Memories of My "Muntikan Na" Moments: The Koreana Incident

(This true story transpired around December 2008. I still frequent Master's. Maybe just maybe it'll be consumated the next time around...)

Master's Poker Den in J. Bocobo,  Malate has lately become my de facto hangout during Friday nights. Here, casual and inveterate gamblers match wits and skills in a game of Texas Hold-em Poker. After toiling for two weeks,  I get to be philantrophic by throwing away half of my salary on the poker tables. As my hero Austin Powers so fearlessly proclaimed, "I like to live dangerously". 

This particular Friday night at  Master's was teeming with tourists. I reckoned most were from Korea. Note to self: Time to siphon off those Korean dudes newly-exchanged PhPs. After almost an hour of playing, it seemed that my mental note was not coming into fruition. I was constantly getting bad beats and running into some formidable (and unbelievably lucky) foes. I once went all-in with my full house only to be trashed by a four of a kind on the river. Damn. There goes another 1k worth of chips. 

But I was not about to let those tourists get the better of me. I still had 2k remaining, money which I had earmarked for my Meralco payment. I hesitated for about 2 seconds, and after much soul seaching, I made a beeline to the cashier and immediately rejoined my table. Them Lopezes could wait for now.  

So on the game went. While I was waiting for a big hand to come my way, a drop-dead gorgeous Korean chick decided to join our table. She was smokin' hot! Schwingggg, my lil birdie immediately went. Luckily for me, she sat about two seats from my spot-  well within conversation distance. Time to go all Player's Cologne on her, I said to myself. It was the time to "make my move!".

I started by stealing glances at her. When this failed to catch her attention, I resorted to fixing my eye on her shaggadelic face for about 5 seconds. This desperate (and creepy) move somewhat made her feel uneasy but I was able to fixed her uneasiness with my ever-reliable killer smile. After a few minutes, I noticed that she too was glancing at me and was even shyly smiling at me. I took that as a cue to finally muster the courage to make small talk. I began with the worn out" Hi! where you from?" schtick. Thankfully, she was in a chatty mood and we started to converse. 

Her English was surprisingly good. I learned that she was with some college friends and it was their first time here in Manila. She admitted to being a big poker player back home and just chanced upon Master's while she and her friends were strolling around Malate. I played to my strengths and regaled her with my fabricated poker "war stories" and also sprinkled my tall tales with interesting factoids about the Philippines. She was still a wide-eyed (and hopefully, horny) tourist after all. 

The poker game became an afterthought and I just folded my cards every chance I had. Sensing that she was slowly cozying up to me, I volunteered to tour her and her friends around Manila's tourist traps er, spots the following day. To my surprise, she readily agreed. I pushed the ante a bit and asked her if we could go grab a few bites and have a drink in Blue Room (J. Nakpil St.) after the game. She not only agreed, but also offered to leave at that very instance.  Was it my lucky night or what? 

With the deal sealed, I told her to cash in her chips so we could leave immediately. However, I haven't taken a bathroom break for an hour so I decided to empty my bladder first. I asked her to just wait for me near the cashier's booth while I went to take a leak. She nodded and off I went to the men's room. There, I talked to my one-eyed monster and happily told him about the action we were about to get. After some pep-talk with my penile pal, I hurriedly went out and headed to the cashier's booth to hook up with meet my hot date for the night.

But lo and behold, she was nowhere in sight. My semi-teary eyes scanned the room for signs of her but she was already MIA. I asked the cashier and she replied that no one has cashed in their chips for the last 10 or so minutes. Undaunted, I asked our table dealer if he saw where she went. All he told me was she immediately left the table the moment she saw me stood up. He said that she was such in a hurry that she didn't even bothered to exchange her chips and just left it there. Just like that, my romantic fortunes turned faster than you could say "all-in!" while holding pocket rockets pre-flop. 

I was crestfallen. Utterly devastated. Totally bummed out. Ok, ok. You get the sad, mental picture. I sat down in a corner and soul-searched on how it ended up so badly. All I could surmise was that she was dashing towards the exit the moment she saw me walked towards the rest room. Oh well, at least I had one of my classic "muntikan na" moments. One that I will cherish for a lifetime and proudly blog about it. Thank heavens there is such a wonderful and reassuring place called Happy Sauna. Attendant #24 was no mighty-fine Korean chick but at least she took my mind off from staging another hand party at my pad. 

(My "almost" Korean girl was almost as hot as this babe below. Sigh)