The Manila Megastack 3 Main Event concluded at the PokerStars Live Manila poker room just after sundown at City of Dreams Manila with local player Euryd Rivera besting the 362 field to claim the championship trophy. Rivera was also awarded PHP529,000 in cold hard cash, and the Asia Championship of Poker 2M Spadie event package (HKD2,000,000), inclusive of airfare to and from Manila, accommodations, and some spending cash.

Rivera's run at the main event began in day 1b where he ended the day ranked third in chips. Coming in to the final day, Rivera railed several players early, and then claimed a massive pot worth 2.8M with his pocket queens defeating Indian player Kunal Shetty 's ace-jack offsuit. With that elimination, the final table of ten was formed with Rivera entering as the chip leader.

Rivera proceeded to eliminate two players at the final table then eventually faced Felix Weis from Luxembourg at heads up. Weis had the chip lead with 6.4M chips and Rivera had 4M chips. The tides quickly turned with Rivera winning several sizable stacks. At one point, Rivera climbed to 7.4M chips.

The final hand of the day would see Rivera and Weis all in preflop with Rivera holding [as][qh] and Weis with [ad][5d]. Weis failed to improve and Rivera seized the victory.

Final Table

At the final table, eliminations didn't come by easily despite some players having short stacks. When the first casualty was dealt, it was Filipino player Teofisto Pelayo whose short stack dwindled due to the blinds and antes. Pelayo was eliminated by day 1a chip leader, Seung Soo Jeon, in 10th place.

Korean player Yi Won Lee was next on the chopping block. Lee got hit pretty hard when his all in with [jd][js] ran into Felix Weis's [kc][kh]. Though not eliminated, he was crippled down to one and a half big blinds. Immediately after, Lee managed to triple up but still could not hold on to his chips and fell in 9th place.

With Lee's elimination, that left only one Korean at the final table, Jeon, who was denied a double up with his ace-queen offsuit against Filipino player Richard Marquez's ace-four suited because the board gave them both a straight. Rivera eliminated Jeon in 8th place with his pocket sixes surviving against Jeon's [qc][jc].

Marquez, had a great run early in the day, but he seemed to have run out of steam at the final table. Marquez met his fate as well at the hands of Rivera. Rivera's [8d][8s] filled up at the flop of [8h][9c][9d]. Marquez's pocket fours were drawing dead at the turn of [kd] and he exited the main event in 7th place.

For local player, Martin Corpuz, his pocket eights would play out much differently against day 1b chip leader, Shih Chieh Su. Su's ace-ten off suit would find a ten on the board and eliminate Corpuz in 6th place.

Another local player having a difficult time doubling up his short stack was Jester Intia. Instead of getting eaten by the blinds, Intia took a stand with his remaining chips (when action folded all the way to his small blind) and moved all in. Instantly, big blind Marquez called. Intia held [3h][4s] and Marquez had [td][9c]. Intia got lucky on the flop when he paired up his four. Several hands later, Intia landed another double up with his full house. With a very healthy stack accumulated, Intia placed all his bets on big slick which ended his day in 5th place as he ran right into Mike Kim Enriquez's pocket aces.

Next one out was Mike Kim Enriquez (Philippines) who busted out in 4th place. Enriquez could not let go of his [kd][js] preflop against Weis's [ac][qd].

At three-handed, Rivera, Su, and Weis cut a deal for the cash and then played for the ACOP event package. Action resumed with Su losing a large majority of his chips to Felix Weis when his [ac][jh] failed to beat Weis's [ah][9s] that rivered a nine.
Crippled, Su was all in next hand and bowed out in 3rd place.

Congratulations to Euryd Rivera for winning the Manila Megastack 3 Main Event!!

You can read up on the action at the final day in the Manila Megastack Final Day Updates blog.

Final Table Payouts: in PHP
1st Euryd Rivera - Philippines - 520,000
2nd Felix Michel Weis - Luxembourg - 474,000
3rd Shih Chieh Su - Taiwan - 490,000
4th Michael Kim Enriquez - Philippines - 232,000
5th Jester Intia - Philippines - 170,000
6th Martin Corpuz - Philippines - 139,000
7th Richard Marquez - Philippines - 108,000
8th Seung Soo Jeon - Korea - 91,132
9th Yi Won Lee - Korea - 74,200
10th Teofisto Pelayo - Philippines - 60,300

Side Events

At the P50K NLH side event, Alex Lee (Singapore) who defeated Kunal Shetty in the heads up round to claim the victory and the P469,200 first place purse. A total of 25 players entered the event bringing the prize pool to just over P1M.

P50k NLH Payouts: 4
1st - Alex Lee - Singapore - 469,200
2nd - Kunal Shetty - India - 294,600
3rd - John Tech - Philippines -185,500
4th - Bryan Huang Diwei - Singapore -141,900

At the Megastack Turbo (P250,000), 103 entries recorded for this event with ten of the seeing the money. It was Michael Buezza who defeated Richard Tolentino at heads up to take home the first place cash prize of P70,100.

Megastack Turbo Payouts: in PHP
1st - Michael Buezza - Phlippines -70,100
2nd - Richard Tolentino -Philippines - 46,800
3rd- Emman Segismundo - Philippines - 31,200
4th- Duong Vi Khoa - Vietnam 26,000
5th - Ben Abrahams - UK - 20,800
6th- Tan Phat Nguyen - Vietnam - 18,200
7th - Joe Vasay - Philippines - 15,600
8th - Pasion Cristopher - Philippines - 13,000
9th- Bernardo Angels - Philippines - 10,400
10th Jojo Cruz - Philippines - 7,666