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Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines?

08-12-2010 , 03:51 AM
25/50 is all that i'm looking for. Just a game to have a bit of a donk around in.

Do you know how long they are planning on playing for the day 1's?

Do Subway deliver?

If you do play I'm the slightly balding white guy.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-12-2010 , 05:54 AM
I'm not sure, what seems to be normal for these multiday tournaments is 8-10 hours. The last one I played was playing 17 levels and each is 30mins.

Subway, some branches deliver. They don't have a universal number for delivery like most chains. You can find a list here, with numbers, and see if some near you deliver: http://www.munchpunch.com/restaurants/branches/623.aspx
For ordering food online in Manila, www.quickdelivery.ph is the nuts btw.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-12-2010 , 08:38 PM
selling my 30" gateway xhd3000

with wall tilting mount.

i bought for about 1k 2.5 years ago. wall mount was 20 bucks. works fine. every hour or so, it'll just flicker black for a second. but from what i've read online that's normal for this monitor.

don't know how to check but don't think there's any dead pixels or anything and cosmetically it's pretty close to when i got it.

can 24 table with little overlap on the 2560-1600 resolution.

for those having a hard time bringing one over from abroad, just pm me offer. can email pics.

reason for selling: getting imac.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-14-2010 , 11:06 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by TelevisedEvent
Hopefully I will be meeting up and partying with u guys in the next few months.
Did you end up moving from Canada to the Philippines? If so, how was it?

Now that the Canadian governments are planning to get into online poker and could ruin everything for me, is playing online poker full-time (especially PartyPoker) feasible in the Philippines? I've never noticed any player in PartyPoker whose registered country is the Philippines.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-15-2010 , 02:54 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nash_equilibria
Did you end up moving from Canada to the Philippines? If so, how was it?

Now that the Canadian governments are planning to get into online poker and could ruin everything for me, is playing online poker full-time (especially PartyPoker) feasible in the Philippines? I've never noticed any player in PartyPoker whose registered country is the Philippines.
I don't see a problem with that. I play a bit on Party and withdraw directly to my bank account here.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-15-2010 , 04:30 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by despised
Hi Kaizenk

Did you know that there will be having poker tournament in the Philippines this AUGUST?
I do now! lol
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-15-2010 , 12:07 PM
I played 200-400 PLO with minimum buy in of 40-50k pesos at Metro club 3-5 months ago, so it is possible to find higher games of omaha.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-16-2010 , 12:03 AM
So i'm just about to leave Manila for my first visit to Angeles (purely research). Saw alot more of Manila this time around.

Makati cinema square is amazing for DVD's. I picked up every season of Family guy, The office, Entourage and the Big bang theory + many films. Thing I liked the most you go into a shop ask for DVD's if they don't have it they run around all the other places till they can bring it back for you.

I played at the Metro on Friday and lasted 90 mins in the MTT as when I looked at the payouts I Didn't fancy grinding for 3 days to bust in 8th and win 16000PHP. I then managed to Dust off two buyins in the 50/100 game. I jammed a straight draw into a set and a flopped straight into a flopped flush.

My thoughts on the game- It wasn't the rock fest I was expecting. Had an obv wealthy Filipino chap that dusted off around 75k in a couple of hours and a crazy Korean dude who would raise blind etc...

Went to both Encore and Icon Friday night. My friend who I'm staying with has a regular hook up so she came round to his flat with some of her not so attractive friends and we pregamed a bottle of tequila. We went to Encore around midnight 500php entry and 3 free drinks so its not a bad deal. I was expecting it to be bigger than it was but its a pretty decent set up. We were going to get a table but decided against it as we wanted to be in the action down the front. The crowd in there was a mix of young to middle aged ex-pats, trendy Filipinos and young Koreans. We must have met 3 or 4 Korean girls that had come on there own and were looking for people to hang out with. Unfortunately I was getting brutally cockblocked by one of the not so attractive friend.

*I did learn that there are alot of English Language schools for Koreans in parts of the country. So if anyone is looking for those jobs they do exist apparently.

We left Encore at 4ish to go to Icon. I was disappointed with Icon as you read the reviews on the Internet and you think its going to be some huge superclub, it isn't. Don't get me wrong its a trendy place but the dance floor is a little small. But it does seem to be a good place to network as it was mainly an expat crowd.


Food-Yellowcab pasta and meatballs is the stone cold nuts!!!
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-17-2010 , 10:33 AM
Hi,

Quick question. For those of you that have used Smart Bro, if I hunted for a place outside of Manila with a good signal as my primary requisite for an apartment, can I grind 10-16 tables strictly on Smart Bro? I understand this is tough in Manila but lets say we are outside of Manila, how feasible is this?

