tilted behaviour

On one hand I can count the amount of times I’ve drunk myself to the point of sickness . . . and last night I added another. I only had around 4 Corona’s but the vodka to red bull ratio in each glass Nik Lackovic and Andrew Scott were pouring definitely outweighed what is normally expected in a standard mix!

Waking up feeling absolutely terrible I slowly made my way down to the Grand Ballroom to set up my computer in preparation for day 2 of the Main Event. F-Train, looking surprisingly fresh, looked up at me with that look of, “You look dreadful” . . . and boy did I feel it!

I stumbled round the floor as play began catching up with some of the Aussie boys from the night before. I approached Nik and stated to him, “I hate you” after he was the main culprit when it came to the quadruple-strength vodka mixes at Myama only several hours earlier. It took me a few hours to get back to a normal working level, and a bottle of Gatorade and a banana delivered by Heath definitely helped.

Bubble Boy Nik Lackovic

Play was quick as we hit the money with Nik Lackovic bubbling, and once the dinner break was upon us we ventured up to the FHM Player’s Party to enjoy a few free drinks and nibbles. In comparison to the Macau player party, this one was definitely at the other end of the scale being fairly lame apart from the open bar and being able to stare at Riza Santos in a beautiful red dress.

F-Train and I returned to tournament floor to see another Aussie fall on the bubble with Michael Pedley falling one place short of a repeat Asian Poker Tour final table when Pedley’s A♦ 2♦ was unable to stay ahead against Neil Arce’s K♠ J♥ when a King fell on the flop.

Michael Pedley enjoying day 1b play with Liz Lieu

With the final table being formed before midnight I headed back up to the party to snack on some food and enjoy a non-alcoholic beverage before persuading Heath and Damian Oborne to come down and play some cards.

We sat down on a new 50-100 table with a couple of guys down from England and Heath found a double early while Damo lost a couple of buy-ins. Another English guy sat down fresh off a 300,000-plus peso win on a higher-limit table and wanted to have some fun with his mates. He bought in for 20,000 pesos everytime and chipped up the table – especially Damo who benefited by chipping over and over through him.

It wasn’t a good session for me getting my Aces cracked all in on the flop against a straight draw. Then I slow-played queens terribly and was cracked by 10♥ 6♥ with all the money going in on a board of 6♦ 6♠ 9♠. Now in for 15,000 pesos I slowly grinded until the table broke to four-handed. With heath fairly drunk and tired he couldn’t leave because of his love for short-handed play. Soon play was down to three-handed between a visibly tired Heath, a very-awake me, and some German dude.

After half an hour of play the German finally realised that we were slowly grinding his money away and decided to leave. So now it was what the both of us wanted . . . a heads up battle!

We played at least 100 hands with me having a definite edge over Heath who was falling asleep as the clock ticked past 6am. After slowly grinding back some of the money I had lost in the full ring the final hand came down where I rivered trips on a four-flush board with 10♥ 8♣ against his K♥ K♦. As he saw me table my trips he stood up and went straight to the cashier to cash out to return to bed.

If you’re wondering if I feel bad for taking advantage of Heath . . . nah, not really, because he probably has the edge most days . . . so it’s only fair!

The first two days of the Main Event would see 262 hopefuls tackle the felt in the USD$2,700 Main Event. Only 69 would make it through, but some big names would fall including bracelet winners Toto Leonidas and Mansour Matloubi, Sunshine Samson, Wooka Kim, Poker Pack members Quinn Do, Tommy Le and Kwang Soo Lee and Australian’s Vincent Wan, Kent Hunter, Damien Oborne, David Steicke and Heath Chick.

Two of the hopefuls that made it through; Poker Pack members Nam Le and David ‘Chino’ Rheem

Heath ‘Tassie Devil’ Chick hasn’t been my friend for a long time, but the countless hours on the tournament floor we’ve spent together makes it feel like we’ve mates since school; even though he is more than seven years older than me! Travelling together and covering all the Australasian tournaments over the past 12 months hasn’t left either of us much time to hit the tournament felt, but finally Heath had an opportunity here in Manila.

With no plans to return to Manila, he satellited in a few days after the new year and was extremely excited to have another chance at tournament glory following unsuccessful attempts during last and this year’s Aussie Millions as well as a few events during the 2008 WSOP.

