Macau Trip Report

Traveling to Macau

My flight from Singapore to Hong Kong was my first time flying Singapore Airlines. I've heard nothing but fantastic things about them from friends and while I admit they're pretty good especially in terms of food and economy seats, I still prefer Korean Air by a decent margin. My flight to Hong Kong was delayed by quite a bit and thus I ended up missing the boat to Macau from Hong Kong airport and had to commute to the city centre first and take the ferry from there to Macau. Having gotten there, they told me they had sold out the economy for the next ferry and I either had to wait another 15 minutes or travel first class. I opted to get the first class seat.

On the ferry I sat next to a girl, although seperated by the isle. I asked her how long it'd take to get to Macau. I hadn't actually thought of the fact she probably wouldn't be able to speak English, but surprisingly enough she answered 'an hour' in fluent English. When we got close to Macau she started talking to me and we talked all the way up until immigration where we had to part ways, but Iris(that's her name) gave me her business card and we decided we'd have dinner at some point.

Poker in Macau

I took a cab to my hotel. Cabs are insanely cheap in Macau, but there's no seatbelts, which is kind of scary considering the chauffeurs' driving style. After arriving at my hotel I checked in and got some sleep. The day after I was busy all day with 2 things. First, I found out what the best casino for poker cash games was. Second, I tried to get some money to play with. However, the 2nd was easier said than done, because the ATMs and Casinos in Macau go through Chinese banks and they have superlow limits for foreign cards. I spent a lot of my time calling to my banks aswell as trying different ATMs and casinos. I wasn't able to figure it out completely this day, but the day after I got some help from people working at the Wynn(which is where the interesting cash games are at) and figured it all out.

At this point I played quite a bit of poker. Here's a report that I posted to Facebook of what happened on my 2nd day:

PLO Cash games in Macau are pretty good. There's a 100/200(HKD, so like 10/25 USD) PLO game running daily at the Wynn. The game plays quite tight, but there's not many strong players. For example, there was this 1 lady who basically seemed to think PLO is waiting for AA, then flopping an overpair + nut flushdraw and hoping to hit your flush. And then when she missed, she'd get superfrustrated and call down with her overpair anyway.

The first day I lost my stack in 2 hands, but yesterday went a lot better. Here are the big hands:

1)I got off to a bad start.
Preflop: I squeeze AA77hh from the SB and got 2 callers.
Flop: J87ssc. I check, checks around.
Turn: Qc. I check, 3rd guy bets, I check/jam allin and get called by KQQ9cc.
River is a brick.

2) After this I rebought deep and things turned around.
Preflop: I raise AKK2sshh, the only good player at the table whom I had bluffed off my stack to the day before(so I have a loose image and I know he likes to 3bet IP) 3bets and has me covered. I 4bet, he calls.
Flop: K74r. Pot is about 20k with 45-50k behind. I bet ~11k and he calls.
Turn: 3h, giving me the 2nd nut backdoor flushdraw. I check, he checks.
River: Jh, giving me 2nd nut flush. I check, he puts me allin and I call him off and win.

After this I got unlucky in a couple small pots. Overpair+nfd < wrap allin on turn and another I forgot. Also made a bluff that may not have been so good in a live setting.

Also at some point ended up playing a 175k pot with AA against AA. I flop a nut flushdraw, he flops an oesd, but we both brick and chop.

3) Towards the end of the night I am left with ~85k when this hand happens. Villian has me covered.
Preflop: Hijack raises and I call AcQ8c8 in the CO. Not much 3betting and a weak BTN so I'm happy calling here. 5way to the flop.
Flop: T88hh. Checks around to me, I bet about half pot. A fish calls and another player who seemed pretty good and whom I had run a big unsuccessful bluff against earlier ck/raises very small. I flatcall, fish folds, HU to turn.
Turn: 6. He bets a little under half-pot and after thinking for a little I decide to flatcall.
River: Q. About 75k left and he bets 15k into 23k. I think for quite a while before making it 55k. He pretty quickly puts me allin and I snapcall and win the ~175k pot.
Someone else claimed to have folded Queens, so villian must've had TT. I don't think his river 3-bet is any good, but given my image(everybody knew from table chatter I was an entrepreneur in Tokyo rather than a poker player) he may have thought I raise Q8 there.

So ended up making a very nice comeback (and running very well) and having to get a safety deposit box at the Wynn.

