12 days in Taipei (part 2)

It was great to see some familiar faces again. It felt like hanging with the boys, good old times. HKPPA did a great job to attract a good number of players, and at the same time had a very Hong Kong twist to the whole series. The support from Hong Kong and Taiwanese players was strong and it was a fun series.

Again one by one I bricked each tournament KK lost to QJ, AA lost to A6 and also some mistakes here and there too. Can't always blame luck haha. It was painful when I fell 3 spots away from the Main event ITM when I jammed AK into AA.

Best braised pork I have ever had. Eat with caution

Maybe tournament poker is not for me, I know there is a much smaller percentage of players that make a profit from grinding tourneys compared to cash games. I can grind out a good income from cash tables but tourneys for me is more exciting and feels less like a job. It has always been a dream of mine to rub shoulders with the best in the world and come out on top. But I have to be honest to myself. I can't be proud of myself if I am not making money.

Final event (of my own schedule) was the 50k Central Cup. On the morning of the event I told a bunch of my friends that this is the one. Bust and I quit tournament poker at least for a while and focus on the less glamorous cash game. Get a middling cash and I feel good about myself that I am not that fish, but still not good enough to play professionally. Win and we'll think about it.

The field was expectedly on the small side because the buy in is comparatively high for Taiwanese events. I think Central Cup is another word for High Rollers because if you know Hong Kong, Central is one of the most expensive areas of town, if not the most. And because of that, the concentration of pros is usually high. In a table of 9, you will see at least 6-7 pros. You can't hide behind the many tables of a big MTT, or capitalize on the big field to sneak into the money. Only the top 6 get paid and I can name at least 10 guys that are way better than I am.

Great venue, nice a cozy

First bullet was abysmal. UTG jammed 10bb with 67, I rejam with AT. Flop T54, river 3. UTG opened to 2x, 4 callers. I jammed 18bb on the sb with 55, called off by mp with A4, flop A. I was like, okay that's it. See you all. But I felt that I wasn't done. I can't go out like this. So I went for my final bullet.

By now most of it seemed like a dream to me. I don't remember most of the details because I am still fatigued from the grind. But I remember I was on a table full of pros, with over USD 6 million in cashes between them. Somehow I managed to squeeze into the final 10 players with the shortest stack.

to be continued....