Yesterday was a great day for the poker community as we showed that we are not all just about money and winning. Marco and his PBT crew helped raise about P300,000 for the NOVA Foundation for the Differently-abled through the first Deal-a-Helping-Hand Charity poker tournament. This just shows that Poker can be used as a productive tool in our society when put in the hands of competent people whose main motivation is not to make a pretty profit, but for their love of the game and the desire to promote poker.

We had about 8 tables yesterday, and the first six rounds were pretty fun. There was just the right mix of celebrities and regular poker players to make it very interesting. With unlimited rebuys, there were a LOT of crazy plays! Kit, a regular in the poker rooms all over the metro, even won a prize for MOST rebuys (4D/3N stay at a resort in boracay!) since it would have meant that he was the one who donated the most to the foundation. And true enough, good karma ame his way and he ended up winning 2nd place overall, taking home a 32-inch Flat TV!

As for my game, played for about two hours till the blinds just caught up with me. Thought i'd double up early when my AK suited hit and A on the flop and i pushed all-in, and it turned out that my caller woud split the pot with AK off. Had KK twice, doubled up my small stack on one and stole the blinds with the other. Eventually pushed with A-Q off after several limpers came in, got called by a big stack with K-10, hit her K on the turn. But i never had to rebuy so it was a pretty good game for me. If there were no rebuys i probly would have gotten deeper too, but hey, it's for charity and it was fun!

Congratulations to our regular poker buddies who made it ITM (Top Ten), namely, Neil A. who got 8th place and won an Apple IPOD 20G (and later swapped it with 7th place for a 29 inch TV), Atty. Eric S. another great player and high stakes veteran who bagged 6th place and won a Canon Digicam. Too bad for Jun Uy who got busted 11th on the bubble when his chips were just enough to cover the ante and ouldnt get any playable hand at all. The eventual winner who won the 32-inch LCD TV is a character we all know as Pokemon (Surprise surprise!) who surprised a lot of players who know him by playing a solid game. Everyone who made it there played really well and they really deserve those prizes.

I hope there will be more events like this, and hopefully more players will join and support this cause, since it will really help the growth of our local poker scene, give the game credibility, and make people aware of how poker is not just gambling and making money. Till the next one, see you at the felt!