Phillipine Poker
Making this thread to hopefully help stay motivated, vent at the craziness of live poker in the Philippines, and get some advice on hands.
So far I've played poker in Manila, Angeles City and Cebu. What kind of craziness may you ask? At one casino in Angeles they allow rabbit hunts, and I'm not particularly opposed to it if it's on rare occasion. However you will sometimes get tables with people consistently requesting rabbit hunts after they fold to a 3 bet PRE FLOP!
Insurance is another plague on the game here. Most card rooms/casinos offer insurance on all ins, of course they are taking a healthy cut. This leads to often 5+ minutes on all ins, insurance needs to be recalculated on the turn as well...confusion over outs. They often need to document it with photos. Gets even more fun when side pots are involved.
"English only" at the tables but never followed. This doesn't bother me that much as I've yet to see any situations where collusion looked likely. What does get annoying is the amount of yelling back and forth between typically Filipino players. I've seen them drive away foreign rec players on multiple occasions. Generally ignoring any requests for English only or perhaps taking it easy for 10-15 minutes before resuming.
House players, this one is the one that by far affects the game most negatively. At some casinos close to half the players are house players, probably getting a significant portion of their estimated rake in an hourly wage. This wouldn't amount to much in the USA, but here in the Philippines if you can just play nitty break even or slightly winning poker along with the rakeback you are making more money than 90-95% of the population. This of course leads to terrible games.
My goals are to make a bit of extra cash, play good poker without tilting, and try to have fun.
Starting bankroll of 500,000 pesos (56 pesos to 1 dollar). Daily stop loss of 10% of the bankroll.
Feel free to ask me any questions about the Philippines or offer your own insight.
I've been in Malaybalay for almost a month now so haven't played at all. Don't think there are any poker games here. Will be headed to Manila in a few days and then likely on to Angeles after a short stay in Manila.
Doing a little mini challenge on my way out philippines (have roughly 2.5 weeks left). Haven't played any poker since my last unfortunate session which is documented above.
Going to try and win a 100k pesos before I head home to USA. Gonna get my grind on, my last 10 days will be in Manila.
Made it back to Manila today but not until 8.30 PM or so. Was an annoying 3.5 hour drive with the traffic despite it being around a 100km.
After getting settled in at the hotel and showered decided I felt up to heading over to Okada.
Not having played in over 1.5 months and being a little tired figured I'd get reacquainted with poker at the 50/100 level.
Pretty boring start and not great action in the first 90 minutes or so until I get AA on the button and make it 300 should of gone bigger Sb and 1st pos limper (only limper) call.
Flop 8 6 4 rainbow checks to me I bet 300 sb folds 1st pos who's an older gentlemen raises to 800 I call. Turn 3 I can't remember if it brought in a backdoor flush draw or not. He bets 1600 I call. River T, he bets 4k I'm not liking it but I do call after probably 20 seconds but not more than 30. He says A hi and flashes AJ of diamonds.
When I show AA he kinda gives me a wtf look like what took so long. Maybe I'm getting mubsy but when an older gentleman raises and barrels off one pair doesn't feel great.
Not too long after get 88 in middle position, utg+1 makes it 600 I call two others with position call 4 ways to flop of Ks 9h 8s. Initial raiser checks I check next player fires out 1200, back to me I make it 4k he calls pretty quickly. Turn is 5 of spades bringing in possible flush. He has about 9-10k behind, I end up opting for a 3k bet thinking I don't want to fold out his Kx hands. My flop raise should of probably been smaller to avoid the awkward sizing here on turn. Feels like I need to bet small on the turn like I did or shove as played.
River is non spade 3, I bet 7k he calls eventually (and had 6.2k). He had AK without the A of spade.
Won 25.7k on the night, I'm thankful for the run good. Played till about 1.40 AM, the game wasn't much action so didn't push myself into trying to put in a long night.
For anyone curious on the action going on.
4 tables 25/50
3 tables 50/100
2 tables 100/200
1 table 300/600
Lists for 500/1k nlh and 100/200/500 PLO but only around 4 on each.
Won 5200 on short afternoon session (30.9k/100k) on goal.
Folded KK on the river to an all in, flop J95 two diamonds I bet 1 caller (there was 2 others seeing flop).
Turn brings a 4 which was a 2nd heart I bet 1300 he makes it 4300 i call.
River T of diamonds he thinks for awhile and shoves he had me covered, I fold.
Game wasn't good so I left down approx 6k, went 100/200 won a couple mid size pots nothing too interesting and left up 11k.
1.45 hr session
I love poker! 100/200 blinds UTG raises to 700, two callers in late position I make it 4700 from SB with AA. Only UTG calls.
Flop Q65 rainbow I bet 4k he calls. Turn 7 I bet 11k he calls.
River 8 Im all in for 14.5 or so he snap calls.
He has 99, nice hand sir.
Took a break after that 1 hr 15 min session lost 34.9k
Challenge -4k/100k
100/200.
UTG limps, utg+2 limps, late position makes it 600. I 3 bet on button to 2500 with TT. All 3 call.
Flop QJ4 rainbow we all check, turn J we all check, river 4.
Utg leads for 4k folds to me and I figure he's trying to buy it often enough to justify the call given I don't need to be good too often. He has 98 suited and I take it down.
Really the only notable hand of the session, not a ton of action and my best starting hand was the TT.
Won 15.7k over 2.45 hours, challenge at 11.7k/100
Okada fountain show
Poker in okada at 100/200 and below is super boring from my experience, and these last messages are kinda confirming it.
Poker in okada at 100/200 and below is super boring from my experience, and these last messages are kinda confirming it.
Yeah the games are not very good at all. Of course there are players who aren't great but infinitely more pros at the lower stakes than you'd see in the States.
Everyone also seems to take the game super seriously, even the subpar players.
Have you seen better action elsewhere in Manila? Maybe I should try another room but figured it'd be similar elsewhere.
Speaking of bad games today I joined 100/200 and it appeared to be 7 grinders and 1 borderline action player. So I quit after about an hour down 1800.
Have to get up to earlyish tomorrow to deal with my ECC exit clearance BS which I'm sure will be a treat! Apparently you have to do this if you stay 6 months +. Should of done a thailand trip after 5 in hindsight.
Challenge 9.9k/100
Played 1.15 hours and got two hands to play, AQ and 79 suited
Won 300, challenge 10.2k/100k
Yeah the games are not very good at all. Of course there are players who aren't great but infinitely more pros at the lower stakes than you'd see in the States.
Everyone also seems to take the game super seriously, even the subpar players.
Have you seen better action elsewhere in Manila? Maybe I should try another room but figured it'd be similar elsewhere.
Should def try 2Ace in Manila imo.
