Pokerflop

Meaning of pokerflop: missed opportunity in poker tournament. (2) playing very poorly in a poker tournament.

Metro 1M guarantee: Labor day special.

May 1. It was a very good day in poker in Metro a lot of great tournament players in the Philippines came out to play this 3k buy in tournament to test their skills. Pokermanila was there covering and documenting the event. In the beginning i didnt plan to play. The tournament was 3 in the afternoon and i woke up 2:30. I arrived there 5 o'clock and a player asked me if i played the tournament. I said no. Then i asked the receptionist if after 2 hours i could still join and they said yes. So i joined the tournament. The notable players in my table are Gia Guison and Emmanuel Gomez. We good good cards are eliminated some of the players in the table. I got lucky with my JJ which setted on the flop vs QQ from the girl whos the wife of Barney Garrido. The players that replaced them namely Janno Alvarez and Mike Takayama are great tournament players and later Mike won the tournament. Mike doubled me up with my KK vs A9 at the end of day 1.

Mike is a very aggressive player, he has a great pre-flop and post-flop game. He silently observes his opponents stacks pre-flop to know how to make a move on them. Thats why he won 2 major tournaments in a row and won dozens of tournaments in metro. He plays like Gus Hansen who is a very aggressive player as well by stealing pots, blinds, antes and has a sick post-flop game. Mike started playing low buy-in tournaments with a stake with his friends. That served as a practice for him for the big buy-in tournaments in the metro. He plays without abandon as he was not playing his own money, raising almost 75% of his hands and offers a sick post-flop game a lot of players cannot handle. I must admit mike outplayed me a lot of times in tournaments and that take me out of the game knowing that i was bluffed (he shows his hands at me everytime) and that my chips will help him win the tournament. Those instances should help me with my game instead of throwing me off my game. Poker is a fast-paced game specially in the high ante tournaments that you have to adjust your game according to your opponent immediately. It must be played with relentless aggression to constantly accumulate chips, build a crazy image and get payed off with your big hands, make your opponents fear your chips. Making them feel reluctant raising you. And I must admit that my tentativeness cost me my tournament. I finished 44th place and got nothing. I was VERY UPSET with the way i played because these are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that come by in your life and i blew it all away.

With this tournament, i realize not just my game, but my personality as well. I grew up avoiding fights, confrontations and messing people up. That sometimes makes me unassertive on the things I want to do or not doing what i want to do just to please people. I always put myself on the defense: with reasoning i tend to defend myself instead of saying what i really want to be, do, what im trying to do. With defense, you forget to think forward. You just stuck yourself at the moment, thats what you do when you defend. Thats not what i want to be, i want to make something out of myself. I want to be aggressive, creative, assertive. I dont want to be stuck up where i am now and regret the rest of my life not being aggressive on the things i wanted to be.

I can say this came from what i was raised. I was raised by a single parent and She was being dominant on the things that She was us to do. Shw wants us to obey everything that she orders and that made me scared most of my childhood and wary that shell be upset. I carry that out from my childhood and now im on the defensive most of the time. I dont want to upset people up, always worried about the troubles of my actions and that somewhat made me tentative on doing the things i must do to succeed. Now I must get out of this slump before its too late for me. I must start being aggressive, always be on the offensive and be creative. Be brash, not worrying what may happen to me when things go wrong because by being smart, logical makes you on the defensive. Aggressive, Offensive, Creative. I hope i can be that. I hope this experience and this blog will help me change to what i want to be and let me live with success and without regrets.