Friendly Match. Zero Friendly Pots.

 Gemmy Poker and I finally got to have a seat at the same table in the Gods of Poker Influencer Quest. She is obviously the bigger influencer than me, but I guess my work around poker media has allowed me a different kind of influence. 

I've known Gemmy since USOP Hai Phong Grand Finale back in December 2024. I was amazed by her card dress, which was literally a dress made of playing cards. Awesome. Got to know her better in APT Taipei 2025, where I featured her a little more during live reporting to help her build her poker influencer thing. Of course, as part of media - I'm usually thrown press releases on how to promote events and the angle they use - and Gemmy is sometimes always doing the promotions. We followed each other on IG and I share the posts where she's featured and she shares it on her socials. Her followers eventually also giving our site some added mileage.

We've had a good media relationship that when players accused Filipino pros of "robbing" her and "colluding" against her during the Philippine Millions Tournament held at the Metro Card Club, I was able to get answers straight from her to help clear the incident. 

You can read all about that in Straight From Gemmy - "I think it was national spirit. Something that exists everywhere."

I happened to be in Taipei during that time for the Players Series and she was in Manila. Our plans to play together failed because I had my media responsibilities. Nevertheless, we ran into each other again during APT Jeju 2025, where she brought me moon cakes especially from Vietnam. They were so wonderfully packaged and very delicious - to the envy of my APT media colleagues. So, yeah, she is officially a dear friend and it was awesome to share the table with her for the first time. And in our first official hand. This is what happened.

Needless to say, it was an honor. Just had to show. For the fun of it. Part of the whole experience was to have fun and that certainly was worth it. Just to have the table have fun and smile was a great feeling. Not for me, for everyone. I'm sure even Gemmy enjoyed it.

She said, "We both wanted a highlight reel, so we got it. Hahaha."