My Run At The Filipino Poker Tour 14

 First of all, I would like to thank KC Montero of The KC Show for awarding me a seat to play The Filipino Poker Tour Php 5 Million Guaranteed at the Metro Card Club just last weekend. The KC Show was awarding a seat to someone who could submit a picture showing how happy you would be if you won Php5 Million Pesos. Apparently, my picture won! But, of course, just to ease the mind of KC Montero - I also gave him some details on my poker talent, where I've won and even threw in some references. Then, if that wasn't enough, I promised KC that he would get a 40% share of whatever I win. Eventually, he agreed to even just 30%. KC said he needed new shoes. I said I hope we win more than just for shoes.

Anyway, this is the winning picture.

I played on Day 1a, and kept at pace with the average stack for the first two rounds. I played carefully, and avoiding trouble early on. I even folded a small flush just because I felt it was still too early to call a 10,000 raise with a starting stack of 20,000. It wasn't until the 3rd level that I started to win big hands, and move my chip stack to around 40,000+ after taking out a player when my nut flush beat my opponent's smaller flush.

My stack received a huge dent when my set of sixes lost to a set of eights. From around 40+K, it went back down to less than the starting stack at 17,000. I managed to win a big pot after when my KK doubled up against the JJ of another player, pushing my stack to around 37K.

A few pots later, my set of tens ran into a player making the all-in call with a gusthot and two dead overcards. Unfortunately for me, he spiked his four-outer straight on the river. That bad beat brought me down to around 8K and severely crippled with the blinds at 250/500 and antes of 50. The cards ran cold, and I eventually pushed all-in on the button with A-9 to run into the KK of the small blind, which eventually busted me out of the tournament when I failed to improve.

I played well for the short 7 levels or so that I played. Getting dented really made it difficult, and I was put in a desperate position with my back against the wall. I had a pretty decent-sized stack that sadly got hit by bigger hands. Like they say - it takes two big hands to make a big pot, and eventually someone's big hand is not as big as the other.

Anyway - there will be other opportunities. I'm looking forward to the Asian Poker Tour in August.

By the way - congratulations to Johnny Tan for winning Php 2M and for being the champion of the Filipino Poker Tour 14. I heard he went heads-up against runner-upVic Catalan for a grueling 6 hours, which The Metro Card Club announced is the longest heads-up poker marathon the Philippines has ever witnessed.

The other big winners include: Derrick Hernandez (3rd), Tess Datu (4th), Ramil Tandoc (5th), Ronald Dimaano (6th), Percy Shy (7th), Michael Boling (8th).