Quick Run Down

Just wanting to post about the photoshoot I did along with TPT poker players for GQ Magazine Taiwan, here's some snapshots:













Here's a scan of the actual article:

And last but not least, I'm very happy to receive the following email for Pokerstars, which states that I ranked top 10 for the tournament leader board in Taiwan and that I'm invited to compete for the World Cup of Poker 2012 in Bahamas after qualifying online, fingers crossed!!!

Taiwan Poker Series Event 1

Had a great week with my girlfriend as she was back for a week to visit me, took her shopping numerous times, we also ate Italian, Swedish, Mexican, Japanese...but the day the 1st event of the TPS was starting was the day she was leaving so that was a bit of a bummer, so I went to the game and set my mind up on poker and strictly poker.

It was a 70$ rebuy NLHE tourney and after the first hour, I was sitting on a comfortable stack but still made the addon nevertheless.

I won't fo too much into details but it took the field about 7 hours to slim down to the bubble where everyone started tighting up and I turned up the aggression, flipped well a couple of times and we were down to HU with about 1500$ for first and 860$ for second, it only took 1 hand for me to get it all in and it was on the first hand, had top pair and check raised all in, he made the call with mid pair and rivered two pairs, I doubled a couple of hands later on to jam QJs into his JJ preflop, I managed to hit a Q on the flop and while everyone including me thought it was over (for the second time), he managed to hit the last Jack in the deck to win it all, I was disgusted at first but had to let go off the bad vibes, just got unlucky and you have to be ready to accept that if you want to be a good poker player.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to Macau, for the Macau Poker Cup and I'm very excited to meet my friends, make some new ones and play some **** cards, poker gods, please let me run good, thank you! :) I'll be playing Event 1 through 3 and hitting the cash games when I have time, if I do well then I might stay longer to play the main event, may the poker god shine on you and I'll try to update you on how things goes straight from the capital of gambling in Asia, peace!

TPT season 3 recap

It's been almost 4 months since the 3rd season of Taiwan Poker tour has started, and hundreds of people turned every week to fight for the points leading to the final game (Top 20), and closing on the end of April, with two weeks left in the regular season games, I was ranked 25th and knew had to push myself more in the remaining games if I would ever make it to the top 20, and pushing myself I did, as of the first week of April, I final tabled the online tourney busting 4th following by a win in tourney 20 which I felt, put me back on the right track to go on and make 2 more final tables within the 3 tourneys left, busting 3rd (99vsA10 852210) and 6th and with that, climbed up the ladder all the way to 3rd in the final standings with about 7900 points which will convert in chips for the final game.

The final game was held on Sunday 15th and the cards flew at 2pm with about 23 players competing for 3 top prizes (Trip to Macau for 2+accommodation+3K hk$ event entry/2nd Ipad 32g/3rd netbook) and I managed to steal pots, turn up the aggression and grind my stack to about 20K taking the chip lead as well, about 4 hours later we were down to the final 9 and the blinds were starting to get really high and right after the 9th player busted, I raised with A9s and the Big blind jammed on top, given the odds, I couldn't fold there and was hoping I was against some Kx or Qx, instead he had 10s and the flop came with a 9, turn giving me a bunch more outs with a diamond and I bricked on the river doubling him up and having my stack shrunk to about 10bbs with the blinds at 800/1600 and not too long after that, I went for Jam steal from the blinds but ran into the AJo from the big blind and that was that, I was certainly disappointed but as I'm someone who's always on the move, I quickly kicked away the bad vibes and started contemplating the online tourneys I had scheduled as well as the Macau poker cup starting May 27th which I look forward to!

2011 and the awful swings

It wasn't really the new year's start I was expecting in poker, I've had huge swings, ran bad an awful amount of times but I mean that's poker as we all know, and as long as I stay focused, keep the right state of mind and work hard, I'm confident I can submerse through the cloud and fog that's been around my poker sessions recently.

I've been putting more study and volume into my SNG game, approximately  500 a week, I've also been reading about 6max NL strategy and tactics to improve and finally, I got a prop deal at this new poker room, where I get to play 6max and only that, with a good rakeback deal and softer competition.

Last but not least, the 3rd season of TPT (Taiwan Poker Tournament) started, if you haven't read the older posts from my previous blog, I was the 2nd season champion and got to go to Macau for free with my partner and play live poker everyday which was like heaven! :)

The first tourney had a record field of 71 players, and the new feature of the 3rd season is that it's sponsored by Pokerstars so every week, Pokerstars will give away prizes to the top finishers, early in the tourney I had lost half of my stack with the second nut flush and had nothing going really until I doubled up with Q2 on a 2KQ flop in a limped pot and I'd say the hand of the night was when I open raised utg with AKo, utg+1 snap jammed, the guy next to him flat called and a 4th person moved all in, it was a tough decision for but the blinds were so high and I had to go with my instinct and call, I was against A10o, JJ and KK, the flop came with an Ace which put a fat smile on my face before slapping me with a J on the turn, the set guy screamed out loud before the river gave me a flush amassing an enormous pot, I lost a couple of allins in the final table, btn raise with KQo, I jam from sb with AK, flop comes with 2 queens and so on but managed to finish 2nd and win a Pokerstars Backpack which was awesome, so until my next post, may the poker gods shine on you!