Evidence

Here's a picture of the United Blue Team, take note of the alcohol on the table... hehehe, ''Go Team United Blue!''. This was at Blue Cafe (the boss owns this place), and this was a get-together just a week after I started the job. I had just gone to Rhodes that day and burned myself at the beach.

If the person who missed their transfer on this day finds this picture, then here's the evidence... the photo comes complete with the date and the time!-Eep...Hahaha!

Office Grind

Groggy 9am morning... spilled coffee on the documents... feeling the pangs of being 27... haven't been paid last month's wages... dealing with dumbass English folks over the phone... thanking God that it's over the phone... why did I have those 2 vodka cokes last night?... missing Suat... why am I not married yet?... stupid co-workers... great co-workers... when is rent due?... eating lunch at the desk... missing the sun and the beach... I could give for those 2 vodka cokes right now... eating my brain with ketchup and mayonaise... don't forget to call Daddy for Father's Day... No-shows, Go-shows, emergency calls... don't call the emergency phone if it's not an emergency!... highlighter ink on everything, including my clothes... sneaking ym chats... answering complaints... damn operation department... flirting with the 21 year old officemate... gossiping with Eva... more coffee... eating chocolate at the desk... my stomach has a balcony now... I'm fucking good at my job... where did the time go?... last minute reservations... I want to start smoking again... who changed my printer settings again?!... time to go home and accidentally fall asleep on the couch... I'm hungry... but I've been eating all day!... ''kolay gelsin''... see you tomorrow... wish I had the energy to party... wish I had the money to party...

Reminiscing...

Wow, it took me forever to re-claim my blog site. I even wonder if people still read the adventures of the Germansnake, although this alias has hung her cape regarding her poker days. There was a time I dreamt, slept, ate, lived, sexed poker... I still miss those days. I'm proud the say that I was part of the pioneers that started the whole mania in Manila. Even helped and ran the JG Poker Tour back in the dinosaur era, with Miguel. Ah Miguel, he has gone places regarding poker... and I envy him. Envy him for sticking it out, envy him for the bonds that he built with the poker crew, envy him for doing what he loves, envy him for the places he's been and the things that he has done. I miss Manila, I miss poker, and I miss him. Yes, I know that it is safe enough to admit that here since nobody graces my blog anymore. He was the bestest friend I ever had and it eats my insides to think that I won't be able to re-claim our friendship again or any other friendship that I left behind on the felt. Will I be welcomed if I come back? Will they treat me like a stranger or an old friend? Being 27 has made my brain do a 180 about priorities... when I was 21, I looked ahead into the horizon, but turning 27 last month has made me look in the rearview mirror of my life; the mistakes I made (were they mistakes?), the choices I made (in love, in work, in friendships), all I think about is going back in time and asking God if I can have a ''do-over''. I read this fantastic book, I HIGHLY recommend it, called ''The Time Traveler's Wife''. No matter how much he goes back (or forward) into time, he can never change it. It's as if he's traveling through movie where he can only watch the events as they happen. The character, Henry, feels as though he's chasing time, and that's exactly how I feel, without the Chrono-Displacement Disorder. Crap, I just googled it and it's a freakin' movie already, why can't Hollywood just leave some things alone!! READ it first before you head to the theaters.
Feels great to blog again.

The Dream, The Corruption, The Anguish...

I know I haven't been posting anything for awhile, it's because I've been busy. Well, it had been a whole year since I had last quit my job, I had to get away from my she-devil boss, low paying income and depressing non-existent social life because I could no longer afford it. In between those months, I had surprisingly gotten really good with my poker skills, playing practically every night since I quit, then also meeting my future boyfriend at the felt, I couldn't escape the game. Texas Hold'em had sustained my life financially and socially, meeting people that I can TRULY call my real friends.

Poker was the best thing that ever happened to me!