Another question, lets say I live there and have a main connection and then Smart Bro as a back up. Lets say I am grinding sit n go turbos on Full Tilt and the main connection goes out. How long until I can get Smart Bro up and running to get me back in my games? Do you connect the USB and have the Smart Bro program running before you start to grind to be ready for outages etc? Anyone using this type of main line/Smart Bro back up strategy outside of Manila? Gory details please.

Thanks in advance.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-17-2010 , 12:33 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mykalhenry
Hi,

Quick question. For those of you that have used Smart Bro, if I hunted for a place outside of Manila with a good signal as my primary requisite for an apartment, can I grind 10-16 tables strictly on Smart Bro? I understand this is tough in Manila but lets say we are outside of Manila, how feasible is this?

I wouldn't advise ever using smart bro as a primary internet for grinding. In some parts of metro manila sun is pretty reliable though. In Davao globe is pretty good, really depends on location.

Another question, lets say I live there and have a main connection and then Smart Bro as a back up. Lets say I am grinding sit n go turbos on Full Tilt and the main connection goes out. How long until I can get Smart Bro up and running to get me back in my games? Do you connect the USB and have the Smart Bro program running before you start to grind to be ready for outages etc? Anyone using this type of main line/Smart Bro back up strategy outside of Manila? Gory details please.
Wouldn't want to have a usb internet as backup while I'm actually sitting in a game. Having two ISP's (PLDT for 3k or about $60 and Globe for 1k or about $20) and a dual wan router would be the best.
Thanks in advance.
FYI.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-17-2010 , 01:16 PM
Thanks for the response.

I have heard of people using Smart Bro out there as a primary and said it worked pretty well, but location dependent. I am going on vacay there and maybe a 1 year stint in the future and was just wondering what my options were. On my first 2 week vacation coming up I was going to get a hotel with a wired line and then Smart Bro as back up, thats probably the best I can do on the fly yes?

If I decide to do the 1 yr then I would probably get the dual service and router.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-17-2010 , 11:51 PM
Requesting a Manila clothes-shopping guide.

Not exactly one of my hobbies, I'm the "shop for half a year in a day" kind of guy. So I go for pretty huge quantities when I decide to go, which means my shopping trips are costly.

Looking for cool good quality jeans, shoes, blazers, fine collared shirts - like the kind you would wear with a suit and also casual shirts. Huge fan of donking around in smooth looking shirts 24/7.
I don't care about what brand they are, only that they look as good as top brands and have decent quality.

I'm looking for shops that are cheaper than western standards in good clothing.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-18-2010 , 06:56 AM
Hey all, my buddy and I are in Makati from friday for 2 months, we will be looking for a place in Greenbelt or Rockwell.
We're kinda cash broke so if anyone would like to trade their pesos for our Full Tilt that would be great. Any tips on 2 months lease rentals in the aforementioned areas would be appreciated too.

If anyone wants to hang out, send me a pm and ill give you my number as soon as I get a mobile phone.
We are both 26 and french and play mostly lhe.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-18-2010 , 08:11 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mykalhenry
Thanks for the response.

I have heard of people using Smart Bro out there as a primary and said it worked pretty well, but location dependent. I am going on vacay there and maybe a 1 year stint in the future and was just wondering what my options were. On my first 2 week vacation coming up I was going to get a hotel with a wired line and then Smart Bro as back up, thats probably the best I can do on the fly yes?

If I decide to do the 1 yr then I would probably get the dual service and router.
Yea, a lot of people use mobile internet as their primary internet, and yes, it's very location specific. Just search and you'll find a bunch of info about this.

What I would do in your situation (moving around a lot and playing poker on the run) is I would get 2 unlockable Huawei dongles, unlock them, get SIM cards from Globe/Smart/Sun, test the connections wherever you are, use one dongle as your main and the other as your backup. That should actually be faster and more reliable than wired hotel internet.

Quote:
Originally Posted by fanapathy
Requesting a Manila clothes-shopping guide.

Not exactly one of my hobbies, I'm the "shop for half a year in a day" kind of guy. So I go for pretty huge quantities when I decide to go, which means my shopping trips are costly.

Looking for cool good quality jeans, shoes, blazers, fine collared shirts - like the kind you would wear with a suit and also casual shirts. Huge fan of donking around in smooth looking shirts 24/7.
I don't care about what brand they are, only that they look as good as top brands and have decent quality.

I'm looking for shops that are cheaper than western standards in good clothing.
If you want branded jeans, Rockwell has a Diesel, Levi's, and a 7 For All Mankind store there. They're more expensive than in the States though. If you want a good fit, you can get tailored jeans at Defacto (P2000) in the Mile Long building in Makati, or at Viktor (P6000) in the Podium Mall in Ortigas. I can personally recommend Defacto.

OMGitsCheddar got some tailored shirts made locally. I think he used Cornell Tailor along Kalayaan Ave (near Rockwell) and bought the fabric at Glorietta. If you're willing to travel to Hong Kong, I can recommend Jantzen Tailor. I've gotten a bunch of shirts from them for around $45 each.

