Poker Dream 8, Genting Malaysia Report

I was very excited to play my first series of the year. Kudos to Poker Dream, the turn out was amazing. It total exceeded my expectations and I am truly excited to see this kind of response in the Malaysia market. I am also very pleased to see some clear improvements from the organizers, for example the graphic displays, to the now more prominent and grand final table, the media shared during the event, extra floor assistants, VIP buy in sheets, these little things are very encouraging signs. Can't wait to see further improvements and innovations in the upcoming series. 

Bye bye money

Back to me, this series was a big fat L for me. 3 ITM, but all shallow ones, and more crucially are my 3 bullets in the SHR all amounting to nothing. I was truly touched by the support of my friends who had complete faith in me. Some even offered to buy 100% of my action, or whatever I was willing to sell, without question. I am just annoyed I couldn't reward their faith with some good ROI. I feel that I played a few spots amazingly, but I also did make quite a few mistakes. Although I have been playing live poker more often than before, my stamina this trip was not what it used to be. I have been battling a bad cough for weeks, couldn't sleep well, and I had a terrible room to boot. Every morning at 9:45am I will hear the loud music from the theme park which was my daily alarm clock. Not very good when some days I played until 3-4am. 

Played a great line but was not rewarded

However there were some positives from this series. I met some pretty cool people and made new friends. A few of my students had really good results, one even finished 2nd in a side event. Some made their first ever live ITM. Although they had luck on their side, but luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I've played with some players in this series where even luck hit them straight in the face they will never win because of how badly they played. 

I'll be back

Overall this series is now the biggest losing series of my career. But I am thankful that my bankroll is at it's healthiest of my career as well, so it wasn't too hard to take. Funny when you work hard, give your passion and effort, do good and be good, help others without expecting anything in return, somehow good things will happen to you. I see some players complain about their luck. But if some of them looked closely at how they live their lives, maybe they can see they don't deserve good luck. Good things happen to good people. Instead of focusing on getting good things, focus on becoming a good person first. I know "good things" happen to bad people too, but don't worry, their time of reckoning will come. You just focus on bettering yourself.