The ACF5000 had it's third tournament yesterday, and what a great tournament it was. Fifty players came to play in search of that coveted ACF5K silver bracelet and a chance to win a sweet pot which came up to 250,000. As usual, the regulars were there to play, but there were also a lot of new faces. Although we would have wanted to seat more players fo a bigger pot, the 5 table tournament set up a good field and a decent sized pot, which is actually more favorable to the players.

First deal came, and instantly there was big action. The Atty. Pokemon, winner of last week's Charity Poker event, busted out on his first hand within the first 4 minutes, getting KK run up against AK, which hit the Ace. Like nick said, that guy's a man of extremes! It's either he goes deep, or busts out quickly. After he busted out, nobody busted out in the next 30-45 minutes or so! Just a sign of the great poker action to come. Midway through the game, D.Ice cream neil ran into Quad fours after he hit top pair and was betting into an old guy who developed a huge stack calling every hand and raise and hitting monser hands. Another veteran of the poker scene Jun Uy played only 2 hands, KK and JJ, getting cracked both times and busting out in the process. When it was down to 11 players, the field was down to several familiar faces in the poker community. Big Wally, Barb, Sunshine, Atty.Eric, Skippy, were all there. Barb had the smallest stack in the field and at the 1000-2000 level, she went all in for 4,000 and managed to double up! After that, she managed to double up again a few hands before Sunshine busted out to the Chip leader Richard who called her small all-in and hit something. Good game Shine!

Coming into the final table, we had Richard, a new guy, with the chip lead, about 110,000. Second was Big Wally, who had 106,000. The rest were somewhere between 20-80K stacks. Barb played awesome in the final table, and managed to go up to 50K from the 4K stack she had just a few levels before. Atty.Eric busts out in 6th (or was it 5th?) after he went all in when the chip leader just limped in, and was called anyway. His KhQh didnt catch anything against the AT-off, so he took home P12,500. Barb was next to go, going all-in with AK suited and getting called by both chip, leaders and after seeing the whole board unfold rag-rag-rag-rag-King (yahoo!), Big W. shows his AA on the river!(awwww!). Good game for barb who won P25,000! Skippy followed a few hands after when the blinds finally took its toll, and the 2 chip leaders Richard and Wally having about 95% of the chips between them, called his all-in and busted him out. Awesome game for skippy, who used a BBC chip as his card weight and winning a sweet P45,000! One for the BBC skip!

Heads up was a showcase of skill and experience over luck. Big W., a seasoned poker veteran, put up a clinic for the chip leader, who was playing the ACF5K for the first time. He proceeded to dismantle and pick apart his opponent slowly but surely. It was no one-punch KO, but round after round of jabs and footwork, wearing his opponent down and frustrating him the whole time. Richerd never knew what hit him. They started with about 270K vs. 230K chips, and after about an hour, Richard was surprised to find himself with only 30K left, and Big W. having about 95% of the chips. No huge hands, no All-ins, just steady betting and raising. Not once did wally have to go all-in during their heads up match. Richard was eventually forced to go all-in on the BB, and busted out, taking home 72,500 (Big W. Agreed to a chop early on although he had a slight chip lead). Awesome game from Wally, and it shows how skill DOES matter especially in key situations like heads up matches. He won P72,500 (supposed to be 85,000, but they chopped), the ACF5K bracelet, a wicked pair of Ray Ban Aviators, and bragging rights as the new ACF5000 Champ!

I was totally exhausted after a whole day of standing and talking and walking around. Passed by the slots on the way out and couldnt resist nick's slot machine success stories, so i gave it a try and won a grand! Wohoo! LOL!

Can't wait for the next one!