The Metro’s Neil Arce Advances to Day2 of the WSOP main event
July 6, 2009
Reigning Asian Poker Tour champion Neil Arce survived more than 10 hours of grueling play to advance into the second stage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event being held at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas , Nevada .
The 25-year-old Arce, arguably the most successful poker player in the Philippines in terms of tournament winnings and finishes, saw action in the fourth day of the preliminary round and chipped up from a starting stack of 30,000 to 50,550 to stay on track to the peak of poker’s Mount Everest .
Arce, whose campaign is supported by The Metro Card Club in which he is a founding member, ended the five-level Day 1d with more stack than the likes of defending champion Peter Eastgate (44,725), former World Poker Tour champions Michael Mizrachi (49,775) and Nam Le (49,725), NBA champion LA Lakers guard Jordan Farmar (48,175) and Hollywood actor Chuck Norris (40,625) and 2008 Erick Lindgren (20,450), among others.
He even outlasted notable entries such as poker greats Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker (the man credited for the so-called “poker boom” after becoming the first amateur to win the WSOP main event in 2003), and living legend Doyle Brunson, as well as newly-crowned Women’s champion Lisa Hamilton and celebrities in Torrie Wilson of WWE fame, former NBA player John Salley, baseball legend Orel Harshishier, rapper Nelly, Sydney Olympics boxing gold medalist Audley Harrison and former heavyweight titlist Winky Wright.
A total of 6,494 players from all over the world registered for the much-anticipated event with a buy-in of $10,000, thus creating a mammoth pot of $61,043,600, of which $8,546,435 will go to the champion along with the highly-coveted WSOP bracelet.
Veteran campaigner Troy Weber of West Terre Haute, Indiana led all Day 1 survivors with a massive stack of 353,000. He was followed by Tyson Marks with 196,000.
Other players who came out with big stacks include Phil Ivey – known as the Tiger Woods of poker (84,025), Antonio Estefandiari (75,025) and Fil-am Hollywood actor Lou Diamond Phillips (66,650).
Arce became the first Philippine-based player to finish in the money in the WSOP main event in 2007, coming out 222nd out of 6,500 players and cashing in more that $50,000. He is now on a mission to improve that feat.
All seats in the fourth day of this 12-day event were sold out with hundreds failing to get accommodate resulting in a near chaos.
Besides the champion, all the players who will make the final table will go home a millionaire or with at least $1.2-million richer. Up to 648th place will be “in the money”.
The WSOP is an annual multi-event poker tournament held in Las Vegas since 1970.
Last year, the event attracted more than 58,000 participants with the biggest prize pools compared to any sport. In December, 2008 the WSOP was named the 7th most admired sports brand in North America by the Turnkey Team Brand Index trailing only the more established NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR and PGA Tour among sports properties.
This year’s series, which started last May 28, has a total of 57 events calendared with nearly $200,000 at stake, most of which are Texas Hold’em but also includes other poker variants such as the five-card stud, deuce-to-seven low ball draw, razz, Omaha, Omaha High-Low, five-card draw and seven-card stud.
GL Neil.
is mr arce still in?
Neil got eliminated on day 3 after running into several bad beats. Still, he outlasted thousands of others and proved that we can compete with the best.
Good game!
Daniel is in fact my favorite poker player. I just love how he is able to telling the other gamers cards :-) It is so hilarious to see the faces of his opponents, when he tells them their actual hand.