Sunday, October 4, 2009

Charity Poker for Typhoon Ondoy victims

As typhoon Ondoy stormed through the Philippines, leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless.

We see that there is still hope for humankind. The outpouring of support from both the local and international community is a testament to this. Relief centers have sprung out like mushrooms from every corner of the Philippines. People from all walks of life were contributing in whatever way they can to alleviate the pain and poverty left behind by this devastating tragedy.

Yes! our kind can still be humans after all!

During the typhoon, my family was busy moving furnitures from one place to another. Nothing we did seemed to stop the force of nature from sipping into every crevice of the house until the whole floor was flooded thigh deep. In the end, we just had it let it be.

As the water kept rising, we decided to shut down power because water was already starting to sip into the power outlets. From the misty windows, I could see our cars slowly drown into muddy waters. We were now 'proud' owners of a Mitsubishi and Ford submarine.

As the sun set, darkness enveloped our home. No power, no technology to keep us occupied. We did however had each other for company. 'Candlelight' dinner and sharing stories w/ laughters through the wee hours of the morning wasn't so bad after all.

When the Sunday sunlight began to warm our country. The flood slowly resided

(to be continued...)

Online Poker

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! Bloggers can register for to play for free in the WBCOOP, if you don’t have a PokerStars account you can get your Poker Download here.

Registration code: 625346


Sunday, December 28, 2008

Boracay Ink

I've finally found some time to write this long overdue blog.

First off, I would personally like to thank LA CARMELA DE BORACAY for the free accommodation and wonderful service.
















You could visit there website at http://www.lacarmeladeboracay.com/index.htm
















If you guys/ gals want to see celebrities, this is the place to be. Most of them stay in this resort especially during the holidays. LA CARMELA is strategically situated where you get the best of both worlds. You've got Mother Nature upfront and civilized D'MALL on the side.
















Just as i like it, the weather was cloudy with a bit of drizzle from time to time. I prefer this weather because a sunny sky just ruins my natural tan.

I came to boracay with the intent of keeping my life simple:
1. swim
2. poker
3. eat
4. sleep
5. shop
6. get drunk and naked nottt....

Mission accomplished!!!

I came fully prepared to play online poker at the beach. I brought my handy Lenovo S10 and bought the SMARTBRO for 3G access. While shopping around, i tried to look for shops selling 3G load for tonight's online poker fest.

All of the shop owners looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo. Not until I reached my 6th store, that I overhead the store clerk murmuring why I would be needing a 3G load when there was free wifi.

Free wifi it was!!! Boracay was covered with free wifi from shore to shore which was provided by different resorts, restos and bars etc. Truly an online poker players dream.

Having secured my internet access for tonight's online games, I had freed my mind and was ready for some serious shopping.

We were walking around D'Mall when my son and niece spotted kids lining up to have to those kiddie glitter tattoos all over their body and they wanted one as well.

I 'TANKED' for a while, hahahaha, I didn't want to be raising the next Dennis Rodman but realized that this is the world we live in now. In a few years, the weirdos would be the one's without a single tattoo on them. So they started to get their tatts.





















It was not that they weren't happy with their tatts, it's just that we were already swimming, shopping the whole day and we just ate lunch. So they were a little grumpy and wanted their daily siesta time.















So we quickly wrapped up our shopping and went back to LA CARMELA to have the kids rest for a while.

On our way back to the resort, I spotted a nice clean tattoo shop and decided to check it out. Inggit ako sa mga bata eh, gusto ko din ng tattoo.

These were some on the pre designed tatts they had. Being a poker aficionado, I looked for something that had to do with the game I love. I browsed through around 1o catalogues but didn't see anything. So I just told them I would come back tomorrow with my own design.
















I came back the very next day with my own poker tattoo design, I showed it to the artist and asked if they would be able to ink it.

















This was the concept tattoo I showed the artist. Looked nice online, I hope they could ink it decently.




















I was thinking whether to have it inked to my leg or bicep.

