Four Filipino pros ended up in the final table of the highly-popular Pokerstars Live Manila Super Series Main event but it was Italy’s Paolo Boccaletti who ended up laughing all the way to the bank with a heads up win over China’s Xia Qi at Okada Manila 24 September.
In just six hours of final table action, Boccaletti banked a career best P1,692,000 (USD 29,760) for taking down the richest P13,239,336 (USD 233,240) prize pool in the tour’s 18 installment history.
In addition to Boccaletti’s win following a four-way deal, the Italian bagged an additional P75,000 Manila Megastack Main Event package (seat and accommodation) as well as the trophy for his top spot finish.
The Philippines’ John Jay Magadan and John Clyde Tan finished third and fourth, respectively, with a nearly identical P1.2 million in winnings following the ICM deal that was agreed upon by the top four players.
Two other Filipinos, Ivan dela Cruz and Edilberto Gopez ended up in eight and ninth places with P225,000 and P176,336 in cash prizes.
Also making it to the final table were Shin Hyeon Ho of South Korea, fifth; Shah Chirag of India, sixth; and Ho Tung Chun of Taiwan, seventh.
A total of 154 entries made it to Day 2 of the event which drew 1,034 players. In all, 14 Filipinos survived the qualifying round and fought it out in Day 2.
Worth noting is the victory of Alvin Jeff Sembrano in the Hyper Turbo which netted him P70,950 prize money and Ronato Alcano who took down the Super Series Turbo event and the P450,000 firstprize money. Hernan Jaybee Villa also won the Pot Limit Omaha side event along with the P121,812 pot while Darren Yu ended up champion of the No Limit Hold ‘Em Super Knockout that offered P142,652 top prize.
The biggest winner, however, proved to be Chierro de Leon who pocketed P550,000 after clinching the SuperStack title over fellow Filipino Jonald Garcia in heads up play. Garcia settled for P391,000.
