Firstly, I'd like to give my thanks to the people of the OLA Poker Tour - Jiang, Rebecca, Eddie, Minyi - I had a great time working with them and, of course, to my trusty teammates from Life of Poker - Enzo, Bronze and Zoe. Our four-person team, which comprised of one photographer, one videographer and two writers, were able to handle the entire live reporting and media coverage for the entire series. That's not an easy feat.
Although Zoe came in to help with one marquee event, it was still very valuable. A great effort indeed. I was pretty happy I got the lucky draw of covering the Main Event. When Day 2 played down to the final table of 9 players, play ended at around 7:30 in the evening and I was able to finish the final notes and the recap and be done by 8:30 PM, allowing me some time to get some needed rest and explore Taipei a little bit more.
Then, on the final day, the final table lasted from 12PM to 3:30PM and I was able to enjoy the rest of the day with the sun still out - a rare opportunity and probably the only one I'll ever get - as a poker reporter. You know our hours usually reach early AM the next day, but for ONCE - I walked out of the poker room with the sun still out. What did I do? I watched some jazz at Vinyl Decisions and spoiled myself with some good drinks. Later on that early morning, after the complete wrap, I was able to share some celebratory beers with Enzo and Bronze by the park just outside our hotel.
I was also happy to see some familiar faces and make some great new friends. Shout out to Vivian Lo for winning the Ladies Championship.
I got back to Manila on the 23rd and went straight into Christmas holiday mode with still a bit of work to be done for the Life of Poker site. I spent most of the holidays resting and taking time with my younger sisters, who arrived from out of the country to be with our mother. Of course, time with my children and my dog.
So, how was 2025 in terms of poker... Well, my bankroll is still up. Sadly, I didn't cash in the last three series I played. I played the Manila Megastack, the Soul Poker Fest and the APPT Championship, but only found time to join one event in each, which isn't really ideal for me. In other festivals like the Okada Manila Millions and Manila Super Series 22 , I'd usually jump into about 4 events and cash in two. I didn't have the time to do that in the other ones and it didn't fare well in my results.
I have done well in cash games though. My last three trips to Okada saw me buy-in for a total of PHP 15,000 and cash out a total of PHP78,000, profiting over PHP 60,000.
I have yet to play any kind of poker since I got back from Taipei. Not even online. Maybe I'll get to that soon. For now, just enjoying some me time and reconnecting with friends and family - holidays and all.
Hope everyone had a wonderful year and see you all soon in 2026.
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