Short cultural lesson that may explain some things to those new to the Philippines...or even many who have been there for a while sometimes wondering what the Hell is going on.

Filipino culture is centered around saving face. Many things are taboo in public: arguing, picking a fight, criticism. Everyone is always smiling because you are not supposed to display your problems in public.

Most Filipinos will forgive a foreigner for cultural transgressions, but beware of pushing something like criticism too far. There can be serious consequences.

Filipino culture teaches that you must be polite. Thus, the answer is always "yes." This word can have many different meanings according to the situation at hand. Yes can mean yes, or yes can mean no, or yes can mean maybe. It depends on context and the way in which it said/accompanying body language.

Here's a typical situation: Two friends meet in public.

Friend A invites Friend B over for dinner on Tuesday. Why? Because it's the polite thing to do.

Friend B says "yes, thank you," but really means "no". In fact, Friend B knows that Friend A is just being polite and Friend B responds "yes" to also be polite. Friend A knows that friend B is only responding "yes" to be polite and does not expect them for dinner.

Another situation: a dinner party (where guests ARE expected to show...). If the time is set for 6:00 p.m., the guests do NOT want to show at that time. If they show up at or before 6:00, they are seen as too eager to eat someone else's food.

So the first guests will show up a bit after 6:00. In fact, the more important the guest, the later they will show up. For example, a mayor of the city may show up an hour or two late. As a foreigner, I would be finished eating before they got there.

When a Filipino doesn't understand a question or doesn't know the answer, they will have a body language that communicates this fact. Generally, their mouth will hang slightly open and they will slightly raise their eyebrows. This may be so subtle that us foreigners cannot recognize it, though every Filipino will clearly know what's going on. Body language is extremely important in communication, and too tricky for foreigners to readily pick up.

Raised eyebrows also means "yes."

I recommend everyone planning a visit to the Philippines read "Culture Shock: Philippines", available on Amazon. There is a TON of useful information if you want to try to understand many "ununderstable" cultural things.

As long as you don't need the immediate income and you want to spend time develop your programming skills, some smaller-paying jobs to start out with could help build a viable portfolio and eventually evolve into a decent income stream.

I got a new job here in Manila, although I spent 8 months unemployed. I also have years of relevant experience in my field.

I would look at outsourcing companies that do web development. Many of them do set up and templating of all the contact management systems. It's all built of the fact that English is pretty good.

How qualified are you? What could you do straight off the bat?

i dont understand how "nosebleeding" term possibly come about aswell. Doesnt make any sense to me. How is struggling to get your point across in another language linked to nosebleeds lol


urm web development is my weakest area for sure ! (and def a route i never want to go down...well the front end is something i never want to do) What could i do? i dont know haha...Havent done that many projects before too be honest. But got a 2.1 (B) at a top 20 uni in england so i wouldnt say im a complete noob. The only real big project ive done was my dissertation. Project was making poker GUI, implementing poker rules, different hand evaluators and making an AI to play against.

Of course uni work will be a lot different to actual work

It was a movie. A girl got a nosebleed every time she tried to speak English.

Not that it will probably happen to anyone else and they could have just made a mistake....but i wrote "lost" where you put your ACR number on visa extension form and they just ignored it and didnt charge anything additional. sick

haha well played burns


bernies point about them just not wanting them to be hit is pretty sad, i noticed that was huge in cambodia as well as at least half of the pros i went with were in abusive relationships with ******* alcoholic khmers in the past



i just set a new persona record......... the 9th girl in the past week just asked to borrow money today........ one week

I've been googling around for a few days for online freelance work;

I have found iwriter for quick easy writing jobs, with low pay, you can work your way upto premium and elite status where the jobs pay much better, but it takes a lot to get there, unless you pay an upfront fee of 147 bucks. Good place to start i reckon, they also want link builders but i didint read into that to much.

There is also amazon mechanical turk, which is a amazon company Mturk - they offer all kinds of work for what they call Human Intelligence Tasks LOW pay so would need to grind a ton to make a decent income - there is also a website for lots of info and tips on getting higher paid tasks quicker etc called mturk forum.

Has anyone played at City of Dreams?

All the talk in here has been about Solaire and Resorts World.

Can one change money(usd to php) at Resort world and get it back later at the same exchange rate? I heard that this is possible at Solaire. Or is there any money exchange with good rate nearby?

www.constant-content.com pays on average 20-80usd for written articles but are super sticklers about grammer. Haven't used them but read some reviews about them. Every other freelance writing job seems to pay around $5. Seems like a fun way to get supplemental income if you like writing.

If you want to make a better income out of it, best is to join the Warrior Forum:

http://www.warriorforum.com/

Make a website and advertise your services. It's a LOT of work, but you will build a reputation and after a while you'll be able to charge according to your writing skills. To be successful with this method, you need to work your schedule around your clients.

By the way, even if you know how to write well, you'll need to spend a good deal studying how to write well *for the web*. It's very different, with some specific requirements (key words, article formats, etc.).

Sites like Constant Contact are a major grind and the competition is fierce. The $20 to $80 per article you would receive (after a long, slow climb) is not as much as it seems. Those articles will take quite a while to write unless you are extremely experienced and efficient.

Still, you are correct...If you put some time into the learning curve, you can make a small side income from a site like Constant Contact. But like I said, it is a LOT of work.

