finished runner up in two APT Manila Main Events, along with taking a runner up spot in the Red Dragon Event, and a WPT title, which he won at WPT Philippines. As a live tournament player, Tsuchikawa has achieved a lot in only 5 years in the game, but it's important to look beyond poker tournaments when we delve into the accomplishments of this player. Tsuchikawa has been working hard through his poker career to help our game become loved and accepted in his homeland, and from that perspective, he is a rare and special commodity to the game of poker. It is not often that a country has a player held in high regard for the work he does to promote the game, and also for his achievements at the table. Tetsuya Tsuchikawa is highly respected in the Japanese poker community for those reasons, and he has represented that community admirably once again, by winning Manila Megastack 4.
Final Table Payouts
1st: Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, Japan ( ₱752,500)
2nd: Lito Quijano, Philippines (₱480,200)
3rd: Joven Huerto, Philippines (₱304,100)
4th: Edilberto Gopez Jr, Philippines (₱240,100)
5th: Brice Augustyn, France (₱176,100)
6th: Stefano De Caro, Taiwan (₱144,000)
7th: Darshan Sami, UK (₱112,000)
8th: Stevie Moon, UK (₱94,400)
9th: Roden Munoz, Philippines (₱76,800)
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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