It would be a waste to ink it on my leg because it won't be seen with my pants on. It would not look good on my biceps as well because I still have not achieved the sculpted male model body I have always dreamed about.

If dreams counted as exercise, I would have had my six pack a long long long time ago.

So I just decided to have it on my forearm, that way, it could be seen every time I played live poker.





















I had the skull (inside the spade) replaced with our groups initial BPC which stood for Breakfast Poker Club.

For all those wondering how we came up with that name, here is how it goes.

Our group played pusoydos every saturday when we chanced upon a new show called World Poker Tour. And to cut the long story short, we saw Gus Hansen and that was it for pusoydos. No Limit Holdem Poker rules!!!

We started playing Saturday evenings around 8pm, ended 6am sunday mornings and had breakfast together. BPC was born!

















Our 'hardwork' started paying off around 2007 when we started winning all sorts of online tournaments. We kept selling most of the free seats and only played the non-transferable seats. Because of the string of online wins, we thought of updating BPC from Breakfast Poker Club to Breakfast Poker Champions. But decided to defer it until the time we win some major live tournaments.


















This is me showing off my tattoo and bubble scuplted body along the shores of Bora.

Now that I have my bodyart, time to convince or force the rest of the BPC have it as well.
















By the way, for all those going to boracay and want to play live poker games. I have discovered some underground games.

Monday, December 22, 2008

PartyPoker via PokerStrategy

The Holidays are upon us!!!

Thanks to Gloria’s long holiday declarations, I now have more time to play poker!

I am going to talk about Partypoker and how I got started with it through Pokerstrategy.








online poker



My poker buddy alan referred me to a site called Pokerstrategy wherein they would credit your account with $50 to start off your poker bankroll. But of course it is not that simple, you have to read their poker articles then take their online exam, once you pass that exam, you choose an affiliated online poker site, create a new account, and the $50 would then be automatically credited to your new account within a few days.

After around 3 working days, I received my $50 dollars with an attached email. I thought the $50 was for me to dispose freely whenever I wanted to but the attached email stated that I would have to acquire 150 partypoker points within 90 days to keep the money or else the $50 (or anything left of it) would be confiscated. So I thought, yeah sure no problem, that would be easy.

On the 1st day (1st session), I logged on to the .05 .10 cash game with the max buy-in of $10. After playing a couple of hours, I was up by $3 dollars. I decided to leave the table and see how many points I have racked up. I refreshed the partypoints icon and saw…… 1 point! One measly point!!! What the…. Something must be wrong here! I couldn’t have just been credited with 1 point after grinding for a couple of hours!! So I went to there website and checked how they calculated partpoker points. Stated on the website, for .5 .10, that 10 partypoker points would be credited for around every 250 raked hands…. That’s a lot of raked hands considering I played too tightly and almost only played my blinds unless I had big cards.

On the 1st day (2nd session), I decided to play the .10 .25 jackpot cash game to hasten my points accumulation. Jackpot games get raked an additional .50. These special Jackpot tables rewards bad beats of quads and up. The maximum buy-in was $25, but I decided that $10 would be enough. After several hands, I realized that jackpot tables were much more active than ordinary tables. Players where more inclined to play there pocket pairs and suited connectors more often, in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. Pots were averaging $3 a hand. Within an hour, I burned my $10 and got credited with 1 more partypoint. Accumulating 150 points now seem to be far fetched idea.

On the 2nd day (1st session), I was back at the .05 .10 tables with $10. I opened up my game a bit and started attacking the blinds more often that I usually do so that I get raked more often. I started taking notes on players unwilling to protect their blinds against a small raise and consistently took there blinds. The problem with play .05 .10 tables was that the returns where quite slow and I was getting bored with the pace that money was trickling in.

