So I’ve arrived in Manila once again. While I enjoyed my trip last time, I didn’t think I’d ever bother coming back here, but then I managed to luckbox a package to the APT Main Event on 888 Poker, so I find myself at the Dusit Thani hotel for another shot at a major tournament result. We’re in Makati which appears to be a newer, business area of the city rather than the slums we were in last time. I can go outside here and not feel nervous, and we’re nearby to westernized shopping centres and restaurants which were harder to find last time.

I decided while I’m in Manila I’m going to play a fair bit for practice and also because I don’t normally get much of a chance. Tonight was a Bounty event (13,000 pesos buy-in, US$270) where if you knocked out someone you got $50, but on every table there was also a bounty worth US$500 which was normally a well known player or APT person. There were 103 starters. At my table on got “Tommy” Le who is an APT pro and one of the “Poker Pack”. In the first level or so I picked up pocket tens in the small blind and called his raise with two others. Flop 7-2-T rainbow. It checked around to Le who bet 600, I flat called as did one other guy. Turn was a J. I checked again and it checked around. River…another ten! I’d hit quads. So I lead smallish for 850 hoping to get paid off. One guy folds before Le moved all in! Snap-call and bang he’s out and I’ve scooped a US$500 bounty as well as a cute little APT donkey soft-toy! So now I’m already in profit and have doubled my chips so I obviously enjoyed the rest of the tournament.

Next hand I picked up pocket aces and re-raised a guy who folded. Then a few orbits later I pick up aces again and re-raise a guy, who calls. Flop 8-6-2 with two hearts. He donks out for 1,000. I had no idea what he had, but I had aces so I moved all in. He quickly called and I figured he had something like pocket tens. He showed KQ offsuit for no pair, no draw. Just king high! “I thought you were bluffing” he said. OMG. Thankyou sir. I bust him and scoop another $50 and have over 14,000 chips.

Soon after I raised with A4 and flopped two pair and got paid off by a young Scandi kid who made a move with middle pair. I’m thinking I hope I don’t use up ALL my luck today. Then I raised with A6 and same Scandi called. The flop was A-K-2 rainbow, and I thought I’d mix it up and see if he gets overly aggro again so I checked, he checked behind. The turn was an 8. I bet 600 and he called. River was a 9 and put three diamonds on board. I checked and he bet 500. A very small bet. I probably should’ve stopped and realised I didn’t beat much, but since he was Scandi, had already shown me he as aggro and it was so cheap, I quickly called. He turned over pocket eights. Urgh, I let him have a free card and he hit a two-outer. Damn.

Not much happened then for a little while until at 100/200 a guy went all in under the gun for 475 without looking at his cards. With a $50 bounty on the line, and since I had plenty of gambling chips I decided to raise to 1,200 and hope to isolate against him and gamble. My cards…64 offsuit. The all-in guy then starts telling the table how I was doing exactly what I was doing – trying to steal his bounty. Thanks buddy. The table folds to the big blind who calls my raise. Flop Q-6-4. Bingo. Big blind checks and I bet 1,300. He then tanks for ages, and another guy calls the clock. He then raised to 3,175. I’d made a move and got lucky, so I wanted to protect my hand and get that bounty so I shoved and he folded (what he later said was pocket deuces). The all-in player then turns over A3 and is in trouble. Turn 2, the other guy would’ve hit a set if I hadn’t have pushed, and suddenly the short-stack has life with a gutshot draw. River 5. The bastard makes his straight to stay alive and $50 slips through my fingers with a runner-runner. Urgh. Next hand I have him all in again with A5s against his pocket fours and he spiked a set. So I had two good chances to bust him and missed.

After than things got slow until the 200/400 level. I had AJ on the button and raised, with the Scandi in the big blind who had just under 5,000. I knew he was capable of re-stealing light so I snap-called when he moved in. He showed AQ. Damn. The board bricked and I’m back down under 8,000.

The levels were every 20 minutes and the dealers pretty incompetent. Incredibly I went the whole 200/400 level without being in the big blind.

Again things got slow, I had a couple of failed steals after people shoved, and twice I re-shoved on others (with 55 and 88) and they folded. Then at 300/600 I picked up aces (for the third time! omg) and raised small to 1,300 from the cutoff and the big blind shoved with AJs. Two diamonds on the flop gave him a flush draw, but he missed and I picked up another $50 bounty and am back to about 15,000.

My next raise was again from the cutoff to 1,800 with the blinds at 400/800 with QJs. The short-stack to my left shoves for 4,400 and I’m ready to gamble, but then the big blind flat calls. He had another 10,000 behind so his flat call was pretty suss. With so much in the pot I had to call and hope to hit a flop. It was A-J-3. I got a piece of it but the big blind huffed and puffed and sighed and sobbed before moving all in. I insta-folded and he had AQ. The short stack had 44. Turn and river bricked. If the big blind didn’t get involved I would’ve busted another shorty.

