Writer Butch Dalisay participated in the 2009 PEN World Voices Festival. Dalisay, a longtime poker player, recently entered a high stakes poker tournament.
“How did this all begin? I‘d been deep at work on a couple of book projects, and felt I deserved a poker break, just to clear out and recharge my addled brain. The first leg of the Philippine Poker Tour seemed like a good opportunity, despite the sizeable entrance fee, for which I sold one of my vintage pens, just to be able to say that I didn’t dip into our grocery budget to indulge a vice. On the first two days of eliminations, I played well and got a lucky break here and there: my 20,000 chips became 156,000, and then nearly 200,000. All of a sudden, I was in the finals, ready to become the Pinoy Jim McManus.”
