Nosebleed Poker Games in Macau Dwarf Competition

Reports are coming out of Macau about nosebleed cash games that dwarf the biggest games played in Las Vegas and other poker hotspots. According to reports from tournament director Matt Savage and Tom Hall on the twoplustwo.com forums, cash games during the past week have risen to incredible levels, with the biggest no-limit game featuring blinds as high as HK$50k/$100k – or approximately $6,500/$13,000.

Over the past two years, poker has taken off in Asia, and Macau has been hosting incredibly lucrative games for local gamblers and visiting businessmen. The most recent uptick in activity comes courtesy of the Asian Poker Tour Macau tournament, with Savage reporting that the games began with blinds of around HK$5k/$10k and quickly skyrocketed from there.

Of course, such high-stakes action inevitably attracts professional attention, and some of poker’s biggest names have been taking shots at these games. With the talent on hand, this is certainly not a friendly game; Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and John Juanda have all been reported to be playing in the highest limit games, with Dwan even taking heads up action against a businessman with millions of dollars on the line.

While the games might sound extremely enticing – especially with the play being extremely loose and wild – there are a few factors to take into consideration.  For one, the biggest games in Macau are considered “semi-private.” While professional players have been allowed in to play, their participation (at least in terms of numbers) has been limited somewhat, as the locals don’t want a game completely run by foreign pros. The rake in Macau is also much higher than what players in Las Vegas are accustomed to, with some putting the figures at as high as 4-5 times as high in some cases. Finally, while the play is sometimes wild, the games are not nearly as soft as they were a few years ago; there are now many locals who have more than a passing familiarity with good poker play.

If you’re more interested in checking out the action next time you’re in Macau, rather than trying your luck in these super high limit games, the semi-private nature of the games might make tracking them down somewhat difficult. However, the game is known to move between casinos on a rotating basis, including the Hard Rock, Starworld, and Wynn Macau.