WPT poker down to final table

MANILA, Philippines - The World Poker Tour National Philippines comes down to its final table today with six players putting on their best poker faces at the plush Solaire Resort and Casino.

The stakes are highest when the final table is played at 3 p.m. to cap the 385-strong main event of this 12-day pokerfest put up by the WPT.

From the total pool prize of P32.9 million, the final table offers P6.9 million to the winner. From this small group of players, nobody will come home a loser.

On a buy-in of P97,000, the first to bust out will end up with P1.4 million in his sling bag. Fifth place is worth P1.7 million, fourth P2.3 million, third P3.1 million and second P4.8 million.

But it’s the champion who will be remembered as the winner of the first-ever WPT event and perhaps the richest ever held in the Philippines.

As of presstime, eight players were bluffing each other for seats on the final table. They are Andre Gau of the Philippines, Min Fei Chow and Kevin Ang of Malaysia, Linh Tran of Canada, Yuichi Sumida and Tetsuya Tsuchikawa of Japan, Glenn Bernier of Hawaii and Douglas Olsson of Sweden.

Play considerably slowed down after the 10 players in final table was cut down to eight, with blinds set at P20,000 to P40,000 and the ante at P5,000.

“It’s deliberately slowing down. One wrong call and you’re out. It’s where extreme poker skills step in,” said two-time Philippine champion Vic de Guzman, here helping the WPT run the show.

It’s the first WPT event in the Philippines, and this early, a lot of people are hoping it won’t be the last.

“This is an enormous success. The turnout has been great and we look to develop the WPT even further here in the coming years,” said WPT director for management Angelica Hael, who is Filipina.

“Poker here hasn’t even begun to peak and I feel that the WPT has arrived just in time. The results we’ve witnessed have been impressive. It’s only a matter of time before the Philippines can become an official stop on the tour,” she said.