If you want a high-end $3000 suit, there's a Zegna in Rustans Makati that makes made-to-measure suits. For bespoke suits, again if you're willing to travel, I can recommend Dung Tailor in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. I have two suits from there ($200-300 each, fully-canvassed, Super 160s IIRC) that I love but unfortunately can't wear in Manila weather.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-19-2010 , 12:45 PM
Thanks Paul B. I have a small 10.1 inch Asus, wireless mouse, 100 foot ethernet cable and I manage to pack this all in a knapsack. So yes I am on the fly. What about internet cafe's in Manila and in Cebu? (major cities) Will they have internet cafe's with laptop stations or can I "hook in" to their ethernet and monitor? Is the hook in feasible and easily done in a net cafe or are they going to freak out? I need to facilitate table ninja etc...
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-20-2010 , 06:42 AM
Arrived in Makati today, ran extremely good, planes were on time, slept through most of the 14 hours of the flight.
Anyone wanna go out ? 09286255348.
I'm staying at BSA tower, just across Greenbelt 5, for two days before my friend arrives and we find another place.
Oh and probably got screwed by the taxi php490 with a yellow one from airport to Greenbelt, there was a counter but you only saw the price at arrival.
And btw, how much is the standard tip for taxi ride / drinks and restaurant ?
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-20-2010 , 02:18 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mykalhenry
Thanks Paul B. I have a small 10.1 inch Asus, wireless mouse, 100 foot ethernet cable and I manage to pack this all in a knapsack. So yes I am on the fly. What about internet cafe's in Manila and in Cebu? (major cities) Will they have internet cafe's with laptop stations or can I "hook in" to their ethernet and monitor? Is the hook in feasible and easily done in a net cafe or are they going to freak out? I need to facilitate table ninja etc...
I've done that before without any problems. Just ask the reception for permission.

Quote:
Originally Posted by cocofrite
Arrived in Makati today, ran extremely good, planes were on time, slept through most of the 14 hours of the flight.
Anyone wanna go out ? 09286255348.
I'm staying at BSA tower, just across Greenbelt 5, for two days before my friend arrives and we find another place.
Oh and probably got screwed by the taxi php490 with a yellow one from airport to Greenbelt, there was a counter but you only saw the price at arrival.
And btw, how much is the standard tip for taxi ride / drinks and restaurant ?
Most restaurants include a service charge of 8-12%. For taxis just use your judgment. Always carry small bills.

Anyone down for a Monday or Tuesday night meetup? There are a bunch of people in town now I believe.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-21-2010 , 09:47 AM
Just found this thread. I have lived in Manila for 2 years and played in the biggest games regularly during this time.
Out of curiousity, who was the proplayer in the Metro 100/200/500 game whose abilities you thought questionable?
I pretty much agree with your reads on the other cardrooms, I however always avoided Hyatt because of the smoky environment and bad service.
You forget to mention Pan Pacific which at times has by far the best highstake games in town, however I advice against playing there because of their financial situation. If you score big you will most likely not get paid for a couple of weeks as they always let their highrollers pay on credit that they can't cover until checks has cleared.
Common for all of the card rooms are that 99% of the dealers are terrible and regularly make huge mistakes that would never be tolerated in other countries.

Quote:
Originally Posted by fanapathy
Apart from that I can give somewhat of a review of the cashgames I've been playing

Hyatt 50/100: Packed with Koreans when I was there. People opening to >800 and betting 7K on the flop was not rare. Several buyins over 100K. No young good regs. 2 tables running.
RW 50/100/200: Lots of foreigners and loose action. Again no real regs. Approx 5 tables running but no lower than 50/100.
Metro 50/100: Played this one a decent amount. 70% half crappy regs and the occasional good player. Probably not the game you wanna grind though if you're a westerner living expensive. Most players have a good clue about basic poker and betsizing.
Metro 100/200/500: I've only observed this game with half an eye on a Saturday while playing another game in the "vip" room. 3 young pros (which of one certain player's abilities may be questioned) and the rest were congressmen and politicians. Real juicy game and probably the most profitable live game you can find in town.

