My Poker Journey in 2019

At the beginning of the year I set a few goals for myself not really knowing my path for 2019.

* Spend more time studying and reflecting

* Improve my ITM rate

* Improve my focus and patience

* Degen-free for 2019 

* Keep better track and management of my money

* Doing right things, doing things right

First of all I did spend time studying and reflecting. Maybe not as much as I should but I can honestly say I am a better player now than I was in the beginning of the year. I have made some new friends who have helped my game. 

Up till May 2019 I was still focusing on tournament poker. There were a few highlights, including breaking my lifetime 100k mark on Hendon, winning a high roller tournament against a tough field, playing the highest buy in event of my life (10k USD - won a satellite) seated next to John Juanda and Nananoko. My ITM rate is still not high enough but I managed to go deeper in my cashes than before. 12 cashes including finishing in the top 5 six times. 

I am also very proud that I went the whole year degen-free. No blackjack, baccarat, sports bet, or anything like that. Did do a last longer bet with an old friend but that was money in the bank anyways LOL. I am also quite pleased with the way I have managed my money and kept track of my results.

This year together with HKPPA we raised USD 3500 from my Charity Tournament for CCF. Also I had some personal donations to them and other causes. But I am most proud that I have inspired others to pay it forward in their own ways. I can only do this much but the impact of many can make a big difference. 

November and December were not as smooth and unless I get a huge score in the next couple of days, I am ending the year with 2 losing months in a row. However I am still grateful for the journey this year as I feel that I have grown so much as a person and a poker player, I was fortunate enough to move up stakes and played the highest stakes of my career so far, met and befriended some very interesting people, seen and experienced things that I would not have imagined. I saw some players snorting cocaine during the game, and just the other day, someone put a gun on the table. A couple of friends were kidnapped and beaten up by a rival private game and the kidnappers were arrested and it went on the news. Hopefully I have seen it all by now. 

I am thankful for this year in spite of some rough patches. I have learned to be happy in whatever situation, live a life of principles with positivity, don't judge, boast or be envious, always doing the right thing even when it's the unpopular choice. I have a feeling 2020 is going to be even bigger for me and I hope you will join me on this journey for another year!

Happy new year to all!

APF Manila Poker Room - REVIEW

This week I visited the Asian Poker Federation's first poker room in Manila for their soft opening. Grand opening will be on the 12th of January where they are running a USD 100K guaranteed tournament for only USD 100 buy in! Check out my YouTube video on Poker in Manila

Main poker room floor

The room is located at the Sheration Manila Bay Hotel (previously Pan Pacific). Years ago I was there at the old poker room owned by Manny Pacquiao but it got shut down. Now the place has a new facelift and looks and feels more professional than the old one.

Games start from 25/50 up to 100/200/500 with Holdem and PLO available. I managed to play a 500-a-point OFC session as well. Action is good, with mostly Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese players there. I had one insane PLO session when I ran 20k up to 170k in 4 hours. PS: PLO is not my main game

From 20k to 170k in a cash game

They have a "Final Table" setup and private rooms for special functions or private games. A comfortable rest area for guests who are waiting, a bar serving drinks and snacks, security guard and metal detector and can house up to 30 tables, and the theme is in my favourite colour blue.

Featured table ready for big events

The location is in Ermita, walking distance to the Robinson's Mall, I counted at least 10 hotels that are within 2 minutes walk, lots of restaurants and bars. If you feel like living in comfort, the Sheraton Manila Bay is great (I stayed there once when it was still Pan Pacific), highly recommend Pearl Garden Hotel that's just across the street.

Overall a great experience, highly recommend a visit, especially for the grand opening main event. I had a decent haul for my trip which made it just that bit sweeter!

30 days, 6 sessions, 4 tournaments, November Report

Yes I am getting lazier. Earlier in the month I was grinding online and ran up 24k in profit. Thought everything was going great. Went on a huge downswing. That profit is now a loss. 6 live cash sessions for a modest profit, but 4 tournaments where I bricked everything, and bought someone else's action for 4 tournaments that all bricked too gave me a bad losing month.

