Celebrities add glamour, glitter to Asian Poker Tour

By Isah V. Red

You?d think actors can only laugh, cry and be cute. But at the Asian Poker Tour 2009 last Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 at the Dusit Thani Hotel, they showed off their skills to a motley crowd who watched the tournament as it wrapped up with a resounding success.

Players and guests were treated like kings and queens of the poker tables, where games worth millions of pesos in total prizes were at stake.

Local players and poker enthusiasts who took part in the event were treated with a rare spectacle as they witnessed the mastery and skills of the world poker superstars JC Tran, David ?Chino? Rheem, Nam Le, Quin Do, Steve Sung, among others who played for the highly-anticipated Poker Pack.

Celebrities also graced the event to play for their respective charitable institutions. Among those who laid their cards on the table were socialite Tessa Prieto-Valdez for Assumption Mission Schools, real-life sweethearts John Estrada (for Cancer Patient Kids) and Priscilla Meirelles (for the Philippine National Red Cross), comedian Gary Lising for Cribs Foundation, hardcourt scene stealer Eric Mana with Lara Morena playing for Operation Smile, poster boy Will Devaughn for Project Brave Kids, one-time hunkTroy Montero with sexy partner Aubrey Miles playing for Help the Kids to Learn, Vince Hizon for his own Vince Hizon Charity, and a lot more.

The event may have been fun gathering for them, but they took their games seriously as if millions of cash prizes were up for grabs. In the end, however, the real winners were the institutions that they support.

The games were also attended by the members of the local press who were given the chance to play and bring home some gifts and prizes.

On the main event, it was hometown boy Neil Arce who took home the title as the grand champion of the Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2009 with a staggering P8 million in prizes. The total prize pool that was paid to 27 players was P30 million after 262 players from over 40 countries paid P127,000 to take part in the world-famous tournament.

The final day witnessed the showdown between Day 1A chip leader Arce against the Day 2A chip leader Steve Yeah from Korea. It was a battle of unexpected twists and turns. In the beginning of the showdown, Arce was behind in chips to his Korean counterpart. But as the game progressed, the local hero fought back on the heads-up battle and successfully took over the chip lead against Yeah.

?This is just great,? confessed Arce, who is a well-known figure on the Filipino poker circuit through running the Metro Card Club in Manila. ?I always felt it would come down to me and Steve. For me, the key to winning the tournament was position. I was so lucky that Steve sat on my right?if he was on my left it would have been a completely different final table.?

Steve Yeah, on the other hand, had to settle for another runner-up finish. Last year, he failed to snatch the grand title in Asian Poker Tour Macau from Yevgeniv Timoshenko, a Ukranian-born poker champ from the United States. He is still considered, though, as one of the most promising young poker players in the world.

The successful staging of the Asian Poker Tour Philippines 2009 was made possible by the support of iPoker Network, Titan, Dafa Poker, PKR, PartyPoker, Everest Poker, 888, JBet Poker, Japanese Poker League, 32 Red Poker, Microgaming Network and the National Poker League. For more details on the players and the winners, visit http://www.asianpt.com.

Richard and KC, Valentine king, queen

When I Met U is in theaters since Wednesday, and fans have been squiggling at the box office for tickets.

The movie is the GMA Films and Regal Entertainment?s end of two-picture deal for Richard Gutierrez, a Kapuso, and KC Concepcion, a Kapamilya, on account of her mother (Sharon Cuneta) being a contract artist at the network.

While the movie seals the deal ?the two may not be paired again for a long time?it also marks the beginning of a journey for the new love team. Being screened on the romantic week in February more than underscores the two networks urgency to put this thing behind them so they can start new projects for them.

Richard, I am told, starts taping of Zorro, a Filipino retelling of the Mexican insurrecto, while KC starts work on a soap with? well? Kapamilya?s favorite leading man Piolo Pascual.

This far, the love team has created a big buzz. The crowd at SM Megamall multiplex last Tuesday night was among the biggest, says a mall insider.

Two theaters screened the movie attended by both Kapamilya and Kapuso stars. Gabby Concepcion, (KC?s biological father) was there, although her megastar mom was nowhere near the mall, so was her husband, Senator Francis Pangilinan.

The people behind the movie were all smiles, happy perhaps that the crowd seemed too eager to watch the movie. Annette Gozon Abrogar, president of GMA Films, said ?We are very happy with how the movie turned out ? absolutely perfect for this Valentine season.? Lily Y. Monteverde, who is as enthusiastic as Abrogar, added, ?When I Met U is very entertaining. It is one that will make everyone kilig. I say no one should miss it.?

Today?s the eve of Valentine. And the big day is tomorrow. Let?s just hope that everyone who is incurably romantic will troop to the multiplexes across the country and get lost in the romantic adventure of KC and Richard.

Streep?s best, no doubt

Sister Aloysius is the principal of St. Nicholas School at the Bronx. Run by the Daughters of Charity (the same order that runs College of St. Isabel on Taft Ave.), the co-ed Catholic school reminds me so much of those days when children?s education was every family?s priority. Children were enrolled in schools run by nuns that were stricter than their own mothers who didn?t mind if their kids were subjected to corporal punishment because they felt their kids were being molded to be Christ-like.

Yet, Sister Aloysius, played in the now critically acclaimed film by playwright-turned-filmmaker John Patrick Shanley who also wrote both the play and the screenplay, is of a different make. A widow who turned to religious life, she has taken upon herself to be the protector of children she thought are being taken advantage of by vultures in religious frocks. And that?s the certainty she has, the moment Father (Brendan) Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) came to be the pastor of St. Nicholas and becomes especially fond of a black student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster II).

Sister Aloysious vows to bring Father Flynn down. Confronting him on the incident of wine-drinking and putting an undershirt in the boy?s locker, the information on it provided to her by a younger nun Sister James (Amy Adams), a teacher of history, she succeeds in knocking the priest down, figuratively, of course, and who in shameful defeat requests to be transferred to another parish.

While she may succeeded in removing the priest from the school, she begins to doubt her own certainty after learning that the bishop has assigned him to be pastor of a bigger parish. She in her own remorse admits to Sister James that she is not certain about Father Flynn and his supposed relationship with Donald Miller, whose mother (played with emotional certainty by Viola Davis, an Oscar nominee for this one) simply loses hope and rests the case of the boy (beaten nearly to death by his father for drinking the wine at the church) to Sister Aloysious.

Doubt, is no doubt Meryl Streep?s best as an actor. She is convincing as a nun whose idea of good and evil doesn?t stray on the gray side. She acts with certainty and methodically, even if she has to take a ?step away from God? to ?take evil out of the school.?

The movie, by the way, isn?t in wide release. I caught at Rockwell?s PowerPlant multiplex. It is no longer there. Your only chance to experience Doubt is to take a step away from the law.