Saturday 22 October 2011

Macau Poker Cup Championship Oct 2011 - Trip Report

Day 1 - Poker and Partying

As I was going to Macau for 8 nights, and my beloved high resolution 1920x1200 17" laptop bit the dust a month ago, I needed a replacement so that I could continue to grind the online pokers during my trip. Unfortunately it's impossible to buy a laptop with that kind of monitor spec in Thailand. Believe me, I tried in every shop in Pantip Plaza - the huge IT mall, and there was nothing even close. I think the Asian's like their technology to be super small rather than practical, So, when in Rome....

I decided to buy a very small and lightweight, but powerful 11" laptop/netbook. When I booked the hotel online I chose a deluxe room because of the free broadband and HD LCD TV. I figured that with this small laptop, all I needed to do was bring a mouse and a VGA or HDMI cable to hook up to the LCD TV, then I'd be able to have all the benefits of a semi-decent setup (1920x1080) but without the hassle that comes with travelling with a behemoth super-laptop. What a genius I am.

At Bangkok Airport I collected my "VAT Refund For Tourists", getting all the sales tax I paid on everything I bought during the last month shipped back to me. Little do they know that I would be bringing those new clothes and laptop back into the country with me in little over a week.

I took the 2.5hr AirAsia flight direct from Bangkok to Macau. Nice and easy. A good tip for flying AirAsia is to always chose your seat online and pay a little extra for the Red Zone seats at the front or emergency exit rows. The rest of the seats are no place for a grown western man to be sitting. Pre-ordering your inflight meal will also get you served way before the masses and you can chose stuff that's not on the in-flight menu.

I checked in to The Metropole, a hotel a few minutes walk away from the Grand Lisboa where the PokerStars Macau poker room is. I had real trouble trying to find somewhere decent to stay when I was booking my trip because most of the major hotels were fully booked with it being a big national holiday in China. A standard room anywhere decent that still had availability was going for USD$300+ per night. The Metropole looked semi-decent and was $100 per night, so I took that option.

The first thing that I did when I checked in was have a look at the TV so that I could hook my laptop up. Unfortunately the bastards had screwed it into the wall, about 2 meters above the ground. I was pissed off because that meant that I couldn't sit at a desk and use the TV as a computer monitor. I couldn't even access the VGA or HDMI ports, I could see them, but because the TV was firmly screwed into the wall there wasn't enough space to access them, even with my small skinny hands. I was really tempted to go out, buy a screwdriver, and take the bastard TV down from the wall, but decided just to just settle down and play some poker on my tiny laptop screen instead.

That is when I realised that I had left my Pokerstars RSA Security Token back at my condo in Bangkok. Oh dear, could my life get any worse? It would be a complete disaster if I coudn't log into my PokerStars account for 8 days so I started frantically contacting people I know at PokerStars to help me, but was told that I'd have to go through the proper channels like everyone else. ([  ] Thanks Josem).

After a visit to the supermarket to stock up on snacks and drinks (it takes a real sucker to pay the mini-bar prices), I sat feasting and watching movies until the evening when I was playing Day 1B of the Macau Poker Cup Championship - Event 1 HKD$8800 NLHE.

My table was very loose passive as I'd expect in Macau. There were only 2 decent aggressive players at the table, a young Asian guy and a young white guy. In the fourth level I took a heavy blow, losing a big portion of my stack after getting JJ in against the table idiot's 88 preflop. After the 8 binked on the river I had to listen to his cheers and then had to sit and watch him donk around, like opening for 5x and shoving 6x pot on the flop, with MY bloody chips. Very annoying.

A hand came up where the young aggressive Asian guy opened from MP, the young white guy 3-bet from the button, and I was in the BB with A6s. I decided that it was a good spot to cold 4-bet. MP folded quickly but the button shipped his stack in instantly and I had to fold. About 5 hands later the young aggressive Asian guy was in the BB, I was in MP and opened with QJs, the button called and the BB 3-bet. I decided that there was a pretty good chance that he was squeezing light and shipped my 40BB stack in. He had QQ, so that didn't work out. They even ran the board out with two J's and a Q just to torment me.

