It hasn’t been officially announced yet but if rumors that World Poker Tour National Philippines will return to Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila later this year are true, WGM will be very keen to see what lessons have been learned. WPT National Philippines was held for the very first time last October, becoming just the second Asia-based event on the WPT’s schedule after WPT National China debuted in 2012.
Unfortunately, as we revealed in the pages of WGM shortly afterwards, it failed to live up to its undoubted potential. Plagued by problems throughout, we witnessed impromptu schedule changes that appeared to make little sense, dinner breaks ending up to 15 minutes early on the whim of tournament staff, a dealer strike seeing them turn up 40 minutes late due to the shocking behavior of their manager and even some arriving at Solaire to check-in only to discover their booking had been mysteriously cancelled.
Manila is a central hub for tournament poker in Asia so the WPT’s decision to hold an event there makes sense, but the Philippines is also a notoriously tricky place for newcomers to do business. What you see is rarely what you get and some of those involved in the running of WPT National Philippines last year were completely unqualified to do so.
So what can we expect in 2015? WGM has spoken to the WPT about the aforementioned problems and they seem to acknowledge such problems need to be addressed. WPT is an American company unfamiliar with the Asian market and has sold an exclusive brand license in Asia to Ourgame, a mainland Chinese company. While Ourgame has extensive experience with the mainland Chinese market they have almost no experience operating poker tournaments in the rest of Asia. This means it’s vital for WPT to choose competent people to work with in various countries around the region, whether that choice be directly made by WPT or via their Asian alliance partner Ourgame.
And let’s not forget that tournament poker in Manila is more competitive than ever. In the five months since WPT National Philippines made its debut, both PokerStars and the Asian Poker Tour have opened new poker rooms nearby with the Metro Card Club and Resorts World Manila quickly adjusting their poker offerings in response to the new challenge.
Most of those rooms also host a leg or two of the popular APT and APPT tours during the year, so players certainly aren’t lacking for choice. And if it comes down to a choice, players will be quick to sort the trash from the treasure.
