And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year's over, and a new one's just begun... or so John Lennon Says.

It's that time of the year when we look back and tell ourseleves if we made this year a good year for ourselves, but also a time to look forward to the new year and make the resolutions that we think will make this coming 2007 a better year.

Personally I had a rollercoaster year, much like a poker playing sitting through a loose, aggressive cash game where there is a complete disregard for the size of the blinds and the bets are based on the size of the bankrolls.

The year started of on a low note, with legal bills being the brunt of the problem hehe. I'm sure i dont have to explain this. Much of the year was so-so for me, but we saw a lot of improvements in the local poker scene like the Weekly and now daily poker tournaments being run at the ACF and the like. New places to play also came along, and poker really had a big boost in the manila scene. Also, the Davao and Cebu poker scene also picked up the pace to try and catch up with Manila.

Third Quarter of this year was a particularly trying one for me personally, with a lot of outside factors coming into play. My family went through some rough times, especially in the political scene here in Pasay. I also went through the end of a relationship, and those things things are never really easy. All these things came on top of each others too, like several bad beats one after the other. By the end of the 3rd quarter, i was super low on chips. Super small stack. But like i said before, you gotta keep playing right?

Well, by september this year, things started to change for the better. What seemed like curses turned out to be blessings in disguise, and things started to fall into place on it's own. The Political crisis turned out to be a blessing for my Mom and Dad, and now they are stronger than ever. I got to know who my real friends were during these times, and im thankful for that too. I also got to meet new people, and make new friends that i otherwise might have not if things stayed the same. Plans that were just thin air at the beginning of the year were now turning into brick and mortar, and i could see the future bright and clear. Dreams were turning into reality when it came to Poker, with the coming of what should be the best thing for Poker here in the RP since those steel sliding doors first opened more than a year ago.

As for Christmas, i couldnt have asked for a better one. This year was probably the best Christmas Eve i have had since as far as i could remember. I had an awesome lunch with an amazing friend and her family, had a great dinner with my family, and just to add icing to the cake, OCTUPLED my P1000 buy-in in our yearly family poker game! Man, what a crazy game! The presence of Checkpoint Louie turned our 10-20 game into a 10-100 game! I got three Pocket Aces, all of which paid off handsomely in a span of 4 hours, and not a single bad beat for the night!

Didnt get many gifts, but got the few that really mattered most to me. Christmas Day today was just spent taking it all in, just relaxing at home with the family. It's amazing how things can just pick up right at the end and make you almost forget all those times when you thought there was no way things could get better.

I really feel like i just sat through a rough, loose-aggressive poker game and managed to take down the pots that mattered at the very end, and cash out a big winner =) I've always been an optimistic person, and i believe that things always work out for the good to those who work on it. There's still a lot of work to be done though. But yeah, this turned out to be a good year.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to Everyone and we hope you like our Christmas Present to the Poker Community this coming January! ;)

I can't wait for 2007!

Yesterday we had the novelty idea of having a low buy-in, Unlimited Rebuy/Add-on Tournament at the Nortshide Place. Due to the small buy-in of 300+30, we had a full house with 55 players trooping over and joining the festivities.

Nothing could have prepared us for what was to come.

From a players point of view, man, it was loads of fun and crazy poker play! But for guy like me who RUN the games, my god, what a nightmare! Running around getting rebuy s and add-ons and all at the same time making sure they pay for it, get their chips, their change, etc. gave me quite a cardio workout! whew!

After the dust settled at the end of the rebuy period on the 4th level and everyone had made their last add-on, the final tally was insane!

55 entries, 116 rebuys, and 50 add-ons!

