Poker’s Rising Star In Macau

Macau has been dubbed “The Vegas of the East” and poker has taken this new gambling Mecca by storm. Tony Hachem is presently on a high after landmark continuous victories in the PokerStars.net Australian New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) Player of the Year race, an accomplishment he’s very proud of, he feels he can still do even better at the tables in Macau and Cebu.

Macau is very similar to Las Vegas and is fast becoming a bustling metropolis where players who love gambling can revel in all manner of their favourite casino games.  It has a colourful history and repatriated back to China in 1999, apart from the casinos, what makes this city so unique is that it has gained some form of autonomy and has its own government as well.

A fascinating culture has developed under Portuguese rule, forming a fusion of the best European and Asian cultures-a proverbial melting pot of cultures clearly reflected in some of the city’s most popular card games, baccarat and pai gow poker.  These two games can be played at the city’s glamorous casinos.

Recent years has seen the Macau casino scene monopolised by local tycoon, Stanley Ho, however in 2002 the government issued additional gambling licenses and a few of Vegas’ major casino operators, including the incomparable Wynn, The Sands and the MGM Grand have all opened recent casinos in the card-playing city. With the introduction of Western casinos and a hefty number of foreign visitors, poker’s growth has increased substantially in the city, as a result more poker tables have been added to local casinos on a daily basis.

Tony Hachem is in Macau for one of the region’s largest and fastest growing tournaments, representing Team PokerStars PRO Australia in the Macau Poker Cup Championship.

Macau is clearly regarded by many poker pros as one of the fastest growing and popular new poker destinations where players can hone their poker skills against some of the best in the world.  If one has to take the last year into consideration on how poker as a game has developed in this new poker region, the stage has been set for Macau to topple Las Vegas as the new poker crazed gambling paradise of the world.