On the 2nd day (2nd session), I was back at the .10 .25 tables, but decided to just play the ordinary tables since the jackpot tables were too crazy to play with. I now bought in for the maximum $25. I continued my loose play and kept attacking the blinds.
I got doubled up with this hand: Preflop: I bet 3x bb and got raised back 2x, I called. Flop comes Q 10 K off suit: I bet half the pot and got raised, I called. 4th street shows another Q: I bet half the pot and just called this time. River shows another Q: I checked, opponent bets, I raised, got reraised. At this point, only quad Queens could beat me, so I go all-in and got quickly called. I got thrown off how quickly my all-in got called and was almost certain I was against quad queens.

Fortunately, I got doubled up!!!

Can you guys guess our starting hands? (see bottom page)

On the 3rd day (1st session), with renewed confidence, I was back at the .10 .25 jackpot tables, hoping that my strategy could continue to work. Bought in for $25. I was playing well and doing fine, peaking at around $35. That was when my AQ rammed against AK. I was now down to $7. I thought about calling it a day and reflect on how badly I played that hand. But since I had nothing else to do, I decided to grind it out until I finally gained back my starting buy-in of $25. Whew, that was a long hard climb, but it was so fulfilling because I didn’t tilt and was able to regain my composure after I almost destroyed myself.

These consecutive days of cash tables earned me around 35 points and I am now on my way to completing the required 150 points. Should I clear the 150 points, another $100 would be credited to my account on a staggered basis.
On the 3rd day (2nd session), I decided to join the Partypoker $300 freeroll. Around 6500 players joined with 1000 players getting paid. 1000th place gets .06….. wowoweeee….mucho dinero….

The game started around 7:05pm. That was dinner time, so I logged in around 7:40pm. I stayed in the middle of the pack for most of the tournament. After around 3 hours we were In The Money at 1000th for .06 dollars. I thought, with that 3 hours I could have won so much more money at the cash tables. But I sure didn’t want to bust out now because I would have just wasted the 3 hours spent. I continued to grind it out. Luckily I didn’t get any bad beats nor did I hand out any.

By around 11:30pm, my SMART BRO was smoking hot, we were already down to the last 30 tables and the prize was now getting bigger and bigger. I was still in with mid stack hoping to make my move. I was dealt AQ, a player goes all in and was folded back to me. I thought, time to stack up. Before I could press the ALL-IN button, I get disconnected. What!!! I get reconnected after a few minutes and now sees QQ hole cards, before I get could do anything, I get disconnected again… dang!!!

I rushed out to the sala hoping to get a better internet signal. Now, I saw pocket pair 10s, I panicked and just pressed the ALL-In button before I get disconnected again. It was a 3 way all-in against unpaired high cards and I got tripled up.

Around 12:30am we were down to the final table with blinds capped at 75,000-150,000-4,000. I just did my thing, letting the bluffers bluff and just picking my spots until I became one of the chip leaders. With only 4 players remaining, I looked at my YM and looked who among my poker buddies were still awake. Unfortunately, only Sherwin was awake, reading God knows what. So, Every time I was stuck on a hand, I would ask his opinion and basically just did the OPPOSITE of his suggestions. Thanks dude, couldn’t have done it without you.

I was now heads up with around 7 millions in chips against my opponents 14 million. Fortunately, the blinds were already capped which leaves me with a lot of room to maneuver. It was now around 1am and I am quite sure that my 15hours SMARTBRO prepaid load would be running out anytime soon. I hope I get to end this game.

My opponent questionably occasionally goes all in preflop, hoping to end it right there and then. I told myself that this guy/ gal, feels he/ she can’t outplay me, that is why he/ she keeps going all in preflop. I was determined more than ever to outplay him/ her.

These were the defining hands that changed the tide to my favor:

My opponent goes ALL-IN for the Nth time when I saw pocket 8s, snowmen!!! I am probably ahead unless I run against a higher pocket pair, it was now a race and a chance I was willing to take. Opponent shows me Ax and I was way ahead. I was now up around 16 million against 4 million chips.

I kept my patience, kept staying away from his/ her preflop all-ins and focused mainly on outplaying my opponent. With a J9, I double the BB and got called. Flop gives my middle pair 9 with an ace scare card. I bet ¾ the pot, and my opponent goes ALL-IN. My initial reaction was, he/ she couldn’t possibly have paired the Ace because he/she would have went All-in preflop with any Ace. And if I was against a pair ace, he/ she could have tried to extract more chips from me by just calling or raising. I called the ALL-IN and opponent shows rags. I win!!!

