Theres 8 tables fulling running half the time (not enough dealers rather than not enough players). Atleast 6 tables running 24hrs.
Stakes minimum 10/20 to 50/100, but you can request higher (HK dollars).

@sex

is there a ~~250/500 game running? or no interest in it? or even higher games.

i read that i can ask for but i need to find players. so is there any players base that would play?

I have no idea...I only play upto 20/40. I heard they had a few 100/200 games. But Im sure you can find enough players there. Theres some serious gamblers there.

You know how people say 0.5/1NL online plays like 5/10NL live?
1/2NL live in normal casinos plays like 10/20NL live in macau.

You mean 10/20 HKD yea? Cause that's around 1/2 USD anyway...

Also online games have improved a bit - these days .25/.50NL online is tougher than my local casino's 5/10 imo

I'll be there by the end of next month (stuyding in Bangkok, so I'll just have to check out their live games).

Any advice on on a budget hotel in a great location (like the Imperial Palace in Vegas )? Also, should I stay in HongKong and take the ferry to Macau, or vice versa (is there enough to be done in Macau?)?

Thanks!

I am from Hong Kong and just play poker a few months ago and I am not a good player.
However I can tell you that the game at Lisba HKD$10/20 table is much softer than online $0.25/0.5.

I went to Macau yesterday as a real table virgin (to tell the truth I have never been to a casino before) and I decided to play short stack with 25BB. While I am folding my junk hands I am surprised those mainland people plays hands like K3o and 34s and overplay top pair no kicker. There are 3 westerners (loose but I think they play well post flop) but I am in position with them and 2 regulars and the rest are mainland Chinese (fishes).

Preflop there is like 70% limpers and very passive with no or little raise.

Finally I limp in cheap with 910s with the flop JQK and more than triple up my stack. There may be A10 but it is hard not to call when there are 5-6 callers and the pot odd is so good.

After that I win a medium pot without showdown with Queen trips.

Then I had a break and go to another table with 25BB again. I keep mucking and I lost 2 stacks with QQ vs AA and AQ vs A10s and his flush draw hits.

I still won 35BB after losing the 2 stack and leave, just enough to cover my travel expenses and meals.

Funny how they give me a lot of action when I am like 5% VP$IP.

whats the rake like in macau?

5% up to 5BB (10/20 NL) in Grand Lisboa.

I heard they have increased the number of tables running at the Grand Lisboa, it must be getting more popular. Does anone know what the traffic is like there in the week? Many playing?

if they spread games al the time time i'm gonna move down there and become a macau based grinder

Do they know Omaha in Macao?

let them learn how to hold 2 cards, then introduce another 2 cards...

What's the cost of living (hotel room etc) in Macau?

im confused... they spread 10/20 HKD only... thats like $1/2 NL... they dont spread anything around $5/10+ NL USD?

It's mostly 10/20.
There's always a 25/50 game running and on thur/fri/sat nights 50/100. They are popular, I had to wait >1hr to get a seat on Saturday. But it was well worth my while, about half the table were superloose/passive players

i know jeff lisandro has started spending time there as a "host" / "player" to create bigger action games.

anyone here live in macau? i am seriously considering buying a condo there because its ****ing awesome and it seems like the price of real estate is surely going to just sky rocket. the majority of tourists are chinese. they dont even have flights to europe, japan, etc yet. so many more people will come in time. its gonna be insane.

This thread is killing me. A good friend just moved to Hong Kong, but I don't think we're going to get there for a year or two...urgh!!!!

I live in Macau.

Real estate is in a real boom here. A colleague doubled his price on an apartment recently and since then the price has risen another 10%.

An often stated quote is that Macau is in a 3hr flight of 1 billion people. That's why the casinos here make huge money from a never-ending series of people. Not even counting the regular HK players (who have big dollars), let alone western tourists who will find Macau a reasonable introduction to Asia.
Macau is quite multicultural for Asia, around half can speak english especially the younger ones. There's a nice portugese influence to the older buildings, and a few nice things to see. The people are a little more outgoing than mainland chinese and have few of the worst habits (fines for spitting and littering discourage that) but still a bit reluctant to queue. Maybe fine for the Germans??
The main problem is the infrasctructure - public transport is regular but very overcrowded as are the roads. Border services are slow - especially land transfer into Macau. One of the chief infrastructure heads went down for corruption very publicly last year, so a lot of projects are on hold for rechecking.
All in all, my last two years in Macau has had moments when I very much enjoy it, moments when I want to go home, moments when I want to smack a local in the mouth for doing something filthy (spitting near my feet upsets me somehow). Just like every other country I have lived in

I saw Jeff Lissandro. The first thing I wanted to do is ask if there was antes on this game - but I didn't.
Grand Lisboa says that he is not involved with them and is only a player.
He was supposed to be involved with the pokerdome room near the Holiday Inn - but that never eventuated either.
Johnny Chan also showed up a while back, but didn't play. He's been publicly talking about getting in here somehow for a while.

The light rail has already passed the planning and development stages, it'll be constructed soon. Border crossings at the secondary sites are going to be 24 hours soon.

Well anyway that is just like my opinion man

Also to say there have been a huge amount of luxury residential developments going online in the past few years and according to economics when supply increases the price falls?

whatever hold ups there are going to be, i don't see how the prices don't supersede or atleast match hong kong in due time. its 1/3 of the size. also, i'm surprised there aren't more corporations lining up for the 12% flat rate sales tax and no capital gains tax.

my understanding reading online is that Americans can own a condo out right in there name, none of that 99 year stuff. correct?

i was only there on weekdays, i imagine its insane on the weekend, but the streets were not crowded at all.

my budget would be around 250-300K USD (cash)... Any ideas? Many of the new luxury condomiums pre construction prices i saw online (and there really is VERY little info available online and most of it looks dated) were around 43,000HKD/m2 which seems very reasonable for high end stuff. similar high end stuff in bangkok is 28,000HKD/m2... Hong Kong has to be waayyyyyy more than that.

ooh you'll get something pretty nice for 250k afaik