But, a year has passed and the poker scene has boomed since then. Even though skills have grown in time, especially with those who had learned it alongside me, the popularity of poker has brought in alot of fishies where skill can be a hard chip to bring in to the table. More people with money can come in and intimidate you with their bankroll and call themselves poker players. I want to be excited about the growth of it, but people aren't grooming the game and the players properly, I see more and more players being bastos at the table, sans felt etiquette, with no respect for the rules and not playing honestly. The game has tired me down... sad no? Weathered down by the new players I see playing every night. The smoke kills me, and I'm killing myself drinking everytime I play, which is, gosh, EVERY NIGHT! (Unlike most players, I'm a rarety, alcohol makes me play better, dunno why, I guess it makes me more adventurous with my selection of hands. Without it, I'm a "tight"-ass, hehehe) Where I'm getting at is, I thought of joining the human race that roam around in the sunlight, I thought, 'it's time to get a job and meddle in society again." As much as I had been dreading it, my parents were getting worried about my current lifestyle, and in fairness, so was I.

I started sending out my resumes but no was biting, until I finally got an offer at abs-cbn in their events department! I went for the interview and found out the starting pay, yuck. Plus the people in the office weren't the type I would get along with. I'm just too different, I'll be side-casted and type-casted, which has always been that way since I was born. Already low, teary-eyed and dreading the upcoming office days, I got a call from a very old good friend of mine the very same day. So surprised to hear from him but so delighted to hear his voice! Brought back our partying days to the surface again, when I used to model here in Manila. Carlo, the stylist du-jour, taught me everything I needed to know about modelling; how to sashay on the catwalk, how to pose, socialize, accessorize, compromise.. he is the sexiest gay man I know. Anyway, he asked me if I was busy.... Hmmmm? What could he mean? "How do you feel about working in Turkey for the European summer?" Wow, I thought, off to a good start. "My cousin's husband owns the biggest, most famous nightclub there in Marmaris, and he's looking for an assistant supervisor" I couldn't believe that Carlo remembered my biggest dream. Ever since I started in the social circuit, I had always directed into things that would lead me in this career. My sight was set on this. To hell with the job here, I'm off to pursue my goal. So Turkey, here I come!

The next 2 weeks after that, all was about preparation of this trip, buying goods, packing clothes, doing research on the club and the country, the people, etc. And spending time with my love. After all, my contract was for 4 months and to you all, it may seem short, but when you're gone and working, it's an awfully long time when you're away from your family and friends. Well, you must be thinking, as is the night club biz any different from the poker lifestyle? Firstly, you're not allowed to drink on the job ( I was surprisingly looking forward to that!), plus I'll have a healthy dosage of sun everyday since I'll be living at the beach! Weeeeee!

My departure day finally came, tears and hugs came pouring out to friends and to Miguel. I wasn't looking forward to the 24 hour trip ahead, but I saw a great lit future in front of me. My travelling companions were, the wife of the owner, and some girls that were going to work as staff there. I went thru immigration, with my German and Filipino passport with no fuss, just waiting for the rest to go thru. UNTIL.... the woman questioned one of the girl's documents... she turned out to be under-aged! With no proper documents approving her of travelling alone! Of course, my friend took responsibility and we were all escorted to the NBI office. Holy fuck... these guys think they're the shit... asking stupid questions plus confiscating all our passports and answeting our cellphones. Why did they give a shit if I work there, I'm German! I can live there for years if I wanted to!!!! Guess what, they accused the wife of human traffiking, what bullshit! We missed our flight and now they were keeping us there longer than we all needed to. Never, in all my years of travelling around the world, have I ever been treated with such disrespect! At the end of the night, we were let go, but they kept our passports. Now, the NBI has kept all our passports for ransom. There is no evidence of a case because the parents of the girl have confirmed and given their consent that she was ok to travel. Such CORRUPT motherfuckers! It was been more than a week now and they're asking for 200k in exchange for our stuff, for something we're NOT even guilty of! I even know of friends who have been caught with drugs, giving less than that amount! Filipinos make it hard for us to be proud to be pinoy. We even have a guy who's supposed to take care of all of this for us but the guy is fucking incompetent! We would have struck a deal properly if he met the SOBs face to face.