That was my wonderful Partypoker freeroll experience. 6hours for $44, not so bad.














Some thanks you notes are in order:

Poker Strategy – for giving the partypoker starting bankroll of $50.

Alan – for referring me to poker strategy.

Party poker – for sponsoring those freerolls.

Sherwin – for your wrong poker strategies.

Smartbro – for wireless internet access here in the province.



(I had KK against AA)

Monday, December 15, 2008

Metro Card Club's Perfect 10 freeroll













December 14, 2008

Guys/ Gals, you have to visit The Metro Card Club for some poker, be it for fun or for business, that is the in-place to be.

Metro Card Club's Perfect 10 freeroll is scheduled every Sunday. Registration time is 2pm, cards are on the air 5pm, on the dot.

Here goes my poker experience/ badbeat... hahahaha...

Went to Metro and registered for the freeroll around 3pm then went out for awhile.

Cards where on the air 5pm, I like these establishments/ tournaments that start on time, I just means that The Metro values our time.

As usual I arrived around an hour late... sat with just 1,925 chips left from the starting chip count of 2,500 chips. Luckily blinds started 25-50 and every level had intervals of 15minutes, so I wasn't so badly blinded out.

Although I had only around 1925 chips left, I didn't start playing right away, I passed around 8 hands (even with Ax in position) just to observe the people I would be playing with. After gaining information on what kind of players I would be dealing with, and understanding how they acted. It was showtime!!!

In late position, I was dealt KsJs on an unopened pot. Since I was already the shorted stack on the table, I declared: "Let's Go, I am ALL-IN, time to get lucky!" I was called by the blind showing AXo. Flopped gave me the flush right away and he was crippled. Lucky me! I said sorry and played on.

On the very next hand, I was dealt Pocket Kings offsuit (hahahha ... of course offsuit). I thought for awhile wether to raise or just slow play with a flat call. But since I thought that the other players would already be thinking that I was just on a high with no real cards, I announced : "Let's go one more time!!! I am ALL-in!". As expected I got 3 callers who pushed all in. Only one of them got me covered. I showed my Cowboys and one of the players told me exactly what I had thought, He said : " I thought you were just bluffing ..." I went against Pocket 10s, Ax, and QJ i think. Fourth street showed another King, busted out 2 players, semi tripled up and was now chip leader.

I didn't catch any defendable hands and was content on folding a couple of times to aggressive raises.

After sometime, I get dealt AsQs, in late position. Pre-Flop, An bored old man with average stack pushes all-in, after noticing that the players behind me didn't have anything and was on a motion to fold their hands. I just went ALL-IN one more time baby!! To my surprise, the old man shows 8d9h. The board gave me two pairs but gave him 4 running hearts to a flush.... dang.....

Hahahaha...buger that....I laughed it off, and asked him why he shoved with an 89, i was guessing it's his favorite hand. And yes, he confirmed it was his favorite hand. I told him that now he had all the more reason to keep playing his 89. Can't wait to see you on the cash tables old man.

Superstitious players, can bring in so much money. Once you know what hands they "trust". Played correctly, it's almost impossible for them to fold it even if it's not the nuts. Watch out sir, I have got you hommed in and ready to cash.

Down to around 5k in chips, with blinds rising fast. I had to start making my move now. On the cut off with an unopened pot, i decided to bluff with my offsuit rags. Dealer folds, Kalel SB thinks but ultimately folds his Ax. BB folds as well. Was thinking of showing my bluff to induce more action but decided otherwise because I can't go embarrasing my friend.

My chips haven't recovered from that bad beat when i was dealth Q10 suited on late postion with an unopend pot, since the blinds were already catching up with me... SHOVED IT! I got called with a dominated hand Qx offsuit... River ofcourse pairs his x and I was down to 800.

