ItalianoGACKT Official Blog update. Translation below:
Fasting, day 6.
And today is the
semifinals and finals of the
”ASIAN POKER TOURS” main tournament!
There was a change in schedule,
and only the semifinals were supposed to be held today but
they decided to continue straight into the finals too.
While training in the morning,
I gathered with everyone and talked about
what kind of strategy we need to fight with today.
Quickly, I changed my clothes and got ready.
It can be noticed through the mirror too but
my face has become much smaller.
I entered the venue and immediately got to the table for the semifinals.
The previous Jeju winner and
the Australian powerhouse were seated at my table.
The player from Taiwan also has good results,
and even the Player of the Series from Macau 2016 was here.
『Anyway… I’ll play my usual poker』
I decided on that, and the semifinals began.
Then for some reason, the Taiwanese player
went all-in from the first hand.
Then another Taiwanese player also went all-in.
『Hey hey… it’s only the first hand…』
I thought, then I looked at my cards.
I have K K in my hands…
『What the hell…』
Even as that crossed my mind,
I kept calm, and when I said I’ll be going all-in,
all the players at my table
cried out
『Ehh〜〜h!!』.
Then we opened up everyone’s cards.
The first person has ❤️A ♠️K, the second person has 🔶A ♣️Q, and I have 🔶K ♣️K.
Of course,
If there was an A on the table, I would’ve lost.
But there’s no reason to not go along at all.
Then,
the flop was opened and 🔶Q, ♣️J, ♣️8 appeared.
The first person has straight draw.
The second player has a Q pair.
The turn card was opened.
♣️6 appears.
With that, the first person has a straight draw.
and the second person now has a flush draw.
There’s about a 20% probability that the winning card for my opponents will be drawn.
And the last river card was opened…
At the moment when 🔶4 dropped onto the board
I yelled 『Osshaaaaaaaaa!!!』
and did my victory pose without thinking.
With that, 2 people were eliminated at one go
and the table was left with 3 players for me to beat.
Then,
the Australian powerhouse went all in
and another Japanese player took it on.
The Japanese player then won impressively
and with this flow, in the blink of an eye, our numbers were cut down to the number of players who will proceed to the finals.
『I managed to stay on until the finals…』
I let out a big sigh.
Then,
I exchanged high fives and smiles with
Team GACKT’s TAKUMI and Ikeda
who were in another table.
For 3 members of the same team
to last all the way until the final table
is a rather rare occurrance.
Firstly, I’m sincerely happy that the 3 of us were able to proceed into the finals together.
The final began, and the game progressed but
I was rather beaten up by last year’s Jeju winner,
the only lady here as a finalist, Ms. Kim.
Not only in the amount of chips she has,
but the strength of her style of push, which is unique to women, is also impressive.
『How strong-willed…』
Her push is just so shockingly strong that
this thought kept going around in my mind.
She’s even stronger than any of the other players I’ve met thus far.
Of course,
there are a number a of men who are strong push players but
you can see the emotions on most players.
No emotion could be felt from her at all.
I’m also a rather aggressive push player but
this is the first that I’ve met a player who is that strong in such a unique push.
It’s pretty scary that she can continue pushing without a single change in her expression.
Poker is strange.
Women even actually make me feel
the fear that I rarely don’t normally get.
I suppose this is a sensation unique to poker.
Then,
I lost quite a lot of chips.
In the middle of it, Ikeda got gradually beaten by the other players too
and ended in 7th place.
In the last phase, I too,
went up against Japanese player Mutou,
who had experience winning in New Caledonia,
and miserably lost.
I ended in 5th.
At this point in time,
the best chip leader thus far, Ms. Kim,
looked as if she would be the one winning but
in the end,
this female player was beaten by Mutou, who knocked me out,
in quick succession with his unusually strong pull
and after being beaten in 2 to 3 hands,
at the very end, Mutou won.
Yamato-kun, who was in 2nd place,
also showed an unusual strength the previous day but
today, he fell short of Mutou.
Despite that, getting 2nd place is really amazing.
The power of Mutou’s pull in the later half of it was impressive.
For players,
there are some who declare that
『There’s no such thing as a flow』 but
for me, with regards to this, I would say 『There is a flow』.
I don’t know how I should express it but
this is because, throughout my life, I’ve seen with my own eyes,
people getting into in a variety of situations,
or rather, a variety of modes,
and finding moments when things go out of their own control.
It might sound unscientific but
there’s no reason to deny something like this, despite it being unscientific.
Instead,
there’s an incredibly innumerable number of things in this world
that cannot be explained with just probabilities or science.
Of course
I don’t think that there’s anyone absurd enough
to keep waiting for something like that to happen while playing but,
when you witness a moment like that,
I definitely don’t think that it’s unusual
to feel such an overwhelming power or something
that makes you think, “There’s no way I can win this…”.
You can’t win with luck alone.
You can’t win with logic alone either.
I suppose that’s why poker is fun.
『This is poker』
This sentence represents it.
Anyway,
I’ve still got lots to reflect on.
For someone like me who is thorough in everything I do,
I have to create results well.
Since I’ve finally found something that really gets me serious
I have to create results
so that people can’t say
『GACKT is no big deal』.
Anyway, I’m really tired out today…
Well then, time to go back to KL and record.
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA