Poker Filipinas: 10/01/2005

Mr. L and Big W. 1 & 2. But WTF is the guy on the left doin in that pic?!?!?!

Things get rockin at the Rooftop

The Siberian Express in Action

Rooftop Invitational: On the A55 Tip...

Christmas Cards

Gonna have some holday cheer. We're now finalizing the details of a 150-seat tourney to be held this December 17 at the Pagcor Airport Casino. Thanks to Senior Branch Manger JB Bangsil and crew, we'll all enjoy a few hours of rip-roarin' tourney fun.

Fifteen tables, the largest casino in the nation, Solar Sports TV crews, Final Table TV, giveaways and extras...whoopeee...

As the details finalize, I'm happy to reserve advance seats for our friends, which includes the two or three of you who read this blog.

Basic details (subject to change)

Saturday, Dec. 17, 2005
No-Limit Texas Hold'em, no rebuys
Starting Stack: 5000
Buyin+Fee: 5000+1000 (includes meal and other giveaways)
Standard A55/PokerFilipinas Tourney Structure
Ruleset: TDA
More...more...more...

Anyway, this will be advertised in the media very, very shortly. I will advance register anybody reading this and wishing to play. Simply comment here with name and cel # (if i don't already have it) and I will confirm.

I'll keep y'all posted as further details come out.

Peace all

Downswingin' in the Rain...

Hey, another overdone topic, but a certainly a topic i'd like to write about. Again, we've got a lotta regular faces sittin' around the table, and we're gettin' to know each other quite well. When you think of it, we probably spend more time with each other than with our other friends, family members, etc.

The cards bring us together, and the smallish community makes it all the more close. The faces are often the same - a function of the fact that there are no casino tables to attract strangers and vary the populations of our games. Another thing that brings us together is the degenerate nature of our characters ;).

Anyway...all this closeness lets all each regular participant in our games in on the realities we face on and off the tables. Friendly banter, complaints, seeing a friend bust his/her rolls over and over again.

I, for example, am aware that a few of us are on downswings these days; some more pronounced, deeper, and longer than others. October was a downward trend month for me personally.

Well, we'll all bounce back, assuming a level of play up to snuff with the competition, some adequate bankroll management (or replenishment), and the ability to choose our games carefully...

The first two are easy concepts to grasp. In a downtrend, look honestly at that person in the mirror and look at what bits of your game are costing you money. Remember, it ain't always bad beats and suckouts to blame. There are macro issues around your game that are sending chips in the wrong direction.

The bankroll bit can be both easy and hard. Easy if money's easy to come by, hard if it ain't or simply continues to travel to other peoples' wallets. Don't chase the losses in one fell swoop. Life just gets tougher when you get up in the mornin' and consider only the deficit to be recovered today. Work on reviewing your game first, and babysit your roll until the old ship rights itself. Let it happen over time.

Game selection's the tough nut here. Cuz we tend to play against the same faces these days, selection's tougher. In a downswing I like to pick unfamiliar games (though not obviously tough ones). We simply don't have that big luxury here. We sit the same tables with the same folks. And guess what? They've got the losers figured out for the most part. So a little creativity vis-a-vis the problems you identified in the mirror is critical here.

You gotta play through the losses to get back to winning.

Blogsurf

Just finished my monday morning blogrounds and found Maverick's writeup on last saturday's Rooftop tourney. You are one fine reporter, Migs :).

Benga!

The Rooftop...

Was on fire last Saturday, with the smallest field and biggest pot our little crew has ever played for. Count on that great little hotel in Filinvest to provide us the venue and fine fare for some real action with meaningful stakes.

Ayt. So we wanted to seat 40 to pump the old pot to 200K. In the end 29 showed up with very few no-shows letting us know. We waited around for a bit and got the action rockin' at about 3pm.

The field was as rock solid as it gets. Very little dead money...all past champs, daily grinders, multiple winners. All shootin for the old title.
And we had plenty of dramatic hands, like big wally's nut flush getting rivered to give ace quad 9s with ace all-in. Aris's action call with pocket queens around the bubble to take AK and A7 out. GG to the Siberian Express and Dino.

Wally got heads-up with Pablo L. in a brief showdown. Pable took down the 72+K and the first prize trophy.

Exciting stuff, baby.

We paid 5 places, here's how it broke down.

5th: Jun "The Piranha" U.
4th: Aris "popcornman" A.
3rd: Ace (way to turnaround that losing skid, dude...)
2nd: Big Wally - on fire with multiple tourney wins and consistently solid play at the rings
1st: Pablo L. - welcome to the winners circle, good sir, you're our biggest single cash winner to date. GG

Pics will be posted as soon as Oyi hooks me up with the files.

Peace out...

quickies...

rushin out right now, so i wanna just say a little sumpn sumpn bout a horse, stakehorses, and a nickname.

Well, the nickname is related to the horse issue, so let's get that one outta the way:

A good friend of ours, poker playa of course, just bought two race horses. He's named one of 'em. He wants us to suggest a poker related name for the 2nd one. So comment here with all the names you can think of, like "big nuts" (i'm sure it has those), and he'll choose. You just know i'll be at santa ana backing a (real) stakehorse.

