Wow, so Elton Tsang is considered a good guy in Europe and US? I am from Hong Kong and I think I can give you more insights about this guy. I hope this will warn you not to enter any cash game with him and his friends. Let me share my personal experience with them.
We are talking about an organized group that works very closely together. You will only realize the fact once it is too late. Maybe you think that one must be stupid to fall into their trap, but trust me that these guys know what they are doing!
The key names in this group are
Elton Tsang, Winfred Yu, Richard Yong and Paul Phua. Only Winfred Yu as far as I know has a clean criminal record. The other guys have been at least once convicted of illegal gaming activities. Below are some facts about them you should know:
Richard and Paul have been big junket operators in China. Their core business was to find rich Chinese customers, credit them and bring them to gamble to different casinos around the globe.
They would get commission from the casino (something like 50% of casino profits) and even more money they would make on crediting the players (10% interest per month is nothing rare in China). But if any word describes these guys well it is “Greed”. They wanted more. So instead of still taking their clients to London, Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Richard and Paul acquired not very well performing Maestral Hotel and Casino in Monte Negro for around 25 mil.USD. From now on they had their own casino operations in Europe and they didn’t have to share profits with the Brits, Spaniards or Frenchmen.
Baccarat was the first game these guys focused on as it is by far the most popular game in China.
Until 2010 Elton Tsang ran the illegal poker club called “Blue Room” in Hong Kong. This is also where I met Elton. Thanks to this room Elton was introduced to Richard and Paul. He joined the party and you could see them together very often. Later Elton with other 2 guys was convinced of running the illegal casino operation.
He would downplay it as a harmless play-for-fun poker club. But the truth was that millions of USD were on tables of this room. And it was all backed by Richard Yong and Paul Phua.
Nowadays the group operates 3 main poker rooms. One in the Philippines, one in Monte Negro and the last in Macau. They all have their roles.
Winfred Yu organizes the game. Elton Tsang is a key house player. Richard and Paul are looking for rich businessmen, crediting them and then eventually collecting debts from losing players. Richard and Paul are famous for their ability to collect debts with utmost efficiency. If you ask how, try to google some of the triad methods.
This is how my story began. I was invited to play a poker tournament with famous poker players from around the world. I was quite impressed that all these poker superstars work with them.
But basically I later realized that these pros serve to the whole show only as a bait to get interest of the rich businessmen who are the prey.
The poker tournaments itself are not profitable. The tournaments are just a show to bring the prey to their tables. Take the one in Monte Negro, that is quite obvious. You don’t have to be a genius to see that they can’t make back a 25 mil. USD investment by doing one tournament per year. And on top of that almost everything is free (accommodation, food, entertainment) and they even pay to some of the players a private jet from China! Where do they get the money from then?
The answer is “Cash Game”.
This game is by invitation only and normally you can only see there Chinese businessmen playing with some of the famous pros. They bring you to the table and let you play with big poker names. All of the “allowed” poker professionals are staked fully by Richard and Winfred. Elton Tsang is one of their main house players, he has always played their money. If you are lucky or smart you will find out that this whole show is just a set-up to take all your money.
Why all these famous poker players like Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Daniel Cates, Philipp Gruissem etc. are involved in this scam? The reason is not that they are willing to participate in that, but they have to! Why? All of these guys owe big money to the group. These debts are normally a result of high self-confidence, underestimation of unknown environment and illegal technologies that can beat even the best poker players in the world...
When you meet Winfred, Elton, Richard and Paul they are very friendly but as soon as you lose everything they turn into who they really are: gangsters using any means to get their money. Trust me that these guys can put enough pressure to break even very rich and influential businessmen in China.
When one owes them money one has to do what they ask him to do. No questions asked. If you refuse... Well, you do not refuse.
You can maybe ask Tom Dwan where he had been for 2 years... No, he would not tell. None of these pro poker players will ever tell because they very well know what Richard and Paul are capable of. Tom has apparently made enough money to get his life back thanks to winning insane amount over one of the biggest gamblers in the world a Chinese guy with nickname “Chairman”.
I was ripped off completely. My bad, now I have no chance to get anything back. Now I can’t prove anything. Later one of the professional poker players, whom I met in Hong Kong told me that my feelings are right and that the game wasn’t fair...
For obvious reasons I cannot put my name below this post. You can think about this whatever you want – bull****, rumour or just an insane man’s story. You can believe that this is happening or not. It is purely up to your decision. Whatever is your opinion about this post I would only like to ask you for one thing:
Please always reconsider carefully before entering into any contact or business with these guys as you will save lot of sleepless nights in your life... I was foolish and took their bait...
If you have doubts about whether something like this could be possible, I can share for you some “small” leaks that have appeared in trusted media in last few years...
1) Details about Paul Phua and Richard Yong arrest. You can also find some juicy details about size of their illegal operations. I think you will be surprised. I recommend to check for more details (e.g. who paid the bail for them...)
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/artic...sian-paul-phua
2) Article about Elton Tsang and his sentence for illegal poker room operation. Elton says that it was just a small stupid mistake. He will certainly deny that it was a poker room operated for Richard Yong where all of the games were played cash under the table and presented to public as friendly no-cash game.
http://www.scmp.com/article/733699/p...as-holdem-case
For somebody just the fact that all these guys have criminal record related to illegal gaming operations would be enough to be careful about calling them fair businessmen. Or do you need the fact that they are blacklisted from majority of the respected casinos in the US/Europe. Or maybe the fact that they do not appear in any of the top poker events and high-roller tournaments (except of their own, because they are blacklisted there too, PokerStars banned them altogether).
Yet still some people consider them honest and fair entrepreneurs and poker players. This is just ridiculous! Sorry for a long text but I can't bear that these crooks are justified anywhere...