The night was still early and my friends Bryan Huang and Daren Yoon had also busted the event so we decided to go out partying. We got a group together and went to Cubic, a sick, sick club at City of Dreams where we got a table.

We were all having a ton of fun, then late into the night someone was buying multiple bottles of expensive champagne for every table in the club.

It turns out that it was Stanley Ho's (basically owns Macau) granddaughter's birthday. They must have opened about 200 bottles over the next hour. The staff were running around like crazy with 2 bottles in each hand, each bottle with a sparkler attached to it. It was an insane thing to witness.


At the table section next to us were a few tall Arab guys. Excited at being handed free champagne, one of them decided to shake up the bottle as if he was an F1 driver that just shipped a Grand Prix and a bunch of us got sprayed with champagne. Everyone was shocked and stepped back. I ran up to the barrier between our areas and screamed at them and told them what a bunch of inconsiderate assholes they were to do such a thing.

Five minutes later, I was standing talking to Daren when all of a sudden, WOOSH, I got absolutely soaked by the Michael Schumacher wannabe bastard who again decided that champagne was for spraying on people rather than drinking. Again everyone backed off but I was raging. I kicked a chair out of my way then kicked down the barrier between our areas and went nuts at the guy with the bottle. At that stage the guys were apologising to me profusely, but I think that was only because the bouncers were there and ready to kick those guys out. I didn't see them again after that. Good riddance.

I just find it amazing how little respect and thought for other people it takes to do such a douchebag act. To do it twice is just plain taking the piss. It was still a good night though. We stayed til around 4:30am when we were all extremely wasted.

Day 2 - Hangover, Burgers and Video Games

I only slept for about 4-5 hours that night and woke up feeling absolutely awful. I hadn't eaten a meal in 24 hours so figured that would be the best place to start in trying to feel normal again. Since I didn't even have the energy to get out of bed I would have to order room service. The only problem being that just reading the menu made me feel sick.

So I tweeted out the menu to my twitter followers asking for advice.


I opted for the 'safe' options on the menu and ordered D2 - Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple and D3 - Sautéed Diced Chicken with Cashew Nuts. Strangely there was 3 phone numbers for room service, and I had to call all of them and speak to five different people before I got someone who could speak English.

When the food arrived it looked decent. The lack of knife and fork annoyed me though, as the only thing I can eat with chopsticks is noodles. I got stuck in to the food but it was completely inedible.

The pork was like 80% bone and gristle. Judging by the shape of it I was pretty sure I was eating pigs feet. The chicken in the other dish, when I could find any of it, was just plain horrible.

I almost felt like turning vegetarian just because of this meal. Yuck!

Eventually I was able to drag myself out of bed and over to The Venetian where I know that they have a Fatburger.

I omnomnomed on a deep fried chicken burger with bacon and cheese and a fatburger with bacon and cheese and felt all the better for it.

I then shipped it over to The Underground, a video game arcade at Macau Fisherman's Wharf.

I spent a good few hours there playing the sick setups they had of Outrun 2 SP, House of the Dead 4 Special Edition, Initial D in the sick Sega Cycraft motion-simulator and The Bishibashi - and addictive button bashing game.


Burgers and video games. What an awesome day.

Day 3 - Pizza, Poker and Breaking Bad

The next day was also filled with games and great food. I got access to my PokerStars account ([X] thanks Steve) and visited Pizza Hut where I had an extremely delicious Lobster Soup in Puff Pastry and a Super Hawaiian Pizza (beef, peperoni, ham, pineapple).

That prepared me for playing Event 2 of the MPCC - $5000 Knockout Bounty. The runbad was instant, as I found myself drawn in the 8-seat. I hate sitting right at the end of those tables because there is absolutely nowhere to put your legs. Very annoying.

The table was very soft though with 4-5 players limping and calling raises and seeing every flop. I had a guy on my right with what could only be described as a 'pointy wizard beard'. I think he got lost on his way to audition for the part of the headmaster in the Asian remake of the Harry Potter movies. I was desperate to pick up a hand and take one of these clowns down to valuetown, and was patiently folding most of the time but making some chips back by raising the limptards in position and they were check-folding the flops they didn't hit.