Stakehorses (damn i love smooths segues): a great way to get in on the action at the rooftop is to sell pieces of yourself to friends. That's right, they buy a piece of your action to reduce your financial exposure and get some upside. Of course they assume some risk, but it ain't maxed out.

Segue back to nicknames. One of the finest players around these here parts is Mischa. Won the mango. won back2back BBC500s. We can call him "Three-peat".

But I now call him Moesha. You go Moesha. ;)
______________________________
Mo to the E to the Mo to the E
Up in the Morning
A new day is dawning
Its me, Its me
Now realizing my responsibilities, Its me
My best friends always on my mind, If you wanna be down come on
Gotta do what I what gotta do
Gotta move on
Mo to the E to the Mo to the E
Moesha
______________________________

Now to structure the darned thing...

Some of you know of the Rooftop Invitational, the little boutique tourney A55, Poker Filipinas, and the State of Mind are putting together this Saturday for up to forty of our closest friends. Well, it's gonna be a doozy. No sponsors, no hype, just an assembly of a few of the finest tourney players we got.

We wanna seat forty. that builds a pot of 200K. I wanna structure it to reward the 1st place finisher quite handsomely.

So here's the breakdown for the folks who've registered. Percentages - you do the math:

1st: 50%
2nd: 20%
3rd: 10%
4th: 8%
5th: 7%
6th: 5%

And we're starting with a stack of 2K with our first level blinds pegged at 20/40. 30 minute levels.

We still have a few seats remaining. Sign up. Stake your friends, stake your enemies. Satellite tourneys are available. Get in touch with me if you're interested.

Pretentiousmike's observations (well, some of them), and a heads-up challenge

As far as sagas go in our little world, looks like the pretentiousmike / grouch blood feud takes the cake so far (though in a year this uproar will fade in comparison to some other crazy event(s), wars, and personal animosities in RP poker).

What we have here is a classic. Grouch has thrown off the gauntlet and is currently attempting to slap the invisible face of pretentiousmike with it. The callout has happened, we might see a heads-up challenge for 10K or higher. I'd love to see that, but i hope the real slim shady stands up, and not some other dude or woman with a bankroll wanting a shot at a fish's money. errr...sorry mike.

Pretentiousmike's thesis seems to rest on the argument that grouch is a fish with a big mouth. A cage-rattlin' trash talker with no real shkillz to back it up. And pretentious argues that mike's losing record is pretty well a 'nuff said on that argument. Well, pretentious might be right, but i can't confirm that one way or the other. Only mike and his hairdresser know if he's truly a losing player. Only he maintains his accounts, etc.

If he is losing, he may not necessarily be a long term loser. See, he hasn't been playin all that long, and most of us dump our rolls more often than not when we start out. He may be just like all of us...with one, ummm...two twists. He has a biggermouth than most and a smaller...than most.

He might be a winning player who's starting out on a downswing. Yes, you can go on a losing skid without ever having been on a winning streak. He may just be going through this and he may simply playing through this in a loud way. He may just come off his losing streak (if he is indeed losing) at the critical moment he gets heads-up with pretentious for 10K or more.

Then again, he just might be a big-mouthed, small-@$$%ed fish who will get slaughtered heads-up.

This is why I wanna see this heads-up happen. Pretentious, if i know you, let me know who you are and i'll see what i can do to make this happen. Yes, there is a possibility of a stakehorse situation here. Depending on who pretentious is.

No offense grouch, I just wanna see this happen.

Let the games begin

Tilt Happens...

In the last week I was witness to two instances of tilt, that dreaded little twist of emotion that veers us off our game and profit potential for a temporary - or not so temporary - period. Thought I'd write about it, cuz it's been happening around me lately...gonna try to deconstruct the tilt i saw this week...

Tilt #1. Ingredients: Great hand, terrible beat, lotsa beer, and the loss of about 3 or 4K. AA gets cracked by K5o, AA refuses to look at, speak to, or shake the hand offered by K5. Bad scene...bad feelings. Well, this one's a fairly typical expression of tilt; pretty much garden variety. Seen it time and time again. It's a brief expression of frustration, but does have some negative consequences. First of all, the tilted and the tilter are now in an awkward relationship, because a single hand of hold 'em caused a rift in their mutual respect or view of each other. A third party needs to jump in and smooth things over. The dealer gets uncomfortable, as do the others in the ring. In this particular instance, we were at the last hand of the evening. Good thing too...otherwise the tilted would likely not had the presence of mind and coolness that to carry her through to the end in a good financial state. Beer and emotion - bad mix.

Aces don't always win. But we do want K5o to play like that - always. We should be congratulating K5o on the genius of that play.

So AA, remembuh, that was but one hand in a million-zillion.

Tilt #2:

My friend Mike was the target of a non-fan who posted a rather uncomplimentary essay on his character and playing abilities on his blog. In reading the note, which was posted anonymously, I sense the 2nd, more insidious kind of tilt. The deep-seated, harbored kind of tilt directed at one individual. Again, I'm rarely ever correct, but I'll jump into the deep end on this one. The next time Mike finds himself at the table with this individual, Mike will have the advantage. In fact, Mike should perform all the odious things his critic accuses him of all the time. It will simply deepen the tilt and become profitable for mike in the long run. Sorry for giving counter-"good guy" advice, but we are out to make money by any legal means possible, aren't we?

I've seen other kinds of tilt, long term tilt born of prolonged bad runs, violent tilt, tilt directed at innocents, such as dealers and floors, wives and husbands.

It's tempting to feel righteously put upon, easy to blame the idiots. But if that red rage turns into leaked chips, we only have ourselves to blame.

Don't get me wrong, I tilt all the time. I just think about it every now and then. Like the little inspirational plaque about "attitude" I read today (at my barbershop) says: I realize that my happiness is based 10% on what happens to me, and 90% on how I react."

Nuff said...

WPT Philippines

We all saw and heard the press last Friday. WPT's comin' to town. And we're not talking only of a tour leg, we're talkin' a regional tour, managed locally, and feeding the final at the Bellagio with a homegrown champ.

Weee. Cool. Cooler than the aircon at the Riverhouse, cooler than Goma at a final table...

So what does this all mean? Well, if i may...

But first a disclaimer: I am not an insider, was not involved in the deal, and my knowledge of the ABS-CBN/WPT deal is limited to what I saw and heard in the press and my admittedly selective attention to google result sets. I am also not a trained journalist. I'm a gambler. But you already know that...

For background, read the official WPTE Press Release.

Ok, here goes. This is gonna move our scene from an underground of one-off tourneys, fragmented home games and such. If you wanna mainstream something, muscle it out in the media. And as media goes in this nation, ABS-CBN is about as muscular as you can get.

The mere announcement of a regional WPT in the RP will fling open a buncha doors for other legitimate operators to ramp up and launch parallel tours, tourneys, and events. We poor schmucks who grind it out daily at games here and there are all of a sudden gonna find ourselves with more games than we can shake a stick at and, really, find ourselves in a much, much bigger pond in which to fish.

Folks like the Poker Club of the Philippines will find a bigger market for their events, as they already have the infrastructure and brand built around their Poker King Challenge Series. As an aside, I do hope, humbly, that they move toward internationalizing their hold'em and seven stud high rules and tourney structure. There are and will be organizations such as the WPT that will do it "right" and push irrelevant structures aside.

Groups like the nascent Philippine-Asian Poker Confederation better get off their duffs and start enabling and empowering poker clubs to develop their players and run their own events. The WPT/ABS-CBN will run four events in their first year. We should be satelliting our best players into these events, cuz the buy-ins ain't gonna be cheap, baby.

Folks in media will jump on this bandwagon with celebrity tourneys, etc. The casinos will get in on it. Parallel Pro tours will start. Our little underground will become and industrial ecosystem.

Back to the original WPT/ABS-CBN Deal. I'm confident the handlers on the WPT side are capable, successful guys and women who truly love the sport. What I hope for, more importantly, is that the folks handling it on the ABS-CBN side are as knowledgable and passionate as the WPT. I truly don't want to see this great opportunity wind up in the hands of a person who may be a good marketer but is ignorant of the culture of poker. I guess my point is that the WPT is at its heart a poker business using media to succeed, while ABS-CBN is a media business using poker to accomplish some end. I hope some media turkey doesn't muck up the poker side of it. I guess we'll see.

There's a lot of money to be made in poker - the international experience has shown that. I truly hope that those managing and important to the local growth process don't bungle it.

I'm as excited as you are. Let's get the cards in the air.

Must...blog...

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, I know, and I cheesed out the last few posts by uploading a few Mango pics and passing them off as updates. It's been a busy time though, and lotsa stuff is rampin up. In time I'm gonna have a lotta cool stuff to report.

Speaking of reportage, i've done very little of that lately. Noticing some of my counterparts' blogs, i see a lotta hand histories and anecdotes. I noticed I haven't done that in a while. Still won't post a hand history, but here goes...

Last night I sat in on a 10-handed 2K buyin SNG with some very fine players (me being the least capable of the bunch). Big Wally, The Piranha, Mischa (we need a nickname for ya), Neil "Homecourt" A., Pitboss, Barb, Bangkok Shawnie, Ray "Scratch" S. No dead money. I've seen each of these participants win consistently. Most are profitable SNG players.

Damn fine game. 20K in the pot. Great play - I busted. I'm so damn tempted to describe the hand that hurt, but I won't. Piranha, managed a small stack to slide into third. Barb and Mischa got heads up. These two can play, I tell ya. 6 or so hands in the chips were ping pongin' back and forth. Mischa Offers a deal when they're about even...Barb accepts and they split 16K down the middle. First deal i've seen worked in a single table tourney. They play for the win minus the cash. Barb takes it.

Good, now i feel like a reporter again...