Metro Christmas Special: Christopher “Bigtime” Mateo bags Main Event Day 1A chip lead; John Clyde Tan wins the Pre-Event

08 Dec Metro Christmas Special: Christopher “Bigtime” Mateo bags Main Event Day 1A chip lead; John Clyde Tan wins the Pre-Event

Posted at 07:16h in Metro News by
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Opening day of the Metro Card Club Christmas Special MAIN EVENT ₱ 5 Million guaranteed was slower than expected with only 49 ponying up the ₱16,500 (~$295) buy in. After 11 rounds of scheduled play, 17 players survived led by Filipino pro Christopher “bigtime” Mateo who bagged up the mightiest 185 BB stack. It was no surprise to see Mateo as chip leader as he’s frequently seen in this position at both the local and international live circuits. Mateo’s closest challenger was another decorated Filipino pro Lester Edoc with a 116 BB stack. Edoc is on a winning streak this year which includes a Batang Metro title back in August. Also making the cut was recent APT double major champion Moses Saquing who closed with a 21 BB stack. 

Player Stack BB
1 Christopher Vecino Mateo 462,500 185
2 Lester Edoc 290,000 116
3 Czardy Earldale Rivera 246,000 98
4 John Niko Constiniano 200,000 80
5 Jonathan Kher Jun Xian 185,000 74
6 Ronn Ryan Mesina 183,500 73
7 Harold Ruaya 142,000 57
8 Arman Red 123,000 49
9 Renniel Galvez 111,500 45
10 Ivanchev Tabucal 100,000 40
11 Michael Bueza 83,000 33
12 Mark Tristan 69,000 28
13 Patrick Ramil Bathan 57,000 23
14 Randee Dirayunan Clybouw 55,000 22
15 Moses Saquing 53,000 21
16 Ho Young Jung 50,500 20
17 Jody Kitchen 42,500 17

With one starting day in the books, there are two more chances to join the qualifiers. Day 1B takes place on Thursday, December 8 and Day 1C runs on Friday, December 9. Players start with a 50,000 stack which is 500 times the opening big blind. Blinds increase every 40 minutes. Day 1 bags up at the end of Level 11.

Day 1 structure

JOHN CLYDE TAN wins the Pre-Event for ₱113,000 (~$2,036)

John Clyde Tan entered the final day of the Pre-Event running third in chips and proceeded to close it out to claim the first side event event title of the Christmas Special. This was Tan’s fourth Metro event deep run this year which came with a heads up payout deal of ₱113,000. The top three places also won a Christmas Special Main Event seat worth ₱16,500. Watch Tan’s final table race to victory via the livestream on Metro Card Club facebook page.

The Pre-Event kicked off with two flights running on opening day, attracting a combined 210 entries. 44 players advanced to the final day led by UK’s Stephen Nathan with only 25 guaranteed a piece of the bloated ₱499,000 (~$8,990) prize pool. Nathan held on to cash out in 14th place and Flight A chip leader Jayme Dela Cruz fared better with a 5th place finish.

At three-handed, John Clyde Tan cracked Jun Talosig‘s {ah}{ac} on the river with a {jc}{7c} flush to enter heads up against Peejay Aratea sitting on a commanding 91 BB over 39 BB. It took only 15 minutes for Tan to secure the win. Throughout the final chase, Tan pulled further away as Aratea struggled to earn chips. The final hand was Tan {6h}{6d} winning the flip against {ah}{10c} on a board {4d}{js}{8d}{ks}{jd}.

Buy in: ₱2,750
Guaranteed: ₱300,000
Entries: 210
Prize pool: ₱499,000
ITM:  25 places

1 John Clyde Tan ₱113,000* + MCS
2 Peejay Aratea ₱75,000* + MCS
3 Jun Talosig ₱43,750 + MCS
4 Anthony Banal Castro ₱33,750
5 Jayme Dela Cruz ₱23,750
6 Tyrone Lim ₱18,750
7 Federick Cruz ₱16,250
8 Muammar Manabilang ₱13,750
9 Joseph Sia ₱11,250
10 Marciel Cerbito ₱8,750
11 William Barona ₱8,750
12 George Salud ₱7,500
13 Jeffrey Calma ₱7,500
14 Stephen Nathan ₱7,500
15 Louie John Princesa ₱6,250
16 Bonifacio Mondalo ₱6,250
17 Opulencia Steeven ₱6,250
18 Aaron Paul Santos ₱6,250
19 Jared Santos ₱5,000
20 Marcial Ong ₱5,000
21 Jose Ruzzel ₱5,000
22 Isidro Alekhine Karl ₱5,000
23 Bruce Wayne Fabillaran ₱5,000
24 Marvin Cerbito ₱5,000
25 Maxwell Philippe Rosete ₱5,000

*Heads up deal

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