At BB200 I had slightly over the starting stack of 7500 and a fool with 5000 chips open limped the HJ. I was on the button with pocket 8s and raised to 750. Everyone folded and he called. The flop came 754r, he checked, I bet 1000, he called. So there was 3800 in the pot and he had slightly less than that behind. Turn was a 9 and the guy tanked then checked, then turned round to me and started grinning. He picked up his bounty plaque and started waving it around and rubbing it on his forehead and all sorts of weird stuff. I was planning on just putting him all in on the turn but all his jumping around convinced me that he was super strong so I checked back. River was a 2, he checked, more weird jumping around, I checked back and he showed me 98s for a turned pair of 9s. Sigh.

A couple of rounds later, I was on the button again when the same guy limped. I raised it from 200 to 725 with pocket 10s. This time the young kid in the BB cold 3-bet it to 1600 and the limper folded. It seemed like such a good spot for him to be 3-betting me light because he probably knows I am isolating the donk limper in position with a wide range. I give a lot more credit to young guys for being capable of making this play than the older guys at the table. Anyway, I shoved for around 6600 and he snapped me of with KK and made quads. mbn.

The only thing keeping me off tilt was the fact that I had downloaded an HD TV-Rip of the season finale of Breaking Bad while I was away. I really didn't want to watch it on a stupid little laptop screen so I decided that I was going to take the TV down from the wall so that I could hook my laptop up to it. For this I needed a screwdriver. It was very late at night and my only chance at getting one would be at the small supermarket. I arrived just before they closed and amazingly they did sell screwdrivers.


So I settled down with a bunch of snacks and watched the Breaking Bad season finale in glorious HD. And what an episode it was. It blew my mind. I sat and watched it over again straight after.


Day 4 - The Lost Day

For the next 36 hours all I did was sleep, snack and play online poker. I was still feeling super rough from the partying on the Saturday night. I don't think I've ever drank champagne without it leaving me feeling ill for days later.

Day 5 - Haute Cuisine, Pandas and The Mad Swede

I decided that I needed to get some proper food inside of me and my twitter friend Phil Lau aka @Plau31 suggested that I try the high-end Don Alfonso 1890 restaurant at Grand Lisboa. It's the Macau branch of highest michelin rated restaurant in southern Italy.

It was the middle of the afternoon and I was the only customer there, so a very comfortable and relaxing experience. The service was world class.

I ordered a 5-course lunch, which I live tweeted to my twitter followers as I nommed my way through it.


I got things started with the Canadian Bison "Carpaccio" with aged Parmigiano and revised Italian green sauce and got stuck right in to the delicious basket of breads. That was followed up with the Pumpkin soup, fresh burrata cheese from Puglia and sautéed blue-foot mushrooms with fresh thyme. The soup was out of this world. What a great idea to have a soft creamy cheese in the middle of the soup, it works really well.

I had a middle of course of Home-made ravioli stuffed with wild pheasant ragout in "Genovese" style andcoulis of pistachio from "Bronte" followed by a main of Lavender encrusted sole fish served with wild spinach. What can I say? It was a huge step up from all the crap I'd been eating for the previous week.

And nice and simple to round it all off, a few scoops of Home-made Italian Ice Cream (hazelnut and vanilla). So good!

How could my day get better from there? With a trip to the Macau Giant Panda Pavilion of course. It took some getting to, as I got into 2 different taxis and couldn't get them to understand where I wanted to go. I just kept saying "Panda, Panda", but taxi-drivers speak next to no English in Macau. I then remembered that I had seen a big poster advert for the Panda Pavilion so I went there and took a photo of the poster. The next taxi I got in, again he didn't know what a Panda was, then I showed him the photo I just took and he was like "öhhhhhhhhhhh" and took me straight there.

The two Pandas are called Kai Kai and Xin Xin. They were given to Macau by China in December 2009 to mark the 10 year anniversary of Macau's return to China. It was awesome just to stand watching them playing and eating. Check out the little video I made of them.



