It’s fair to say the poker war has begun in Manila.
Following the opening this year of both the PokerStars LIVE Manila room at City of Dreams and APT Poker Room Manila, last Saturday saw a bizarre clash take place with both new rooms as well as the Metro Card Club all holding P100,000 Guaranteed events on the same day.
Coincidence? Unlikely – this new level of competition clearly means that none of them are going to be able to announce new events without the others following suit, so if anything last week’s big clash was a test run for how each might perform in the coming months.
The results were intriguing.
With each room offering the same Guarantee but with different buy-in, the Metro Card Club attracted the most players with over 140 starters helping them easily cover the P100,000 Guarantee.
APT Poker Room Manila had 78 entries, falling just short of the 91 they needed to cover although the early signs are encouraging. PokerStars LIVE Manila attracted 43 players having needed 40 to cover so their bigger buy-in didn’t deter some of the more serious players from taking part.
The good news is that having three rooms all competing seems to have sparked local players to action and there was plenty of discussion throughout about player numbers at the different venues with players well aware of the sudden increase in volume. That’s good news for poker and we’ll be keeping a close eye on how the rooms progress in the near future.
In the meantime, they are set to clash again this Saturday – let the games begin!
