Reigning Asian Poker Tour champion Neil Arce leads a small but formidable group of Filipino poker players competing in the main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on July 4 at the Amazon Room of Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The 25-yea-old Arce, known in the poker world as “Dirty Ice Cream,” is arguably the most successful poker player in the Philippines in terms of tournament winnings and finishes.

He rose to prominence after becoming the first Philippine-based player to finish in the money round in the 2007 WSOP main event, winding up 222nd out of 6,500 players and cashing in more that $50,000.

Arce then ruled the third leg of the Filipino Poker Tour and pocketed the P1.1-million top prize.

But his biggest win came just last February, when he bested a tough field of 262 players from 40 countries to crown himself champion of the Asian Poker Tour held at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City. The feat also earned him $185,000 or close to P9 million.

Arce, whose campaign is supported by The Metro Card Club, will pit his skills against thousands of poker players from around the world in this year’s edition of the WSOP, where nearly $200 million will be awarded.

The World Series 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 seventh most-admired sports brand in North America by the Turnkey Team Brand Index, trailing only the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and the PGA Tour.

This year’s series, which started on May 28, has a total of 57 events calendared, 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.

The main event, where Arce is competing, is a No-Limit Hold’em tournament with a buy-in of $10,000, which will run for 12 days with the final table to be played in November.