WINNING hands turned into helping hands as Resorts World Manila staged the first LuckStars Charity Poker on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Fire Rooster (Jan. 28) at the integrated resort’s refurbished Poker Room.
Poker enthusiasts from show business, the athletic community, socialites and scribes from various blog sites in social media participated in the inaugural event which aims to help RWM’s selected charity beneficiaries namely Child Haus, Orchestra of the Filipino Youth, and ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan, as part of its socio-civic initiatives.
“RWM takes responsible citizenship seriously and we continue to come up with innovative ways to make communities win,” said RWM Director for Corporate Communications Owen Cammayo. “In 2015, we staged a similar activity where we raised and donated around Php100,000 to chosen beneficiaries. This year, we’ve raised the stakes and with the help of the country’s most prominent poker players, we’re donating Php150,000 to our selected beneficiaries.”
Twenty-eight players turned up for the poker tourney which saw blogger Jeng Del Rosario, actors Epi Quizon, Jeremy Marquez, Rocco Nancino, athlete Anton Del Rosario, model Michael Jungschlager , and socialites JV Durian and Yeboy Avante advance to the final eight Main Event.
Quizon and Jeng Del Rosario met for the face-off with the latter emerging as the first-ever LuckStars Charity Poker champion and winning for Child Haus P100,000. Quizon took 1st runner-up honors with proceeds P20,000 donated to ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan, while Anton Del Rosario placed 2nd runner-up donating P30,000 to ANG MISYON: Orchestra of the Filipino Youth.
Among other prominent personalities who helped out in the charity fun tournament were Troy Montero and wife Aubrey Miles, Cesca Litton, KC Montero, Aliya Parcs, Luigi Muhlach, Gwen Zamora, Boy2 Quizon, Karel Marquez, and bloggers Raffy Pekson and Ron Villagonzalo among others.
Meanwhile, RWM is also set to host the Asian Poker Tour Championships Philippines 2017 from April 26 to May 7 after having the APT Kickoff Tournament in January, where Japanese Takumi Samejima emerged the winner of the Main Event.
For more upcoming events at RWM, visit www.rwmanila.com or call the Tourist/Visitor Hotline at (632) 908-8833.