Lone Pinoy in WPT Philippines tilt final 10

MANILA, Philippines – From 268 players in the pool, the World Poker Tour National Philippines main event was pruned down to the final 10 last night at the Solaire Resort and Casino.

Hands were being dealt and chips stacked as of 6 p.m. with a lone Filipino, Dennis Gamboa, in the table of 10 players, each one hoping to win it all in today’s final round.

Gamboa, a pioneer in Philippine poker, is as cool as the rest. staring at the table and shuffling his chips with earphones on.

“I hope he wins it,” said Mark Aventajado, a poker official.

With a buy-in of $1,250, a total of $389,800 was raised in the main event. When the final push or fold is made tonight, the winner takes home $86,130 or just over P4 million.

Others in the Top 10 based on their table order are Yuen Wai Loong of Malaysia, Louis Nyberg of Sweden, Samuele Moschetti of Italy, Kai Paulsen of Norway, Michael Tse Hua of Malaysia, Marcus Garberg of Norway, Jiabin Cui of China, Ying Lin Chua of Malaysia and William Kang of Vietnam.

Also making it to the last 22 but now out of contention were Filipinos John Niko Costiniano, Marc Rivera and Martin Gonzales.

Among the Top 10, Cui’s name rings a bell because only last month he won a WPT event in South Korea, and in this big event was the chips leader after day one.

Garberg was the leader after Wednesday’s action under chilly conditions at Solaire’s main ballroom.

Still, the talk of the poker town was last Monday’s final of the Triton Super High-Roller Series which drew 52 entries (including 10 re-entries) at a staggering buy-in of $200,000.

Fedor Holz, a 22-year-old from Germany, stood as the winner, and bagged the top prize of $3,463,000. It will take him days to count his earnings if he’d do it alone.

Holz is on a roll, having won another $1.5 million at the $100,000 WPT Alpha8 in Las Vegas last Dec. 20.

When it rains, it pours.