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!