Metrocard Club re-opens its door – May 20, 2021
Publish date: May 23, 2021

Hey, poker playas!

How are you? We are glad to announce that a poker room has finally re-open. 

Poker rooms and houses were ordered close due to the spread of the pandemic. 

Let us take a quick recap.

Quick recap. 

What happened in the past years.

  • March 15, 2020 – The Philippines went into a lockdown. All gaming establishments closed their doors to the general public.
  • December 2020 – Pokerstars Live re-opens in Okada Manila.
  • February 5, 2021 – Metrocard club re-opens
  • March 29, 2021 – NCR Plus went to ECQ, Poker rooms and houses closed down once again.

Metrocard club re-opens.

After a few months of wondering if poker rooms will re-open again. Pokerstars which was the first to re-open remained silent during the ECQ. Although Quarantine measures have been relaxed. There is still no update on re-opening.

Although people were expecting that PokerStars would re-open first. It was the Metrocard club that announced and re-opened first.

They have implemented safety guidelines when they first re-opened which you can view by clicking here. 

Players are not jumping back fast.

Although the first to re-open first. Metrocard club is not attracting enough players yet. Earlier today (May 22, 2021). It was reported of only having 3 tables operating. There are a number of reasons why players would not jump at once to start playing.

  • The pandemic is still growing.
  • Curfews are still active.
  • Limited spread of the news of the re-opening.
  • Competition with underground poker rooms which still allows a full table and fewer health protocols.
  • Competition with online sites.
  • No tournaments.

The pandemic is still growing.

The Philippines tallies 183 new COVID-19 deaths, pushing the death toll closer to 20,000 at 19,946.
 
The number of cases is now 1,178,217 after 6,831 more people got infected.
 
The recovery count also rises to 1,103,945 with 7,981 new survivors while active cases are at 54,326 excluding data from three labs.
 
The Department of Health reported 10 new cases of the “double mutant” COVID-19 Indian variant in the Philippines on Saturday, May 15, bringing the total number of confirmed Indian variant cases to 12. 
 
The variant that can spread faster and more deadly. 

There is still a curfew

There is no update on the curfew. currently, it is set at 10 pm. 

Competition with underground poker rooms which still allows a full table and fewer health protocols.

There are underground poker rooms. although there have been some raids. There are still some rooms that are operating. 
 
Underground rooms allow 9 players per table compared to6 players per table for regulated rooms. 

Online sites are booming, but Poker is not the only thing that booming.

Online cockfighting. online casinos. PUBG and online poker sites.
 
The competition is just getting fiercer, without the travel and less dangerous.

No tournaments

Poker tournaments are still not allowed in live poker rooms. The problem with poker tournaments is you need to create a big guarantee to attract players. The limitation on tables, It would be difficult to host a tournament and not overlay. 

Live poker future

Live poker will be back. although it is taking a little more time. in the end, the love for the game will always be there. But until everything goes back to normal. Online poker is the best option for players right now.

But we do hope to see you soon!

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