Mike Tyler Wins The P1.1 Million 1st Prize At The Metro Main Event!

January 28, 2008

The 1st Metro Main Event concluded after about 11 hours of play on day two, ending in a climactic battle between Melvin “the miracle” Matibag and “Iron” Mike Tyler slugging it out heads up with almost equal stacks after a grueling day of poker action. Melvin, who busted out several notable players with some of the worst bad beats ever (hence the nickname ‘miracle’) started the final table on a rush that gave him 60% of all the chips when 8 players were left. By hitting a miracle two-outer on the turn with pocket three’s versus trips on the flop (all in on the flop called by melvin) and then cracking pocket aces with 6-7 suited, he put himself in a formidable position to take the entire tournament down. Mike Tyler, who made it to the final table by playing some solid poker, then made an amazing comeback and eliminated everyone at the table until he was heads up with Melvin with dead-even stacks.

Before that, there was the final table. Crowd Favorite Luis Carballo, Poker Pro Amor Nario, Last Female Player Triccia David, recent Metro75 winner Joel Panaguiton, high stakes cash player Willie Aguas, and several other hopefuls put on their game faces and played the best poker they have ever played in their lives. More than just the 1.1 Million pesos at stake for the eventual winner, there was the shot at being immortalized as the first ever Filipino Poker Tour and Metro Main Event champion. After several grueling hours of solid play, they were eliminated one by one by the non-stop rush of Melvin and Mike.

Their heads-up match didn’t last for long even with each player having over 1 million chips at the 15K-30K level. “Miracle” Melvin ran out of miracles to save him from getting rivered by Mike during the most critical hand of the heads up match. He was never able to recover and soon, Mike Tyler, a Cebu-based player who qualified for a seat in the the one of the Pokerstars tournaments, emerged as the 1st ever Filipino Poker Tour and Metro Main Event champion, pocketing a cool 1.1 Million in cash.

The tournament was hailed as a huge success by everyone who participated, with most of them saying it was the BEST tournament they have ever played within our local poker community. Biggest Prize Pool, biggest buy-in, one of the biggest turnouts, and of course the production of what will be the Filipino Poker tour TV show that will air locally. The METRO staff did an awesome job, and so did the Pokerstars crew. Talks are already in place for the 2nd Metro Main Event, which will surely be at least twice as big as this one!

Details and more updates will come shortly after Pokerstars finishes their official press release. Make sure to check out the Gallery soon for more pictures from The Main Event. See you at The Metro!

Posted by The Metro under News & Updates.