Robbie started with 2 1/2 thousand other competitors on day one. It was amazing so many people playing this card game from all over the world. Robbie made it to half of the first day till he realised he wasn’t going to get enough points for the next day, he decided to bail out and concentrate on side events and have a bit of a break and holiday. We also had a rest day on the second day of competition and decided to rest up and enjoy Waikiki beach and do some shopping. Third day was when all the finals of all the different forms of Pokémon were played and we were there for the finals of each type of Pokémon and finally the card game version. 

The final match was between a competitor from Chile and one from Japan. The Chilean competitor had a bit of a fan club chanting cheer “Chile, Chile, Chile”! It felt like I was at a World Cup soccer game. Anyway, as it turned out the Chilean won. This is the second South American player to win the world championship. 

However, there was controversy about the path that the player took. He was actually beaten by an American early on in the knockout stage of day two at the US$5,000 mark. The American, when he beat him, did a very rude sexual gesture as he left the table. As it was streamed live around the world, he was disqualified allowing the South American to continue and eventually win the World Cup. 

The American only won US$5,000 and lost a further US$5,000 because of the disqualification and he was rumoured to be good enough to become world champion… so he lost out on potentially a further US$45,000. It’s not meant to be an aggressive game, so it’s justified that he was disqualified, especially as the whole world was watching. So, not very smart!