Nicky Filart Wins Metro Cebu Cup
January 19, 2010
Nicky Filart, after a string of heartbreaking bridesmaid finishes in major tournaments, finally exorcised the curse by ruling the Metro Cebu Cup P2-Million Guaranteed Tournament held over the weekend at the Metro Card Club Cebu in Mandaue City.
Filart, who finished second in Filipino Poker Tour 5, Asian Poker Tour Pot-Limit Omaha Event and Metro Heads Up Tourney, defeated Ian Brion in the heads-up match to claim the title and the P620,000 top purse at stake in the three-day competition that attracted 143 players from all over the country.
Brion settled for the runner-up honor and the P360,000 that goes with it.
Filart, a regular cash game player at the Metro Card Club Manila and moderator of Pokermanila.com, used relentless aggression to build his stack and eliminating a number of players in the process. By the time there were only two left, he had a dominating stack of more than one million to Brion’s 300,000 chips.
Filart then utilized his overwhelming experience advantage to outwit Brion to take down the title.
The final hand had Brion moving all-in with King-Queen of diamonds and getting a call from Filart, who table Ace-Six offsuit. The board didn’t help Brion and Filart’s pre-flop lead held up, thus ending the final day that lasted for almost 15 grueling hours.
Cebu-based Japanese rounder Shin Suguira finished third and pocketed P200,000, while Albert Aguilar came in fourth and took P160,000.
Rounding up the final table finishers were former Asia Pacific Poker Tour finalist Ramil Tandoc (P120,000), JR Vasquez (P90,000), Jamal Alonto (P70,000), Martin Gonzales (P60,000) and Jojo Tech (P60,000).
The Metro Cebu Cup was held as part of the Cebuanos’ celebration of the Sinulog Festival.
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