Poker For a Cause!!!
Last Saturday, March 3, marked another first in the Philippine Poker scene. Out little group managed to pull off the first ever PAGCOR sanctioned charity poker tournament outside a Casino, and ran a successful, UNRAKED, 107-player No-Limit Texas Hold-em tournament that saw EVERY SINGLE PESO from the P500 buy-in, rebuy, and add-on go to the beneficiary. Every ticket bought was in effect a full donation to the Sinag Kalinga Foundation. Congratulations to everyone who participated in this noble effort to help others while promoting the game we love.
The game started off with some crazy action, with several players pledging to go all-in on every hand for the first ten hands in order to raise more money for the founation. True enough, we saw several people double and even triple up on the first hand! By the time the rebuy period ended at the 4th level, we saw more than a hundred rebuys go into the pot. Everyone was having fun, eating the loads of free Holy Kettle Corn Popcorn Courtesy of our good friend Aris. After the dust from the chaotic rebuy period settled, although i do not have the exact number of rebuys and add-ons, the tournament raised no less than a total of 141,500.00 Pesos! An amazing figure considering the small buy-in!
During the short break for add-ons, the Head of the Sinag Kalinga Foundation gave a short talk. Their founation helps the indigent and destitute senior citizens, the lolos and lolas that live on the streets, under bridges, and have no home. They give them a place to call their own, activities to keep them busy, food, clothing, medication and a chance to spend their twilight years with dignity and respect. His talk warmed up everyone in the tournament, and they all applauded loudly after we announced how much money they had collectively raised for the Foundation.
Then the real tournament began. Most of the people who played too tight early on eventually got caught by the blinds and busted out one by one. As the field came down to 2 tables, everyone tightened up since they could smell the prizes getting closer and closer. Eventually, the bubble burst and the field was down to eleven players. AWhat was funny was, whenever it got down to a certain prize that someone wanted, they went all in and hoped to bust out! On guy kept going all in and kept winning! Another one wanted to go all-in then muck his cards! But it was all in good fun, and everyone was enjoying the action.
11th place got a consolation prize of P5000 in NCC's that can be played at the casino filipino. 10th place got an iPod Shuffle, 9th got a Canon Digicam, 8th was a Sony PSP, 7th place got the Sony Ericsson W810i, 6th was the BOSE Speakers, 5th the 19" LCD TV, 4th got the coveted 80GB iPod Video, 3rd teh trip to Palau, 2nd was teh NEO Laptop Computer, and first place got the trip to Boracay for two with accomodatons at the Boracay Mandarin Resort Hotel.
Congratulations to all the people who got to the final table, not only did you win the great prizes, but you also helped out a noble cause. Some of our regular poker buddies even made it to the final table too. Che Roces, who found herself just lucky to barely make it to the final table, ended up winning the whole thing! Good game guys!
Thanks to all our sponsors too, without them this would not have been possible. And thanks to PAGCOR for allowing this to happen and seeing how this can be a great way to put Poker in a positive light in the eyes of the public.
Expect more, and bigger, better tournaments like this from us soon!
Let's all help promote poker and support future events like this. In the end, we will all watch local poker grow and reach heights like we've never seen before!
The game started off with some crazy action, with several players pledging to go all-in on every hand for the first ten hands in order to raise more money for the founation. True enough, we saw several people double and even triple up on the first hand! By the time the rebuy period ended at the 4th level, we saw more than a hundred rebuys go into the pot. Everyone was having fun, eating the loads of free Holy Kettle Corn Popcorn Courtesy of our good friend Aris. After the dust from the chaotic rebuy period settled, although i do not have the exact number of rebuys and add-ons, the tournament raised no less than a total of 141,500.00 Pesos! An amazing figure considering the small buy-in!
During the short break for add-ons, the Head of the Sinag Kalinga Foundation gave a short talk. Their founation helps the indigent and destitute senior citizens, the lolos and lolas that live on the streets, under bridges, and have no home. They give them a place to call their own, activities to keep them busy, food, clothing, medication and a chance to spend their twilight years with dignity and respect. His talk warmed up everyone in the tournament, and they all applauded loudly after we announced how much money they had collectively raised for the Foundation.
Then the real tournament began. Most of the people who played too tight early on eventually got caught by the blinds and busted out one by one. As the field came down to 2 tables, everyone tightened up since they could smell the prizes getting closer and closer. Eventually, the bubble burst and the field was down to eleven players. AWhat was funny was, whenever it got down to a certain prize that someone wanted, they went all in and hoped to bust out! On guy kept going all in and kept winning! Another one wanted to go all-in then muck his cards! But it was all in good fun, and everyone was enjoying the action.
11th place got a consolation prize of P5000 in NCC's that can be played at the casino filipino. 10th place got an iPod Shuffle, 9th got a Canon Digicam, 8th was a Sony PSP, 7th place got the Sony Ericsson W810i, 6th was the BOSE Speakers, 5th the 19" LCD TV, 4th got the coveted 80GB iPod Video, 3rd teh trip to Palau, 2nd was teh NEO Laptop Computer, and first place got the trip to Boracay for two with accomodatons at the Boracay Mandarin Resort Hotel.
Congratulations to all the people who got to the final table, not only did you win the great prizes, but you also helped out a noble cause. Some of our regular poker buddies even made it to the final table too. Che Roces, who found herself just lucky to barely make it to the final table, ended up winning the whole thing! Good game guys!
Thanks to all our sponsors too, without them this would not have been possible. And thanks to PAGCOR for allowing this to happen and seeing how this can be a great way to put Poker in a positive light in the eyes of the public.
Expect more, and bigger, better tournaments like this from us soon!
Let's all help promote poker and support future events like this. In the end, we will all watch local poker grow and reach heights like we've never seen before!
