GACKT Official Blog update. Translation below:

For today as well, I trained in the morning.

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Because I had a meeting that started in the morning
I woke up rather early, and was still sleepy.
Took a shower,
changed my clothes, then headed to the meeting.

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The scenery at the meeting is very beautiful too.
At such times, I feel light too.

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After the meeting, I went to the cafe for tea.
Though it’s the final day of the poker tournament
since both me and TAKUMI have lost,
we could only try our hands at the side events.

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That said,
there are still 2 members of Team GACKT who are in the finals so
our feelings are in full support of them.

And at the same time,
in the last side event that was held on this day
all the remaining members took part but all impressively sank.
Even as I struggled, I ended up in 3rd place.

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Honestly, I thought that I could get first place but
I lost impressively to the
intimidation of the two remaining women.
The way women fight is rather different from men.

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It’s not certain whether this is something that happens because of gender but
they played with an unbelievably aggressively.
It felt like they were ‘coming at me to the very end.

I ended just nice in 3rd place
and the only Team GACKT member, known as Buddha,
who was still in an event final
won with a superb victory.

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With only one result remaining,
everyone turned their thoughts towards the main event
and spurred them on with our support.

Anyway, the main event was long.
It’s like an endurance race that has gone on for four days.
You need mental and physical strength to get through it.

Team GACKT’s Shiga-chan,
who has been the chip leader until the final,
steadily increased his chips which getting ahead of everyone.

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But halfway, because of reckless game tactics,
he lost quite an amount of chips
and the result of the game became quite dubious.

We got as worried as to wonder
whether he would win or get crushed halfway but
once again, with a good bluff, he won a large amount of chips.

Those who play poker will understand this but.
he suddenly did a raise in with 2 and 3 in his hand (no picture).
The opponent called too.
And I thought the opponent probably has the cards in his pocket.

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Then looking at the cards from the players who flopped,
the opponent checks.
Then Shiga-chan, with nothing lined up for him,
bets even bigger.
Then the opponent reluctantly and worriedly called too.

The last 2 cards were then put on the table
and just as the opponent was about to place his bet,
again, with nothing lined up, Shiga-chan yelled.

「All in!」

The opponent was shocked,
and then for 5 minutes he remained silent in constant thought,
before finally deciding to put it down.
Then,
Shiga-chan, who won, showed the hand he was holding
to his opponent.

The opponent had an expression of disbelief,
having been messed with by
the crazed Shiga-chan’s play, and that continued afterwards as well.

After that, his play continued to mess with everyone around him
and in the end,
he rode through the angry waves with his own pace and clinched a stunning win!

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Honestly,
I didn’t expect him to show me such an extent of an overwhelming win.
While watching from start to end, TAKUMI
tilted his head and asked
『Does playing like that work…?』
then he said 『Nah, it’s absolutely impossible for me…』
He has gained both of our admiration
with the overwhelming strength of his bluffs and pushes.

This time, Team GACKT has garnered 2 wins
which will once again add to our confidence.
We were able to reaffirm that our levels have gone up
and with that, the the curtains closed on the New Caledonia Poker Open.

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After that,
even though it was in the middle of the night,
TAKUMI and I returned to our rooms and again had heads-up poker practice.

We have to work hard too.
There’s still a long way to go…

Tales of New Caledonia is still continuing.

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Source: GACKT Blog

Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team

Translation © GACKT ITALIA