From watching pandas to playing with donkeys. That evening I played my third event of the MPCC series. Event 5 - HKD$2500 Knockout Bounty. By far the smallest buyin event that I would be playing.

I got off to a great start when I skilfully got JJ in versus AK on a KJx flop for an early double-up. Giving me a nice 10K stack to play with.

At my first table I was in the 2-seat and the guy in the 1-seat just shook his leg up and down rapidly and constantly. Because we were all squashed together around the table my leg was touching his and it was just really uncomfortable and weird. He was shaking even when he was not in a hand, and when he was in a hand shaking even more vigorously. Then he stopped shaking during one hand. He had picked up KK, got it in and doubled up. So I guess super premium hands are the the antidote to shaky leg syndrome.

In the third level at BB200 there were 2 idiot limpers and the shaky leg guy in the SB raised to 850, with leg still shaking. I cold 3-bet from the BB to 1975. He 4-bet me to 3850, leg still shaking. I 5-bet shoved for 8500 and he instantly turned over 75o and pushed his cards towards the muck.

I didn't play any other big pots until BB400. With a 9K stack I opened to 1000 with pocket 5's and both blinds called. The flop came down 884 flop and the SB who had the same stack size as me lead for 1100. The guy in the BB instantly shoved for 3500. I reshoved for 8000. SB folded instantly and BB turned over 43o. *BINK* a nasty 4 on the turn. The guy went ballistic jumping up and down cheering. I don't particularly like someone over-celebrating when they suck out on me but that seems to be the norm in Macau so I wasn't to bothered. That was, until he sat back down and started looking at me and laughing, picking up his chips and waving them at me and cheering. Pointing his finger at me, saying stuff in Chinese and laughing his ass off.

Really? REALLY? Are you serious? I absolutely couldn't believe what was happening. That guy has to be the most classless piece of shit ever to play poker. How does a grown man, who has sat silently the whole time, turn into a little brat of a child laughing and gloating over the turn of a card? I stood up and gave him a piece of my mind but people told me that he doesn't speak English at all. Unreal, I couldn't even let the guy know what a classless dickhead he was.

Of course, I took a photo of the guy. I will soon have enough photos of people I've played with in Macau displaying atrocious poker etiquette to add a Wall of Shame to my blog. He's the guy in the blue jacket (foreground is shaky-leg guy).

My stack had decreased to only 3.5K before I could find a good spot to shove. At BB400 I jammed from the SB with 98s. BB woke up with AQ and somehow I sucked out on the river. I followed that up by winning 2 all-ins versus shorter stacks (TT > AJo and 77 > 66) to give me a nice 17K stack and a couple of bounties. Easy game.

Not long after that I was able to stick it to the gloater. Still at BB400 (with 50 ante) I was in the BB and a weak player in MP opened just for just 900 (he had been limping or 3x-ing previously). The loose-passive gloating bastard called from the button. I had K9s in the BB and 3-bet to 2950 with K9s, feeling like this would take down the pot most of the time. Initial raises folded quickly and the gloater tanked then called. The flop came down Q76 and I lead for 4500. He called pretty fast. Turn was a 6, there was about 16K in the pot and I only had about 9K behind. I decided to give up, because there wasn't much that he called the flop with that he would fold the turn with. I checked and he checked behind. River was an Ace. I figured that was the perfect card for me to bluff and shoved my stack in. The guy tanked a full five minutes, maybe more, before turning over a 7 and throwing his hand in the muck.

I was delighted to slam down my King-High face up and scoop the pot. The guy freaked out slamming the table, but then he was acting like my best friend. He came over and shaked my hand and he was telling the new dealer and his friends about the hand and shaking his head and smiling. I guess I won his respect by bluffing him? I dunno, it seems weird.

We got down to 30 players, with 16 being paid when a sick, sick hand came up. It was BB1000 (100 ante I think) and I raised to 2250 from the HJ with 63o. The European in the CO though for a while before calling. This guy was playing fairly straight-up. I expected him to be folding all of his garbage hands, re-raising me with premiums and flatting with a bunch of medium aces, broadway cards and suited connectors.

