Poker vloggers were very active during the recent months. Daniel Negreanu began to record some nice content, Jake Cody develops his channel (one of the most interesting about poker), Alec Torelli regularly uploads videos e.tc.

We liked one of the latest vlogs of EPT Deauville champion Jake Cody where he visits Asia, Macao, for the first time, participates in exorbitant cash games and Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon Event tournaments.

Tom Dwan should teach basics of marketing and branding. Why? Because he does it better than anything. How many years has passed since he disappeared without a trace? 4 or 5? And people still remember him, still express interest in him, build some theories: “He was enslaved by triadas”, “lost his bankroll”, “lost $30 million in one hand” e. t. c.

So what does Tom Dwan do now? Does he still play poker? Is his body in a gutter?

As you might know, gambling is officially prohibited in China. It doesn’t stop poker enthusiast though. Just like in any other country where gambling is prohibited, the Chinese think of their own ways and tricks to bypass the law. Besides, donэt forget about many underground games around the country.

At the moment, official poker life in China is centered in Macao, and is quite poor in comparison with Vegas, for instance. This comparison isn’t correct even. Vegas is head and shoulders above Macao.

For the first time in two years (starting June, 2014) Macao casinos showed positive economical results. In comparison with August, 2015 gambling facilities earned 1.1% more – $2.36 billion total. This fact may seem insignificant but in reality, things get better than it seems. Wynn Palace casino opened in the region Cotai, and Parisian Macao (Las Vegas Sands) will open its doors in the middle of September.

“Macao economics is now in the period of spreading cost and increased competition in conditions of aggressive macro environment“, says Jaime Suh, Daiwa Capital Markets analytic.

Las Vegas, next to Macao, Singapore and other Asian countries starts the technical revolution. Huge areas (in terms of Western countries) are given to the building of the “stadium-type” complexes: tens or even hundreds of people are able to simultaneously play blackjack or baccarat against live dealers.

It all started in 2012 when big casinos of Macau started to try to find a solution to the problem of limited gaming space and a limit for a number of tables.

Malaysian company is going to build a new casino complex in Sihanoukville at the south of Cambodia. Resort city has about 15 gambling facilities functioning and the Chinese are having a nice close look to it.

Asia can’t stop surprising us. While Atlantic City gets bankrupt, gambling corporations in Cambodia and Vietnam have huge plans. On the March, 1^st Malaysian company SV International got approved from Cambodian authorities to invest money into new huge project in Sihanoukville: sun and seashore, casinos, hotels – all together as usual.

There is even motivation video on this topic:

The issue with gambling license is still up in the air. Salient Ventures company, which belongs to SV International, have already announced they bought the license, the finance minister of the country says otherwise.

Today new poker variant named Six-Plus Hold'em (6+ holdem) is going to get to one of  the biggest networks in the world – iPoker. That game resembles standard Texas Hold’em with adjustments made to satisfy Macao high rollers’ interests.

6+ holdem was first introduced to masses by Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan, we’ve written about this in summer last year. You should remember this as poker Macao creates a lot of headlines in recent years.

Professionals were addicted to this filled-with-action game in Macao where they still spend lots of time.

If Six-Plus Hold'em was only high rollers room exclusive guest, from now on it’s available in online poker rooms, or at least one online poker room for now.

Player who has earned $17 million just stopped playing NL Hold’em and Omaha at the highest stakes. The reason is the most trivial: “I don’t beat ‘em”. This player’s name is Patrik Antonius…

In his latest interview, Patrik Antonius told to one well-known poker resource some interesting things.

1. The world of live high rollers has seen better days

The Chinese, according to Antonius, more and more play by themselves (organize private games and do not invite others). They only begin poker movement on Philippines; there is no regular game yet.

There is no game in London, Macao, Vegas. It used to be better back in the days. That is the reason Patrik Antonius plays poker so rare. Sometimes sits out for months. However, it’s not the best part.

Macao just can’t meet the demand of gambling from the Chinese. And considering economical drop-down trend of gambling giant, the situation will soon get out of control. Moreover, there are plenty casinos now just outside Chinese border, although the country authorities prohibit junket tours to their citizens

June has become the 13^th straight month when Macao profit decreases. More to that, profit of the worlds gambling center is now as low as it was five years ago – that is the lowest for a very substantial period of time. Profits are decreased by 36%.

What’s important, most of the major clients of Macao are Chinese, over 60% of total number. Beijing finally started to realize the problems of the independent territory. Some changes were made last month to make conditions of staying in Macao more comfortable for Chinese: you can stay for 7 days there now (used to be 5) and now they can go there twice a month (only once a month earlier).

But that’s not going to cut it.

It is only 2-hour flight from Macau to the Philippines capital Manila.  But there are no fewer differences between these places than between any twin brothers – that means plenty. At least if we’re talking about poker development. Ivey, Dwan, Cates, Yong, Mo and many others started to visit Manila more and more often.

October last year new poker room of Solaire Casino in the city Paranac (Manila agglomeration) hosted World Poker Tour stage for the first time. There were two tens of quite huge tournaments, including $2,200 Main Event and $25,500 High Roller.

Despite continuing decrease of earnings of Chinese casinos big cash game in Macau is rolling full speed (well, almost as good as always). Sometimes stacks of players consist of tens of million dollars and there is not enough room for all the chips.

Unreal game in Macau isn’t going anywhere. The best pros in the world together with the most powerful and richest businessman are still there. They don’t talk about it much. Players won’t benefit from it, especially in modern day realities of today’s China: there is big war against corruption – almost everybody is getting tested.

But some info comes through. And here it is.

In addition to the enormous tower-hotels, several shows of world standard, numerous entertaining centers and a few hundred gambling tables City of Dreams has one more trump card: the only PokerStars room in Macau.

Short Profile:

The name: City of Dreams or CoD Macau

Its owner: Melco Crown Entertainment

Location: China area, Macau

The square of gambling halls: 39,000 m²

Opening year: 2009.

The top-of-the-range casino in Macau, the largest one, the most famous one, the most beautiful one. The seventh largest building in the world has everything inside of it: gondolas, shops, boxing matches, poolside cocktails, baccarat and even poker.

Summary:

Name: The Venetian Macao

Owner: Las Vegas Sands

Location: Cotai Zone, Macau

Total area: 980,000 m2

Opened in: 2007.

In June the Macau casino suffered the first year on year revenue decrease in five years. The new trend has continued in July and August, and the crisis is gaining momentum.

In August the world gambling capital sank 6%: the revenue amounted to $3.6 billion. The black spot expands with every new report. It wasn’t enough that Macau hadn’t seen revenue drops for the last five years, but now it is a trend.