MANILA, Philippines - Jefferson “Reyjeff” Macazo bested a field of 484 players to crown himself champion of the Dirty Ice Cream Cup 2012 recently at the Metro Card Club, Metrowalk Complex in Ortigas, Pasig.
The victory earned Macazo, a former car sales agent, the top prize of P1.5-million in the P5 million poker tournament as well as the distinction of holding one of the most prestigious titles in Philippine poker.
Despite coming into the final table as one of the short stacks, Macazo methodically worked his way up until finding himself heads up against Mike Takayama with an overwhelming chip advantage. It took him about 20 minutes to dispose of the multi-titled Takayama to become the last man standing in this annual tourney held in honor of one of the best Filipino poker players, former Asian Poker Tour champion Neil “Dirty Ice Cream” Arce.
Takayama, a former billiards pro, settled for the runner-up prize of P775,000, while third placer Joshua de Leon took home P400,000. Others who made the final table were Michael de Leon (P300,000), Denierick Rimando (P250,000), Luis Bernardo (P200,000), Wilfredo Bachinela (P150,000), Chris Cu-unjieng (P100,000) and Miachel Adlawan (P100,000).
Meanwhile, the Metro Card Club is currently running “The Next Big Thing” promo, where players who accumulate 300 hours of playing in its cash game tables until June 5 will qualify in a Freeroll tournament, where the champion gets a new condominium unit, while the rest of the winners will take a share of the P500,000 cash prizes.
Metro Card Club or simply known the Metro is the biggest poker room in Asia and is home to many of the topnotch poker tournaments in the country. For more information on Metro’s new tournaments for 2012 visit www.metrocardclub.com or add Metro Card Club on Facebook and Twitter.