The BB also called and we seen a flop of 953 all hearts (I have 6 of hearts, 3 of spade). BB checked, I checked, CO bet 2000 and BB folded. I thought that he'd be betting when checked to here with pretty much his whole range on this board. I was going to check-shove but his bet was so small and I had 18k behind. I thought it would be better to try to check-shove most turn cards, so I called. The turn was an offsuit 4, I checked, planning to shove over his bet, but he instantly announced "all in". There was about 12K in the pot and I had 16K behind, with him having me well covered.

He sat there like a statue while I tried to figure out what to make of his shove. Well, he didn't have a hand that wanted to get value out of so I definitely wasn't drawing dead for starters. He shoved the turn so damn fast. I tried to joke with him telling him that I had a little angel on one shoulder telling me to fold and a little devil on the other to call this maniac with bottom pair. The whole table and the rail were laughing but my opponent was absolutely stoic.

After a very long time I made the call. He tapped the table and said "good call". I was expecting to see something like QJ with a heart or Ax with the ace of hearts for the nut flush draw and a gutshot, something like that. He turned over KdTd and was drawing to only 4 outs. Thankfully I faded and shipped a huge pot.

It wasn't long before we were hand for hand on the bubble with 17 players left and 16 being paid. I was one of the chip-leaders and was raping the bubble for all it was worth. There were guys openly talking about how they were planning to fold into the money. I just min-raised every hand that was folded to me and build a very nice stack never seen a flop. That was until some punk kid got fed up of me and shoved his average sized stack over me with the T9s. Pretty bad timing for him considering that I had AK and snap called. This pot was for a huge chiplead. The flop ran out T93 and the turn was another T, so I got screwed hard. From there the bubble went on for another hour of hand-for-hand play but I was still able to run my stack up from 12BB to 20BB during that time.

The first hand after the bubble burst the guy on my right open shoved for 14BBs from EP. I had AK and re-shoved for 20BB. The guy in the BB then insta called his for 15BB stack. EP guy had Q8o and the BB had AA, siiiiiigh. The flop ran out K96 all clubs and I had the Ace of clubs so I got a good sweat out of it, but brick, brick. I got my last 5BB in the next hand with KT and lost to AQ, so that was that. I finished 13th for $4400HKD and 4 bounties worth $500HKD each. Pretty disappointing.

While I was playing that tourney there was a PokerStars welcome party which I missed in it's entirety. It was very late into the night. I was, however, invited to a small after-party at a music club with about 20 people who were mostly PokerStars staff or partners. I had some fish and chips on order with the Grand Lisboa cafe but was told it would be fine to take it with me because we had a private room at the club.

So I was the first one in the room, and was sitting eating my fish and chips at one of the tables. A short time later everyone arrives to the room and I am still stuffing my face. This one big tall Swedish guy who looked completely wasted stood over me and offered me a hand shake. I smiled and politely told him that I couldn't shake hands right now because I was eating. He just shook his head at me and walked away. I thought that was very rude. I mean, I was clearly eating with my hands, and was very nice and polite about it. Did he really think I wanted to transfer the bacteria from his hands into my mouth?

Every time I use the toilet in a public place I see guys taking a piss and leaving without washing their hands. I'd say its about 50/50 on whether a random guy will wash. Where people are drunk the odds get much worse. I've even seen guys use the crapper and not wash their hands. Absolutely disgusting. So at best it's a coin-flip that if I shook that guys hand that I'd fade germs being transmitted from his dick to his hand, to my hand, to my food and into my mouth. He might as well be asking me to suck his cock, the rotter.

The party was a lot of fun, in a nice big room with 2 tables, leather sofas and 2 big TVs with Karaoke. People were playing drinking games and having a blast. I was the only one that was stone cold sober as I was busy min-cashing that stupid donkament while everyone else was getting drunk. The big drunk Swedish guy shouted across the table at me "HEY, what is your screen name?". So I told him "It's Daleroxxu". He said "WHAT?". I said louder and clearer "It's Daleroxxu". Again, he shakes his head and shouts "WHAT IS YOUR SCREEN NAME?" and again I tell him "It's Daleroxxu".

