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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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Taking Finances into Consideration before Turning Pro
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.
Looking to make the most of your bankroll? Sign up with Asia PokerNews to get all the best bonuses, freerolls, and promotions from the top online poker rooms!
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.
Looking to make the most of your bankroll? Sign up with Asia PokerNews to get all the best bonuses, freerolls, and promotions from the top online poker rooms!
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