I have signed up for mutrk and awaiting approval. I read a fair bit on the reddit subform r/mturk loads of info there about best times of day to get the best paying HITS writing short pron descriptions is a good place to be! lol Reminds me of poker as you can up your rates by putting in volume and also taking (simple) qualification tests, there is even talk about scripts for it, but thats just to find the best tasks (i think).

I don't recommend playing poker at Solaire. It could be the same problem at other casinos too, would like to hear feedback about the smoking policies.

I am not a cigarette smoker but I just got back from my first 8 hour session at Solaire and I reek of smoke.

They let people smoke feet away from the table with ashtrays and there are nearby table games where other people are smoking. I started feeling nauseous after 3-4 hours and I had to quit because I developed a bad headache.

I thought there was good action 50/100 with 30K max and 100/200 with 100K max. Nothing better than USA but the average buy-in is 20K (100BBs) and players are bad although I saw only one half whale and only a couple large fish. mostly some loose passive and tight passive fish who collectively make the game decent.


IMO it seems really -LIFEEV to be grinding a 2/5 NL game in that atmosphere. I can understand stomaching Macau at the nosebleeds but not as a SSNLE pro.

I won't be back **** dat ****. Maybe a trip to RW but no more Solaire.

P.S. City of Dreams has a beautiful room but they rarely get even a 50/100, even on the weekends !

Did you happen to be seated at a table near the rail/a smoking area?

Or was every other table in the room equally smoke filled?

Drunks smoke. They also donate money. They let people smoke in casinos for the same reason they let people smoke in bars: The people who are complaining about the smoke aren't the ones spending the money that funds the business.

Sure, but in Las Vegas they don't allow smoking in the poker room itself and they still get pretty good traffic in there. Although I'll grant you sometimes there are more regs and less fish than I'd like. I could see allowing smoking in the rooms perhaps bringing in more fish.

Personally though that much extra exposure to second hand smoke isn't worth it imo. Although I don't expect that casino to change it based on what I want obviously.

It also seems to me the concept of non smoking places isn't really a thing in Asia like it is in the U.S. so that could also be a reason why Solaire Casino Manila doesn't do things the same way as casinos in Las Vegas do.

There are only 4 tables (2 more in VIP section). I was seated at two different tables both were close to a smoking area and there was a table that would have slightly less smoke exposure but it was the feature table of fish so I could not get to it even if I wanted to.

I still feel bad, my eyes are semi-irritated and my stomach feels badly. I no longer reek but I think this means I had a very high smoke exposure.


I agree with the notion that the lack of smoking enforcement is a cultural difference. I suspect that all the casinos here have the same problem but I would really like to hear other feedback as well.



No one who was smoking was drunk. No one I saw was drinking more than 1-2 drinks over a period of ~8 hours. Rec players were smoking but none of them were close enough to being big enough whales to warrant such a large hassle.

Actually I was surprised to hear this because I have not had problems with smoking at Resorts World or any other poker rooms in the Philippines.

I've played in all the rooms in Cebu city, one of which the Waterfront, is also a casino. I've also played at both Resorts World and Metro in Manila and I don't remember ever having issues with people smoking in either Cebu or Manila in any of those rooms.

And I am not a fan of smoking either so there is no way I somehow just didn't notice it happening.

So as far as I can tell, and as strange as it may sound, I think your experience may actually be limited to Solaire.

Ok thanks for the feedback. I was talking with a friendly young reg from the UK who spend the last couple months playing the 100/200. I mentioned the smoke and he mentioned he didn't notice it at all which I thought was really weird.

I am finally feeling normal 10 hours after leaving. I don't know if it more the vicinity of the smokers or that there is just a poor air filtration system. I know at the Wynn if someone is smoking on the rail and you are right next to it you may catch one whiff but it quickly is sucked up into a state of the air circlulation system.

Yeah I mean it's possible that there was the occasional cigarette lit in my vicinity here and there while I was playing in those other rooms but I'm sure nothing near what you are referring to. I'd remember that for sure if I had ever experienced it at any of those other poker rooms in the Philippines and I don't, so I'm sure I never did.

Did you play alot at the Wynn? I actually like the Wynn for 2 - 5 but seems to me you said you play 5 - 10, I thought I had heard the 5 - 10 game there was kind of tough. Do prefer it to Aria and Bellagio or do you play a mix of all three?

I like playing daytime when you see the best regs on the strip.

I think the Wynn 2/5 daytime game is pretty awesome ($1500 cap) lots of deep recreational players and most of the regs/pros seem pretty TAG or NIT [good ratio of fish/recreational players to regulars/pros]. I prefer to play the 5/10 when it goes there but it can be the toughest 5/10 by far depending on the line-up.

If I am starting off my daytime shift, I always hit Bellagio 10-11AM as it is generally the softest 5/10 (and has high turnover) except when the rare 5/10 at Venetian goes off. I usually will check out Aria 5/10 if I can get in the first game, and if not then it is straight to the Wynn with maybe one more relocate if it is slow a few hours later to see how the turnover is at Belly.

http://www.theasianpokertour.com/apt...nes-2#schedule
take a look at the schedule there...on the 20th and 21st ther be 2 juicy NLH tournaments. One a “monster stack” Anyway, the 20th and 21st would be Day 2 and Day 3 of the Main event.

So....better ROI to forget about the mainevent and just play these 2?...would save 2k at least.

Sry for the poker comments, after this u can return to hearing about prostitute stories by K2D

2013 called and says

How about the tournament scene outside of events ? Are there daily tournaments at the RWM ? If so whats the BI and average field ? thanks