The new tables took half of the baccarat pit next to the poker room and is sectioned it off using greenery and planters. The BJ and CS tables are still next to the room. As a side note: two low to mid-limit poker players hit straight flushes last month on that CS table while goofing around, each for 500k+. I thought that was pretty cool.

i was at wynn macau briefly last night and they had 4 levels NL limit running - HKD 10-25, 25-50, 50-100, and the biggest one is 200-400 i think. i played briefly (~30 minutes) in the 10-25 and 25-50 and they appeared nitty. granted, it was a wednesday night. perhaps the action is better on the weekends?

i didn't check out the grand lisboa. is that a better place to play?

i am currently staying in hong kong and i am thinking about heading back out macau, to the grand lisboa. what's a good place to stay? what are the hotel rates like? where is there internet access?

how safe do you feel in macau? i've heard that macau is very shady back in the day.

1. The limits you describe are much better than this time last year. Last year before the APT/AAPT action was like 1/10th that size. Lots of Australian 2+2 types... games were soft but not particularly soft for that small of a limit.

I'm speaking of Grand Lisboa and Galaxy Starworld. Nowhere else had poker IIRC. So things have actually improved quite a bit I think.

2. Lisboa and GS were pretty much neck-at-neck before the APT/APPT, but the tournament action heavily favored GS. But keep in mind both were pretty crappy except for a few days during APT/APPT.

3. Completely safe in my admittedly non-expert opinion. Look it's China, they executed people for jaywalking.

Macao used to be openly contested by organized crime but no more. Now it's it's safe but gloriously sleazy.

Getting large sums of HKD in Macao

Last year this was a huge pain in the ass. If I were a storyteller I could write a short novel about my experience travelling to HK just to change my USD. (The bills were too crinkles for Macao casino's standards.)

Is there any way to convert PokerStars funds directly into chips at GS (or somewhere else)? Or anything along these lines? Even just a casino or local bank to wire funds into?

Would be so much more convenient.

I'm considering flying into Macau next week for a month or so in order to play the "big game" at the Wynn. I'm Chinese and can speak Mandarin. Will I have any trouble getting into this game? If so I can always play the next smallest around 200-400 right? Does this game run daily?

I'm thinking that with the outrageous rake capped at $25 USD if the small games are still beatable the big ones must be unbelievable.

The Wynn runs 100-200 daily (1 or 2 full games) and 200-400 mostly on weekends. A 500-1k or 1k-2k runs sporadically, based on what players are in Macau at the time.

Also the most important question of them all....is live poker there to stay? I understand that one poker room already have closed.

Thanks!

Also the most important question of them all....is live poker there to stay? I understand that one poker room already have closed.

Thanks![/QUOTE]

Poker will stay in Macau, it's just a matter of how fast it grows. There's a movie about poker being made in Chinese right now with some decent Chinese names as actors. It's being filmed in Macau. That should help.

According to the Pokerstars site, the room at the Grand Lisboa has daily tournaments ($300, $800, freerolls etc.). Does the Wynn have dailies/sngs too, or is it all just regular cash games?

Wynn is all regular cash games. PS runs the tournaments at Lisboa but there are also cash games running almost all the time. If you're playing for money as opposed to pure fun, most the daily tournaments are a waste of time. The $400 tournament will pay you like $3000, which is less than you could make on a 10/20 table if you get OK cards.

What's the big game at the Wynn?

Also I'm curious who these games are built around. When I was in Macao last year there were just a handful of whales and they were in town specifically for the tournies.

100-200 goes everyday with multiple tables. 200-400 and 500-1000 or higher is hit or miss, depends on if any of the big players wander into the room for a session.

Guys, for all questions about travelling in Macau, please use this thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...9/index26.html

This area is for poker in Macau.

Thanks

I'm really amazed Macao gets up to 5/1k with any regularity. Are these games good? Are there many expat American or Australian pros that fill the games out?

The game only goes when it is "good", meaning there are some casino players who walk through and want to play. Some weeks that's 4 nights, some it's none...just depends on how busy Macau is.

Yes, there are several Aussies, Americans and Europeans that play regularly.

In regard to your last sentence, are these like decentish/proish/2+2 types or just random losing player tourists?

Unfortunately, "random losing player tourists" don't frequent 500-1k or higher.

so wynn is the only poker room with high stakes action now?

i'm sure there's gonna be action in Macau next month. bthe the APT and APPT are gonna be there starting on the 12th with the APT starting a few days earlier.

During the APPT, will the room filled with good players or bad players? Its a small tournament, its not the WSOP. I think the players that come will mostly be good players, right? I somehow think that the cash games wont be as soft during the APPT.

I will be playing at the Grand Lisboa tomorrow. Anyone want to meet up?

was there today looked pretty cool,wife was with me so we ended up going to the venetion* played craps and picked up 7k.
going to play tommorow in the torney for some fun

Are there any limit holdem games played at the casinos in Macau?

well i played at the grand lisbao a few days ago was a really fun and intresting
start off playing a $300 hkd tourney,it was my first live tourney so i was not really knowing what to expect.
was a really small field of 13 people with 3 late entries for a total 16. so i sat down and the first hand had 2 players all in with K9 vs Q6, both off them said they went all in because the cards where suited.
K9 won the had and 1 player was gone,the same guy went all in next hand pockets 2's but noone called
was a really good tourney i thought was not much prize money but was a lot of fun
after that i walked over too the cash game had a few 10/20 and i think 25/50 and a few higher ones but was only looking to play the 10/20 .
i was really surpirse to find out that the max buy in for the 10/20 was 3000 making it 150 times the BB i never seen that before.
most of the poeple at the table where pretty friendly and that table atmosphere was good, i played for about 2hours and was up about 300-400 or so after a rocky start.
I would of love to have stayed more but the wife wanted to hit the craps table at the wynn, so i had to go do that.
i would really reccommend playing there as it was a good atmosphere and seems pretty losse/weak tables but that might have just been at the time then again it was on a tuseday afternoon.
did have a quick look at the wynn poker area. it did look like it was a bit more classy and saw a big game going on in the vip area dont know what the blinds where but most players had at least 25-30k in there stacks

I havent been to Macau since last year, so i was thinking of heading over and check how things are going at the moment. What time do the Wynn games get started at weekend nights, ie how early do i need to be there to not get stuck in the long waiting list?