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Showing posts from February, 2009

Getting My Baht Outta Macau and Back To Bangkok

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Spending Your Derelict You(th) at the Poker table-The Helium Report It's been a real crazy week playing my own version of The Asian Poker Tour---Macau is where it's at. What happEND in Vegas now happens in Macau. Poker is not a form of gambling---but Macau gambling is a form of poker; and the Chinese are just getting to know holdem and took huge gambles that rarely, but eventually, payed off---But anyone who gambles in poker can get lucky on one hand 100% of the time. Sex And The Gambling Man In Macau-Denial is a river one outter. A little past playing good is playing badly. I couldn't help myself. It was like potato chips---I couldn't just eat one....I eventually ended up like all the other JOES, played ATC, any two cards...but was hitting flops and winning not just pots but chips. I call that Card Lust . My malignant optimism got to me when I switched games and went to Blackjack. afterall, In Blackjack, there is always a correct decision, a perfect strategy right? The...

The Urban Monk On The Hong Kong Express

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The Kowloon Report -Vintage Chaos 2/27/2009 Where's all that Feng shui in Sardine land's "concrete forest" ? Greetings from the user-friendly universe of Bangkok, to the most densley populated piece of real estate on the planet; at least according to The Guinness World Records, three blocks from the Mong Kok subway station 旺角, Hong Kong. Caffine Central,Bean and Nothingness At some point, inevitably, the "off-the hook-off-the-chain"- extraordinary becomes the ordinary. The steady diet of fast food, the 24 hour news cycle a ka the CNN effect of knowing everything, the napsterization of cutting out the middleman, the tivoization of on demand time-shifted-content. Here comes everywhere again---this time in Chinglish. So it was with Bangkok; and so it is with Hong Kongness. Giant escalator take me "up" to get a cup of coffee from my favorite drug dealer, Starbucks. Coffee is the new tea in China. The Starbucks Effect--Everwhere and Forever has its g...

Winning at The Wynn in Macau-The Wealth Report

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There's No Limit Like No Limit! in Money Heaven Aircrafts (Metal) and Yachts are not the latest fad in Macau---Texas Hold'em is. China’s version of the Forbes list — the country now has 106 billionaires, second only to the U.S---were out throwing away their money on the house games this weekend, but poker is catching on. There are some sick pots being taken down. Tonight, t he Slumdog Chinese Millionaires of Hong Kong are playing deep stack poker 3 Mill. HK Behind them, a credit to conspicuous consumption and a What the F*ck attitude of the global financial crisis--- with a 7 Million Hong Kong Dollar pot just an hour ago, before I broke for the Hotel. I'm staying across the street at the Grand Lisboa--the epitome of bling.In it's hey day, it was the greatest hotel Macau had to offer. Inspired by the lotus – Macau’s national flower, check out this photo , where I played a real Sunday night loose game and was up $600. My hourly rate was $100 US an Hour. Today I went to t...

Khao San Poker-Deja Vu and Amnesia At The Same Time

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Catching up on my reading---David Sklansky's The Theory Of Poker ---in Bangkok.

The Golden Rule

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Instant Gratification Takes Too Long

What happens in Vegas now happens in Macau 澳門威尼斯人

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Viva Venetian Macau For Valentine's Day In a rare display of compassion for casino owners, now that Las Vegas Sands-owned Venetian Macau posted Q 4 loses , Ed Reif has decided to "Go East, Far East", Going on the Dopamine Power Diet—In Search of the “All-In” Button . I'll be headed for Macau. The Venetian is among the city’s largest venues but there's no Poker! The Grand Lisboa is on my hit list and so is The Wynn. I hear the tables are soft as most players are coming straight from the Bacarat tables, with many Chasing ,or staying in a pot to make an unlikely hand, usually (but not always) with poor odds. Poker is a lot like investing---both are games of incomplete information. Graduating from the West point of Capitalism, Harvard University won't inform my poker. Behavioral finance can . If I am to have a Superlative performance, it will not be just the ability to eliminate chance, but also to recognize opportunity. Many irrational poker-player behaviors ...

All Thai'd Up...Again

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Fish is now a vegetable I'm in Vegan paradise---Soi Khao San, Bangkok,with one low price guarantee----an economy class ticket to cool, with complimentary mojo on take off. I have just redefined what it means to be a Vegan--- thanks to a street vendor who curried up som e Padi Thai with octopus and shrimp. "We have located the durian smell to this room, please step aside." Coconut Magic I'm coo coo for Coconuts--- They are anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial. I'm up to six a day.The water is the purest liquid second only to water itself. It is full of electrolytes, calcium and magnesium. An average size coconut has more potassium (at about 294 mg) than most sports drinks (117 mg). Coconut Water has more food value than whole milk; is a Natural Isotonic Beverage - The same level we have in our blood; and, it contains lauric acid, which is present in human mother's milk. Budweiser may be the King of beers, but Durian is the King Of Fruits . You just can...

Gotta Be A Somebody Before You Can Be A Nobody

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Big Yellow Taxi "Paved paradise to put up a parking lot" Wheels Down, I enter Lonely Planet, and wish there were more people. Countdown-3-2-1... Remember the gypsy curse--- May you get what you wish for . Ba-bamm, like rap music, in your face, pedal to the metal, one is none, and I am part of the idea that everyone is better than anyone, kind of an open source chaos for living freely in the land of smiles. All sorts of seemingly contrasting things and peoples share space. Here Comes Everywhere About to get stuck in happy chaos, completely unaggressive, I hardly hear a rude noise or anyone shouting. Nobody cares. The great mingle-mangle flows smoothly and I am about to wonder how so many cars and people can be jammed into such a small space and not one soul seems disturbed. I hit the ground running and grab an Airport Taxi. So many to choose from. I bump into my PokerPlayer friend Dennis coincidently again.... saw him at the layover in Bahrain... He's hard to miss, kinda b...