My point in this being when it's tight, it's super tight. If you had coal you would get a diamond.

I was just playing at the Vic in London and saw people 6 bet all in with KJo preflop. These dudes knew how to play, but there is some action.

Makes sense?

The game sucks in Macau now. Too many regs, not enough baccarat fish. Poker will soon disappear from Macau as the government is about to eliminate it from the games available so if you ever want to come to Macau to see games with huge buy ins and to experience legalized prostitution, then May 1st is the day to come cuz its a holiday in china and the fish will come in schools! Better get those nets ready !!!!!!!!!!

Dude, are you serious about the " government is about to eliminate it from the games" ??

Anyone familiar with the scene at Golden Dragon niteclub or Rio niteclub?
Can recommend manager (aka mamasan/papasan) to contact?

Thanks

I did hear the dealer at Starworld say the government wanted to close off poker because there is some sort of money laundering going on in the big game. There is a lot of sidebets going on and government cannot track it or something.

Saw Johnny Chan at Starworld tonight, sit there for couple hours, can anybody confirm the Chinese fishes are not letting him play? Seems like Chinese biz man are happy to be playing with Tom and Gus.

So what is the real reason they closed Venetian poker room until Thursday afternoon ?

I see only two possible reasons. Cotai Central opens in some hours. They need the staff there? (1) Or is it about the table cap - they need to release tables for Cotai Central? (2)

If its because of the table cap, I suspect we have another message soon that the poker room is closed until further notice. I just don’t believe that Sands would go ahead and close newly open baccarat tables at Cotai Central to save poker at Venetian.

If they are worried about money laundering in Macau, the government would close the VIP rooms and the casinos would lose 75% of the revenues. But hey, what about all tax income then? lol

The least thing they are worried about in Macau is money laundering. What they should be worried about is the hard economic landing which come to China and the implication that will have for Beijing's policy.

Any news on PS macau?

Im serious. I wouldnt have mentioned it if it wasnt true. All the regs knew this day would come but just not when...

The question Macaunesse government must ask is, how can we be a world class tourist destination and gambling city without the game of poker.

go on...

Macau seemed like a glitzy prison to me Government/immigration/freedom by permission vibe really bummed me out.

They dont care. They always say it is a world destination but they only want baccarat as the dicj collects 40% of the table profits as taxes

Someone that told me Johnny Chan is banned from playing the big game cuz he's a sore loser... And Surprisingly I heard Gus is tearing up the game. That was at least a month or two ago!

Any update on Pokerstars Macau?

I check their website regularly but still see no changes...

Nothing is public. I guess PS still want to come back, but the treatment of poker at the moment in Macau is quite poor as you can see in this thread. Its all about short time money.

There are two openings.
1. The authorities exclude poker from the table cap.
2. Beijing clean up the VIP rooms which would lead to more room for mass market tables where poker belongs.

I guess 1 is more likely than 2 in the short term.

The cost for Pokerstars is big to get tables in a large property like Galaxy, Venetian, City of Dreams, Cotai Central, MGM - unlike for example the old place at Grand Waldo (Grand Waldo, which actually have lot of space at the moment, but in a bad location - but better now after Galaxy did open).

2 seems like 0% possibility.

What's the incentive for them to do 1?

The incentives are of course that it would be a better chance that poker survive in Macau, without competing with the casino games; actually, it would preserve a group of gamblers in Macau witch would choose Las Vegas or other places with poker instead of Macau.

Its not really any costs for the authorities to exclude poker from the table cap. Its just a win for all parts.

When it comes to the baccarat VIP-rooms futures I say that it is a 90% chance/risk that Beijing will step in and clean them within a 5 years period. There are very good reasons to assume this will happen and I am sure the government is very aware of that - which also is the reason that the government want to expand the mass market and to diversify the economy.

The action could be good but if you're playing at the Wynn, you might not be at the table quick enough or have the right cards/luck to catch the fish. Chances are better if you play past midnight so that it is past the bedtime of some of regulars.

Will update on the Venetian situation soon, if its not gonna reopen this month, will be seriously considering moving to Goa or Phillipines.

Thanks god Venetian poker room reopened

what games run regularly at the venetian?

Ahhh now I know why Wynn had more action this week.. because Venetian was closed for most of it. Maybe that explains why the games were a bit softer this week lol...

Regarding discussion of games in Macau, this has been rehashed a million times, basically here it's hit'n'miss, there's a ton of regs and on a lot of tables it can be pretty tight and difficult to win a huge amount, but once in a while you can get lucky and have a big fish sit in and donate a couple of buyins to you in no time... which in Macau since the game plays deep is quite a lot of money.

Now of course there are other ways of increasing your winrate, such as playing certain regs in certain ways, but of course that kind of strategy discussion is best left outside this thread.. ;-)

I can start a new thread if you want where you can post all the good stuff

Eliminating poker would be the dbeat thing they could do for long term Macau AA a gambling destination.

What exactly was the reason for Venetian's poker room being closed for a few days earlier last week? I play a little higher than the stakes they offer there but it's crucial to the poker economy of Macau for there to be a major poker room in Cotai since almost all the biggest casinos are being built there and the richest whales presumably will be going there in the future instead of Macau island.