Hey, poker players!
It was more than a year ago that most of us were still stuck in our homes hoping the quarantine locked down to finally end.
Some of us were afraid to venture scared of the virus that took over the world. Then there were those who were brave enough to venture out.
Some poker rooms were already opened back then but had to enforce a lot of health restrictions compared. A far cry from what is happening now.
A lot of the poker rooms and houses do not even check the vaccine status anymore.
Nowadays what happened only a few years ago is a life we want to forget or forgot because we are busy trying to cope with the ever-changing world.
Imagine a year ago there were still no Live tournaments.
Many things have changed over a year when there were almost no live poker tournaments available to now almost every week there is a major event happening.
Here is a quick look back to the year that was.
Health restrictions
health protocols
Barriers, face masks, and quarantine boxes.
Selected poker rooms were open. there were many health restrictions that were implemented. from going inside a sanitation box and having barriers.
Although nowadays some of those restrictions have been removed like barriers and sanitation boxes. It was a slow process.
Live tournaments were still out of the question. The government did not want many people to be crowded and social distancing was reminded.
Games were six-handed and thick barriers were installed to make sure that the virus spreading was kept to a minimum.
Metro Card Club led the restrictions having installed a sink and making sure chairs and tables were clean.
One player out, you would hear a dealer shouting “Sanitize please”.
Metro had a person dedicated to cleaning and wiping the tables whenever a player left.
In one part the struggle of business to survive during those tough times while balancing the health and safety of the players was tough to balance.
Everyone had a different setting. But it was a true struggle to survive.
Online boom
THe online boom
PP Poker. Wsop Online, UPoker and others
There was no tournament live, it was all cash games.
It was still a different world back then.
Although some countries have more relaxed health restrictions. the Philippines had the longest lockdown. There was even a WSOP live event 2021.
It took a few more months till a live tournament was able to be held in the Philippines.
As we were active in those tournaments.
We hope one day we could write about the first few tournaments that were held and the truth behind them.
The first semi-live tournament was held at the Metro Card Club. All day1 was pushed online and the final day was held Live.
Although to some those are now memories. sometimes it is nice to look back on the things we have missed.
so stay tuned!