For a 300 buy-in game, the total pot shot up to P66,300+! Nice fat payout awaited those who would have the endurance to make it to the final table. And what a great final table it was! We had mostly familiar face like NickG, Che, Ariel, Benjo, Aris, skippy, and a few other regulars. Che had the HUGE chip lead mot of the time, having about 250K of the total 750K of chips in play most of the time. Final 4 players saw Aris finishing an amazing 4th place after having less than ONE BLIND on the bubble, and managing to do a J.C. miracle comeback (think 5 loaves of bread and a couple of fishes feeding thousands) when he turned it into 80K in chips! Three way action got a bit intense before, finally at around 5am (yep), with almost equal stacks, they decided to chop the pot for a nice P15,500 payday for each of the warriors. Note that ariel and benjo never even made a rebuy and only had one add-on! Che had maybe 2 rebuyss and one add-on, so not so bad either!

Congratulations to the guys who made it in the money! Till next time... NOT! haha!

That was too crazy. ;)

Let's All watch our good buddy Bryan this coming Dec. 15 on the first showing of the WPT Philippines Poker Madness event!

It's been a while since i've seen a collection of some of the best poker players in the local scene all under one roof, and all playing a tournament. What an awesome game! Excellent line up of players, great venue, and free booze courtesy of Gamefrog, what more can a player ask for?

We had 20 players total, most of whom were poker bloggers, some were regular contributors to the local forums, and some were online players. We had two of the last ACF wednesday champions, a couple of online pros, several of the regular rounders, the pokuh godfatha, a few guys who've won the Sky Tournament several times, and throw in the BBC500/bounty hunter winners and youve got one helluva poker tournament comin up!

Here's the full line-up. Barbiemanila and NickG, Maverick (me!), ManilaGrind, The German Snake (she's back!), Aris and Oging of XPL, Jonard of JPT, Del and Ed of ManilaPoker, Pola, Ariel, 11finger, Gamefrog and his cousin, Gino and Juano of StonerPoker, Che, Jazminator, and Jardine of JGPT.



We were supposed to start with 21 players including JJ the Duke, but he got a big headache and decided to go home before we started. Too bad bro, you missed a great game! It would have been a different game with the Duke in the house too hehe. We started off a bit slow, and only till about an hour in did we get someone to bust out. I won a ot of uncontested pots and built a nice stack early in the game, which i carried to the final table.

Some big hands i remember were one where i busted NickG (sorry bro hehe) when he raised with a small stack, and i just smooth called him with K-K on the big blind hehe. I Checked the 10-high flop, knowing he'd push. I called and he showed 9-9, and no 9 came to the rescue. GG nick! I also have to mention Del, who i sucked out on about three times during the night! First big hand against him was when i had 10-8 spades on the BB and called his min-raise from late position. Flop came Qs-7s-8d, and he pushed me all in (he was big stack on the table then) which i instantly called hehe. I spike the 10 on the turn and beat his QJ top pair. The two other hands came in the final table when i pushed with A-2 and cracked his Cowboys, crippling his stack, and then finally busting him out when we banged heads again and i spiked my over card against his 4-4. GG del!

If you were there to watch the game, you'll notice there were hardly any mistakes made, and there was always aggressive action on the table. CALL is not a word in most of these players vocabularies!

I finally made it ITM along with what turned out to be a BBC reunion of sorts, with Me, Barb, Che, And Mnlgrind being the final four players. It was a super tight game that point, tight being there was a lot of action but no bust outs. I almost eliminated Che when she made a move pushing with 4-3 suited which i called with her favorite hand The Ducks. She spiked the 3 on the river and doubled up on me! i made a few tight folds when Mark pushed UTG for about half my stack and i folded A-10 being next to act. Didnt play too aggressive with my big stack and eventually the blinds caught up with me and i busted out after che, finishing third.



Heads up ended up being a duel of the online pros, Barb and MnlGirnd (Mark). After a few hands, with Barb having about a 3-1 advantage, we had an all-in from barb with Q-10 vs Mark's A-8. Flop comes A-10-10 and it's all over! Good Game Mark!



Congratulations to Barb for winning (Again...) the first Pinoy Poker Blogger Invitational! Thanks to all those who came and supported the game too! Let's do it again!