At least the view from my apartment is comforting after a bad day

Even though the last few months went well, I want to share with you guys bad news as well. A poker player's life isn't all smooth sailing. It is actually pretty stressful not having a steady income and having to make difficult decisions all the time. But life goes on, you buy in to the next game and pray that you can turn things around.

Ran up a healthy stack

I actually ran deep in a couple of tournaments and I am going to spare you the bad beat stories. It just wasn't meant to be. It reminded me of November 2018 where I bricked everything too and had a rough end to the year. Let's hope December 2019 will be better.

On a side note, I have laid down an OFC challenge. I will play anyone for a minimum 100 hands or when someone loses 300 points or more. So far I got one response but due to timing issues we had to postpone our match. I will update you guys if I do play.

Modest win in live cash

Due to travel and tournaments, I have not played football in a while. So my fitness level has dropped a bit and some weight came back to visit. Looks like I am going to travel a bit in December as well so that front is not looking good.

Met with Sona the teacher with cancer. It was humbling to see her in person and unfortunately due to the bad result this month I have no donation budget for her. But I am sure everything will work out for the both of us.

Poker in Singapore - REVIEW

Was in Singapore for the weekend, decided to check out the Resorts World poker room again. I was there about 4 years ago and even then I did not have the best impressions of the place. Before this visit, I was already warned by many people to expect the worst but I wanted to see for myself.

Credit to RWS, the views outside the casino is stunning

First of all, only in Singapore you have to queue to enter the casino. Sure it is to check your passport and visa validity blah blah but again the #kiasu mentality is so obvious. Sorry my Singaporean friends but it is true. According to their staff, the whole casino only has ONE cashier area. When I was cashing out, there was a queue of about 50 people waiting and there was only 3 people serving us. Maybe it's their way of discouraging cash outs. They do have some smart machines where you can deposit your chips and it will cash you out. But they only take 30 chips at a time. As if they don't expect you to win. Also they let you buy in in $1000 notes but only cashes you out in $100 notes even if you win a darn lot.

We did meet a really helpful staff who brought us to the poker room and card service area. To play in the poker room you need a membership card. That took us like 20 minutes to get. Okay fine, they want to know who I am, go ahead. Here is where things get funky. We had to go through a briefing before the game before we were allowed to be seated. Here are some of the rules.

1. Do not show your hands (even if it obviously went check check) before the dealer flips over the YELLOW button that says SHOWDOWN. Apparently if you reveal your hand before the hand is dead.

2. Verbal does not count. You can say all in but drop in one chip and only the amount of that chip counts.

3. One chip is not a call. If someone bets 80, and you drop 100, IT IS A RAISE! You can min raise 20 apparently! If you drop a 100 chip and say CALL it is still a RAISE! Remember verbal does not count.

4. So if someone bets 180, and you want to call using 2x 100 chips, then you better drop them one at a time, otherwise you might be forced to raise it to 200.

Other silly things that I have observed. The dealer does not shuffle by hand when the machine hasn't done the next deck. It slows the game down so much. The have to slide the cards into a box to deal out from. Pots over $5000 will need a supervisor to come over to "verify" the pot and record it down. You can't buy chips on the table, but you should buy them from the baccarat table nearby. Remember there's only one cashier in the whole casino. Every 4 hours they change decks, and that takes like 20 minutes to do. You can't choose your tables, you draw for your tables.

The game is usually 10/20 Singapore dollars and the rake is 5% capped at 75. They do have free water, tea and occasionally some snacks. The lineup wasn't as bad as I thought. It was fun pretending to be a fish and see my overbet bluffs get through when they didn't know who I was. Thankfully I won, to ease my "suffering" at the game haha.

