Hey ya mate
how did you find the games in goa if you ended up going there. I am planning a trip to goa around 26th feb 2016. Did you find games to be juicy enough for a visit just to play poker.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Bump.

I'll be heading to Saigon early April and bouncing around Southeast Asia for a couple months. Is there poker here? I am looking at Phillipines and Cambodia around the APT time I assume will be pretty good. I play live and win a bit, but I'm not exactly a online pro crushing the games.

I'd also love to meet up with any pros living in Southeast Asia. Let me buy you lunch and pick your brain!

Never got to hit those games. From what I gathered in info, rake is capped at 70$ , you have to pay a fee to get into the casino (on a boat), so decided on Vietnam to spend the winter this year instead of India (live games are dead here though...).

Thanks for the info mate, I think gonna do a bit more research about goa coz heard a lot about juicy games in goa but 70 bucks in rake is just stupid

OK, post over here if you find more relevant info... I heard the game was juicy as well, and beatable despite the crazy rake (and something like 25$ entry fee), but not worthwhile when I considered the -EV of carrying a roll on me and having to relocate there... GL

Ya I ll let you know how i go there, and I came to know that entry fee can be waved if you going for poker not for other games.

What are the most common stakes running at these places? Specifically Solaire but also in general

how about vietnam

Nope. Am in da nang at the moment, and while the games use to run fairly often in HCMC and Ho Trang, recent reports are that they are dead (they even cancelled the recent APT on the strip).

Singapore - RWS

5 tables, during weekdays two running, weekend about 4, starting in afternoon until early morning, lowest stake 10/20sgd, rake 5% max 50, weekdays 90% regulars but most not so good, weekend 70%, passive nitty game, but weak play so can beat the rake, sometimes in the weekend can be juicy. my two cents

I am going to be in Manila for a month and I would like to know the min max for each stake at different card rooms and the rake and what it is capped at what stakes.

Thanks

You will get all the poker room reports in the Philippines thread friend :

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92.../index491.html

Hi Dan! Are you still living in Manila? I am planning to go there soon. I would like to know how dangerous it is to go out of the casino late at night in Manila with a lot of money on ourselves?

Carrying cash will always be somewhat of a risk, of course. That said, I am pretty much sure you can leave your money at most casinos (I know you can at Solaire and pretty much sure you can at the Metro as well...) and jump in a taxi outside of the casino. HSBC is your best bet to withdraw 40k pesos a clip (albeit, exchange a good chunk of money before leaving Montreal if you will play live in Asia). Saw you post in the other threads about the difference in rake in betweent Mtl (capped at 10$) and Manila (16$). If you estimate that the difference (including tips) is roughly 100$/h split in between 10 players, I would suspect that you would have to deduct at least a good 5-15$ from your win rate, depending... Hope this helps I am originally from Montreal and have spent a few years in Asia, so send me a pm if you have other questions friend

As a smoker Solaire is nice, but I could not stand it that a lot of people smoke at the table (standing and even seated). Compare this to Resorts World Manila where they have a big closed, non smoking, poker room! For me easy choice.

Solaire = dirty air :-(

Poker in Macau is probably where you'll still find games above $1/3 USD consistently. on avg i see 50/100 and 100/200 hkd games spread all day/night long.

problem is the rake. and that drives the games to play really funky. (e.g. usually 9 way limpfest)

For those interested in knowing, rake is 5% capped up to around $68usd per hand at most places except the wynn, who caps at around $35usd.

You will need to adjust your ranges based off this, as playing your typical game will likely cause you to go broke much faster than you already will.

Now if you dont mind playing higher stakes (e.g. $12.50/$25 USD -- 100/200 hkd), you might be able to deal with the rake. maybe. I have such a small sample size its hard for me to fathom how the heck you deal with a $35+ usd rake structure. I also believe thats why while 25/50 games do spread, i dont see too many of those.

You can find games above 1-3 in Manila or Phnom Penh, with a much cheaper rake.