Again I struggled to find spots or cards and we move to the final two tables. The table had Chris Parker, CEO of the APT on the table with a $500 bounty on his head. He was also just shorter than me with about 8,000 chips. I played about four hands, and decided I was going to target Parker’s stack/blind if it got around to me. Even if I take a chance at his $500 bounty, that bounty alone was worth more than finishing the tournament in 8th place anyway and I was getting short with the blinds up to 600/1200 with 200 ante. The hand before Chris was in the big blind, he limped under the gun. A guy flat called and I looked down at A7. I figured the caller was weak, and that Chris is likely to have a small pair or a monster. I decided to go with it and re-raised, hoping Chris would call with a small pair and we’d race for US$500 and the other guy would get out of the way. What I didn’t consider was the guy to my left going all in over the top of us all. Shit. Chris also called to attempt to triple up with AT. The raiser had AJ and I was in trouble. A jack on the flop and it was all over.

The crapshoot made it tough. You just had to gamble and although A7 wasn’t a great hand, I think it was a good spot and if I’d busted Chris I would’ve pocketed in total more than about 5th place was worth. As it was I was out in 18th, with the top 10 paying, but I made more than 8th place paid anyway so not a bad start to my Manila trip.

I also got a spot on the APT update video with the lovely Riza Santos. Keep an eye out for the flying donkey toy being caught at the 30 seconds mark…

Working as a tournament reporter and blogger for PokerNews has enabled me to travel to many amazing countries during the past twelve months, and at the same time I’ve been fortunate enough to witness up close some of the world’s best Texas Holdem poker players and personalities. Upon reflection of the year that was, I thought about my most memorable moments from 2008 and decided to compile my Top Ten. Some of these moments you may have heard about, some you may have not. I’m sure everyone has their own moments, but these are the ones that stand out in my mind, whether good or bad, right or wrong, as the most memorable, from my vantage point, merely three feet away from the poker table.

You can read the first part of this article at PokerNetwork:

From The Den: My Top 10 Most Memorable Moments of 2008 - Part 1

After a week of hard work and some long hours, the APPT Sydney event wrapped up with the amateur Martin Rowe claiming the title and one million dollar prize against seasoned pro Jason Gray. The Aussies dominated the event so most of the cash will remain Down Under.

After the final table wrapped up most of the staff and players let their hair down at the after party which went well into the evening. After 36 Degree Bar closed up everyone kicked on at the Bluff Bar until the tab was closed and it was decided to head back to someone’s hotel room to kick on (since you can’t actually go out anywhere due to Sydney’s lockout!). Our entourage included PokerStars and PokerNews staff, PR people and one 2008 World Series of Poker Champion Peter Eastgate!!! By this stage of the evening (well morning) Peter had well and truly enjoyed himself as the ladies were all over him and the drinks were flowing. We decided to play a home game - a turbo sit and go. The action was fast and furious as Danny Mac set the trend by shoving inthe dark and tripling up first hand to thin the field by two. Eastgate then followed suit and began shoving blind every hand which spelt doom for everyone else, as no one runs as good as the man who can win the WSOP Main Event. One hand I recall Eastgate was all in with 26o and proceeded to flop 266 for a boat to eliminate another unlucky punter. He won every race and ran sick playing every hand in the dark, until it got down to three-handed. Eastgate had 70% of the chips as Duckworth and myself had folded our way to a threeway with the champ.

I picked up AJ and doubled through, and then found AK. I shoved as Eastgate followed. “I gotcha champ!” I said as I confidently tabled ‘Big Slick’. He just smirked and flipped pocket queens. Shit! However an ace spiked on the flop as the downswing of 2009 flashed before Eastgate’s eyes as he unbelievably lost a coinflip.

I now had the chip lead and shoved with pocket threes into the T6 of Eastgate. A three on the flop and the crowd roared, but quads on the turn set the champ crashing to the rail. “Good game champ” I said and extended a friendly handshake, but he’d already staggered from his chair into the waiting arms of a the ladies ready to console him from such a devastating lost.

This left Duckworth and I heads-up - a familiar situation that neither of us had wanted. We wanted to go heads-up with the champ dammit! I regret that neither Ducky nor I had taken a dive! Anyway so with my goal of beating the champ complete, I just shove dark with king-high and Duck made some sort of ’sick soul read’ with jack-high. The board bricked and it’s all over. The Devil is the new reigning World Champ. No cash. No bracelet. But a lifetime of bragging rights.

