Macau in motion

2010-06-14

After an essentially failed ANZPT Sydney effort all round I didn’t really have the desire to write up a storm so to speak. In summary it went like this

• Made it relatively deep into day 2
• Sucked the kumara
• Went out with the La Vida Team
• Got pissed
• Pretended we won
• Had giant mud crabs

• Came home
• Read bank statement
• Gave myself an uppercut.

Anyway, despite what is basically a *spoiler alert* similar Macau session, I thought I would give you something to read and if anything some travel advice on Macau for those of you keen on venturing up here.

I was conveniently required to be in Hong Kong for a work opportunity at the same time as the APPT festival was running in Macau so I thought I would hatch a plan.

Rough exchange rate NZD 1 = HKD 5

The main event entry is HKD40,000 which is way too expensive for my liking and as I didn’t have time to play the phase satellites I decided to play the deep stack HKD1500 and the HKD10,000 HKD500K guarantee and pending result would decide whether I would fork out for the main.

The way I see it is that if you aren’t a sponsored pro and you can’t satellite in to an event you really shouldn’t be playing.

Event 11 No Limit Holdem Deep Stack $1,500(1,350+150) – 10k start bank

This event was a good chance to get a feel for the card room and the regulars who play there.

With 100+ runners it was nowhere near as big as I had hoped. We often get 100 players to a $300 deep stack event in Auckland even outside a major event period.

It is easy to forget that Macau is a destination venue, and hence they do not have a large local population to call on for tourneys.

Game on.

I immediately like my table as there were two Euro internet bashers and a balance of rocks and fish. The two Euros are obviously mates and are having their own private conversations about players on the table between hands in what sounds like Swedish.

It’s funny how people think a foreign language is enough to disguise what is being said. We shall call them Benny and Bjorn - if they were speaking Dansk I could have called them Barbie Girl and Dr Jones.

Benny is more aggressive than Bjorn, growing pots to 4K in the first blind level, and firing out huge three barrel bluffs.

I manage to improve my stack to around 13K working the right spots and not having to show down any hands but at the back of my mind all I really want to do right now is stack one of Team ABBA.

Blinds 100/200

I attack Benny’s BB from the cut-off raising to 550 with Js6s

My stack 13,000 Benny’s stack 9000

He calls and we see the a flop of KsJc8s pot 1200

I couldn’t have hoped for a much better flop for my late position steal attempt that got contested.

He checks and I lead out for 800

He calls quickly and we see the turn – 4s

Boom!

There is now 2800 in the pot

He checks and after taking a moment I figure whilst the card is great for me it could also keep him in the hand if he called my bet with a pair and a back door straight and / or flush draw which just improved.

I am not 100% on what he has however there are loads of hands I can rule out based on his profile ie. All the hands he three bets me with raising out of the cut off in the BB, all the hands he is likely to lead out with on the flop, and all the hands he is likely to check raise with on the flop.

He checks to me and I elect to bet 1425

Again he calls quickly and the river fires out the Ah

I have swollen the pot to 5650 and Benny has around 6k left.

Benny tanks.

The ace is only really good for me if it improves his hand. If he already had something the ace may put him off calling my river value bet.

If his intention was to float me out of position and trying to move me off a potentially textured couple of streets the ace certainly slows him down.

Benny checks.

I know I get paid off by two pair here and if he didn’t have two pair before he could easily have a hand like As8x that calls the flop to either improve or outplay and the spade on the turn keeps him in the hand.

If he intended to put in a move he’s now given up the hand by checking in which case he doesn’t call any bet. If any of the other logical hands are there I think he will call off a decent bet so I fire out 4000. A bet that I want to appear poorly thought out and bluffish as I know Benny thinks I will probably check behind on that board if I have showdown value.

Benny calls and I rake in a big pot.

Two hands later Bjorn stacks off on a flush draw and is sent to the rail. I guess not without the same level of fan tears as when ABBA broke up in 1982.

This was the only highlight of my day on the felt.