It was so loud, with music and people shouting and having a good time. It was hard enough to communicate with someone who wasn't even next to me. But he kept asking and I kept telling him. After the 7th or 8th attempt I gave up and told him "It doesn't matter, but my name is Dale". He just snapped and went crazy at me. I could barely understand what he was saying because of his thick accent and slurred speech from being wasted. The guy that was sitting between us sensed trouble and disappeared pretty fast. The Swede moved towards me and started ranting "I could be a billionaire, I could be a businessman for all you know". I'm like "huh"? just completely perplexed about what is going on and what he is saying to me. He screams "I AM A BUSINESS MAN. I AM A RICH BUSINESS MAN". I'm just like "ooooook, why are you telling me this?" and he points to my PokerStars patches and shouts "SO WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU THEN?".

By that stage everyone had moved to the other side of the room leaving this nutcase with me. He just gave me an absolute torrent of abuse. He went on a rant "You think that I am a bad poker player because I am a business man? I am winning player so FUCK YOU. You think you are a superstar in poker well FUCK YOU, you think you are better than me. You are not better than me, *laughs*, in-fact it is the other way around." The whole time I hadn't even said a single word. He's got it into his head that I think he's a bad poker player because he's a businessman but I haven't event spoken since he told me, so rudely, that he was a business man. I was in complete shock about what was happening but at that stage I knew I was dealing with a real mental case.

I have been in situations before where I've been sober and around completely obnoxious drunk people and it's not much fun, but there I was, at a PokerStars party, representing PokerStars, not knowing how to deal with this mad man that was verbally abusing me. I tried to calm him down and ask him why he was saying all this stuff, but every time I opened my mouth he would get madder and louder and telling me to shut up while he is talking. He just kept repeating the same stuff over and over along the lines of "I am very rich", "I am business man", "you think you superstar", "I AM BETTER THAN YOU". I felt like a young Charlie Murphy getting bitch-slapped by the crack-head Rick James as he screams "I'm riiiiich biiiiiiiatch".

I walked away from the cretin and told some of the PokerStars staff about what had happened and pointed to the guy. I asked who he was and was told that he was just a guy called Roger Spets, one of the players. Whew, I thought he was likely to be some parter or affiliate with PokerStars, because that was who almost everyone else in the room was, and was glad to hear that he wasn't. He seen me pointing over to him and stormed over to me and screamed "FUCK YOU" in my face, spitting heavily as he did it. He walked away and came right back and did it again "FUCK YOU", right in my face, covering me with spit. I believe that will go down in history as the only time someone has done such a thing to a Scotsman without receiving a beer bottle to the face in return.

Roger Spets
I said to the PokerStars guys that I can't take this level of abuse, if it was any other setting I'd have killed the guy by now. They need to kick him out right now or I'm leaving. At that stage he came over again and told me to fuck off, flicking his hand about a centimetre from my face. A couple of guys then got a hold him him and talked to him. They brought him over to me and he shook my hand and said that he was sorry. I tried to ask him what he was upset about because I hadn't even said anything bad to him but he wouldn't let me speak. Any time I spoke he would get mad, "I am TALKING, can I FINISH?". I had to stand there for 15 minutes while he constantly shook my hand and spoke a load of nonsense that I could barely understand. He was saying stuff like "You need to know that even when I lose at poker, I win, because my businesses make so much money. I can retire now if I want and I am rich for my whole life."

I know a lot of wealthy people and I don't know one single one of them that goes around telling people how rich they are, bragging about their wealth. Its completely repulsive. It kind of reminds me of that kid in high school that goes around bragging about how many girls he has slept with, when the true number is ZERO. Get the fuck out mate. I couldn't shake the guy off as obviously nobody else wanted to talk to the psychotic bastard, so I decided to just leave. I mean, I am used to crazy Scandies making my life miserable at the table, but I can't allow it happen away from the table. On the way out I found a bunch of people I knew playing on electronic darts machines in a main area of the club so stayed for another hour or so and actually had some fun. So glad the mad Swede didn't completely ruin my night.