With 800 to go minus 100 ante, I decided to go all in blind, Kalel and another players calls. I then peeked at my cards and saw lolo's favorite hand 89 offsuit. Flop pairs my nine. Kalel outplays his opponent on fourth street leaving us heads up. I asked Kalel if he hit anything and he sadly said yes and shows me his straight.... Busted by a friend, no worries though, better a friend than anybody else.

I stayed on to watch the tournament end while also checking out how MOTO was doing on the cash tables.

On the Tournament:
With 4 players left (kalel included), there was talk of a 4-way chop. mid stack villain disagrees to it.

Kalel played a masterful game, reading the opponents right and going in with the best of it.
sadly he just kept getting sucked out on crucial hands. without those terrible badbeats at the end, he would have won it all.

Kalel out, 3 players left, a player offered to buy the share of the other 2 players, villain now chip leader still disagrees.

With 2 players left, villain now the overwhelming chip leader jokes about chopping then takes it back.

Guess who won....

Villain losses his monstrous chip lead and goes home empty handed.

Lesson of the story: CHOP CHOP!!!

On Moto's cash table:
Every body was chatty, a few bluff here and there, the usual solid play from Moto. The all of a sudden, a young lady shows and buys in for 1500 in chips. A little later, her friend buys in for 300. You could just see eyes of all the pros on the table light up. Time to reel in the fish! Moto and the others got a fair share of the fishmeal.

Do I hear a MOTO freeroll somewhere???

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Hongkong Disneyland

Welcome to Disneyland (Hongkong)!















During one my son's long school breaks, we decided to head over to Hongkong Disneyland for a long family fun time.

And I have to tell you that this was the Most relaxing, Most fun, Most memorable vacation I have had in a long long long...time. Its so nice being with family without a care in the world.

This picture on top is the Disney Hotel where we had our breakfast. Every thing from the windows, chairs, staircases, benches, elevators and even the pancakes were shaped with mickeys. Its like you are in one giant TV show looking for hidden mickeys. Ethan had fun pointing to us all the hidden mickeys that we would encounter.

Included in the price of the breakfast buffet was a chance to meet and greet several disney characters. Each character would visit you at your tables for unlimited photo ops and they were all very friendly with the kids. The food was also great, you had your choice of salad, soup, milk, soymilk, juices, fruits, ham, egg, spaghetti, dimsum, hotdog, spam, pancakes, etc etc etc... whatever you are thinking of having for breakfast, you will find it there.





















































After our big breakfast, it was off to the Disneyland park for more fun. We happily boarded Disney's luxurious bus.















On board that bus were some of the world's most wickedly insane hairdonts I have seen. I think I might even seen a small rodent climb in and out of those hairnests.
















Going inside disneyland park, you would notice that the vast majority of the tourists come from mainland china. In fact, most of the hongkong residents I have spoken to have not even gone to Disneyland.

There are alot of attractions, rides, booths, restaurants and theater shows, street shows that you'll find it impossible to finish everything in one day.

I strongly suggest that should you ever plan to go to Disney, it would be advisable to stay for 3 days 2 nights so that you get to leisurely enjoy all the park attractions.



























































I more thing you'll notice are that most of the entertainers are composed of talented Filipinos who make us all proud.

Must see shows are Golden Mickeys, Lion King, High School Musical Live, Night Fireworks, Afternoon Character parades, Evening Character Parades and Mickey's Philharmagic.

Must try rides are Buzz Lighter, Space Mountain, Honda's Electric Car and more.

















It was non stop from morning until evening.
















Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the prettiest of them all. The man in pink, the mirror says.



















We all had a wonderful time and we are planning to go back this summer.

Thank you Hongkong Disneyland for your pleasant stay.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

APPT Macau 2008 (Pokerstars sponsored player)

Greetings of peace!

This is my first ever blog and i hope you guys enjoy it.

Today's blog would be about my Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau 2008 experience which was sponsored by Pokerstars.

But before anything else, I would like to thank the following people that made it all possible:

My wife: for patiently enduring and understanding my sometimes long hours of poker play.

