Corpuz tops Phl poker tour fourth leg

MANILA, Philippines - Martin Corpuz made short work of upcoming Ronald Dimaano in their heads up duel yesterday to win the fourth leg of the P10 million Philippine Poker Tour at the Metro Card Club in Pasig.

Short-stacked at the end of Day 2, Corpuz, the only world-ranked Filipino with two World Series of Poker (SOP) bracelets, fought his way back into contention to reach the final table and with deft maneuverings, arranged a showdown with Dimaano, the final 10 overall chip leader. Five deals later, it was all over.

The end for Dimaano, 31, came when he shoved all in with his Ah Qs which Corpuz instantly called with his Ad Kh. The board ran 8c 9c 3c 7h 8h, good enough for Corpuz to end the eight-hour final table battle and claim the top P330,000 prize.

More importantly, Corpuz earned a seat in the battle royal among leg champions of this 10-stop series in March which will determine the Philippine representative to next year’s WSOP main event in Las Vegas.

Despite the ease with which he disposed of Dimaano, Corpuz said the road to victory was tough.

“I never expected to reach this far,” he said. “It’s just that my opponent (Dimaano) forgot one thing – I was already playing poker before he was even born.

Dimaano, son of a ranch farmer from Mindoro Occidental, was nevertheless happy with the runner-up prize of P160,000, saying he has a lot of respect for Corpuz who has a world poker tournament rank of 1892 overall and has cashed in on WSOP tournament events seven times.

Finishing third in the six-day main event was Jojo Tech followed by Mike de Leon, third leg winner Rene Pacayra, Edwin Marzan, former sportswriter Ian Brion, Redentor Edoc, Mike Cua and Harold Bautista in that order in the Top 10.

PPT founder lawyer Jojo Allado won the Birador Head Hunter side event and P23,000 in cash at the expense of Roque Lima while Claude Bernacer topped the Ladies tournament over Giselle Raloto to bag the Reyna trophy and P13,600. Jessie Leonarez won the Six-handed No-Limit Hold ’em over CzardyRivera and Lee oung K topped the Pot Limit Omaha Hi at the expense of Charlie Esteban.

Corpuz’s victory put him further away from the field in the race for the Player of the Year award with 525 points in the leader board system, ahead of Pacayra, the third leg winner, who has 360 points. The win also catapulted Corpuz to third overall.