Day 6 - The Main Event

The next afternoon I played Day 1B of the $20,000HKD Macau Poker Cup Championship Main Event. There was an excellent structure with the 20K starting stack and long levels.

I lost a lot of chips in the second level when a 40-ish yr old Asian man opened from early position, two players called in late position and I completed from the BB with 8d6d. The flop came 7d5d5h, so flopped a straight flush draw on a paired board. I led out, feeling like I could easily rep a 5 with my BB calling range and leading out looks strong. The initial raiser tanked then called and the other 2 players folded. I figured that he was likely calling me with pocket pairs, overcards with a flush draw, maybe getting stubborn with bare AK or a 98s. He raised from early position so I wasn't expecting a whole lot of 5's to be in his range.

The turn was an offsuit Ace and I fired out a decent sized bet. I thought the Ace would make him more likely to fold any pocket pairs he called with on the flop, as a big part of my range for taking this line that doesn't include me having a 5 would be a nut flush draw with AdXd. He tanked again and then called. I thought it likely that he himself had the nuts flushdraw with AdXd at that point. He could be slow playing something huge like 7's and his tank-call is a big act, but at that stage it felt genuine. The river was a 9 and I lead big again, for just over half his stack, representing that I have at least trip 5's or a missed draw. Since I thought the most likely hand for him to have at that stage was AdXd that would obviously make it seem less likely that I was on a draw and it should be easy for him to fold top pair.

Anyway, he tanked again and then popped his head up and said "OK, I don't think you have a five, so I'm going to go all in". Hahaha, oh shit. It was like a line straight out of the movie rounders. If I actually had something like A5 or 75 in that spot I would be hating my life because it's such a big tell that he has an absolute monster hand. Probably 77 or AA.

Oh well, that sucked. At least I brought back a nice healthy snack from the break :P


I ended up bluffing most of my chips off at BB300 when a young Asian guy opened to 700 from MP, I called out of the BB with AhJd and the flop came Kd8d7h. I checked flop, he bet 1000, I raise to 2700 and he made an uneasy call. I had 11K behind and he had 7K. I though it was most likely that he had a weak top pair. Turn was Qh and I shoved. He called pretty quickly with KJ and I didn't get there. In hindsight it wasn't the best board to bluff at because it was so draw heavy. It seemed like a good idea at the time though, given that it was the main event and people weren't really getting it in for stacks early with top pair.

I was rocking the 12 BB stack for a couple of levels. I then had 10BB and it was folded to me in the SB with 8d6d (same hand I flopped the straight flush draw with earlier). Second time lucky? I moved all in but the BB instantly called with Kh5h and again I didn't get there. GG, sigh.

I think it always feels better to lose a big tournament on a bad beat or cooler rather than a failed bluff, because at least then you can just curse your bad luck rather than beating yourself up about what happened. I tried to cheer myself up with some food at shopping at the Venetian.

The Grand Canal Shoppes has 330 stores and as it's Macau there is no sales tax, perfect. The only problem I had was finding stuff to fit me. In Asia even an XL top is quite a tight squeeze. A bunch of times I would find something I like and then ask for it in a bigger size and they would laugh and say that is the biggest size. Ridiculous.

Day 7 - Sleep and Six Max

I stayed up the whole night playing online and slept during the day until evening, when I played the $10,000HKD 6-Max Event. I was sat with my back directly to the rail which was about a chair's length behind me. There were always a bunch people there and I could hear them talk and practically feel them breathing on the back of my neck. Every single hand I had to duck down and look at my cards very, very carefully and that got extremely tiresome.

The table was very soft except for the one aggressive guy on my left. In the 5th level he 3-bet my opens 3 times in a row and I folded. In level 6 (BB400/25a) I was hovering around the starting stack of 10K and it was folded to me in the SB. I decided that I was going to fold garbage hands and raise with anything semi-decent, planning to shove over him when the aggro guy in the BB 3-bets me. So I looked down at 8h5h and decided that would do. I raised and as I expected he instantly 3-bet me. I shoved and he snapped me off with TT. gg and another big SIGH.

