Poker night
Last night I was invited to a press conference that was certainly not run of the mill. When Jojie (who’s actually my colleague of sorts as we 
both contribute to Sun•Star Davao as columnists) told me about it, she didn’t tell me what it was going to be all about. She just said there’d be food and alcohol, and that was enough for me to want to go! 
Jojie was retained by this group of poker tournament organizers to handle their PR, but she probably didn’t know I played poker. I do, since 2005 in fact. And I used to be crazy over Texas Hold’em. I had a Japanese-language translation project that involved card games, and I started playing poker because I had to get into the groove so that I could understand better, ergo do my work better.
Which is what the organizers were hoping to do for the press last night. We were all at Casino Filipino in Grand Regal Hotel, and after a well-prepared dinner (I must say, the food was superb!), Carlos Alba gave an overview of how to play Texas Hold’em. And they even had 3 tables set up for us! We all played and had a chance to win cash prizes… even though we weren’t asked to buy in! Awesome! Thing is, it’s really difficult to play with beginners — you can’t bluff with any amount of effectivity (it just won’t translate to them), you can’t bully… 
Suffice it to say I didn’t win. But it was really loads of fun. Kudos to the organizers!
Carlos Alba, and Brian Lim of Pop’s Resto-Bar, are part of this group that is organizing the Pre-Kadayawan Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament, which will be on 15 August 2007. The pot is Php1,000,000 (guaranteed Php750,000), but this could go up depending on the number of players. Buy-in is Php5,000 plus Php1,000 registration fee. The champion here, aside from his loot, will be given a seat in the Asia-Pacific Poker Tournament later this month in Manila. Neat huh?
[ Photo courtesy of Rhonson Ng ]
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:05 am
Eddie here in California. I’m a weekend Texas Hold ‘em poker player. Glad to know that this game is catching up in Davao. I hope the local casinos have this already. It’s something to do when visiting Davao.
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Wow,
Interesting. I’ve been playing poker (real money) online for two years now.
Will I join?
Yes…
No..
Ye..
No..
Donno!!!
August 4th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Hi Eddie! Yeah, poker playing (esp. Texas Hold’em) has taken hold here in Davao. I’ve seen lots of playing here since 2005. At the casino, there are games everyday! I heard that the buy-in is P2,000 for the cash game.
August 8th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Thanks, Blogie, for the nice words! Our media poker game was really fun, but for now I will stick muna to black jack, chiki-cha and tong-its. Muah!
August 9th, 2007 at 4:56 am
Where can I play Hold ‘em in Davao City? Buy-in? Is that a tournament buy-in or the minimum buy-in to play in a regular table game? Are you talking about that casino in Lanang? Salamat.
August 9th, 2007 at 5:01 am
@Eddie — The poker room in Casino Filipino (yes, in Lanang, the hotel called Grand Regal) is where you can play poker to your heart’s content!
The daily tournament satellite games will continue till before the 11th of this month, and that’s to win a seat in the tournament. For the regular cash games (also daily), the buy-in is P2,000.
August 9th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Thanks Blogie! I’m glad you enjoyed the Media Freeroll Tournament we had during the press conference.. Watch out for more of these freerolls soon!!! Just a little info for Eddie from California: The Metro Madayaw Poker Room operates No-Limit Texas Hold’em Games at the Madayaw Room of the Casino Filipino Davao at the Grand Regal Hotel in Lanang. Table stakes are P25/50 with a minimum buy-in of P2000 and maximum of P5000. We operate from 7pm till the wee hours of the morning, everyday, including sundays. Hope to see you around one of these days!!!
August 10th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Thanks for the info guys. I’ll be in Davao next August and will stay there for a month. Is Grand Regal the same hotel where there used to be a Duty Free shop? Is Duty Free back in Davao? I still go to Clark to shop for pasalubong but if it’s back in Davao, that should save me some time. Blogs, where’s the tournament at?
Karlos, do they have pot limit games? You only mentioned No Limit.
Eddie
August 10th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
@Eddie — Yeah, Duty Free’s back in Davao. I’ll get more info on that for you! As for the poker tournament, it’s going to be held at the Casino in Grand Regal Hotel, Lanang.
August 10th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
We carry different variants of poker games but quorums for pot limit games are very hard to find so what normally happens is tables play no-limit hold’em. If you can get a quorum to play pot limit poker, we can open tables for you and your group on that particular night or nights for that matter. We only have 2 tables operating at the moment due to lack of space, but hopefully we can get a bigger space to accomodate more tables and different kinds of games. The latest craze at the moment is Badugi, a Korean poker game where the worst cards are the best. The best hand in badugi is A 2 3 4 6…
We might be introducing this games soon with the influx of Koreans in the City. I will update you from time to time. Thanks. 
August 10th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Thanks again for the info, Karloz! Pls feel free to send me future info. I’d be happy to announce more events here.
August 12th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
@Dennis — Weird, your comment was caught by Akismet… Buti na lang tinignan ko muna lahat ng spam before deleting them! So you play poker?? Me too! But only for recreation.