Archive for May 2008

Day One In Manila- APT Tour

May 25, 2008

Just arrived in Manila at the Dusit Thani Hotel yesterday morning and already having a good time. After getting a 2 hour Thai massage with my wife for $11.50 US dollars each we headed downstairs to meet Chris Parker who is the CEO of the Asian Poker Tour and Asian Logic. Chris is a great guy and he has a passion for the game of poker which I think is sometimes missing from executives trying to cash in on the poker boom.

After our late lunch we headed upstairs for a 2 hour nap before taking a trip to a couple local poker rooms with Chris, Martin Elliot (business development manager) and "Jason Morris (Tournament Operations). Also on the trip were 1991 WSOP Champion Brad Daugherty, 1996 WSOP Huck Seed, Quinn Do, Steve Sung, Jack Fox, 2006 Bay 101 WPT Champion Nam Le and my wife Maryann.

I was SHOCKED to see the amount of action going on at these rooms with games as high as 1,000-2,000 peso blinds (roughly $25-$50usd).
I really think that poker will take off her in Asia as witnessed by what we have already seen here in Manila.

I did play a few hands of 100-200 peso no-limit and when everyone agreed it was time to go I said I would play to the button. I only bought in for 7,000 and was the short stack at the table. After getting pushed of hands AQ (suited), AQ, KQ (suited)after the flop, I decided that I would go all in on the last hand before the button with any ace which I unfortunately received. This is how the hand played out
I was under the gun but straddled it for 400 making me last to act. I looked down at A-4 and when a player in seat 7 raised to 2,200 the big blind called and then I shipped in my last 4,600. Player 7 called and then the big blind moved in for 50,000. I put him on a big pair obviously and had to hope for an ace which is OK until the other player called his last 35,000 ($821usd) more with A-9 offsuit. Of course the ace still came on the turn but was out kicked. Apparently this is typical play for Manila from what Chris tells me. After the tour we took a trip to see some of the local attractions of which there are many even on a Sunday night. We then called it an early night and cam back to the Dusit.

The guys behind the APT have put a lot of time and resources in a short time since the announcement of the dates just 2 months ago and hopefully for Asian poker's sake will continue the effort. Now over 200 are confirmed for the main event and we are really pushing to make the Asian record of 352. I really like their idea to allow all online sites to send players to the events and know that more will jump on board for later dates slated to happen in Macau, Singapore, and Korea.

There is still time to get here and register for the $1,000,000usd guaranteed tournament that starts on Thursday the 29th. The buy-in is $2,300 + $200 and needs 435 to meet the guarantee so I am positive there will be an overlay and maybe a substantial one at that. the complete schedule can be found at www.AsianPT.com.

I have a radio interview in three hours with Mo Twister who is called "the Howard Stern of Manila" so I better get some sleep.

Talk to you tomorrow

Party Poker Million VI

May 13, 2008

I have been involved with the Party Poker Million tournament since the second year and the trip and tournament has always been a good one. The tournament was always limit hold'em in the past and caved in to demand and went with no-limit this year. Limit hold'em tournaments were always more popular than no-limit until 2003 when the boom happened. This year's tournament was held on a cruise ship once again and hosted by Card Player Cruises. The field was much smaller than in years past due to PartyPoker's decision to pull out of the United States due to the UIEGA. Players were also allowed to buy-in for $8,400 and those comprised about 25% of the field. 171 players started and the tournament was won by German player Alexander Jung. Three Germans made the final table and Deutsch could be heard being spoken around the poker room all week as Germany had the largest contingency of players.

An interesting situation did arise at the final table when Jung and Stopka got head up. With Alexander in the lead $1,100,000 in chips to Dominik's $610,000 a deal was made and both players agreed to let Alexander win the tournament without playing it out. I was in total disagreement that the tournament should end there but the terms and conditions of the tournament did not forbid it and it is the players right as it is their money. I made a suggestion to them to leave a little money on the table and complete the tournament but they disagreed and basically returned to the table for the formality of declaring a winner. Apparently part of the deal was for Jung to get the trophy and the title. I understood Alex's thinking but could not quite understand Dominik's decision not to at least fight for the title?


Main Event Results with actual payouts
1st Alexander Jung- Germany- $310,000
2nd Dominik Stopka- Germany- $273,865
3rd Cory Albertson- United States- 159,235
4th Mika Paasonen- Finland- $119,425
5th Raymond Estall- United Kingdom- $92,885
6th Andeas Joerbeck- Sweden- $67,675
7th Johannes Strassmann- Gemany- $47,770
8th Peter Steinlesberger- Austria- $31,845
9th Kenneth Gregersen- Denmark- $21,230

The cruise was based out of Venice (Italy) and visited five different ports including Bari (Italy), Katakolon (Greece), Ismir and Istanbul (Turkey), and concluded in what I felt was the highlight in the city of Dubrovnik (Croatia).


Jennifer Harman NSPCA Charity Event

May 01, 2008

Savage Tournaments was hired again to Tournament Direct/Host the 2nd Annual Jennifer Harman Event. This year it was moved from Ceaser's Palace to the Venetian Hotel and they provided an excellent venue. Director of Poker Kathy Raymond and Venetian Tournament Director Tim Mix are to be commended for their effort in making this tournament and its planning go off without a hitch.

My job is to provide a fair structure that allows for the most money to be raised for the charity. An amazing $325,000 was raised which I believe to be a record. Hundreds of animals will be saved due to this event.

Lisa Wheeler and her company GreasieWheels.com are the planners and she is the person that got the whole event off the ground and the event would have never happened if it was not for her dedication to the project.

Poker pros in attendance that had sponsored bounties on their heads were Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, and many others including our gracious host Jenifer Harman. It should be noted that Suzie and Howard Lederer was very generous donating close to $50,000 to the cause.

Plans are already in place for next year's event. For more information on having a celebrity event please contact me at Matt@SavageTournaments.com.