Macau Poker Low Stakes

Learning Poker: Table image over rated in low stakes? 6: July 11th, 2020 9:05 PM: Tournament Poker: High stakes vs, low Stakes: 8: May 5th, 2020 3:00 AM: General Poker: High stakes players playing. I'm out in Macau for some high stakes poker action and coaching. Join me on this YouTube live and call into the AskAlec show to get your questions answered l. Next time you get the opportunity though, there are many reasons why you should take a seat at a live poker table and play some cash games. Depending on the location, most card rooms will have cash games at relatively low stakes that should suit all poker bankrolls. Take your seat and take a look around the table to see who you are up against. Live Low-stakes NL Discussion of up to 3/5. The trappy style of Macau poker players makes it very difficult to extract value from opponents essentially coming down. The newest poker room in Macau is proof that the game is gaining in popularity. Poker Kings also runs it, and you'll find it well designed, comfortable and staff who are calm and collected. You'll also find the cheapest stakes in town with stakes available at HK$10/20. The room is open twenty-four hours a day.

1. Macau Poker Low Stakes Results
2. Macau Poker Low Stakes Odds
3. Macau Low Stakes Poker
4. Macau Poker Low Stakes Horse Racing

In Macau, the fabled no-limit hold'em high-stakes cash games, which take place at the Poker King Club and have run as high as HKD $30,000/$60,000 (USD $3,850/$7,700), have captivated the poker world for well over a year, yet specifics surrounding these games seem to be under lock and key. Sure, we know that high-stakes pros like Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, John Juanda and Sam Trickett have flocked to the game, but what do we know about the players who attract these sharks?

Macau Poker Low Stakes Results

Information regarding these “rich Chinese businessmen” is scant, but a recent event, the €50,000 Majestic High Roller, at the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe shed a little light on these mystery players. I happened to be at the Casino Barrière for the duration of the WSOPE, and while I didn’t cover the High Roller, I was an interested observer, given the lineup. You see, while the event was open to everyone, it was put together thanks to support from Richard Yong and Paul Phua, two of the aforementioned businessmen whom you may recall from this summer’s $1 Million Big One for One Drop.

“Guys like [Richard] Yong and [Paul] Phua are accustomed to playing really big. But 50,000 euros is already huge,” said Ty Stewart, executive director of the WSOP and vice president of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, in a September interview with PokerNews when the €50,000 Majestic High Roller was announced. “We looked at the high-roller and super high-roller tournaments out there, how many distinct players each achieved, and felt that €50K would give the tournament the best chance.”

From what I’ve observed, Yong and Phua seem to be the two major players from Macau, or at least the ones who are capable of organizing games and inspiring players to partake. Thanks to the former’s final table appearance in the Big One for One Drop, where he finished in eight place for $1,237,333, Yong has spent the most time in the spotlight of the Macau contingent. Little is known about Yong, though his WSOP bio for the Big One for One Drop shed a little light: “Richard Yong is a 54-year-old businessman from Asia who currently resides in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has many businesses worldwide, his main ones being data mining and IT-related companies. Richard has participated in the highest buy-in cash games and tournaments around the world. Richard was a part of the Million Dollar Cash came in Melbourne, Australia.”

Likewise, here’s Phua’s limited WSOP bio: “Paul Phua [whose real name is Wei Seng] is a 48-year-old businessman from Asia who currently resides in Malaysia. Phua travels around the world and has competed in some of the highest buy-in tournaments and cash games. Phua was a part of the Million Dollar Cash came in Melbourne, Australia.”

Phua’s background is just as veiled, but an Oct. 20, 2008, article from macaubusiness.com offered a little more information. According to the report, Phua became a crucial piece in the casino chess came between gaming tycoons Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. The former managed to recruit Phua, a well-respected “promoter,” from the latter, a move that helped Wynn Resort thrive in Macau.

