Huge field competes in P5-million Metro poker

MANILA, Philippines - A guaranteed pot of P5 million will be up for grabs when the Filipino Poker Tour returns with its 10th leg on July 31-Aug. 3 at the Metro Card Club at Metrowalk in Pasig City.

Billed as “The Metro Hi-5” tournament, the event is expected to attract hundreds of poker players not just in the Philippines but in other countries as well, all hoping to become the next poker millionaire and join the elite list of local stars in the world’s fastest growing sporting event. 

“Poker is enjoying a tremendous growth here in the Philippines, and the Metro Card Club is helping by putting up tournaments such as the Filipino Poker Tour,” said Metro Card Club president Nick Galan during yesterday’s PSA Forum at the Shakey’s UN Avenue Branch in Manila.

“We are expecting between 500 to 600 participants in this event, making this the biggest poker tournament in the country,” said Metro Card Club marketing manager Miguel Cuneta, who also attended the weekly session sponsored by Outlast Battery, Pagcor, Shakey’s and Accel.

Among the marquee names competing in the tournament are reigning Asian Poker Tour champion and FPT 3 winner Neil Arce and two-time FPT champion Kent del Rosario, who pocketed P3-million in his victory in the Metro Perfect 10 P10-million guaranteed tournament last February.

With a buy-in of only P10,000 and entry fee of P1,000, this event is the most ambitious project of the Metro Card Club to date. Hundreds of players have already earned seats to the event through satellites tournaments being conducted daily at the Metro Card Club, which is the biggest card room in Asia.

The Metro Card Club is fast establishing The Philippines as the poker hub of Asia with it’s desire to promote tournament poker the way the rest of the world views it: as a mind sport.

There are also “freeroll tournaments” being conducted daily online at Pokerstars.com, where a total of 85 seats are to be awarded to the tournament winners, absolutely free.

The Filipino Poker Tour is also the country’s first ever televised local poker tour showing now on Studio 23 every Saturday at 11pm.