Our table breaks not long after and I somehow manage to be - as they say in Macau - “Lest bik bly” and I get moved 4 more times in the next 3 levels.

For the next hour or so I am basically card dead, have to lay down hands when I am caught stealing to maintain a playable stack size and finally end up shoving with AK over a raise and getting called off by a player with twice my stack with 77.

I bust out 19th with the top 13 getting paid. #@$%*

On the bright side, I check into my room at the The Hard Rock Hotel which is mint. The pool complex is stunning and you can’t beat the HKD28 menu downstairs at the Yo noodle bar within the City of Dreams Complex.

Event 12 No Limit Holdem $500,000 Guarantee $10,000 ($9,200+$800) – 10K start bank.

As I make my way to the poker room up the four levels of escalators, I pass through all the hideous Swarovski crystal beads dangling all over the Grand Lisboa which reminds me of the Franklin Rd neighbour that went a little overboard this Christmas. “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Queen is randomly selected on the ipod shuffle. This would turn out to be a seemingly accurate prelude to my day ahead.

When I reach the top, the first person I run into is none other than the godfather of NZ Poker Graeme “Kiwi G” Putt. 3rd on the New Zealand all time money list only behind Lee Nelson and Jamil Dia who have both won the Aussie Millions main event.

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=512

Despite being fellow members of the 2009 State of Origin winning NZ Poker Team (self plug), it takes Graeme a moment to recognise me amongst a room full of Asians.

I mean after all we do all look the same.

Graeme and I joke about this over coffee, however, there is something in this to lift your poker game.

Player Profiling

On two separate occasions this trip I was confused about a player’s identity. First a young Chinese guy is moved to my table who I don’t initially recognise. Turns out it’s none other than Steve Gang an Kiwi Chinese guy I have played and chatted with on numerous occasions but in reality I am not expecting to see him here so to me he’s just another Asian fuller who isn’t Bryan Huang.

Second, an older Chinese man who I mis-profiled based on my experience with another older Chinese man. Turns out he wasn’t that guy at all. What was worse was that I had played him during the APPT final in Sydney 2008 and he was a much more dangerous player than I had initially thought. I skilfully ran my AKs into his AA for 80% of my stack in the 9th level.

New Zealand is such a multi-cultural melting pot that this seldom applies. On the other hand, imagine yourself playing APPT Macau / Cebu / Manila or even encountering the numerous Greek or Lebanese players in Sydney. You can’t just click on “notes” and write “tard calls pot OOP on 2 streets w a gut for 70% of stk”

The key here is really putting your memory to work. It is not enough to make basic mental notes about the players. You really need to keep your memory sharp in order to be able to distinguish and recognise players over the course of a poker festival. Whether you need to drink a V, eat some ginko nuts or smoke some weed*, this is a crucial aspect of the game.

*http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/marijuana-could/

Like most of Asia everything is for show and can juice this by a factor of ten when it comes to cash. When you order Champagne at Cubic (one of the hot spots in the AIA Tower), it comes with a random fireworks stick sellotaped to the side of the bottle which is lit up whilst the bottle is en route to your table. This is not because you’re your birthday, it is merely a reminder to everyone else in the bar who is wasting the most cash.

Macau is a place where riches are made and lost. If you go broke at least you can travel around for free taking the various hotel shuttles everywhere you need to be as long as you’re happy to go via the ferry terminal.

I run into Lee aka “The Panda” and a few ex Sky City Auckland boys grinding out the 50/100 and 100/200 cashies at The Venetian whilst Nathaniel Seet (6th APPT Auckland 2008) reportedly took down a HKD2.1M

pot last night at the Wynn in a slightly bigger game – I bet he got the champagne with the Roman Candle….

D

The interesting thing I love about the no parity in Asia is that I can have 3 of these for the price of my sandwich. Both however are ace. Yo noodles at hard rock casino has to be the cheapest feed in MacauHard Rock CasinoAwesome pool and bar @ the Hard Rock Hotel with the view of the Venetian not a soul swimming...A few crysals at the Grand Lisboa