BPC (Breakfast Poker Champions) regulars: Alan, Johnson, Mark, Michael, Sherwin for our consistent saturday night to sunday morning poker games. Special thanks to Alan for making this tournament possible.

BPC extras: Aldo, Eugene, Richwood, Webster, Willy etc. for occassional dropping by and mixing it up a bit.

BPC wives/ gf: Avie, Cheryl, Cristina, Margarette, Marsha, Nerissa,for allowing all of us to play poker, have some fun and strenghten our friendship.

APPT President and staff: Jeffrey Haas, for a wonderful well organized tournament.

POKERSTARS: for sending me to this magnificient tournament through their generous freerolls. And on behalf of my poker buddies, Alan, Mark, Mike, would also like to thank you for cashing and sending them to multiple live tournaments via your freerolls as well.


Here goes...















My sis and I flew in August 31, 2008 afternoon, check in Grand Waldo for a week's stay, settled in and went on to see the sites of Macau. First stop was The Venetian which is the best hotel/resort I have been to. It was complete with all the signature shops, fabulous restaurants and one of the largest casino floors in the world. We spent the rest of the evening inside The Venetian.

We had this photo taken quickly, because this monument was located in the middle of the street. The hotel guards were already running towards us, telling us to leave before we get into an accident. damn tourists....hahahahha

After our Venetian tour, We looked out and saw that Grand Waldo seemed nearby. We then decided to walked back to Grand Waldo. These hotels were so huge that when you see it, you would think that i was just nearby and you could just walk over. Wrong!!! It took us around 40minutes to walk from The Venetian to Grand Waldo.

Welcome to APPT Macau 2008 (Sept.1-9, 2008) at the Grand Waldo Hotel & Casino.
















We were so tired of walking from The Venetian to Grand Waldo that we headed straight to our room and slept. I later found out that there was a big welcome party for all us players that night and it was a blast. Most of the players had a good time with all the booze you can drink. The party was loaded and happening.

September 1, 2008

Woke up early and had all you can eat breakfast compliments of the hotel. It is now just 9am and the tournament doesnt start until 1pm. So we decided to go for a little site seeing and shopping at Senado Square. One thing good at Macau is that most if not all hotels provide free bus services to and from the entry points (Airport, Pier, and Border Gate). So we had no problems going around Macau. We would just take our hotel shuttle to one of those entry points then ride another hotel shuttle closest to the place we would want to go to. We spent the whole morning at Senado Square and I lost track of time. When I saw my watch, it was already 12:30 pm. We grabbed a quick lunch of milky spicy noodles and road a taxi back to Grand Waldo.

















This was my first table. Tournament started ontime 1pm and I arrived a bit late, 1:30pm. Levels were done on one hour intervals. Everyone started with 10,000 in chips and I wasn't blinded out too badly being 30 minutes late, I think i just lost around 300 chips.

This was a pretty standard table, nobody looked nor played like a pro. Pretty boring actually, I have had better home games. At this point, I was thinking of just taking a quick shower and just come back afterwards. The table was a mix of Europeans, Asians and Americans.















One notable hand. After all 5 cards were laid out, this guy to my left was last to act holding the nuts. The action was checked to him and you guys know what he did??? He checked it as well!!! We all saw he had the nuts and looked at him strangely. The other players started chidding him and trying to get into his head. But to no avail, this guy could only understand and speak a little english. And all I could understand from what he was saying was that he was new to the game. Wowwww... what a bankroll, being new to the game, can't even figure out you had the nuts and you bought-in directly for HKD 25,000. Stake me pleaseeee....
















Aerial view of the tournament, around 538 players joined this tournament. It took 3 day one flights to accomodate all the players. Can you guys spot where i am? I have to thank my sister Eileen for being my official photographer and for climbing up three floors just to get these aerial shots.

