The Poker King Club

Looking to get some great poker action in Macau? Whether you are a beginner to the game or a seasoned pro, you will have a great time at the Poker King Club, which is becoming one of the Asia’s most popular poker rooms.

Located on the third floor of the StarWorld Hotel and Casino, the poker room builds on the brand name created by the “Poker King” movie – Asia’s version on the 90’s cult classic “Rounders”.

The poker room is open 24/7 and currently houses 11 poker tables offering Texas Hold ‘em cash games. Available blind levels are 10/25, 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 500/1,000, and even 2,000/5,000, all in Hong Kong Dollars.

The Poker King Club also boasts of private, invitation-only games that features high rollers from all over the world. These games are said to have the biggest pots in the world, reaching millions of Hong Kong Dollars on a regular basis.

It is said to be so big that management is considering building a larger table after complaints by some of the high rollers that their mountains of chips left little room to do anything else on the table.

Even with big games being played at the Poker King Club, new players should not be intimidated. There are friendly poker girls on the poker room floor at all times to teach new players the mechanics of the game.

There is also a training table featuring play chips for anyone who wants to get a feel for the game before dipping their toes in the cash games.

“Poker is already the most popular card game in the world but for Macau we’ll have to try and introduce it slowly,” said Poker King business director Winfred Yu. “However, throughout the years I’ve seen how Chinese players have been learning and developing and I think it’s just a matter of adapting to the game and learning the tips and tricks.”

He said that people who often play at the poker room can avail of benefits through a special membership card program, which is divided into different VIP tiers.

“Through these cards, players can accumulate points when they play a lot which they can exchange for special prizes or promotions. We want to show the players that we really care about them and their experience at our room,” he said.

The poker room also organizes tournaments every so often. In January of 2010, it held the Asian Poker King Tournament at the ballroom of the StarWorld Hotel. A total of 174 players signed up to play in the event, exceeding the HK $750,000 guaranteed prize pool and bringing the total prize money to HK $870,000.

The Poker King Club is located on the third floor of the StarWorld Casino in Macau. For more information, visit their web site here.

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David Benyamine Wins PartyPoker Premier League IV

Competing against some of poker’s elite pros, David Benyamine brought his A-game and emerged to win the PartyPoker Premier League IV, netting himself US $400,000 in the process.

After a week of poker in Las Vegas competing against the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth, Benyamine made it to the final table and eventually found himself heads-up against the outspoken Luke Schwartz.

Benyamine was on the wrong side of the chip count when heads-up play began between the two as he only had 580,000 compared to the 1,320,000 of Schwartz. It didn’t faze him, though, as he quickly doubled up when he got all his chips in with {k-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds} against Schwartz’s {k-Hearts}{7-Hearts}.

Twenty minutes later, with Benyamine already holding a big chip lead, both players were all-in again. On a flop of {5-Spades}{3-Clubs}{q-Spades}, Schwartz moved all-in with {q-Diamonds}{2-Spades}. After some hesitation from Benyamine, he called and showed the superior {q-Spades}{8-Diamonds}. The turn and river did not improve Schwartz’s hand and he finished as the tournament’s runner-up, taking home US $200,000.

It was an experience of a lifetime for the tournament’s third place finisher, Giovanni Safina. After joining a US $120 satellite to the event on PartyPoker, Safina kept winning and eventually found himself as the sole online qualifier in the exclusive, invitation-only tournament. He showed that he belonged as he continued his run all the way to the final table, where he was knocked out just short of the final two. He won US $100,000 in prize money.

The six-player final table at the Premier League IV was composed of Benyamine, Schwartz, Safina, Negreanu, Phil Laak, and Roland De Wolfe. Last year’s champion, JC Tran, was knocked out just short of the finals.

The other players who participated this year were Hellmuth, Ian Frazer, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Vanessa Rousso, and Tony G.

The US $100,000 buy-in PartyPoker.com Premier League IV main event was held from February 12 to 18, 2010 at the M Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

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Gregory Debora Wins APT-Sponsored Chinese Poker Event at LAPC

Canadian poker player Gregory Debora was the big winner in the Chinese Poker tournament at the Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC), which was sponsored by the Asian Poker Tour (APT).

Debora, who hails from Toronto, Ontario, navigated through a field of 57 players to win the event. The Chinese Poker tournament was Event #37 on this year’s LAPC slate. Buy-in was set at US $1,585.

