In recent years the live high stakes cash scene in Asia has been closely linked to one key location, Macau. Reports filtered through of legendary high stakes players trading huge pots with local businessmen, but Asian poker it seems, is a quickly changing landscape. Potential for the game in Macau has been held back by table games being more profitable and popular. It’s not a surprise to see more and more action outside of Macau including in High Stakes.
Latest reports indicate that Daniel ‘jungleman’ Cates, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, along with their friends Richard Yong and Jason Mo, have been spending time in Solaire Casino in Manila these last months. Games as high as PhP2000/PhP4000 (around $50/100usd) for Holdem and Omaha, have frequently been attracting keen players to the tables. A $50/$100 game started to run daily in december. Jason Mo also won a $25,500 WPT high roller event as recently as October, and was seen with Daniel Cates at cash tables around that time. Tom Dwan has arrived there yesterday.
Since the opening of Solaire poker room and the following WPT event held there, Mike Kim has undertaken a real effort to put Manila on the map as an important place for poker games. Offering higher stakes tables compared to other poker rooms is easy enough, but filling those tables consistently can be a difficult task. It appears that the Solaire room has quickly overcome any obstacles in this regard, with PhP50/PhP100 and PhP100/PhP200 ‘walk in’ tables seeing plenty of action.The VIP tables offering PhP500/PhP1,000 are substantially larger than most VIP tables in other poker rooms across the Philippines, and the news of world class cash game players walking in will undoubtedly generate even more publicity for Solaire poker room in the coming months.Normal practice for a new poker room opening is for a tournament series to be held and advertised in order to bring in the players, with a view to having the cash tables filled in the process. Solaire hasn’t had to employ such measures however, with their cash tables seeing an abundance of high stakes action.
With development of casino resorts throughout the continent, Macau could have serious competition as the premier location for high stakes live cash games in Asia.
Read more: Interesting interview “Poker Pro Casey Kastle seew Philippines as an emerging poker hot spot“
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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