Billy’s comments : Below are two articles by FF Bro. PC Mar : Poker Tournament and Reunion Tennis. Having Fun Together is undeniably part of Fellowship Building. Enthusiastic writing surely adds more flavor and meaning.
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FF Reunion Tennis Event, Friday 29 December 2017
Venue: Tennis Centre, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Happy Valley
Gallop Restaurant, Main Clubhouse
What a poignant moment when Sis Sandra Chen (wife of Sr Bro William Chen) came to the venue and learned that she would be on Bro. Jonathan Leung’s team as part of our team tennis competition.
Forty Three years earlier, she was Ms Sandra Choy, English teacher at Diocesan Boys’ School, and the photo on left shows her standing with Bros. Russell Yeh and Jonathan Leung at their graduation dinner (much like the US high schools proms). Bro. Russell had to man the registration desk at the Park Lane Hotel lobby so wasn’t able to play tennis, but Bro. Jonathan was one of four team captains.
The competition format is one used by Hong Kong Lodge in its biannual tennis day where a round robin is played, doubles teams play 4 games each, then is substituted by a new pair, and a set is played first to 6 games, tiebreak at 6 all, sudden death at deuce. In the finals, the team captained by Bro. Ed Sun won over the team captained by Bro. Jonathan.
The tennis event, which came because of an initial inquiry from Bro. Bill Chen, “Why is there no tennis?” listed on the first issuance of the Reunion program, was to be a strictly social affair, but turned out to be highly competitive.
Bro. Ed Sun urged his team (consisting of Bros. Yinan Zhao, Paul Chiu, and Eugene Y Lee) onto victory with comments like “Keep the ball in play”, “Get the point back”, “Hold serve”, and “Let’s break ‘em”. The runners up team was captained by Bro. Jonathan Leung. The other captains were Bros. David Wu, Jr, and Herman Cheng, and they played to a tiebreak draw for the no. 3 spot.
Other notable moments: Sr. Bro. William Chen showing wicked slices off both the forehand and backhand side, Sis. Sandra just getting every ball hit near her back, Bro. Yinan hitting near 100 mile serves, Bro. Charles Tseng recovering his Columbia Univ varsity tennis form despite not playing for 15 years, Bro. Darryl Woo showing a very competitive spirit in going for every shot and driving it back hard, and Bros. Tim Li and Patrick Cheng showing why California brings out good tennis players.
After tennis, we all went to the Jockey Club’s Gallop Restaurant for a dim sum lunch, in which the Club General Manager donated a bottle of champagne and longevity buns as part of our lunch. The group sang a “Happy Birthday” for Bro. PC Mar, who turned 76 just a week earlier.
Bros Hanson Jay(also DBS alumnus) and Philip Mok, Chairman of HK Lodge, joined us for the lunch.
In total there were 16 players, for that morning we lost 5 players: Ed Wan who had a medical emergency at home and was thus delayed getting to the Reunion, and four pledges who were detained by the M/C for his needs: Michael Sung, Tavis Liu, Henry Wong, and Robert Hsiung. If these four were to have played, the competition would have been even more severe as all are quality players.
Weather was perfect, the before tennis char siu bao, egg tarts, red bean paste buns, etc, and coffee/gatorade/pokari drinks, all made this a perfect tennis day at the 2017 FF Reunion. Bros. Kent Yeh and George Chan helped with the photography and organizing the transport, along with Bro. Nathan Chan at the hotel lobby. Bro. Ed Jen even made an appearance, for which his reward was an injury to his right calf but like a good FF brother fulfilling his commitment, he soldiered on to the end.
I have no more words except to thank all who helped out on this event: Bros. Kent Yeh, Jonathan Leung, Herman Cheng, Ed Sun, David Wu Jr, and Paul Chiu, George Chan.
PC Mar
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FF Reunion 2017 Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament
Saturday 30 December 2017
Venue: Tao Heung Restaurant, Windsor House, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Doyle Brunson, Las Vegas poker pro, says, “The essence of Texas Hold’em
is to put your opponent into an all-in situation, where if he wishes to stay in
the game, he has to risk his entire stack of chips.” Another maxim is, “Luck for getting good cards does go around the table; the key is to maximize your winnings when you get the good hand, and minimize your losses when luck favours another hand.” “Play not your hand, but your opponents’ hands.”
Bro Clifton Chang: “My two hole cards were a Queen and another diamond, the King and two other diamonds were on the table, making for a strong flush set, but wouldn’t you know, Bro. Di Wu had the nuts — the Ace plus another diamond.” You gotta play your opponent’s hand, thinking “I bet he has the Ace” when you view the Ace player’s betting pattern.
Bro. Carter Chang: “I had a pair of 3’s, all in against a pair of Aces, but what comes up on the river(the fifth of 5 community cards), but another 3?” Bro Carter is like an old style IBM 704 first generation computer, spinning gyros as he works out the probability of his outs, the anticipated returns on future bets, and the opponents betting strategies thus far.
Similar situations play themselves out hundred times over in our 2017 Reunion Poker Tournament. We started with 38 players, knocked out all but 10 players into the final table, and in 3 hours, which ended by 1:30 am, Bro. Di Wu of Boston Lodge emerged as Champion, followed by Bros Wen Ying of Shanghai, Greg Wu of Boston, Carter Chang of San Francisco, and Peter Du of New York Lodge. All won cash prizes made up 100% from the players’ buy ins of HK$400 each. Champion’s prize was HK$5,300, running down to $1,350 for the 4th Runner Up, ie Bro. Peter Du.
For Hong Kong Lodge, it was our pleasure to host and organize this event; with thanks to Bros Clifton Chang and Pierre Wuu, who provided chips and cards, and their considerable advice in holding these FF Poker tournaments, and to Bros. Stephen King and Nathan Chan in working out the rules and format, to new Bros. Chris Yu, Mike Cheuk, Henry Wong, Tavee Chiu, and Mike Sung for the set up and table assignments, and Bro. Terance Wan for being the final table dealer.
Great tournament, good fun, even better FF spirit.
PC Mar
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