Here is the list of the money finishers from the event:

1 Gregory Debora, Toronto, Ontario, Canada $30,225
2 Kenny Le, Sacramento, CA $16,500
3 Robert Mizrachi, Las Vegas, NV $11,000
4 Richard Lee Fuller, Monroe, WA $7,500
5 Shihu Huang, Monterey Park, CA $5,000
6 William Bryant, Bossler City, LA $5,000
7 Shengtao Gan, Alhambra, CA $3,000
8 Webber Kang, Garland, TX $3,000

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Macau’s Poker Scene Looking Vibrant after Successful 2009

With the new year just beginning, Macau is already gearing up for even more poker tournaments and events to build on a successful 2009.

Last year, Asia’s gaming capital was the site of record-setting poker events from the biggest poker tours in the region. It also saw the opening of several new poker rooms, signifying that local players were steadily becoming more interested in the game.

In mid-August, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) held its 2009 Macau event at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino and experienced a large surge in player participation. Its twelve-day festival of poker featured fifteen side events in addition to the main event, which set a new APT record with a field of 326 runners. The winner was France’s Adrien Allain, who won HK $3,035,000 for his first-place finish.

Over at PokerStars Macau at the Grand Lisboa Hotel, the third season of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau event saw Irish player Dermont Blain win HK $4,194,000 in its main event. Blain was just one of the APPT Macau record 429 players who played in the main event, contributing to the prize pool of HK $16,130,400.

The PokerStars Macau poker room also held its own series of tournaments throughout the year, culminating in a grand finale in December. The poker room’s Macau Poker Cup held four Red Dragon main events in 2009, with each one getting more players than the last.

The first Red Dragon main event, which was held in March, saw its HK $500,000 guaranteed prize pool broken as 112 players entered for a total prize pool of HK $1,052,800. Due to the large turnout, the subsequent Red Dragon events offered a guarantee of HK $1,000,000. It didn’t matter, as player numbers kept increasing, including a field of 247 runners in October.

PokerStars Macau then held its grand finale in December with the Macau Poker Cup Championship (MPCC). Held from December 12-20, the MPCC featured a HK $20,000 main event with HK $2,000,000 guaranteed. The winner was Devin Tang, who defeated Taipei’s Michael Chang to win the HK $727,600 first prize.

2009 also saw two new poker rooms open in Macau. Sun City’s Poker King Club, named after the movie released earlier in the year, opened on October 31 at the StarWorld Casino. Over on the other side of town, The Venetian opened its own poker room in late November, adding to the hotel’s multitude of gaming and shopping attractions.

With more poker rooms and bigger tournaments, 2009 definitely showed just how much poker is capable of growing in Macau and the region as a whole. Already established as the go-to place for poker in Asia, it won’t be long before it becomes one of the biggest poker hotspots in the world.

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Taking Finances into Consideration before Turning Pro

Has a life as a full-time poker player ever crossed your mind? If it has, and you think you have what it takes to go pro, there are a lot of other things to consider aside from how well you can play poker. One thing you have to always keep in mind is how turning pro will affect your finances.

The popularity of poker has increased by leaps and bounds over the last ten years. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) and World Poker Tour (WPT), as well as other televised tournaments, have left an impression on millions of people that playing what may seem to be a simple game can lead to thousands, and even millions, in profit. They see professional players betting and winning large sums of money and think that they, too, can easily replicate the feat.

Being a professional poker player is a lot harder than it looks, though. Out of the millions of poker players out there today, only a fraction of them can really claim that playing poker is their sole source of income. Those that do go on to become poker pros, though, get to live out their dreams of making money while playing the game they love.

If you are serious about being a full-time professional poker player, there are a lot of factors you need to consider. One thing to think about is how ready you are financially. If you do not have a substantial amount of money set aside for poker alone, it will be hard to start a playing career.

When analyzing your financial capability to play poker, there are many things to think about. Can you even afford to make poker your main source of income? Do you have enough money to start a career while having a large amount set aside to pay your bills and expenses? As a general rule, you should at least set aside enough money for almost a year’s worth of expenses. That way, you can focus on playing poker full-time without having to stress over your mortgage, insurance, and other bills if you ever go broke on the felt.

Once you do start your journey as a pro, you have to have good bankroll management. The stakes you play and the kinds of tournaments you enter should all be based on how much money you have set aside for poker. Obviously, you should not be entering a WSOP main event anytime soon when your total bankroll is only $20,000. In addition, you should not be playing in high-stakes cash games with that same amount.

So how much money should you have set aside from tournaments and cash games? For tournaments, you should have a minimum of 40-50 buy-ins for the type of events you want to join. For cash games, you should always sit down at the table with at least 20-25 buy-ins for the level you intend to play at. That way, you will be better equipped to handle all the downswings and bad beats that come with playing the game.

Once you have taken the financial aspect of the equation into consideration, you will be one big step closer towards your goal of being a professional poker player. After all, you cannot start playing poker for money if you do not have enough to begin with.

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