Here's the relevant part from that article: “The promoter used to work exclusively for Sands Macao, but is now serving rival Wynn Resort. The Malaysian junket agent received a 1.1 percent base commission on the amount of chips that his players bought in Sands Macao VIP rooms. According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, Phua managed eight VIP tables at the Sands Shanghai Room and was responsible for 36 percent of Sands Macao's total VIP room turnover of US$12.8 billion dollars during the first three months of this year. Wynn Macau reportedly will pay Phua a 1.2 percent base commission. Phua also works with the Australian casino Burswood, as well as Genting Highlands outside Kuala Lumpur.”

While they're largely shrouded in mystery, one thing is clear — both Phua and Yong are loaded. In fact, while I was at the WSOPE, one of the floors told me the following when I asked how Yong made all his money: “I have no idea, but let me put it this way. That guy over there is the biggest player Caesars Palace [in Las Vegas] has ever had in its history.”

These men may largely drive the action, but the man responsible for organizing the games, at least as far as the high-stakes ones at PKC are concerned, is Winfred Yu, business director of PKC. “The Big Game is Winfred’s baby and the players call him to let him know when they will play,” AJ Brock, the Chief Operations Officer at PKC, told pokerportal.asia in an interview.

Yu is not only an organizer of high-stakes games, he’s also a poker player and bubbled the WSOPE High Roller. “I was born in Hong Kong before immigrating to Canada with my family when I was 14. I then went to university there, taking up math and statistics. So basically, I got something that was related to poker, so that’s how I first started playing,” Yu told Asia PokerNews in a 2009 interview. “Because of the spread of poker’s popularity into places such as Sweden and Russia, I thought that China is definitely one place where the game can grow. I wanted to bring the game to the market and show that the Chinese can definitely be good at poker. Chinese people like to gamble and at the same time they are very interested in a lot of challenging and skill games. Also, a lot of them are very good at math, so that helps as well.”

Interestingly, Phua, Yong, and Yu finished first, second, and third respectively in the 20-player £100,000 buy-in High Roller tournament at Aspinall's private gambling club in London, which took place the week before the €50,000 Majestic High Roller. Phua took home the £1,000,000 top prize, Yong collected £570,000 for second, and Yu took £300,000 for third.

Of course those three men aren't the only rich Chinese businessmen players in action. A host of others joined them in Cannes for the €50K including Wang Qiang, Lifeng Chen, Sheng Sun, Zheng Tang and Fung Cheung, though information on these players is scant at best. Because I've never personally witnessed games at PKC, I can't guarantee that all these players play the big game, but I believe it's a safe deduction given their associations and ties to Macau that they do. Here’s some of the information floating around in cyberspace regarding these players:

• In 2011, Wang Qiang played in the Million Dollar Cash Game at the Aussie Millions and followed that up by busting on the bubble in fourth-place in that year’s $250,000 Super High Roller.
• There is a Lifeng Chen who is President of VanceInfo Technologies Inc., but whether or not this is the same man is unknown.
• Sheng Sun took third in the HKD$95,000 NLHE High Roller at the APPT Macau back on November 26, 2011 for HK$610,700 (USD $78,461). He also finished third in the HKD$1,000,000 NLHE Manila Millions Asian Poker Tour—Manila on April 20, 2012 for HKD$4,650,000 (USD $599,153).
• Zheng Tang finished runner-up in the APPT—Macau HKD$88,800 NLHE High Roller for HKD$666,700 (USD $85,854) on May 18, 2010. He also took fourth in the 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge $258,000 NLHE Super High Roller for $2,233,531.
• Fung Cheung first caught my attention at the European Poker Tour Barcelona €50K High Roller as she was the only woman to enter that event. While she didn’t cash, Cheung did managed a 37th-place finish in the 2012 WSOPE Main Event for $27,724. Cheung is also a close friend of Phil Ivey, whom she traveled with during the WSOPE.

There’s no doubt that Macau is a hotbed for poker, and with men like Yu, Phua and Yong driving the action, it shows no sign of slowing down. The veil of anonymity the Chinese businessmen and players donned in the safe confines of the PKC are slowly being stripped away, a process that has been exacerbated as they venture outside Macau to places like Vegas, London, Australia, and Cannes in search of action. Who knows, maybe one day these players will embrace the unsolicited celebrity thrust upon them — it’d certainly be good for the game.