Overall the experience can be summed up by one word. KIASU! (definition) I think the background story of these rules has to do with security cameras. Since the cameras can't pick up voice, they can only see your actions so in order for them to "track" the way you play, they can only watch. But come on, this is poker. Why does the casino need to track how the game goes? As long as it is fair and played with international rules, it shouldn't matter. Also some local regulars camp out there making the game feel hostile and unwelcoming. Is the game beatable? If you can pretend to be a fish and exploit the regulars, I think it is. But it is frustratingly slow, dealers seem to help the regulars, there's no game selection as you draw the tables you get, it's not a fun grind that's for sure.

Thankfully the food in Singapore is excellent

Dear Resort World Sentosa, if you're reading this, please make your poker room a welcoming place for players of all nations. Whilst Singapore produces some of the best players in Asia, none of them has anything good to say about your only legal room of the whole country. You're the laughing stock of foreign players and a disgrace to your own countrymen that has been there. Imagine if you run a football league but your's the only one in the world that players can use their hands.

31 days, 100% Win Rate, October Report

In July, August and September I played a combined 91 sessions of live cash games. In October, I had a 100% winning rate because I played only ONE session haha. This has been my laziest month so far but I had good reason.

My ONE and ONLY winning session

If you read one of my recent posts, first week of October I was playing a tournament and ran good to finish 4th. I hit my monthly income target with that score so I decided to stay on to play a few more tournaments. The next Main Event I made day 3 but fell 5 spots short of the money. Pretty disappointed but not as disappointed as stone bubbling the High Roller event. But still I had a good trip with a decent profit.

During this time I joined Neverlose as their agent and naturally started playing on it. At the end I pulled out a modest profit from it. I probably logged about 40+ sessions and it has improved my OFC game as well. Unfortunately in the last week we had a downswing of 2200 points combined. After that experience I am having mixed feelings about the site. PS: Did you know CST stands for China Standard Time? I guess Google doesn't know everything.

Go BIG or go home. Opps, I am already AT home

This month I met up with the fundraisers for the Cambodian teacher suffering from cancer. Bless them as they volunteered themselves to take up this task for zero personal gain. Since then they have inspired many to participate but also given the teacher hope. They would tell me when they first visited her, she barely had any energy to do anything. I guess $20,000 felt like a death sentence to her. Since the fund raising started, she would start to eat, sit up and even speak during their visits. Mind you her cancer is in her throat so speaking I assume would be a big challenge, and possibly painful.

This month was also the 2nd Happy River charity tournament at HKPPA. Again great organization by the association and great support by the members. I am very amazed by the closeness of the HKPPA members and their show of support of everything HKPPA. At the end we generated a total of USD 3500 for charity. The Children of Cambodia thanks all that was involved.

Charity event turn out

Because I was at the tournaments, I missed about 6 sessions of my bi-weekly football. I did get in some biking and hiking, but it does not compare to the huffing and puffing chasing the ball. I played a couple of games since I got back and in my second game I was so tired I almost blacked out. I hope I can rebuild my stamina and continue to lose weight. I think I did not lose any weight this month because I ate a lot in Taiwan.

Don't forget to join me online on Neverlosepoker and Natural8 using the code POKER168 to sign up and play!

Pay it forward

When I first started playing poker full time, one of the key principles I had was to give 10% to charities and helping people. Last year I gave to charities, to churches, and organized a charity tournament with the Hong Kong Poker Players' Association (HKPPA) and generated additional donation money for those in need. However I did that in a losing year. To be honest, the drive to give was a selfish one. I believe if I give, I will be blessed and earn more. I didn't. Not until after I fixed some things.

This year I had started to do well, especially when I switched my focus to cash games. I have been giving to orphanages, charities, and also a special case I came across - a Cambodian teacher suffering from cancer. I mentioned this in one of my earlier posts where I won a decent amount the night before, and the next day I saw this story on Facebook and contacted the person in charge. I did not want to be scammed again but felt the story was legit. Immediately donated money on the same day. She has gone through the CT scans and thankfully the cancer has not spread to other parts of her body. She is preparing to travel to Bangkok for the surgery soon. Today I met with the fundraisers and contacted the teacher for the first time. It was humbling and yet gratifying to hear that my contribution has made a difference. I also received warm messages not only from the teacher in need, but also a touched fund raiser that was inspired by my actions.

