AntonDiva tops P1M freeroll tiff

MANILA, Philippines - Stand-up comedian Anthony “AntonDiva” Ragaza bested a field of 61 to win the Metro Anniversary Special’s P1-million Freeroll tournament at the Metro Card Club in Pasig Tuesday.

The feat earned Ragaza the top prize of P200,000 plus the bragging rights as the champion of the biggest Freeroll tournament in Philippine poker history.

He also got a free seat to the Metro Anniversary Special P10-million guaranteed (at only P15,000+P1,000 buy-in + entry fee) tournament slated Dec. 10-14.

Ragaza, who slugged it out for more than 150 hours in November to qualify for the event, got off to a horrendous start, as he saw his 10,000 starting stack crippled to just 1,000 in the early levels of the tournament.

However, a series of double-ups put him back into the groove and by the middle of the competition, he took the chip lead and there’s no looking back for this low-stake cash game player en route to his biggest cash out.

Jimmy Mendoza took the runner-up honors and the P100,000 that goes with it, while Mark Sayson settled for third and received P50,000. Banjo Maglilong finished fourth and bagged P30,000, while Wilfred Reyes was the fifth-placer and got P24,000.

All the top five finishers also earned free seats to the P10-million event, which is expected to attract a record number of entries from across the nation and neighboring countries.

The other players who made it to the final table were Elmer San Miguel (P20,000), Pine Mendoza (P20,000), Oscar Lava (P16,000), Randal Mascarenas (P12,000) and John Gaungap (P10,000).

All the 61 qualifiers came into the tournament already assured of P8,000 payouts.

Metro, the biggest card room operator in Asia, is already in the record books for offering the biggest prize pool guarantees as well as attracting the record number of player entries for a local poker room operator and poker tournament organizer.

In March 2009, Metro set the record with a player entry of 333; however, that achievement was short-lived because in August, they achieved 667 players for that month’s major tournament. Even that impressive record did not stand for very long, as last month, October 2009, they smashed all records by attracting a whopping player entry of 804.

Besides having the biggest poker room, Metro Card Club also offers the best structured tournaments in the country with a buy-in as cheap as P300.

It is also the home of the country’s top poker players led by former Asian Poker Tour champion Neil Arce and two-time Filipino Poker Tour winner Kent del Rosario.