Manila is one crazy place. F-Train described it as the Mexico of Asia. Our first experience of Manila was leaving the airport and before the taxi had even reached the main road we had kids coming out the darkness and pelting rain to bang on our windows and beg for money. It was like something out of a horror movie with zombies on the loose in the streets!

“Lock the doors!” snapped the taxi driver. We quickly and quietly obliged.

Many locals warned us of the trouble that can find you in Manila. Every taxi driver warned us to lock the doors and told us stories of how the boots of taxis are pried open and bags stolen while the taxi sits still amongst the jam of traffic. It didn’t stop at the taxis. When we arrived at the hotel our taxi was met with a guy with a mirror who checked under the taxi for bombs before allowing it onto the premises. Glad they waited until the end of our taxi ride for that check! We then had to go through a metal detector (also found at all shopping malls) and bag check and finally we were inside our hotel!

Our first evening we found a lively little strip and ventured into a few bars. One was a karaoke bar with a couple of ladyboys as hosts. They were a little disturbing but welcoming with their witty one liners. “Welcome to Manila, home of kidnap and ransom!” they said as we found our seats. “Have you been kidnapped yet?”. Oh god.

Another night saw us venture to a bar called The Hobbit House where all of the staff were midgets! They had some live music and sold weird Obama paraphernalia which kept our American friends entertained.

The night before the final table saw us find another funky bar. We knew it was going to be fun night when we saw the sign on the door as we walked in…

With some live music, friendly locals and buckets of six beers for less than six bucks we were set for the evening. As we stumbled out at about 5:30am the whole night had cost us less than $40 for the entire group. As we headed back to the hotel, we were harassed by heaps of kids/locals begging us for money. Someone had the idea to buy some supplies from 7/11 and hand them out. So we stocked up on bananas, fruit juices and even donuts and walked the streets as the sun rose, handing out food and a little joy to the homeless and kids sleeping in the streets of Manila.

The APPT Manila event itself was well run and we grabbed a few hours sleep before the final table. Unfortunately the final table was sheer torture! 16 hours of limp-check-check-check-showdown poker. The three Koreans were nice and loose but didn’t seem to have the aggression to back it up. The talking point was the incredible luck of Van Marcus. A one-outer and two-outer on Day 2 saw him enter the final well placed and he carried that luck til the very end. He got his money in bad about six times and won every time. They weren’t even traditional races. He was either crushed, dominated or drawing and somehow managed to survive every time. As much as he was very lucky, he was extremely patient and determined to succeed - traits which are very admirable. He finally captured the trophy at around 4:30am and it was great to see him win and continue the incredible run of Australians on the international stage!

So our Manila venture came to an end, safe and sound. I’m not sure if I’ll rush back here again, but I will some fond memories of our time there.

After a lengthy break, I’ve finally mustered up some energy to write something in my blog. The break has not been through lack of care, but simply lack of time. However recently I was chatting with my blogging buddy F-Train about the state of my blog and his comment was “It’s not that you don’t have time, it’s just that you don’t make time”. Wise words that.

Ok so since my last blog I’ve played and worked at the Victorian Championships, and had trips to Macau and Seoul for the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. I do still plan to write something about these experiences, even if it’s just for my own benefit or to post incriminating photos of some of my touring party! Stay tuned.

I ended up missing out on going to New Zealand. Some disorganization re resourcing combined with feeling a little run down, meant I was able to get a few days extra break before the PNC. I needed the break so I wasn’t too fussed, although it would’ve been nice to see New Zealand and add a few more frequent flyer points. Oh well.

So now I find myself in the Crowne Plaza, just a short stroll across the Yarra to the Crown Casino, and the poker room where I will spend most of my existance over the next 10 days. In a way it feels like “here we go again”, another tournament series at Crown, but I have a feeling this one will be a little bit special. This is my first time to a PokerNews Cup (well except for Austria), and I get the feeling that PokerNews are throwing everything behind this to make sure it’s going to be big! We have a huge team for the live reporting, top notch video guys, and the fields should be massive. The Main Event will push a million dollar prize pool which is pretty exciting. The hype is good, let’s hope the event can live up to it.

I’ll be blogging most events, but will also be getting my share of time on the felt. I’ll be playing the HORSE and 6-Max for sure, and then I’m also considering a crack at the Main Event, subject to work commitments, feeling good and if I can sell enough action. The Main Event is a great structure and I think I have the game for deep stacked tournaments so it would be great to give myself another opportunity at a big event. Please get hold of me asap if you are interested in buying a %.

I plan to try and update this blog somewhat more regularly, especially during the PNC. I will “make time” dammit!

Thanks for the memories…