Things started well when he opened to 150 with A♥ K♦ and found one caller to see a flop of J♦ Q♠ 10♥ where he led for 200 with his opponent making the call. The turn landed the K♥ and Chick bet out 500 before being check-raised to 1,500. He made the call before check-raising to 6,000 over the 2,000-chip bet from his opponent when the 6♣ landed on the river. What looked like a good start ended with a chop when his opponent also tabled broadway holding A♠ K♣.

Heath ‘Tassie Devil’ Chick

Looking down at A♦ A♥ following a raise to 250 and a call Chick bumped it to 875 with both making the call before the action was checked to him on the flop of J♦ 4♦ K♥. Chick bet out 1,500 and the original raiser check-raised to 3,500 with Chick eventually making the call. The turn landed the 4♣ and Chick faced an all-in bet of 5,500 which he eventually called leaving himself around 500 behind. Being shown J♣ J♠ put a sick feeling in his stomach, and finding no two-outer on the river he was left crippled.

He found a double, but was unable to gain another life-line when his Queens were out-flopped by King-Jack to end his tournament in the first level. In a quote from his blog; Tassie Devil Poker, “So now I’m off to drown my sorrows and rue my luck at another lost opportunity” was a real fear for both me and F-Train who couldn’t get into contact with him for the whole day. The funeral arrangements were already being made and the division of assets taking place . . . but eventually we heard from Heath as he continued to drown his sorrows all day and night.

Following the end of play of day 1b F-Train and I headed to the hotel bar to join some of the Aussie boys in Michael Pedley, Kent Hunter, Nik Lackovic and Andrew Scott for a quiet Corona or two before deciding to join Gabby and a few of the APT models at a party.

We all taxied over to the nightclub Myama where one of the APT models was having a going away party. Myama will go on record as the best club I’ve been to because of the spacious surrounds, great music without being too loud, cheap drinks, great atmosphere and plenty of gorgeous asian woman.

The Corona’s were cheap and the vodka flowed fast, and with Nik Lackovic leading the charge he made sure we had a ‘fun’ night. Me and F-Train were left to fend for ourselves which suited him as he danced the night away with two bootylicious-black girls before I decided to call it a night at 3am feeling a little on the ill-side . . .

Wanting to catch breakfast again I headed downstairs just in time and was escorted to a table. I left my table to get some apple juice only to return to my table where a older couple had taken up my seats. The waiter quickly moved me and I put down my drink to get a plate of food. However, yet again my new table was filled with a middle-aged woman tucking into some fruit.

“Allright, this is ridiculous . . . please get me a table where I can sit down!” I told the waiter and he escorted me down to the end of the restaurant where I was seated by myself with barely a sole around me. After quickly downing my first plate of food I ventured back for some cereal and fruit only to see the beautiful Riza Santos strolling round the buffet.

Already in love with how gorgeous she is, seeing her out of her normal black figure-hugging dresses and in tracksuit pants, thongs and a boring old t-shirt easily pushed her to the number one spot.

I return to my table with a bowl of cereal in hand only to see Riza seated on the table next to me with what I assume was her mother. Like a star-struck teenager I sat there slowly chomping on my cornflakes with, “OMG, OMG, OMG” going through my head over and over. I tried to keep my cool and act as casual as possible while returning with a bowl of fruit. I finished my meal and headed upstairs with the “OMG, OMG, OMG” still whizzing through my head.

Riza Santos

Heath, F-Train and I caught up in the lobby before heading to the shops across the road. We bought some groceries and returned to the hotel where they ventured back to the room while I took to the felt.

I only played for an hour or so on the same table as Adam Simon and across from Wonky. I bought in for 5,000 pesos which equates to around AUD$200 with blinds at 50-100. I doubled early when I opened to 300 from under the gun with K♥ K♦ and was met with five callers round to the small blind who raised to 1,300. I thought about pushing my remaining 4,700 into the middle, but I felt that he wasn’t strong and wouldn’t call an all in.

So I flatted, and so did some Skandi player from the cutoff to see a flop of 7♦ 3♦ 2♣ fall down. The small blind immediately moved all in, and once I called the Skandi got out of the way to see my Kings up against his 8♣ 8♦. The board bricked out and I found a double and finished the session with around 12,000 pesos as I went upstairs to prepare for the Opening Ceremony and Welcome Party.

