mystery unveiled

this is how things usually end up to be. at the end of the day, it's just them friends.

clockwise from left: atty. twisted, prof. aquila, sir gawain, master spender and king omie.

showing the biz

here are snippets of prof. aquila and king omie's business venture in atty. twisted's house.

okay, so aside from shirts, we also sell shirts. shirts that are yet to be captured by a lomo or the latest daguerreotype.

still part of 19 november 2009

this one's a showdown between atty. twisted and prof. aquila. everybody else folded soon after the flop came out--ace of spades, 4 of hearts and a 3 of hearts. atty. twisted, with pocket tens in hand, raised. prof.aquila reraised and atty. twisted called. with a top pair, prof. aquila called. confident with his pair od 10's atty. twisted watched as the turn was revealed.it was an eight of hearts. now he has a runner flush. king omie flipped the last card much to everyone's delight.

there was a second of deep thought there. prof. aquila had two pairs, but it was the unexpected flush that took us all by surprise. atty. twisted won the hand. =)

one lazy thursday afternoon (19 november 2009)

perks up when one begins to stack the chips and deal cards across a large lable. our heroes show the poker stalker how poker should be played.

so here we are in the city's cross-section, in atty. twisted's ancestral house. gathered are characters noble and rugged and reminds us of mel gibson in die hard4. there were no plans to have tourney, but the the absence of anything to rouse interest on this lethargic day lead us all to the bag of poker chips.

and so there we were. huddled in the comfort of the two cards we had in our own hands:

everyone called on the flop. atty. twisted, however, called a raise and prompted prof. aquila to move his chips all in. you know, he had a few chips left as king omie raked in quite a big pot before this hand. the poker stalker almost immediately called. atty, twisted accepted prof. aquila's challenge, and there was a 3-way race. do look at the inset picture. there was a show of cards at the turn. atty. twisted had a 4 of clover and a jack of hearts; the poker stalker had a suited jack and ten; and prof. aquila had a suited 2 and 10. man were we all surprised when at the river the jack came out. the hopeful professor prayed for any card with a diamond as he was gunning for a flush. and as fate would have it, an ace of hearts came out on the river.

tsk.

the poker stalker and atty. twisted divided the pot between the two of them. sorry, prof! =)

if you can't (yet) beat 'em, grill 'em!

this is a peek at our heroes' beerfest fare:

okay, the deal is they are downing alcohol as of press time. it could have been a picture of chicken or fish, but our grilled friends are camera shy. now, what's with our non-illustrated grilled friends?

well,

our heroes took a break from online poker and set up shop at a friend's house, Atty. Twisted. with the earnings they got for the week, Prof. Aquila and King Omie donated money and time to the food industry. they're grillin' chix and fish and dogs (dawgs?) for profit. the reason is beyond the poker stalker. it could be a myriad of things like:

- an excuse to have a drinkfest ( coz alcohol is best served with grilled anything)
- extended exposure to carbon fumes ups one's poker skills

-sex necessarily follows soot and the smell of chicken

-cards, chips and food are a good mix to spend these warm evenings

-it's almost christmas

-this is a healthy alternative to drugs and violence

- carbon fumes and soot are not prohibited substances.

at the moment, Prof. Aquila, King Omie and Atty. Twisted are indisposed, thanks to whatever it is they have drowned themselves in.

details and/or reports on this next. toodles!

friday the 13th, saturday the 14th

it's four days since then. the lame excuse: the poker stalker seldom involves itself in unlucky situations. hence, no blogs written on any 666th day/number of any countdown or 13th of any list and/or countdown.

friday

now you wonder how our heroes fared that fateful day. the report was they began early, they had a bad run of cards, went out to grab a bite, played poker and still had a bad run of cards. flinging their arms in the air, our heroes decided to give it a rest. their cynicism towards superstition seemed to have slapped them.

saturday

the sun was smiling, the birds were singing, our heroes were playing. and playing they were! every hand seemed to be in their favor.

in the beginning: chess, game of the generals, tong-its...

lest i perseverate, our two heroes indeed started young with poker. they buried themselves in games such as chinese poker, Game of the Generals, pusoy dos, pusoy way(?), tong-its, Mastermind and chess. these games required that one be able to make quick estimates to win. their first teachers were their parents, cousins, playmates, and schoolmates.

risk-taking, however was not limited to cards and board games. Prof. Aquila's first sakla encounter was when he was 15, sometime in 1992. he had no idea what the rules were and the reason why he was winning. Sakla is a color game. still, the mechanics are a mystery to him.

he noticed that the person holding the cards took time before laying them face-up. to Prof. Aquila's mind, the game was rigged, so he formulated a strategy. he waited for everyone to bet before making his. he was winning. he had then a high winning percentage. the other bettors noticed this and believed Prof. Aquila's bets were lucky, so they bet on whatever it was he was betting on. this proved to be fatal to Prof. Aquila's chances.

Kala swerte, kung saan tumataya, dun din taya mukloy.

Prof. Aquila had to think of a new strategy. he pretended to bet on a color, and nanoseconds before the dealer shows the card, Prof. Aquila withdraws and transfers his bet. the other bettors are stuck with their bets. Prof. Aquila bluffed. and at that time, he wasn't even aware he was bluffing. a few more hours into the game, he had raked in quite a lot. he had in his name, 50 pesos after making bets worth 20 pesos.

his love affair with sakla, however, was short-lived. a pang of conscience hit him. Yung para sa patay, napupunta sa panalo. he left the wake, and left sakla for good.