Interesting analogy beilock. It sounds like it must be difficult to critique or discipline anyone while teaching, must feel like you are walking on nails.

I'm not sure if it's good for you we've told you all of these things or not.

I guess it's good for you.

But man, you will miss the full fish out of water experience that we all had.

And I'm not sure if that is a good thing.

I have a feeling it doesn't matter how much advice I get or research I do, I'll still experience plenty of culture shock.

Anyone else having disconnect issues with pokerstars?

I may have given off the wrong impression. That particular student and I have a good relationship. The tone he gave me was more of a "why are you busting my balls?" rather than a "f*** off." There are many rich tuhao kids who don't respect anybody, but at least in my experience the majority of kids in China are well-behaved and kind-albeit lazy.

No more spoilers...don't want to ruin the surprise.

You should check out River Town by Peter Hessler. It's about an American who taught at a school in Sichuan as a Peace Corps volunteer. He served more than 10 years ago and taught in a tiny village, but many of his observations and experiences were the same as my own.

River Town is good.

I'd recommend Iron and Silk also. It's got a great style in that it's laid out in separate vignette like chapters, that are all fine on their own. It's also written in a very straightforward concise and simple manner, so it's very easy to digest yet somehow at the same time quite profound ans filled with many great insights into China, the people and their culture.

clearly not the part I thought was racist


Happened a lot when I was in zhongshan. Helps to have nothing else running on your comp, but it's going to happen imo.


Never heard of rivertown, iron and silk was incredibly good.

Also can't access bodog888s site.

also having connection issues with stars recently at certain times. can't work it out yet but very strange

think theres some issue on stars,
i have redownload from the .com and it works perfectly !

Is it common to think that the pill is "bad for the health" among women here?

Report:

Macau (6/17-6-20)/Manila(6/21-6/23)

Spent the days leading up to and including Dragon Boat Festival in Macau on a poker binge. Games weren't bad (25-50 HKD), but still pretty stiff for my liking. Very nitty...like Pokerstars nitty. Played only at Wynn. Rake is insane.

Switched venues to Metro Card Club in Manila. There was a 100-200 peso ($2.5-$5) game going and it was good...lots of 40/12/0 type people. Lots of min-rebuy type people to harass. It wasn't as glitzy as Wynn, but Metro had a homey feel and reasonable rake.

Also, Baiyun Airport (Guangzhou) is getting a decent facelift. I used to hate that place because the flights always left late and it was boring compared to HKIA, but it's looking a lot better. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Hope you all had a nice holiday too.

How much was the flight from GZ to ML?

Hey beilock,

What made you choose Metro when you were in Manila? I like Metro myself, and I have played there many times, but it seems all the other rooms are more popular these days, at least for 50-100 +. Maybe that is why you chose it, the good old if all the other grinders are at x place I should go to y place for softer games.

Also seems to me 100-200 didn't use to run consistently at Metro. Did you get the feeling it does run there pretty often now?

I flew from Macau to Manila...it was about $100 one way (Philippine Airlines) then I flew from Manila to Guangzhou (China Southern)...that cost about $100 too. If you were to buy a round trip flight, it might be about $190?

I also forgot to mention NAIA (Manila Airport) has received some major upgrades as well. That place used to be pure hell (4 non-linked terminals, had to pay airport tax in cash on arrival, always late...) but it's pretty good now.

I stayed with my friend near Shaw Blvd. Station in Ortigas Center so Metro was by far the closest and most convenient. That was the only factor. The 100-200 game never had more than 8 players but never less than 7 either. It was a miracle the game held on for as long as it did because none of us were particularly deep stacked and there was plenty of action. I wouldn't bet on there being a 100-200 game every night, but I recommend Metro.

An update to the above, below are Local prices negotiated by my college:

- One Oasis is 20k without furniture & no car park, 23k with both
- One Central good-luck getting anything 2brdm decent for less then 22k, the cheaper ones were floors 3-7
- Nova City, really showing its age, had some issues with walls/floors, felt super wonky, 12k without furniture
- Buckingham is around 26k+ Tax, has an oven, great location.

One Central: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjXju3Evbg
Nova City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBR4KHTpsU4
Buckingham: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItWyUPYq3WY

Ended up going with a high floor at Nova Park 16k with brand new furniture/oven. Just a word of warning for anyone renting in Macau, when using an agent you need to pay a 1 months finders fee, you can negotiate this down to 1/2 month for one year leases, but its a struggle to negotiate this without speaking fluent Chinese (My local work friend negotiated for me)

All up renting here you need to outlay 4 months total, 2 months Security, 1 month in advance and the 1 month finders fee for 2 year leases. Make sure if you're renting for 12 months, in your contract they have an admin fee to renew, not an additional finders fee otherwise every year you re-pay the finders fees.... ****ing shady agents working on pure commission over here for sure.

Also, if youre looking at getting ridiculous fast internet, 1g/1g check out the CTM page to make sure your place is connected for Fiber:
http://www.cyberctm.com/fiberbb/form/index.php?lang=en

Works out for unlimited 1g/1g around $103 USD, 100/100 is $46

If anyone wants to grab a beer sometime, send me a PM

Is anyone in Guangzhou right now?

Yes

Hey any of you guys in Beijing? Looking for a cash game to play

Anyone????

Hello everyone

I recently moved to China (Chengdu) to do an internship.

Therefore I am looking for an exchange, my USD on either Neteller or Pokerstars --> RMB (Yuan).

I have done exchanges with both "Syndr0m" and "Bluegrassplayer" who can both vouch for me.

Let me know if you are interested.

Kind regards
Alexander Petersen

Hello everyone

I recently moved to China (Chengdu) to do an internship.

Therefore I am looking for an exchange, my USD on either Neteller or Pokerstars --> RMB (Yuan).

I have done exchanges with both "Syndr0m", "Stakemonster" and "Bluegrassplayer" who can both vouch for me.

Let me know if you are interested.

Kind regards
Alexander Petersen

Yep did an exchange of rmb for pokerstars money with him.

Confirmed trustworthy (for money swaps, I wouldn't want to be alone in a room with him)

I am soon going to Macau for a few days. Can someone recommend me a decent hotel with stable internet that isnt too expensive?
Also can someone tell me in what casinos are the best PLO games?