Post from the fundraiser

Personal message from the sick teacher

I want to stress that sharing all this is not to boast and I have kept my donations anonymous. The main reason is to inspire you to do the same. Sometimes we are too focused on our own needs, we don't realize how much more some people around us need that money. For you it might be to save up to buy a car, a house, a nice watch, for them it might be to save their lives. A few months back a friend on Facebook was inspired by me and decided to make a donation to a Vietnamese orphanage. He goes on to share that his experience of seeing the joy he brought to the kids and the volunteers moved him to pledged more donations in the future. The feeling you get seeing how much it means to them, and how much impact you made really doesn't compare with anything in this world.

Matt paying it forward

Last December I wrote a post "Am I too nice" and at the end I said that I hope I will be rewarded for my actions. I believe I have been rewarded and it is only getting started. I will continue to keep doing the right thing, be more selfless and help others whenever I can.

Charity event Sunday 27th October

This year HKPPA and I are doing another charity event this time for the upcoming WPT Cambodia. Proceeds of the charity event will go towards the Cambodia Children's Fund (CCF). If you can make it, I hope you will join. If you're just reading this post, I hope it will influence you to pay it forward. The problem with our world today is everyone just cares about themselves. Giving money away seems like such a -EV and dumb thing to do. But believe me, it is more +EV than you can ever imagine.

You can also help by signing up to Neverlosepoker or Natural8 using the code POKER168 and generate charity money by playing!

Guide to Asian Poker Destinations - TAIPEI

Taipei has burst into the poker scene as one of the main stops on almost all Asian poker series. In 2019 alone I have traveled to Taiwan at least 5 times with another visit scheduled for December. Poker is definitely booming here and with Macau seemingly severing all ties with Poker, Taiwan is fast becoming a poker hot spot.

One of the most recognizable buildings in the world

However this guide is not about the poker here, it's more about the destination. Taipei is a beautiful city with a well-balanced culture and lifestyle. Despite being a highly populated city, it does not have a lot of dense accommodation. There are parks every other block, and strong emphasis on recycling and cleanliness, it is a very green city. After a long day of poker, or like me, stone bubbling the High Rollers, I love to rent a city bike and ride around in the cool night breeze. It costs less than USD 1 to rent it, and you can park it at any bike stop and not worry about anyone stealing it. I rode it a lot from the poker room back to my hotel and if you ride for less than 5 minutes it's free. There are bike kiosks everywhere so you can drop it off at your destination.

Ride the negativity away

I'm an outdoorsy person, however most poker destinations are usually big congested cities far away from nature. I just visited a random community park in Taipei and I saw 6 or 7 squirrels running around on the trees. Taipei zoo is also amazing. Only USD 2 for a world class zoo, it is amazing value and one of the best zoos I have been to regardless of price. Jiufen and Shifen are just an hour away and Beitou hot springs too. The hike up Elephant Mountain is also not to be missed. Super nice views of Taipei 101 and the city.

Public park squirrel

Don't get me started on Taiwanese food. Although to be honest, after 5 visits in a year, each time staying minimum a week, I am losing interest in eating the same things over and over again. However for someone visiting Taiwan for the first time, you will love it. Notable recommendations are Jinfeng Braised Pork rice (must try the duck eggs), Ay-Chung Flour Rice noodles (that's how they spell their own name), Yamatoya Ramen (in case you crave Japanese food) and Sushi Express (for super great value only USD 1 per plate).

Lastly I am quite impressed with the Taiwanese culture. Probably second in the world to Japan but a more laid back version. Generally the culture is friendly, polite and well-mannered. Children are brought up properly, respecting of elders, no cutting of queues, or speaking loudly in public spaces, etc.

Overall Taipei is a great place to come for poker tournaments. Only complaint for me is no legal cash games and the players are too fishy! (just kidding)

Don't forget to join me online on Neverlosepoker or Natural8 using the code POKER168 to sign up and play!