Overall the games you wanna play are either the highest stakes in the weekends at Metro, and/or the games at Hyatt/RW. I haven't been to other rooms yet like Big Ace or Pan Pacific. Make sure you bring a BR tho I'm stuck "a lot" so far in live games and to my advantage I'm considered a fish by some regs. GL
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-21-2010 , 09:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychadelic
Common for all of the card rooms are that 99% of the dealers are terrible and regularly make huge mistakes that would never be tolerated in other countries.
Only places I've played a significant amount of live poker outside manila are Northern Indiana and Chicago Charitable Games, both of which actually had worse dealers by far than RW/Hyatt/Metro. However, Chicago Charitable had amateur dealers and Northern Indiana was ridiculously ghetto so that could have contributed to how bad they were/are. I've never played in Vegas or AC, so I'm guessing those are what you're used to, and I would imagine they have a much higher standard than manila casinos, and miles beyond Chicago/Indiana casinos.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-21-2010 , 09:40 PM
Actually I've played pretty much everywhere in the world except for South america and never encountered such low standards.
Even in a huge event like the APT at Pavillion hotel with thousands of dollars in buyin the dealers were completely fresh, had no idea about the rules and relied on the players at the table to help out. They basically only knew how to shuffle and deal out the cards, but even that was a slow and painful process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alex23
Only places I've played a significant amount of live poker outside manila are Northern Indiana and Chicago Charitable Games, both of which actually had worse dealers by far than RW/Hyatt/Metro. However, Chicago Charitable had amateur dealers and Northern Indiana was ridiculously ghetto so that could have contributed to how bad they were/are. I've never played in Vegas or AC, so I'm guessing those are what you're used to, and I would imagine they have a much higher standard than manila casinos, and miles beyond Chicago/Indiana casinos.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-22-2010 , 05:12 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychadelic
Just found this thread. I have lived in Manila for 2 years and played in the biggest games regularly during this time.
Out of curiousity, who was the proplayer in the Metro 100/200/500 game whose abilities you thought questionable?
I pretty much agree with your reads on the other cardrooms, I however always avoided Hyatt because of the smoky environment and bad service.
You forget to mention Pan Pacific which at times has by far the best highstake games in town, however I advice against playing there because of their financial situation. If you score big you will most likely not get paid for a couple of weeks as they always let their highrollers pay on credit that they can't cover until checks has cleared.
Common for all of the card rooms are that 99% of the dealers are terrible and regularly make huge mistakes that would never be tolerated in other countries.
Hi and welcome to this thread,

You might be a player I've heard some rumors about crushing the big games I hope to be joining them soon after some good runs.

Didn't know about Pan Pacific big game, but damn not getting your money instantly seems ..very sketchy. How often does this run? And what is it, like 2k/4k or other autostraddle combo?

The questionable pro player at Metro would be N.A. but you would know that better, I only know what a bunch of others have told me and some 10hrs total of playing.
Concerning dealer mistakes, yeah they aren't very good. Mucking winning hands on misread boards or chopped pots is pretty standard. And rules on players i.e acting out of turn, announcing their hand or even purposely showing their cards in ongoing pots are, well, not dealt very well with. I'm fine with it for the most part though.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-22-2010 , 01:08 PM
I might be that guy.. What have u heard?
Regarding the dealer mistakes, I've learned to accept it since I have no other choice. However last couple of months I decided to stop tipping most of the dealers and instead I tip the waiters, chiprunner generously instead.
Regarding player colluding and other kinds of cheating, I think most of the time it happens it's not done with malicious intent. Or the players are still so bad that the small advantage they get from it is not enough to overcome the huge edge I have on them.
Regarding the Panpac games, they run very infrequently, usually they are built around a couple of whales who will contact the poker manager when they want a game and then the manager will gather the highrollers. Highest I've played there is 1/2/4k with optional straddles and sometimes blind preflop allins for millions
To be honest, in the end it's not really worth it because of all the payout problems.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-23-2010 , 12:39 AM
Care to forward me the manager's details? Would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Slider
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-23-2010 , 05:17 AM
I went to APT in 2008 in Manila at the Dusit Thani, or maybe 2009 I cant remember.

We had huge problems getting our money out of the country. I am thinking about coming again next few days.

How on earth do you get money in/out? I will bring cash with me obv, but how the hell do I get it out?

Last time we had infinite pesos, and we couldnt exchange them anywhere for harder currency, and we were told if we took them out at the airport they would seize them.

The vig at the airport is like 25% or something insane so obv thats not a good option.

Any ideas? I want to come and play the tournaments and cash games.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote
08-23-2010 , 05:38 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by AuroythmiX
I went to APT in 2008 in Manila at the Dusit Thani, or maybe 2009 I cant remember.

We had huge problems getting our money out of the country. I am thinking about coming again next few days.

How on earth do you get money in/out? I will bring cash with me obv, but how the hell do I get it out?

Last time we had infinite pesos, and we couldnt exchange them anywhere for harder currency, and we were told if we took them out at the airport they would seize them.

The vig at the airport is like 25% or something insane so obv thats not a good option.

Any ideas? I want to come and play the tournaments and cash games.
I know there is someplace in the basement of Rockwell (not sure if a bank or what) where you can exchange pesos for $ for a good rate. Basically any of the bigger local banks should have a good rate if they will exchange for you, but not all are licensed to exchange afaik.
Anyone to ask about living in the Philippines? Quote

      
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