Although in Phnom Penh, RK changed the 2/4 NL to 1/3 NL now. But the 5/5 PLO still runs. I have not been to Manila yet, but from what I've heard games above 1/3 are sparse, and probably not that great because you have several limits below.
I agree with fuxxnuts. Combined with the waitlist issue (long average waits deter random walkins/gamblers) and the absence of any drinking culture means many Macau games are probably unbeatable due to rake (at least to us mortals). However, people still play so it is unlikely to change any time soon. Even if they wouldn't, poker is such a niche in Macau that the casinos could prolly care less. Maybe Vietnam will spice the competition in the near future. Maybe. Hopefully

I really dont see that happening any time soon, given the games are dying there (not emerging), and the recent poker games, like the poker club in Hanoi running tournaments, made the games unbeatable with the rake. I think if there is no any hope for good and bigger games, it would have to be India (new poker room in Mumbai, albeit I do not know the stakes/rake involved...), or China (depends how it will be regulated, if at all...) or perhaps Japan... Let's not forget the 5-10 in Singapore (don't know anything about that game, really).

We played once at New World. The 5/10 in Singapore is unbeatable long-term (I last played there in 2015, so I'm out of the loop). Might as well light money on fire. Sadly, the stakes are at least decent and the play is pretty bad because the only people playing don't realize how bad the rake is. There were four tables running consistently. Lots of limping to keep pots small. The casino is packed. The rake is the highest I've ever seen on the planet. The poker tables are also positioned sub-optimally and somewhat hard to stumble into.

If Japan had live poker, that would be so sweet. India would be cool too. I've read about Indian poker boats, but the games sounded not so good.

I'm playing with the idea of making a trip to (South)east Asia in the near future. I thought it might be cool to play some live pokers there as well, maybe for a week or two. However, judging by this thread the live poker situation over there isn't great.

Have there been any developments since 2017, when the thread went dormant? What country/city would you guys recommend for playing low stakes live poker?

What are you looking for exactly Mr. Sheepliness? What stakes and are you planning to grind hard 1-2 weeks with the primary goal of making a lot of money or just planning to play a few hours /day and having fun?
As far as grinding probably the answer will be Manila. Despite of what I commented a few posts above (that was before I had been there) the games are actually not bad, certainly beatable for a good amount although not as much as in the US because of rake and probably also nittier players.
The thing with Manila is just, it's not as bad as this may sound, but most basically it is an overcrowded highly polluted megalopolis with no mass transport system, therefore it hosts a daily epic traffic jam and getting from A to B tends to take forever. You can somewhat minimize this if you stay close to preferred locations but the overlap between poker, nightlife and tourist hotspots in minimal, so there is that.
If it's not that important how good the games are you might want to consider Phnom Penh, which is a fun town with fairly short distances, lots of expats, welcoming locals, nightlife, culture etc. But the poker games tend to be a bit meh.
Also in the draw maybe Saigon, I have limited data on that one but when I have been there the games were good, starting at 2/4 though, but there are other places. Note the cash games there are in a legal grey area at best. Also underground games in BKK and Pattaya no experience but I only heard bad things about them, apparently nitty. Also games in Incheon, no experience, but didnt hear good things either.
No major developments, I mean spots are always opening, moving and closing. Japan is set to open casinos at some time, but apparently will still take a while. And based on the legendary nittiness of Japanese players coupled with high property prices which will probably translate to high rake probably no reason to get too excited about that.
You might consider LA which is half an Asian town based on population, food choices, Chinatown, Koreatown etc. Games are good there

Thanks a bunch, Mr. F! I'm not planning on serious grinding and my preferred stakes would be the equivalent of $1/2. If I would have to choose between $0.50/1 and $2/5, I'd choose the former.

Manila doesn't sound like my thing. Phnom Penh, on the other hand, could be nice. In that case I'd also have the opportunity to visit Angkor Wat. In what way are the poker games meh in Phnom Penh? Also, have you ever melted in Cambodia?

I'll keep LA in mind for future travels.

You will find all the answers you need in the Cambodian thread and yes, Phnom Penh appears to be the best option for your needs/desires. GL

The PP games just have a lot of regs, some of the 1/3 tables consist entirely of regs. If you play 1-2 weeks straight every night you will probably know or at least recognize almost everyone on your table in the end. That doesn't mean that they are scarily good, some of them are not even above average players but at the same time they are not terrible. An the terribles are the ones that you profit the most of, long term, especially in LLSNL so that limits your upside along with the rake. As I said if you just want to have some fun it's not a big issue but don't expect to make a living out of these games