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Enjoy Online Poker at Low Limit with this Detailed Guide

You don’t need to be a high roller to enjoy online poker. In fact, there are more cash games and tournaments available at the lowest stakes than big buy-in games. This guide takes you through everything you know to get the best from low limit poker sites – including a strategy overview for the different game formats.

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What Counts as Low Limit Poker?

In a live casino, the smallest stakes poker games are $1 / $2 – with a buy-in of $200. When you go online, you’ll find the games start a lot lower than this. Almost every online poker site will have games with 1c / 2c blinds. Your maximum buy-in for these is $2, though you do not always need a full stack. As you can imagine, play is loose and wild at these levels – making the games easy to beat.

If the penny games are too small for you, there are always options to play ‘bigger’. Cash games have buy-ins at $5, $10, $25, $50 and up from there to the high stakes. You’ll find that the standard of play dramatically improves at 10c / 25c blinds and above. This is the smallest level that multi-tabling grinders use to generate an income.

Tournaments start with buy-ins at 50c to $1. Those games often attract large fields of recreational players. To win in those games you’ll need to survive a lot of bad beats. Low limit tournaments are available anywhere between $2 and $10. Above this level you will find players who sit in a lot of games and have a decent level of strategy knowledge.

For the purposes of this guide to small buy-in tournament poker rooms, I’ll cover deposits between $10 and $50.

Pros and Cons of Low Limit Poker Sites

Getting started with online poker is easy, even with the smallest bankrolls. While there are a lot of benefits to starting small, there are also some drawbacks. Here is what to look out for:

Pros:

Macau Poker Low Stakes Odds

• Easy to beat games: With so many opponents having no concept of poker strategy, you should be able to turn a profit.
• Big Choice: Not only can you enjoy all the formats at low-limits, there will be a big choice of tables – meaning you can find plenty of profitable situations.
• Bonuses and Incentives: Poker rooms offer welcome bonuses for the smallest deposits (as well as bigger ones). Look out for extras like tournament entries and beginner-only tables.

Cons:

• Frustrating Beats: The nature of players at the smallest stakes means you will inevitably get bad-beats. Opponents with any 2 cards sometimes get lucky and crack your aces. Keep in mind that solid play will get you the money over time!
• Big Tournament Fields: Low-Limit tournaments tend to attract huge fields. While this increases the prize pool, it also means you’ll need to play for many hours to have a shot at reaching the final table.
• Loyalty Tiers Harder to Climb: Poker site loyalty schemes require you to collect points from real money games. At the lowest stakes these can accumulate slowly.

Macau Low Stakes Poker

Low Limit Poker Cash Games

Cash games describes the poker format where the chips in front of you have a real monetary value. If you win a $10 pot, then your bankroll increases by exactly this amount. There are 4 main formats for these games at almost every poker site:

• Full Ring: These games are 9 or 10 handed.
• 6-Max: Six players this time, with 4-max also spread at some sites
• Heads-up: You can play cash games against a single opponent
• Fast-Fold: This format includes names like Zone Poker or Zoom. You go to a new hand as soon as you fold, with players from a large pool.

All poker sites have a huge choice of games at these limits. They are characterized by loose, passive play, with a lot of players seeing each flop. With only small amounts of money at stake, players are reluctant to fold. If someone connects with the flop even slightly, or has a draw, you can expect them to call bets all the way to the river.

Strategy for beating these games is simple. You’ll get an immediate edge on the field simply by playing fewer hands. By folding more often, you will have a card strength advantage when you do get pots. Avoiding the ‘passive’ (limping and calling) style – and playing your good hands aggressively will win you the money. Add to this awareness of playing in position – and your edge will be magnified.

Macau Poker Low Stakes Horse Racing

Low limit cash games are high-variance. With so many opponents calling bets with marginal holdings, there is always the risk someone will ‘catch up’. Keep in mind that this style of play will lose them money over the long-run. As long as you stick to solid ‘ABC Poker’, you will profit over time.