God, I pray everyday that this nightmare ends... you don't know what it's like to wake up every morning in tears with your heart racing because you feel like the door of your dreams has completely slammed in your face. All I ask is that people pray and hope for me. I have no more hope in me left. With each day that passes, the dream seems to be slipping away from my fingers. To make matters worse for me, some asshole has gone thru my yahoo mail account (which I've had for 10 plus years) and changed the password! So i have no way of accessing the addresses of my longtime friends and the pictures that I've stored thru the years... WHEN WILL THIS MADNESS END??????? Some people talaga have no lives that they have to tamper with others.

Ugh, well, we'll see if the karmic wheel and if GOD will prevail. Hoping for the best...

Harsh Accusations

You probably read in Maverick's blog (bbcmanila.blogspot.com) about what happened on Monday night at the SkyLounge... and the words weren't pretty my friends.

Normally my entries would be angsty and rant-ful... but not this time. I have no reason to react or be defensive... it was just downright hurtful. I, along with a couple of friends, were accused of cheating in a poker tournament. Never in my whole life have I ever stolen, cheated or lied to anybody. Yes, I know that I have a very strong personality and I am brutally frank and upfront, but cheating is something that I strongly frown upon and don't do. My parents raised me right. Plus, I always repeat this, I believe in karma, because I know that the universe will bite back. One thing I can say is that cheating is easy to accuse, but the accuser must realize the harshness of his accusations. How dare this person say such a thing about Jaz, Maverick and I! People that we've been playing with for almost a year will NOT believe this, they KNOW, for a fact, that this "rumour" isn't true. We play real and honest poker. I bet against my own boyfriend and we even fight after the game, but I prefer that than collude. To hell with collusion!

All I have to say is... to those who have heard this awful, disgusting, untruthful accusation, please don't stain our reputations by spreading the story. For those who are on our side, please tighten your lips... it hurts when we go into a card room and we can hear whispers about us being cheaters... it pinches my heart like hell. If you know that we would never do such a thing, then silence would be appreciated. Cuz we know who are real friends are when they arent't talking about it, cuz really, nothing has to be said when it isn't true...

Splitting the Pot

Hi Nick, don't worry, this isn't about a party this time, hehehe...

Yesterday, at the regular Wednesday JG game, we finally had a comfortable venue which helped us escape the heat plus waiters to come to our beck and call. We had a great turnout of 40 players, old and new, so we were really excited since it made the pot fairly bigger (considering the buy-in is miniscule compared to other games), and of course, to make the sport of poker alot more competitive and fun.

As I patiently waited and made sure that the game ran smoothly, in time one table collapsed, then another and another till we were down to the final table. There were 9 players at the table... Let me gather my thoughts because I'm ready to burst with rage... phew... anyway, as soon as one player busted out, the WHOLE damn table made an agreement to split the pot! Here I am thinking, "Pot? What pot?? It's too small to matter!" They decided that the chip leader get the 2nd place pot, then the 7 of them split the rest evenly amongst themselves. For some reason, I felt insulted! We organized a nice tournament for everyone with a really great blind structure to boot to make the sport fair.. I felt that they just bastardized it.

Well, of course, knowing me and my uncontrollable mouth, I told them how I felt and one of them said, "Eh, well, we're all tired." But they continued to play for the 1st and 2nd place spots for seats to the championship game. Huh? Doesn't sound logical to me! Tired my ass. So... did they get greedy that they wanted to split the money?

Number 1> The chip leader was an idiot to agree to getting the 2nd place pot, if that was me I would've taken the 1st prize and let the rest of them split the rest. He ended up winning 1st place anyway so he was an idiot to agree, so, karma, he got what he deserved. He screwed himself over... wuss. You had the chip stack, use the power!!

