Advertisement

Philippine poker resurgence kicks off 2015

image

Mike Kim, known as the man who helped propagate the sport of poker in Asia is also the operator of the Solaire Poker Room (Photo: Ben Abrahams)

The recent inaugural staging in the Philippines of the World Poker Tour (WPT) has seemingly rippled into a new renaissance for the sport as the start of the Year of the Sheep sees a phalanx of poker tournaments from various entities kicking off 2015 in explosive fashion.

January is often viewed as a “recovery” month from the revelry of the Christmas season that oftentimes leads to a myriad of expenditures creating a near depleted bank account. However, the poker industry is on the rise once again as three prestigious tourneys come in sequential order to give the aficionado something to celebrate right off the bat.

The newly opened City of Dreams (COD) Casino in Parañaque City ushers in the New Year with the Pokerstars Live Megastack event (which concluded last Sunday, January 18th).

Pokerstars—the world’s largest online poker site—has ventured into the live realm and its recent success in Macau has made Asia a great revival ground for the sport it helped propagate until the infamous “Black Friday” incident in 2010 almost brought poker to a virtual halt.

The COD poker room is operated by Pokerstars with legendary tournament director Danny McDonaugh at the helm. The Megastack event is the first Pokerstars Live sortie on Philippine soil and will be followed by the first major poker tilt of the year as the Asian Poker Tour (APT) opens its season in Cebu on January 27th to February 4th.

The APT is Asia’s biggest poker tour and their tournaments attract hundreds of competitors from across the region.

ALSO READ: Alaska thumps SMB to force a Game 7

In between these two monsters, however, is an undertaking dubbed as the “13th Month Bonus” which is the anniversary festival of the Solaire Poker Room which runs from January 22-26 at the Forum in the new wing of Solaire Resort and Casino also in Parañaque City.

The Solaire Poker Room gained renown in 2014 as the local organizers of the first ever WPT National Philippines and while the endeavor came away with moderate success in its maiden voyage, that tournament put the new poker room—along with Solaire—on the world poker map.

This time, Solaire’s tourney is a thanksgiving celebration for its loyal supporters who carried the room through the many doubts that the operation would actually get off the ground—much less survive their first year in one piece. And while the “13th Month Bonus” comes over a full month after Solaire Poker Room’s actual anniversary, it became apt as the “bonus” aspect made sense.

“January is literally our thirteenth month,” explains Mike Kim, Solaire Poker Room’s operator, also known as the man who helped propagate the sport in Asia. “We saw it as an opportunity to give out a thirteenth-month bonus to our loyal players; many of whom will be playing the tournament for free as a reward for their play over the last year.”

image

File Photo: Mike Kim with the author during the run-up to the WPT National Philippines (Photo: Jamil Buergo)

Of the three major events happening this month, the “13th Month Bonus” of the Solaire Poker Room has the lowest buy-in, yet guarantees that the Main Event will crown a veritable overnight millionaire.

For a mere PhP10,000, aspirants can have their shot at the PhP3M guaranteed prize pool of the Main Event with the eventual champion pocketing at least PhP1M.

ALSO READ: Issue? What issue? The PVF is as solid as ever

Here’s another plus: there are daily qualifiers for only PhP1,100 with up to three seats in the Main Event up for grabs. Pilipinas Poker—the country’s most popular online poker community—has even opened up online qualifiers through their partner 88Fox, giving potential participants more options on how to earn their seat and vie for the biggest chunk of that immense payout.

The “13th Month Bonus” also allows for up to six re-entries throughout its three Day1s (January 22-24) and at the start of Day 2 (January 25). So if a runner busts out, that player can buy-in and re-enter on that same day. If that player begins his conquest on Day 1A and fires all his bullets, he will have up to seven cracks at the title (two for each Day 1 and one for Day 2). If you do the math, that’s still good implied odds.

In addition, the “13th Month Bonus” has three Side Events in the No Limit Hold ‘Em (NLHE) Head Hunter event (January 22), the NLHE High Roller event (January 23-24) and the Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) event (January 25-26) for a complete poker experience worthy of a “tweener” among the big industry guns.

Many will take the opportunity to use the “13th Month Bonus” to gear up for the APT Cebu leg and the low buy-in will be enticing enough for even the foreign competitors to hone their chops before heading to the Queen City of the South at month’s end. After all, the roads (and flights) that lead to Cebu necessarily come through Manila.

ALSO READ: Manny Pacquiao said he’s awaiting Floyd Mayweather’s signature

The bottomline here is that poker is on resurgence and the Philippines is right smack on bounce-back alley. Look for the veteran establishments to follow suit in the coming months with their own sorties to help in the upswing of the sport.

2015 is just underway, but things are already heating up in the local poker scene.

In the famous words of UFC anchor Mike Goldberg, “Here we go!”

Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate) and email sportztackle@yahoo.com