Of the 538 players who joined, some of the more notable players in this tournament were:

Dinh Le (APPT Macau 2007 champion), Joe Hachem, Chad Brown, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier, Isabelle Mercier, Lee "Final Table" Nelson, Vanessa Rousso, Eric Assadourian, Celina Lin, Van Nguyen, Emad Tahtouh, Terrence Chan, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Johnny Chan and many more.
















Here I am still comtemplating wether to wait for the next break or just get blinded out to take a quick shower.

I looked up while my sister was taking these aerial photos and noticed that she was already flanked by three hotel security guards. They were questioning what she was doing all the way up there and why was she taking all those pictures. The guards were asking her to delete all the pictures she took, luckily she was not familiar with the new camera and they just decided to bring her to me. The guards upon meeting and seeing that I was one of the players let her off the hook easily and just warned her not to take any more aerial shots.















My table was so tight and slow that I had to do something to get me interested and awake. I was not getting any premium cards as well so I decided to just play and bluff with junk hands like this 9d3h. Won a couple of bluffs with these hands to keep me awake. How I miss online multi-tabling.

Last hand before the break, players were already walking out, I stayed behind to see the last hand. It was blind to blind action, both well stacked. SB just calls and BB checks. Flop shows paired rags, SB bets, BB raises, SB calls. 4th street rag, SB bets, BB raises, SB goes all in. They start trash talking, BB (chip leader) tanks then calls with his pocket aces. SB shows his rags that made trips on the flop. BB looses alot of his chips and explained that he did not raise his pocket aces preflop because the SB was the only player remaining. After the break, ex-chip leader was never the same player, tilted and busted out a couple of hands later.


First Break! Time to take a quick shower!!!































After my quick shower, I changed into my Phil Laak hooded shirt with my new pokerstars sponsored sports jacket. Came down 15 minutes late. And had more photo ops for my album. I really wasnt minding the table that much because I was too busy deciding if I looked better with or without the sunglasses.















I was in the middle of a hand, when i saw Barry Greenstein walking on the rails. DECISION TIME... I TANKED... Had a little invested on the pot, had a flopped hand I could defend against 3 other players, Barry G. walking further further away. Easy decision..hahahaha... left my hand, stood up, run towards and requested him to take a picture with me. I told him he was one of my favorite players and wished him goodluck on the tournament. I then asked him how he was doing in the tournament to which he answered a hesitant doing ok. On my way back to the tables, Alan texted informing me that he just read on a live blog that Barry G. had just been busted out of the tournament. I called Alan up and told him, no wonder Barry G. was a little gloomy and was unsure what to tell me when I asked about how he was doing. We both had a laugh afterwards.

I made it through to Day 2!! With an average stack but with loads of pictures.

There were two more Day 1 flights and these were some of the pictures I took:
















Elky came into his Day 1 flight dressed like the Joker, I think the costume helped him built his stack because players took him for a joke, unmindful that he is one of the rising stars of poker. Elky ended the day with an above average stack and looking to continue to do well on Day 2.

If I am not mistaken, this white haired guy with his back to us is Mel Judah, former hair dresser turned poker pro.
















I also saw Johnny Chan playing but not much action. I guess he wasnt getting any goods cards because I mostly saw him folding even with his blinds. But he does have 10 bracelets and is a legend in poker. So I guess, great players have mastered when to Hold'em and when to Fold'em.

I watched him until breaktime to be able to get a photo op with him. When the break started, he quickly stood up and walked towards the far end to avoid the huge crowd in front. I stalked him and followed him all the way up to the VIP tables and got him to take this picture with me. He was a friendly and approachable.

Day 2 coming up... I am now only one of the handful of Filipinos who made it to Day 2, some of our more heralded players fell and it is now upto us to carry on, but more importantly, to make the money. Around US$200,000 for 1st place.















