The local Macau high stakes games is one that usually doesn't encourage outsiders. After the legendary story of Brian Rast flying in and winning millions in the game then skipping town a few years back, the atmosphere now doesn't usually encourage western poker pros to poach their games. This week is different. The local players don't like nits and enjoy action players. They will often force the action and gamble involved in the game to ensure that style of play. Many of the regulars are former high stakes Baccarrat players who have converted their passion to poker. Introducing both the celebrity of the US based poker pros along with their penchant for playing loose and gambling it up has made Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and crew quite popular this week.
According to reports from Tournament Director Matt Savage and Tom Hall, CEO of AsianLogic and CEO of the Asian Poker Tour, who played in the game during the week and reportedly won close to US $1 million during his four sessions, there have been epic swings in the game.
According to Tom, “For (Monday’s) session, Phil is up HKD $15m (almost $2m USD), Tom up HKD $4m, table regulars up HKD $2m, Chau up HKD $300k, Johnny Chan down HKD $800k, John Juanda down HKD $1.5m (but up big for the week overall and has left town for a trip), and two Beijing visitors down HKD $10m each. Currently, the main game is four-handed with Phil, Tom, and two regulars playing HKD $10/20k. Second game features Jeff Lisandro, Ted Forrest, and others playing either HKD $2k/4k or $5k/10k.”
Overall, Ivey is around even for the week (minus sports betting losses, which were substantial). Like Juanda, Dwan and Giang are big winners, while the visitors from Beijing have taken a beating.
Once the game moved to the Starworld, additional reports have come from Poker King Room manager Windred Yu, who shared on Tuesday, “The game was regulars only last night (plus Uncle Chau Giang) and usual Asian visitors with Phil and Durrrr getting some sleep. Visitors dropped HKD $30 million last night, regulars won most of it with Chau picking up a nice win too. Second table played a mix of HKD $100/200 Limit and $200/400 No Limit with Jeff Lisandro, Ted Forrest amongst the players.”
One massive hand reported by Poker King Club's Marketing manager Stella Yeh had Chau “La Key U” Giang winning over $2.5 million US when the “Chinese fellow” went all-in on turn with a full house, but Giang had a better full house with his set of aces. Board was J-J-T-A-3 and the “Chinese fellow” had A-J, and Giang had Aces. That is one big cooler.
The most exciting news from Yu was that one of the biggest heads up matches of all time had been arranged. Tom Dwan had accepted a challenge from a Beijing businessman, who was reportedly en route to the casino at the time of writing. The blinds will be HKD$50,000/100,000 – the largest blinds ever played at the Poker King Club. They are the equivalent of nearly $7k/$14k US dollars, much higher than any other game that has run in Macau or Las Vegas of public record. The said player is bringing HK$20-30 million, or the rough equivalent of $2.6-$3.9 million US.
Details forthcoming of that game...
Source: 2p2