I just spent the rest of the night relaxing at a nearby spa, trying to lose the huge amount of tilt and frustration that had built up inside me over the week.

Day 8 - Poker, Pigeon and Pizza

On my 8th and final day I played Event 9 of the MPCC - $6000HKD NLHE. This table was annoying because I had 2 different guys wearing big headphones and sunglasses taking ages over ever stupid decision like open-folding preflop. Every time I was in a hand they would stare me down. It was hard to keep a straight face because I just wanted to laugh so hard at these clowns.

A funny hand occured in the second level when one of these guys raised, 3 people called and I called from the BB with 8c7c. I check-called a sick JcTc9h flop. The turn was an 8, I checked, the guy stared me down for a minute and made a massive bet. I sighed and mucked. He slammed down KcQc and like he was the freakin man and shouted "I thought you had Queen, I hoped you had a Queen".

I busted at BB200 when I got AhJd in on a JcTc3c flop versus TT versus the other clown that was staring me down every hand. When the cards flipped over he stood up and shouted "NO CLUBS PLEASE". Hahahahaha it must be nice to have to fade runner-runner clubs for a chop, fuck my life. Just as I was putting my jacket on an Ace hit the turn and the whole table started laughing. I would have been some nice justice to go runner-runner boat on his ass after his pleading to the dealer for no clubs, but it didn't happen.

Since it was my last day in Macau I thought I should try some of the local delicacies so found a small cafe and ordered what I think was roasted pigeon. I say "Ï think", because it was one of the few items that didn't have an English description, just a picture. I guess there probably isn't too much demand for it from westerners. So I sat eating a pigeon, complete with head, along with further Chinese delicacies such as coke zero and a club sandwich.


I spent the rest of the evening playing video games at Underground. Because video games are 100x more fun and 1000x less expensive than playing poker. I wanted to round off the night with a trip to Pizza Hut but that hand closed already. So I went to Ristorante il Teatro, the Italian restaurant at the Wynn, which was superb. I was given a table looking out over the Wynn Fountain Show and the food and service was amazing. Unfortunately I ate so much that by the time my main course of pizza arrived I could only eat half of it. It's very rare that I don't finish a meal.

Day 9 - Zài Jiàn (Goodbye)

When I was getting my stuff together to check out of the hotel the next day I had to re-attached the TV to the wall. In trying to do so I accidentally ripped apart one of the cables and couldn't get it back together again.

So the TV basically didn't work.

Time for a sharp exit. I got my deposit refunded at the front-desk and sped off in a taxi towards the airport.


Zài jiàn!

5 comments:

  1. fk me looong post. skimmed thru it. looked like a gd trip m8, n1. wtf is this all about the VAT Refund For Tourists? Tell me more pls? Will me and Greekstein be able to get money bk? email me or something pls mate and let me know the details. also deffo need to too org a trip sometime. laters

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  2. You have to spend over 2000 baht at the same place on the same day then they give you a form to fill out and they sign it. Obv has to be a place that actually charges sales tax like a big legit shop or a mall.

    Keep hold of the forms then as you walk in to the airport, right there, before you go to check in desk, there is a little office where they check the form and stamp it (they asked to see my laptop but not the clothes). Then after you clear security you hand over the stamped forms and get the money back. Easy game.

    I got a few thousand baht back on this trip for my new laptop and clothes I bought the day before.

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  3. Wow...what a few days you had.

    What strange human beings swedes and asians are..I'm sure some are nice.

    Christ though, that Roger swede guy? Is that some sort of joke! I don't think (regardless of where I was) I could of helped but to leather the cunts arse..

    Nice read as always, not sure how you kept your cool, even if it was a pokerstars party.

    On another note, maybe he wanted some "limelight"

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  4. That's exactly what I was thinking at the time ramdeebam.... "Is this some kind of joke?".

    Was expecting everyone to burst out laughing and tell me that I got punk'd!

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  5. Dude, that things have happened! Honestly I hit the Swede if I spit in the face!
    Well there were many people at the party.

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