The Opening Ceremony and Welcome Party was more like a friendly get together with an open bar and cute APT models strolling round, which lasted no longer than 45 minutes. Once the ribbon was cut and the speeches were spoken Heath, Damon and Hux headed to dinner as they had the Head Hunter event to play while a few of us decided to head out on the town.

David Saab, Bryan Huang, Ivan Tan, Raymond Wu, Gabby Barredo, F-Train, Myself, Andrew Scott and ‘friend’ Joy all squashed into Saab’s LandCruiser and drove for around 30 minutes until we arrived at this Japanese restaurant that Saab kept raving about it. Bottles of Saki flowed, and so did the food until we dropped off Bryan, Ivan and Raymond at a KTV place before the rest of us headed to a club called Embassy.

Cheap drinks, cute girls, and a mix-mash of music were the highlights, but an over-filled dance floor saw Saab and Gabby leave early before the rest of us partied with some of the APT people before Joy took us to the Wensha Spa for some relaxation.

We stripped down in our change rooms, showered up and headed through a few rooms until we reached our own rooms to enjoy a massage. An hour later (I think) I put my robe back on after enjoying a somewhat painful massage before heading back to the change rooms as the clock ticked past 4am. F-Train and I waited in the reception for Andrew and Joy for over 30 minutes before deciding to catch a cab after they were no shows.

. . . and just for good measure

Riza Santos

I wander down to breakfast feeling utterly refreshed after the previous night’s massage and sleep on an ultra-comfy king-size bed and take my seat at the back of the restaurant. Some apple juice, bacon, eggs and hash browns start me off before a bowl of fruit and slice of toast finish me before I see Vincent ‘Wonky’ Wan and his mate Adam Simon stroll in.

They take up a seat next to me as they munch down on breakfast before we discuss poker, travels and all things Manila before I head back to room to shower-up and get ready for my meeting with Asian Poker Tour representative Angelica Hael. We discuss the events to be covered; which included the Celebrity Charity Challenge later that evening, while enjoying the beautiful weather in the hotel courtyard before departing ways.

Straight over to Saab’s condo I go where we plan to head into town to go and grab a haircut and shave . . . it’s supposed to be an event in itself . . . or so I’ve been told! I arrive to see him play no more than 50 hands on PokerStars, lagging it up before making enough money on the two $2-4 NLH tables to cover the massages from the previous night and have some change leftover. Saab downs a bowl of Pho and we head downstairs to see his new driver Sammy bring the car round as we make our way to Greenbelt 5; a shopping centre in downtown Makati.

We both stumble into Bruno’s Barbers where we are guided to our chairs that resemble furniture direct from a classic American barber shop of the 1950’s. After negotiating back and forth with the Filipino employees we both come to an agreement that we want everything . . . haircut, shave, manicure, pedicure and even a massage.

Bruno’s Barbers

A quick trim (that in all honestly didn’t really change anything) was quickly followed by a lathering of my face with shaving oil before my barber brought out a fresh blade to tackle my splotching asian-facial hair. Ehnum started on my pedicure as my barber began to slowly shave away my remaining facial hair. However Ehnum methods, however good, were starting to make me twitch due to the ticklish nature of my feet, and having a fresh blade on my face really started to freak me out.

With the pedicure out of the way, Ehnum moved to my hands to conduct a manicure, while my barber wrapped things up and finished with a massage. Once everything was completed I headed for a walk round the shopping centre before returning to meet with Saab, who’s ‘experience’ went a little longer. We ventured to grab some lunch at Mr. Rockefeller’s where we enjoyed some salmon and baby back ribs before getting dropped back at the hotel prior to working the Celebrity Charity Challenge.

After collecting my things I headed down to reception to see if Heath or Dave had checked in yet, knowing that F-Train (Dave’s blogging name) had to cover the event with me and that Heath had the camera. Unsuccessful in being able to locate them or their arrival time I tackled the event on my own not having a clue who any of the participants were apart from Priscilla Mereilles; the 2004 Miss Earth.

Priscilla Mereilles

The event ran fairly smoothly, even without a clear idea of who everyone was. F-Train finally made his way down and took a bunch of photos for me while I tried to fill the blog with hands and colour from the tournament. The Playgirls took out the tournament after running on a super heater on the final table, and once everything was wrapped up I journeyed upstairs to hit the hay knowing nothing was planned for tomorrow.

Riza Santos and The Playgirls