JPC2006 -- Not

After all that build-up, I did not attend the 2006 Japan Poker Championship.

My girlfriend got pretty sick on Friday, with a fever and cough, I discovered when I got home. She had gone to bed early, so I climbed in with her and in the morning asked how she was doing. She still felt pretty awful, obviously, so I decided to skip the tournament and stay home with her.

The decision was pretty easy. I figured myself as dead money in the tournament anyhow, so attending would have left me 10,000yen poorer. It would have been interesting to play with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Mark Gregovich, but would it have been worth 10,000yen? Not really. (Not to diss the Card Player folks that came out from the States, but sick girlfriend comes first. This is how it should be.)

I checked the JPPA web site, and it looks like Mark Gregovich took first. Linda, Jan, and Mary all placed pretty well, but that foreign devil Mark won it. I have to grind my teeth - I really wanted a Japanese to win it and show that there are some damn good poker players here. One or two comments that Jan made on Friday night kind of stuck in my craw, about how the foreigners couldn't compete in the JPC last year because of her illness, so a Japanese won. But they were back this year to win it. It was spoken mostly in jest, but it still smacked of an arrogance I would have been happy to see thwarted.

It didn't happen, obviously, so maybe they were justified in that confidence. Still... woulda been nice.

I was very surprised to see that the first player out was "kugatsu", a very strong, solid player here who inspires a good deal of fear and respect from the other players at the JPPA. Wish I had around to see what happened - it must have been something like Kings versus Aces in the early hands and it didn't turn out well for him.

Anyhow, my begruding congratulations to Mark G for his victory. I hope they come back next year, 'cause I'll be gunning for them!