Small Buy-in Poker Tournaments

The smallest buy-in poker tournaments are free. Known as ‘freerolls’, these games are used as promotions or loyalty rewards. At the bigger sites, you’ll be battling with 1000’s of opponents for some real money prizes. Fields in these are a mix of people who simply don’t care (going all in every hand), and players with little idea of poker strategy. Getting to the money is tough, as you’ll have to survive spots where opponents playing any two cards hit unlikely flops!

While there is a jump in the number of players who take the game seriously once you get to tournaments with real money buy-ins, the standard is still poor. Loose, wild players in the early stages create a dilemma. Playing against them is risky, as you never know what hand they might turn up with. At the same time, if you don’t take their chips, you’ll have to fight for them in pots with better players during the later stages.

Again, simple, solid ‘ABC Poker’ will win over time. Play better hands (on average) than your opponents – and play them aggressively from position. You need to build a stack, as the profit from tournaments comes from those times you hit the final table. Playing overly tight to get into the money is not a profitable strategy over time.

There are a lot of tournament formats to choose from at the lower limits. These include rebuys, turbo games and tournaments where each player has a bounty – awarded to whichever player knocks them out. I recommend checking out satellite qualifiers. These start from just a few dollars, and have prizes of tickets to bigger buy-in tournaments.

What Other Low-Limit Poker Games are Available?

Sit N Goes are a great way to build your small deposit into a bigger bankroll. The most popular format is a 1-table tournament. 3 players get paid, with the winner getting 50% of the prize pool. Strategy for these is different to a multi-table tournament. You’ll need to stay tight earl – and learn the math for the all-in or fold strategy when only one or two players need to be eliminated before the cash.

Lottery Sit N Goes are a fast and enjoyable variation. These games allow low-limit players to win big prizes. The key feature is random prize pools, which are decided after the game starts. The exact format varies from site to site, though 3 handed and super-fast blinds is the common theme. It is possible to win 10,000x your buy-in via these games.

It is not just Texas Hold’em that can be enjoyed for a small buy-in. Omaha poker variations are rising in popularity. These games have 4 hole-cards instead of 2. You can play ‘Pot Limit Omaha’, Omaha Hi-lo or even exotic 5 and 6 card variations. Blinds start at just 1c / 2c – making these games accessible to even the smallest bankrolls.

Depositing at Low-Limit Poker Sites

If you are only depositing small amounts, you will not want to pay fees (which could take up a large percentage of your bankroll). In general, the smallest amount you can deposit is between $10 and $20. This will depend on the site, and the method you choose to deposit with. I recommend you check the bonus terms before you make a payment. You might find that adding a small amount to your deposit gets you extra benefits like tournament entries or matched welcome deals.

US players can deposit with Visa or MasterCard credit cards, prepaid Visa cards, Bitcoin or money transfers (for example MoneyGram). If you are outside the US, there are many more options available. These include PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, local bank transfers and virtual visa cards.

The guide to small deposit poker sites here at GambleOnline.co has details of these options.

Which Low Limit Poker Sites are Legitimate / Safe?

Every player likes to make sure that the poker room they deposit at is safe before parting with money. Fortunately, there are a lot of options out there with rooms which have been running for many years – and looking after players fairly and responsibly.

Poker rooms have a big interest in maintaining their reputation for fairness. Once this has gone, the poker playing community will soon move elsewhere. You will find reviews of the biggest and best brands here. For US players, I recommend you check out Bovada Poker or BetOnline – both sites have been running for years and are known for fast pay-outs.

International players have a huge choice. This includes many rooms which were around since the beginning of online poker and have remained scandal-free throughout. Party Poker, 888 Poker and Bet365 all have big brand respect – and welcome low-limit players to their rooms.

Wrapping Up: Is Low-Limit Poker Right for You?

Enjoying online poker does not need a huge bankroll. Games start with blinds at penny-levels, and tournaments at less than $1. The low standard of play, and lack of strategy knowledge of your opponents at these levels means you should be able to beat the games. Keep in mind that the loose / passive style (and many opponents seeing each flop) can be frustrating – especially when a bad player gets lucky and hits that miracle river.

With solid, aggressive play, and a view to the long term – you could be moving up to the bigger buy-ins before you know it!