INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines—If morality were a poker game, then organizers of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) have just gone “all in” with their chips, whipping up a cash-rich tournament with a total pot of $1 million.

The tournament, which kicks off Tuesday at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City, offers a top prize of $280,000 with a buy-in of $2,500. And while organizers do admit that the tournament is still a form of gambling, they are scrambling to position poker into a particular niche in the sporting world.

“Obviously, poker is made up of 70 percent chance, 30 percent skill,” said Christopher Parker, the director of the Asian Poker Tour (APT).

“But as far as the APT is concerned, we’d like to channel it through sports [and that means] focusing on the 30-percent skill rather than on the gambling aspect, the roll of the dice.”

That the APT chose the Philippines as its kickoff leg for this year’s tour whips up a sense of irony that almost mocks the way the country handles its vice problem.

On one hand, there are Roman Catholic bishops that constantly rail at the creation of new casinos and gambling-themed venues. On the other, there are the government-sanctioned forms of gambling like lotto. And that’s not taking into account the illegal numbers games that proliferate in the provinces.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has consistently spoken against gambling, even when it admitted that the “moral teaching does not prohibit some forms of gambling in certain situations.”

Society’s moral fiber

The stand of the Church has always been that gambling aids in the degradation of a society’s moral fiber. Three years ago, when the Church came under attack for receiving money from state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) for its pro-poor projects, the CBCP reiterated its stand in a statement penned by Fernando Capalla, the archbishop of Davao. Pagcor operates casinos in the country.

While the CBCP statement admitted that gambling per se wasn’t an injustice, it had made its point clear when it said that “applying the moral principle to the specific Philippine situation, the CBCP has deemed it necessary to state that the form of gambling that is organized, widespread and systematic, whether legal or illegal, is not desirable. It is creating a culture of gambling that is seriously eroding the moral values of our people.”

The statement said that “the CBCP has made it a collective policy,” among others, “to combat the expansion of organized and systematic legal gambling.”

The APT is very well aware of the noise the Church may make regarding the poker tournament, but it isn’t particularly worried about it.

Pagcor’s advice

“We’re wary about the Church but we just take Pagcor’s advice on that,” Parker said.

“Obviously, we’re sanctioned by Pagcor,” he added. “We take our cue and advice from Pagcor and it has advised us it’s OK.”

Besides, the APT has priced itself well out of the range of being a vice, according to Parker. The buy-in, he says, makes sure that only touring professional poker players and those who can actually afford to spend a lot on leisure can book seats to the tournament.

Middle- to high-income people

“We look at the target brand, the target size of the investment,” Parker said.

“The actual pay-in is $2,500, which is P107,000. So that’s over the band where we’re targeting the low- to middle-income people. We’re looking more at the middle-to-high income people.”

“We feel that we priced ourselves out of the reach of problem gambling,” he said.

In short, Parker explained, the APT was after people who play poker for the competitive high they get from it.

“It’s in the Asian DNA to gamble or play any form of heads-up competition in cards,” he said.

‘Pusoy, tong-its’

And that makes Filipinos inherently Asians. Not only do Filipinos love to gamble, they also have helped the game morph into variations popular in the country like “pusoy,” “pusoy dos” and “tong-its.”

In fact, Parker is looking to the Philippines being a regular stop of the Asian Poker Tour.

“Poker is going to explode for Filipinos,” he said. “Pretty soon, you’re going to see poker rooms outside casinos because Pagcor wants to differentiate the income of poker players from casino players.”

Because of the prize at stake, the tournament will get heavy play in sports channels and possibly the sports pages.

But the APT believes that rather than unnecessarily promoting gambling, it is pushing poker into the sporting consciousness by taking the game through the path once passed by the likes of billiards and darts—mainstream sports that had taken a marketing effort to disassociate themselves from their seedy connotations.

“We focus on the numbers,” Parker said. “If we look at the players, we have rankings. The players’ rankings will show you the top players building up points and staying on top.

“Luck will play a big part every now and then—somebody’s going to win an odd-ball number—but really, you’ll be seeing the best players rising to the top and it’s because these strategies work,” he said.

Celebrity event for PGH

And then, there is the goodwill that Parker believes the tournament will promote. For instance, the tournament will have a celebrity side event where some of the popular names in show business will play for certain charities.

Parker, a Philippine poker champion, will play the celebrity event and he will be playing for Philippine General Hospital.

“We’re giving out P400,000 to the winning charity,” he said. “We will also be playing up the charities of all the celebrities who will be playing so the foreigners who come here, if they’re in a generous mood or if they win the tournament, they might want to make donations on their own, too.”

Sports tourism

Parker also trumpeted the sports tourism angle. According to him, there will be 300 poker professionals who participate in the event, 85 percent of whom will be foreigners who are “going to spend money on local shops, beaches, hotels.”

But all the sugar-coating in the world cannot hide the fact that gambling will be the overriding theme of the glitzy, purse-heavy tournament. Even the APT admits that.

“I can’t see people blinking their eyes and saying this is a sport without any amount of gambling in it,” Parker said.

Sports purists

But rather than play the morality card, the APT is hoping to move the debate to whether poker can qualify as a mainstream sport or not. Sports purists, however, may find it difficult to reconcile the card game with sports.

“The impression is it’s really gambling,” said Joey Romasanta, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) spokesperson and former project director of the Project: Gintong Alay.

“It’s a game of chance and I don’t think it will even make it as a part of the POC in the near future,” Romasanta said.

While it doesn’t require any physical expertise, some poker enthusiasts liken the game to chess, which is a mental sport. But even chess has failed to gain the nod of the International Olympic Committee, the world’s largest sporting body, as a regular Olympic sport.

“The only way poker can be included in the POC roster is if it manages to somehow make itself a Southeast Asian Games event with at least four countries willing to compete in it,” Romasanta said.

That was how chess managed to get into the POC as a legitimate national sports association.

“But it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon,” Romasanta said.

Poker fans, however, are willing to wait. And for Parker, there is reason to be optimistic that the game may be considered an alternative sports event in the future.

“If we push particular pros who win regularly, it will be looked upon as a sport with more emphasis on the skill factor,” Parker predicted.

“There’s more skill involved than just closing your eyes and pushing the chips in there. It’s a mental game. Tacticians will win over poker gamblers any time.”

And then, maybe, the question of values will slowly wilt away. Because if poker were, indeed a morality game, the APT doesn’t feel like it is sharing a table with the Church.

“I feel we’re not conflicting with anything with the Church,” Parker said.

“The Church has its role with the people and we’re not targeting anybody below the high-end players and touring professionals who feel that this is a competitive sport.”