16 July 2008

I arrive at the poker room at Grand Waldo with high expectation; a poker room with 18 tables and professionally managed by Pokerstars should be something good. With poker becoming more and more popular at this part of the world, I think this is something Macau needs.

When I arrive there are two tables, one with $1,000 buy in and the other $2,000-4,000. The place was modeled after the poker rooms in the States and Europe, with players’ lounge and a bar area. A line of computers are at the corner for players who play on pokerstars online to register and check their account status. One does not need to be a pokerstars player to play there. I am greeted by Hil, the manager on duty that evening. He briefs me on the rules at the room. The room opens every day 7pm onwards, although players usually started after dinner around 9 or 10pm. On Fridays til Sundays it is 24 hours. There is a big screen showing the status of the tables: around 8 players playing at both tables, and 4 players have phone in beforehand to reserve a seat at a $10-50k table starting at midnight. I suspect these four players are from Hong Kong and know each other.

Hil manages to persuade me to play at the $4,000 table. I change my chips and play for about half an hour. Rake in is at 5%, I feel it is too much, but I understand that the room probably cannot come even close to break even with that rake in percentage. Without high stakes poker player playing at the room, the room will not be profitable anyway. I think this is just a marketing gimmick from Pokerstars. With Macau becoming an APPT tour stop, they have to have a presence here.

I got pocket Aces on just my third hand. I raise to $150, two callers, then a Korean on seat 7 raise to $600. He has about $6,000 in front of him, I had $3,500. It is just the third hand, I had no idea how he plays. I shove it all in.

He is muttering in Korean language, I have no idea what he is talking about. Probably he does not want me to understand anyway. He is hesitating, I think he either got big slick or JJ or something like that. Hil and the players start coming over to watch the action. After probably five minutes, the Korean turns over his pair queens and folded. Nice fold.

I win another $2,000 with pocket kings about half an hour later. The players are pretty tight and there is not much action. The $10-50k table opens up later and most of the players at my table head over; it is my first visit and I don’t want to play that late so I decide to call it the day. About $2,500 profit, not bad.

I think the players at Grand Waldo were better than the ones at Lisboa. At Lisboa there are too many players who simply refuse to play anything worse than pocket queens and they all in even if there are only $20 in the pot. I call that a lucky draw, not poker. Having said that, Grand Waldo is located at an absolutely horrible part of Cotai. I could imagine that if I leave the place at 3am, I will need to wait for more than an hour for a taxi to bring me back to my hotel.

People are telling me that they think in the future all the best poker games will be online; I agree.