Macau Cash Game Stories and Pics by First-Hand Participants

Ever since 2010, when @Tom Dwan @Phil Ivey and @John Juanda joined some Chinese businessmen in a high-stakes private game during the Macau Asia Poker Tour, @Thomas Hall (who actually invited them there) has been the main source of information on the Macau Big Game. He has been handing it out sparingly, mainly on the 2+2 thread, but recently gave a more generous interview for PokerNews, which made the round of the poker world web and rekindled interest in #macau.

We have collected a number of related tweets, pics, anecdotes and hand histories told by participants in the Macau Big Game. Please feel free to add more stories and links!

Tom Hall (twitter@hongkongtom888) has been the main source of information about what goes on in Macau since 2010! The following are some excerpts from his forum posts, tweets, and interviews:

..Got to the table and even at first glance, I’m like “Holy S…” what is going on here. Two well known international pros have got giant stacks in front of them and the rest of the table were all Asian players. There were literally so many chips on the table that there was no space to play. Pic attached below as a sample. The guys have been playing for 2 days with the odd 4 hour break here and there.

..The length of the sessions are also legendary with 20-30 hour sessions with a 6 hour break and then being repeated 4-5 times relatively common. One of the players has been known not to move, I mean not to go the restroom, eat, drink or shift position in his chair (other than pick his cards up and bet) for 8 hours.

..Slow rolling is also not frowned upon either and is sometimes the cause of great amusement. One of the funniest I remember was when one player was all in, and the other tanks for ages, then gets up and goes to the toilet and is gone a good five minutes and then comes back to call with the stone cold nuts. This was all taken in good humor.

Sam Trickett on winning his first big pot in Macau:

We were now playing 3-handed and a good aggressive player opens the button to 60k. I make it 220k with JT diamonds from the SB and a loose aggressive player cold calls from the BB, and the button also calls. The flop came 345 with two diamonds. (I won’t be explaining my thought process as much as I have in previous blogs/articles.) I now check and SB bets 440k and the button calls and I call. The turn was the 6 of diamonds, and every body checked, I’m obviously now feeling pretty confident my hand is good. The river was the 2 of hearts so there was now a straight on the board 23456 (3 diamonds) I now check and BB bets 2.2m which was roughly as pot size bet and the button called. Sometimes I could just call here but because the way the hand had been played out and I knew the other 2 players in the pot were capable of calling light and they were also aware that I could bluff in this spot as everyone checked the turn. So I moved all-in for around $7.7m and the BB instantly showed his expression and was not happy. Made me feel great obviously and after a long tank he called the extra $5m.

Now the button started tanking saying he had a 7 and was wondering if the BB had called for the chop. He eventually folded and I raked the biggest pot I have ever won which was around $16m, which was about $2m USD pot. It’s actually not the biggest pot I have played and I have lost a few pots bigger than that where I took some nasty beats but it was certainly amazing to win my 1st big pot…

Andrew Moseley, who has been called "poker's best kept secret":

..I once worked for Tony Bloom for 6 months after I finished university-choosing bets for him and one day told him I was going to Macau for a look around. He knew the guys who ran the huge game there and said he would get me into the game.

I turned up and they pulled a seat up for me. I gave them a lot of action, played as long as they wanted and even tried to help the businessman out by talking through their hands with them. These guys are not stupid. They know they are underdogs but just love the game. They know I am there to make money and talking to them keeps me in the game, and they appreciate it.

These days the game has gone really silly. When I started playing we were playing £500/£1,000 but these days it’s grown to £2000/£4000. Just putting five buy-ins together is going to cost you £2 million. I don’t mind playing in huge games but you are going to need a £50 million bankroll to play in that game, otherwise it’s stupid how much action you would need to sell off to play.

..Once I didn’t hear/understand someone say “all in” when they bet just one chip and proclaimed “all in” into a MASSIVE pot on the river, so I snap called it off with my one pair thinking I was calling about 1 % of the pot. I then look up and see the guy flip a bluff, shake his head in disbelief, and then push his whole stack towards me.

Tom Dwan and the $25 Million Win Thread on Twitter:

@Alec Torelli "..Spent way too much time in this poker room... First time I see the light after 48 hours #vampire #poker#macau"