Pokerism

The APPT Championship Warm-Up will be playing from September 19 to 28 at the PokerStars poker room in Okada Manila. With some affordable buy-ins available, yours truly, will be hitting the felt. I plan to play the play the PHP 500K GTD NLH for a buy-in of PHP4,000 on opening day - Friday, September 19. Let's see first how my recovery goes after I celebrate my birthday on the 17th. If I do get a seat, then hopefully I use only two bullets to get across the ITM line.  Then, I plan to play the Survivor Knockout (PHP 15K Bounty) on Sunday September 21, for PHP 9,500.  After that, the Deepstack PHP500K GTD for PHP 4,000 with two Day one flights on Monday (Sept 22) and Tuesday (Sept 23) will probably my last event, and hopefully we'll make the Day 2 final on Wednesday (Sept 24.) Because after that - fingers crossed - I might be off to APT Jeju on September 25 or 26 to do some live reporting until October 5. The big bosses are still conferring how they'll make use of me if I go l...

So last Friday, I went to play the Friday Deepstack at Okada Manila, but was disappointed to find out it was cancelled. Instead, I decided to kill time by sitting in at the 25/50 cash game. I bought in for 4,000 and it was I think the fifth or sixth hand dealt to me and the second one I played. The first I played KhJc, opened to 125 and was heads up against the defending big blind. We checked down a board of As-Ac-7s-3c-2s all the way to the river. BB fired 200 and I called, thinking a king-high might be good, but the dude hit the seven, showing 8c-7c.  A few folds after, someone raised from under the gun to 150, I called from the button, holding Th-9h and the big blind made it 500 to play. UTG called and I called.  Flop came Ts-9c-3s and I sat on two-pair. Big blind fired 700, UTG called and I called. Turn came Td. I now had a full-house. Big blind checked. UTG fired 1,200 and I called. Big blind check-raised all-in for his last 1,800. UTG went all-in also for 3,600. I called...

 It's trippy to see what some players bring to the table.

So once upon a time I was a chef and had a really awesome resto called NYSM Pizzeria, which I closed after the pandemic on August 21 for reasons brought about by the indirect (maybe direct) consequences of the pandemic Nevertheless, that didn’t stop my love for cooking or for food. So even if I’m doing a lot of writing for poker, I still make the time to include food when I can. I’ve written pieces at Life of Poker about where to eat at Jeju though I’ve never been. Today I’ll share with you my posts about Malta and Rozvadov - and yes, I’ve never tasted. So the process goes - I ask Google to show me top restaurants and I do the due diligence of checking then out, checking the menu, looking at the pictures of the place and the dishes. And then I imagine what it would be like to be there as a guest… or be there as a part of the kitchen and how these would be prepared. Of course, as a former chef, I have an idea how it might taste like and how the experience might be, and then I write. Sor...

  The Final Table of The Philippine Poker Millions There was some buzz around the Asian poker scene concerning what went down on the final table of the PHP 50 Million Guaranteed Philippine Poker Millions Main Event that recently played at the Metro Card Club. There were 7 Filipinos on the final table and two foreigners - Quac Huyen "Gemmny" Ngoc of Vietnam and Manjong Kim of South Korea. Manjong Kim ended his run as the first casualty in 9th place, but came in with a short stack. So maybe that was expected. However, Gemmy sat 6th in chips and couldn't find any momentum, became short-stacked and bowed out in 6th place. There was some talk about collusion among the Filipinos who would open, three-bet - get Gemmy to fold - and then whoever opened folded. Like people were saying - they didn't allow her to play because they applied so much pressure.  I've heard things like - "How could that guy fold Ace-King?" and I've seen things sent out on social media...

Well, so I heard the news still while I was back in Taipei doing covering for the Players Series during the PS Championship II Taipei 2025. What news? That not all of the live reporting team of Life of Poker would be attending APT Jeju 2025.  It seems that the APT is saving some money and only bringing in a handful of writers that won't include me. However, I will still be actively participating as I translate the livestream action into readable material, so whatever happens livestream on APT Jeju - i'll be watching from the comfort of my Lazy-Boy while transcribing the action into literary entertainment for the Asian Poker Tour site. All good. Will get paid nonetheless...  and Nala - my beloved chow-chow - won't have separation anxiety issues. Actually, so that I won't have sep-anx issues. LOL. Nala Nala Nala In any case, in preparation for the Jeju trip I won't be going, I wrote a piece on Life of Poker about places you can eat. Being a former chef and restaurant...