All my life, i have never made any enemies. I'm a very peaceful person, and every untoward situation i have been involved in has always been handled in a civilized and non-conforntational manner. Although i've taken up martial arts and boxing, i've never been in a fistfight, except maybe with my brother when we were kids. I was taught to value honesty and integrity, and was always aware even at a young age that i was born into a family with a last name that i cannot just tarnish by doing anything stupid or dangerous.

So imagine my surprise when i heard that someone was spreading rumors that I, along with Jaz and even Kath, cheated last monday during the tournament where i placed second. The story goes that, when it was down to three players, Jaz and I were colluding to beat Rosh, plus, they even made up a story that during the crucial all-in hand where i called with my nut flush draw/ pair on the flop hand and it turned out he was bluffing, kath was behind them and miraculously saw his hole cards and signaled for me to call the all-in. Duh.

First of all, i was chip leader most of the time. When he went all-in, i had him covered by more than 30,000. Anybody who knew how to read a board knew that it was an automatic call on my part, after i had led out betting 11,000 before he went all in for 30,000 more or something. D.Ice cream was there, and so were several other notable and respected players who will attest that nothing of the sort happened.

The person telling these stories is someone insignificant in the poker community. He was actually the railbird who was disturbing and sitting at the table giving unsolicited advice to Rosh the whole time at the final table. Maybe he was embarassed when i asked bryan to please make him leave the table since he was really getting on our nerves, so he decided to make up some story to get even. i dont know, but he looked pretty drunk that night, and he isnt really the sort of person with a nice clean track record in the community. When his sister, a good friend of ours, confronted him with the story, he said "it's true,other people saw it." When she told him that other people who were there will attest otherwise, he said "Of course, those are your friends, theyll side with you!" Then he said, "Pikon lang kayo!" It turns out he had some interest in rosh because of some staking deal they had or something, im not really sure.

Honestly, if we did cheat the kid, how stupid can we be if he still won right? It's really absurd. I can't think of any reason for me, kath, and jaz to destroy our reputation and the respect of our peers by cheating at a measly 800 buy-in tournament. I admit i was really pissed when i heard about it, but i soon calmed down and realized that nobody who knows us in the poker community will even believe the allegations, and coupled by the fact that the source isnt someone of good moral character anyways. If anybody we dont know does believe them, we dont really care. If you have to accuse us, dont do it behind our backs, and confront us about it.

What's important for us is that we have a clear conscience. I don't really know if Rosh in involved in this, but i hope not, since he seems to be a nice kid, and he played well that night. I myself will never cheat in any way, shape, or form at a poker game. I love the game to much to do so. Not only that, i have invested too much time and effort in the poker community to just blow it all off on a stupid tournament for 5,000 pesos.

I really felt i didnt need to defend myself given the circumstances, but on since Kath and Jaz are also involved, i just felt i had to say something about it.

Peace.