This would probably be one of the most difficult tables I have faced. Everybody was so aggressive. Most of the time, the action would be Bet, Raise, Reraising, All-in. We like had 5 consecutive all-ins and around 10 all-ins in a span of 20minutes. There were also alot of skillful traps that alot of the amateurs fell into. Somebody was getting busted out every couple of hands. The table pros were Joe Hachem (brown shirt), Daisy Cupino Wain (Hachem's immediate left), Charles Chua (guy in blue cap), Terrence Chan ( Charles's immediate right). I later found out that this was the featured table. That was the reason that whenever somebody busted out, either a pro would be sent in or somebody with a huge stack. This made it very difficult for me to build up my stack and as I only managed to double my stack. Joe actually started this Day 2 as shortest stack with only about 5,500 in chips but quickly doubled up after a called all-in. There goes my chance to bust out somebody famous.

Just to show how good these players were, both players involved were chip leaders: Preflop Mid Position, Daisy bets and the guy next to him raises big, she calls. Flop shows a face card with rags, Daisy goes all in. The guys tanks for around 5 mins, utters that she couldn't possibley be bluffing to rish all her chips, he shows and lays down his pocket aces and just shakes his head. Daisy shows she paired both her suited face card and rag. Every pro in the table was amazed that the guy had it in him to lay down his pocket aces.































This aggressive table action was so stressful that I had to lighten up, let them play there game and let me adapt to their style. I asked my sis to start taking my pictures again as I started making some funny faces. Joe's probably wondering right now what the hell was i doing (top picture), was i really here to play or just goof around.

Back to business, time to get serious. Put on these badboy shades and bust-out somebody. I eventually managed to bust out two players including this gentleman to my left.

















Around this time with about 100 players remaining, I was informed that I was the only player from the Philippines remaining and that 60th place makes the money.

Disaster struck... with an unopened pot in middle position, I raised 4x the BB with my LADIES (QQ), everybody folds to the bigblind who shoves in his short stack. Nothing else I could do but call his all-in with just a few chips additional. He shows KJ. River card King beats me and makes me the table short stack.















































Time to get those chips back before I get blinded out. I am now the BB and didn't peak at my cards until it was my turn to act. Daisy calls, Late player bets. I peak at my cards and see my Cowboys waiting to shoot down somebody. I act for awhile... Announced to the table that : " I don't know what to do with this hand, But I am on a FREEROLL anyways, so I am ALL IN!" I get called and double up quickly.

The table had a great laugh and being on a FREEROLL was on hell of a reason to start calling down hands. They were amazed that I was just on a freeroll and started asking how I lucked myself into the tournament...hahahaha.....

Later on, I get myselft into another hand, this time with Terrence Chan. I was again the Big Blind and he raised on late position. I peak through my cards and called with AJo. Heads up action, Flop shows a rainbow flop giving me a pair of jacks, with a backdoor flush draw. Terrence raises me and I started thinking. While I was thinking, some of the players would start telling me to call because I was on a freeroll. I looked at Terrence and noticed a slight tell. I surmised that he still didnt have it but most possibly be on some sort of draw. I say: " I Guess i am still on a freeroll so I am ALL-IN. With just a few chips to go, he sheepishly calls and turns over his gut shot straight draw. He gets crippled and I double up once again.
















Another player gets busted out, and who else do they send in??? Another Pokerstars Sponsored Pro Player in the name of Emad Tahtouh. I started wondering, what is going on here.... Our table is already stacked with PROs and Big stacked non pros. Mostly everybody was ultra aggressive and I was already having a hard time picking my spots and maximizing my short stack.

I am starting to feel the heat here guys....

I am getting closer to the bubble, hence the bubble face. hahahaha...

If you guys noticed my stack, Though my stack is small, I am actually not that far behind because the white chips were the lowest denominated chips.

Only 2 more hours, and I would be making it to Day 3 (money day). With my stack getting shorter and blinds/ antes increasing, I eventually got into a race with Emad for all my chips and busted out. Goodbye to my APPT Macau 2008 Championship dream.

Although I was disappointed that I did not make the money, I was very fulfilled with the experience.

I realized that:
I had what it takes to compete with the best.
I need a few more tournament experience and I would then consistently make the money.
I could read and differentiate tells then act accordingly.
I had the basics to do good in these tournaments but have to expand my play to do better.


Until the next tournament.


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