Since poker was first introduced in Asia, the Philippines emerged as one of the most vibrant destinations, second only to Macau. Among the pioneers of the local growth was the Metro Card Club, the first brick-and-mortar poker room in the country. Established in 2007 with just eight tables, the Metro rapidly expanded to a 30-table card room, becoming the largest standalone poker venue in the region for a decade.
Today, the Metro has become an institution for Filipino poker enthusiasts of all kinds. Tournaments, cash games, and VIP games continue to be offered daily. The Metro also hosts five poker festivals per year with buy ins catered to the low to mid ranged tier. Last year witnessed the room’s best festival results yet with record attendance across the board and boosted guarantees easily broken.
Metro Walk To A Million
In just one month, players will once again have a chance at snatching up a Metro title with the Metro Walk To A Million (MWAM) event scheduled from June 19 to 24, 2024. Now in its fourth installment, the inaugural PhP 1 Million guaranteed prize pool has ballooned to a bold PhP 5 Million guarantee (~USD 86,650). This ambitious figure aims to breach its current record of PhP 5.3 Million.
While full details have yet to be released, the event is expected to draw another large crowd especially with its affordable PhP 5,500 (~USD 95) buy in. Last year the champion John Oliver Tapel turned his lowly buy in into a career high PhP 867,470 (~USD 15,550) payday.
Among the players to expect are some of the country’s most decorated players such as Mike Takayama, Lester Edoc, Marc Rivera, David Erquiaga, and Florencio Campomanes. In addition, international players often seen at Metro events will likely be seen in action in an attempt to be the first foreigner to claim this homegrown title.
Mark the dates! For more information, head to the Metro Card Club facebook page.
For more information on the Metro Card Club, head to the link below:
*Stay tuned to Somuchpoker for more info on the upcoming event.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
Follow Me:
