Cebu Action
Sinulog, as we found out, is the "mother of all Philippine Fiestas". The annual Sunday party for Sto. Nino held in Cebu draws hundreds of thousands of people, though Barb and I would swear there were more than a million people lining the main city thoroughfares (it took us 1.5 hours to walk 150 meters in a crush of parade viewers).
Sinulog is a big tourist attraction in and of itself, but if you add a nice little Poker tournament to the mix, then you know our little crew will hop a plane asap.
11 of us showed up on Saturday at the Casino Filipino at the Waterfront hotel in Cebu to play the 5K multi-rebuy semi-charity tourney. The usual suspects were there - Me and Barb, Ronald S., Dirty Ice Cream (aka "kapatid), Shine, Mischa, Checkpoint Louie, Benjie, Ria, and Isaac (Mr. Bracelet, aka the General), and Avi from Bangkok.
100 people sat the Saturday tourney - mostly locals gunning for what promised to be a fat pot. In the end, and thanks in no small part to Mischa's 6 rebuys, the pot hit a million. I got no share of it, and neither did barb, when her QQ got all-in preflop against JJ and lost. 13 spots paid, and shining nicely for our contingent were: checkpoint (12th), Isaac (6th), Ice Cream (4th), and the man himself, Ronald, cashing the top money after a 4-way chop (though he ultimately finished 2nd post-chop).
Good show, dudes.
The Cebu cardroom itself is a 3-table gig, running small rings from 8pm on. Weird, given that the casino is a nice, big place, packed with people. Well, given the number of outside games around town, I guess the casino isn't dragging all the action in.
The tourney was well-run, by PAGCOR's Emi Mungcal of course, but the dealers need a wee bit more experience in my estimation.
Played cards in the side games till 6am, had breakfast, and went to bed. Played more cards with Nonoy, Richard and the gang at the Rajah on Sunday. Barb killed the game, I busted (as usual).
Peace to all the fine folks in Cebu, and great show to all the crew that took most of the tournament money home.
