The Manila Megastack 5 Main Event hosted by PokerStars Live Manila and Asia Pacific Poker Tour, came to a detailed on the Grand Ballroom of City of Dreams Manila with Chinese Taipei's Tzu Chieh Lo reigning victorious to capture the huge first place cash prize of P2,392,350 and the championship trophy.

The fifth installment of the Manila Megastack series promised to be bigger and higher than its previous installments, and it certainly didn't disappoint. There have been a complete 478 entries on the Main Event generating a prize pool of P10,432,350, well exceeding the guarantee of P6M. After three intense days of Main Event action, it came all the way down to the general table action with one of the toughest players within the Asian poker scene. Entering the overall table because the chip leader was Norway's Henrik Tollefsen followed by Germany's Julian Hasse.

It was Japan's Eichi Mizuno who delivered the primary blow, eliminating Chinese Taipei's Fu Lung Hung in 9th place. But immediately after, it was Lo and Chinese Taipei's Shih Chieh Su who started to dominate the action, taking down pots with several aggressive bets and raises. Lo eliminated Canada's Karl Thorson in 8th place, Tollefsen railed Mizuno in 7th place, after which Tollefsen took a painful blow to his stack when his big slick lost to Su's set of threes. Tollefsen managed to achieve a few of it back but after Lo eliminated Australia's Angelo Peter Scicchitano in 6th place, Lo had a dominating lead. With the blinds quite high, the one action seen on the felt was the all-in shove. Eliminations glided by quick with Tollefsen railed in 5th place by Hasse, then Hasse eliminated by Lo in 4th place, and China's Keiji Ye in 3rd place after falling to Su's straight.

The heads up round had Lo ahead in chips against Su but after ten hands with a couple of flops hitting the felt, Su overtook Lo by nearly 2M chips. But in heads up, there may be usually that one crucial hand that turns the tide and it happened when Lo moved all in on a board of 5♥7♣8♣ and Su snap-called. Lo had A♠9♦ and Su with A♥6♣. When the turn of J♠ and river of 5♠ completed the board, Lo was awarded the largest double up of the principle Event, climbing to over 12M chips while Su fell to 1.8M chips. Two hands after, the last hand saw Lo eliminate Su in 2nd place along with his K♦8♦ against 9♥6♥ on a board of 2♦T♠2♥A♦J♣. Impressively, that is Lo's second Megastack triumph this year having won the Macau Poker Cup 24 HKD5000 NLH Megastack in February.

Prior to the overall table, there have been 108 gunners who entered the general day. Holding court on the top was Su, and Lo within range in fourth position. With 45 players seeing the money, reigning Asia Player of the Year champion Hong Kong's Alan "Kinglune" Lau finished in a decent 12th place, Japan's Kenichi Takarabe (Red Dragon winner in July 2010) took 25th place, and Australia's Ken Demlakian just made the money in 39th place. Another player who ran well was Korea's Seung Soo Jeon who nearly bubbled to the money (almost railed by Su), then made it to 10th place, one spot shy of the general table. Indonesia's Sammy Bolung finished in 14th place, he was one of the vital many players Su eliminated within the day.

The Main Event drew in a world crowd representing 29 countries led by the Philippines with 104 players, Japan with 84 players, Taiwan/Chinese Taipei with 51 players, Korea with 40 players, and the us with 34 players. The principle Event also posted some record-breaking numbers with 220 entries at Day 1a, the most important choice of entries for a primary day flight of the series-to-date. The full entries of 478 also surpassed the former record turnout of 375. To cap it all, this was the biggest prize pool for the series, over P10.4M, crushing the past record of P3.2M.Final Table Payouts:

1st Tzu Chieh Lo - Chinese Taipei - P2,392,350

2nd Shih Chieh Su - Chinese Taipei -P1,526,000

3rd Keiji Ye - China - P966,000

4th Julian Hasse - Germany - P773,000

5th Henrik Tollefsen - Norway P585,000

6th Angelo Peter Scicchitano - Australia - P433,000

7th Eichi Mizuno - Japan - P331,000

8th Karl Thorson - Canada - P280,000

9th Fu Lung Hung - Chinese Taipei - P234,000

*The top five finishers won a major Event seat to the impending APPT 10 Manila.

You can read up at the Final Day action and former days via these links below.Final Day Updates

Manila Megastack 5 Blogs

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Asia Pacific Poker Tour]