tilted behaviour

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