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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