The inaugural World Poker Games Taipei

It was my honor to be invited to the inaugural World Poker Games (WPG) held in Taipei. I've known Anh Nguyen since the Pro Poker Club days. Those were pretty fond memories as they were the early days of my poker career. 

In the past 8 years, I have witnessed the explosion of the Vietnamese market, the wave of the Taiwanese and emergence of the Malaysian players. I would say Anh Nguyen was super involved in the MTT poker boom in Asia. If I remembered correctly, Pro Poker club was the first in Asia to break thousand player fields and completely changed the landscape. Since then, Taiwan and Vietnam jostled for the pole position, breaking record after record, both worthy to be the strongest MTT market in Asia.

Why the history lesson and the trip down memory lane? The unfortunate part is I can see a decline in the Taiwanese market. There are many brands that faced overlays because the local market is exhausted. I witnessed more players playing TLTs (time limit tournaments) at one club than at side events with a 200x TLT buy in guarantee. WPG was also in the same boat but with a smart satellite strategy, they managed to close the gap in the major events. Even though overlays are good for players, it is not healthy for the industry. Instead of trying to slice a shrinking pie, I hope the organizers and venues can work together to bring in new blood and bring back old ones. Some people often ask me what purpose does MPF serve. We are here to stretch the longevity and sustainability of the industry. 

I did not have a good result all series, barring a sun run in a satellite claiming the first ticket out of 20. The WPG staff were great and I enjoyed their creativity with the daily media. However I did have some poor experiences with APA dealers. Maybe that is contributing to the market decline as well. 

I have no regrets of attending WPG, just wished I had better results to report. But overall I had a good time, I played reasonably well except for a few mistakes. Those who followed my stories probably felt some of my pain of how I lost most of my hands. I believe my luck will change at some point, but I just hope I will still be around to capitalize on that.