Today I'm playing day 1A of the 25k ACOP Warm-up and tomorrow I'm having dinner with a Hong Kong girl I met on the ferry, but after I win the ACOP Warm-up in a couple days I'll definitely be back at the Wynn for more 100/200 PLO.

 I played the ACOP Warm-up event, but I busted after about 3 hours. Got in nothing but unlucky situations and didn't really enjoy playing a 9max NLHE tournament either. I was pretty bored overall, so decided to definitely not play the Main Event.

Clubbing in Macau

The night after busting the poker tournament I played a little bit more in the cash games, but the game broke pretty quickly. Another poker player invited me to go clubbing and since I had nothing else to do that night I decided to go clubbing for the 1st time in over 2 years. But not before eating dinner and hands down the strangest food I've ever eaten. Chicken feet soup:

It didn't taste bad... but I couldn't get the skin off of the feet and thus it falls in my category of "too difficult to eat"

Clubbing was a decent bit of fun actually. I had a good night, but most likely due to being the center of attention rather than actually enjoying clubbing. I don't plan to go again anytime soon.

Food and Shows in Macau

The next day I had dinner with Iris whom I had met on the ferry. She had booked a 1 Michelin star Chinese restaurant in Starworld Hotel & Casino.

 Some sort of pork and jelly. Special and really good!

 Some sort of chicken. Sadly enough falls into my category of "too difficult to eat", but I have to admit I'm pretty nitty in this regard.

 Fantastic dish! Looks beautiful, tastes even better!

One of the weirdest desserts I've ever had. Quite good, but probably better when it's cold outside, because of the warm temperature.

I still don't think Chinese food is really my type of food, but I can definitely say I had a good meal and by far the best Chinese food I've ever had there. A Mango Prawns dish I didn't take a picture of and the big fish covered with sweet and sour sauce were amazing!

Above all though I had a really good time talking to Iris. I believe we met at around 18:30 and before I realized it, the restaurant was empty and we were the last to leave at 23:00. Awesome, effortless 4-5 hour conversation! It's not often you randomly run into someone like that.

At the end she also insisted she'd pay for the meal, so I promised to take her out in return sometime either in Macau or in Japan. Again, thank you so much for the awesome meal, Iris! It was amazing!

By now it's Friday and it's time to go to the House of Dancing Water show at the City of Dreams in Macau. I had heard some really good things about the show and went there with a girl I met in the club. Admittedly I was slightly distracted during the show, but I'm quite sure I prefer most of the shows I saw in Vegas. House of Dancing Water was good, but shows like Cirque's O and Ka and Blue Man Group in Vegas were better in my opinion. Nonetheless Dancing Water is worth checking out if you're in Macau.

 Motorcycle stunts in a water show were a bit random, but fun nonetheless

On Sunday I met up with Robert, a friend from Tokyo who was also in Macau for a few days, and Sean a friend working in Hong Kong who had come to Macau for one night with his wife Fumiko. Sean had heard about a remote Portugese Restaurant on the southern part of the island away from all the casinos. Sadly enough I didn't take pictures for some reason, so you'll just have to believe me when I say they brought out a lot of tasty food. Near the end we all took a picture together outside of the restaurant.

Me, Sean, Robert, Fumiko

Pictures of Macau!

Midway through the second week of my stay in Macau I had to move hotels. I moved to Hotel Lisboa, where as soon as I arrived I was upgraded to a bigger suite free of charge. SWEET!

 There was even a Radio in the shower!

 Free Minibar and free cable TV

Interesting style, I liked it.

By this time I had gotten a bit tired of playing live poker, of Macau and of being away from home in general. So I planned my trip back home to Tokyo and I decided to go around town taking pictures for my blog. Here's a selection of them:

 City of Dreams

 Sands Cotai Central

 City of Dreams

 Venetian

 Venetian

 Venetian

 Venetian

 Sheraton

 Sands Cotai Central

 Galaxy

 Galaxy

 Grand Lisboa

  Grand Lisboa

  Grand Lisboa

  Grand Lisboa

I don't think I want to know how much this costs

That basically concludes my trip to Macau. I also went to Hong Kong for a weekend, where I had by far the best time during this trip throughout Asia. However, I have to go to a friend's birthday party right now, so I will post a Hong Kong Trip Report some other time soon, hopefully tomorrow.