Twas DLSU ADMU at the Filipino Poker Tour Media Bloggers Elimination

2 October 2008

Pokerstars' pinoy poker competition entitled Filipino Poker Tour held their Open Free Rolls for media and bloggers last night at the Metro Card Club, Metrowalk, where playing poker for money is legal.

Over 30 participants responded to the invitation to play Texas Hold 'Em, and there were some crash course lessons in poker for those who did not know their full houses from their flushes.

Of course I was there to try my luck. My most memorable hand was against this unshaven old guy from manila bulletin. Lets call him uogfmb. Uogfmb had no poker tells at all. Poker tells are signs or habits that is specific to a person, which shows his reaction to good or bad cards. Some people can hide their tells, or fake their tells, and that is called a poker face. I was in luck to have in my hands A and some card lower than 10… for the love of me, I forgot what it was, so let's just name it 6. So anyway, the flop was dealt (flop is named for the first three cards dealt and shown on the table) and showed A J 6 (reminder, not really a 6 because memory was hazy). Whoa! Instantly, I got a two pair, and raised minutely, and UOGFMB called me. The turn was dealt (turn is the fourth card), and showed an Ace again! I had a full house! A A A 6 6 ! So I feigned fear and dismay and only CHECKED! UOGFMB took this "opportunity" to raise me and I seemingly called his hand in seeming acquiescence. The final card, the river, showed me yet another forgettable card, and I fearfully CHECKED yet again. UOGFMB raised me quite aggressively this time, much to my delight, as I called his raise and reraised again to make him go all in, which he did! UOGFMB (sorry I forgot your name, lolo) confidently raised his eyebrows and stiffened his upper lip while raising up his two jacks for all to see. He had trips, or three of a kind J J J! I showed only my 6 first, much to his short lived delight, and next the ACE! BAM! You're on the bus Gramps!

There were some interesting poker tells on our table:

Suzie from magic 89.9 rolled her tongue in her cheek to the left side while bluffing.

Clean shaven top guy wearing long sleeves from Manila Bulletin rubbed his head with his right hand while bluffing.

Rugged guy with sideburns wearing black also from MB did some eye motion that brought out and defined his eyelid lines.

Latecomer Jayvee Fernandez from a bugged life was not visible to me, but I noticed he played a very tight "scientific" game, so I decided to keep on raising him even though I had no good hands. It worked three times for me!

There was also a player named Ade, who I kept raising against because I did have good hands, but for two or three hands, he kept winning against me because he got a better combo!

Getting back to the game, blinds were being raised every 10 minutes and playing a tight game payed off as the other players eliminated themselves. Before I knew it, were the top 10 players assembled in the final table!

Maybe it was old age, but I again forgot what killer hand I got that made a lot of people go all in. That was a hand I won and eliminated 3 others, I think.

Fast forward. Left at the table were two Ateneans and one Lasallite. Sadly, my Atenean friend had to go and I was left with Bim Barbieto, certified Ateneo hater and man-blog and riffology writer. The time was almost 10 pm, we were playing for almost 4 hours and we each had a mountain of chips! The day seemed too long so I suggested to him that we split the cash pot since 2nd prize was only 20% less than first prize. We agreed but since the Pokerstars official required that a next hand should be dealt for formality to name a winner, we had to be dealt a final hand just for the record. Sadly, I lost by technicality even though we won the same amount, plus free seats worth 10,000 pesos to play at the next formal Filipino Poker Tour event on October 4-5, 2008, 12 noon at the Metro Card Club. The guaranteed prize pot for the lucky winner would be 2M!!

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