Number 2> The buy-in for this game is only P300, we organize these games for the love of Texas hold'em poker, nothing more, we provide a service. So when it all got down to splitting the cash among the 7 of them, I gave them P800 each. WHAT.. A.. JOKE.. ! It wasn't even worth splitting for! Hell, if the pot was 1 million pesos, hey, I got no problems with that, that would be cool to split something significant, but for 500 pesos extra after all those gruelling hours, that felt like a personal slap to my face.

Number 3> In fairness, I did question my harshness of the matter, I leaned over to a friend and whispered, "Am I over-reacting by thinking that the whole final table raped everyone of their buy-in share?" He said, "Well, don't think of it that way, they didn't raped the buy-in, they raped everyone out of some final table action. Real poker players play for the glory." I stood corrected. Just because they did that, in my opinion, they killed the exictement for the rest of us.

And finally...

Number 4> Come on, the pot didn't really matter to these rich kids, they just felt that they were "being cute" for coming up with the idea.

Okay okay okay... I am being over dramatic and ultra sensitive about the issue, we poker players know that splitting the pot is a normal occurrence among pros and poker players in general. It is OKAY to do it, I have no qualms about it at all, I'm just upset at the situation and I did explain why. I'm a purist, at least I have the balls to play all the way til the last man stands... and as our group likes to yell out once in awhile, "For the glory!"

For me, whether it's a P100 buy-in or a P5,000 one, I'll play it like it matters. Play your best at all times. Because someone at that table, that P100 might mean it's his last money in his pocket and that he'll play his very best just to win it back. I'm not going to be that person at the table to treat the game like a joke because it may not mean as much. Give the players some respect and play like you mean it. And if you give the game the integrity it deserves, when that guy wins, that P100 will feel like a million bucks.

It's my Birthday!

It was as awesome time in Tagaytay I gotta say, also, kudos to Neil "Dirty Ice Cream" Arce who made it in the money at 8th place last weekend. Lots of good friends plus some new ones graced us at Miguel's house for some pleasant weather, great company and man's (and woman's) best friend, beer... mmmmmmm. Hey, thanks to the people who brought cases of beer and food, special mention to "Kustom Kowboy" Ken, Ariel, Sunshine and Atty Oly for the cerveza and pica-pica, plus Jardine for the table and chairs (which he hired a truck to transport it all the way to Tagaytay. [plus lunch at Viewsite, yum!]) and "Da Ryan" for the huge ass Jack Daniels he lugged to the party (and the special favor you did for me, muchas gracias, yup, you know what I'm talkin' about, wink, wink)... we didn't get enuff of da Jack! Hey, hoping for an encore appearance this weekend, why? Cuz it's my birthday!

Who's invited? If I don't like you, don't come, you know you are... hehehe (EVIL ME). Kidding aside, the awesome friends I made from playing poker, PLEASE come, I'll be expecting you, bring some poison to add to the merriment this Friday, it will be greatly appreciated, and consumed. ;) To those craving to meet and greet some new faces, I will be inviting my Frisbee buddies. They're cool party-goers, it's because of them that I'm a full blown alcoholic. There's going to be a poker table, cool sounds, grub and lots of hugging, courtesy of yours truly! Just expect a text from me, syempre, I can't mention the venue here, but what I can say is that it's on Friday the 26th at 8pm. If you don't have my number, text Miguel, I will get it, we're one unit... naks!

Warning, it always rains, on my birthday, without fail... Quite often, it's a typhoon. Still hoping to see you all there. Sob story coming up: Last year, my dad asked me if I wanted a party, or an iPod, I said party... big mistake... Out of the 50 people who promised and confirmed that they were coming, only 10 peeps showed... wawa ako. :( So yes, it broke my heart so I kinda, no wait, not kinda, I'm VERY wary of having another shindig. Heeeey, this is not a pity plea, just making you all think twice before you ditch my party, hehehe (EVIL ME AGAIN).

So girls, dress your sexiest; guys, you better smell your yummiest. I'll see you all this Friday.

Mwah!