Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Main Event, Day 4

Was a short one, relatively speaking, at the Asia Championship of Poker Main Event yesterday, with the penultimate day of play lasting around seven hours to conclude around 10 p.m. Michael Kanaan of Australia leads with nine to go, with four different continents and eight nationalities represented among the final tablists.

There’s a “High Rollers” event happening this weekend as well, one featuring a $250,000 (HKD) buy-in which equals something like $32K USD. All of the big pros who I’ve seen in other events were playing in that one, plus someone I hadn’t seen this week yet, Phil Ivey.

Sort of interesting to see Ivey in this setting, where unlike at the WSOP there really doesn’t seem to be as much stargazing and hoopla surrounding his presence. Indeed, there are others in the High Rollers who’ve participated in those huge cash games with Ivey here in Macau.

Alan Sass, who has made the final table of the Main Event, has played in those games, too. Sass also played with Ivey in that crazy $2 million (HKD) buy-in “Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller” back in August, finishing ninth while Ivey took eighth.

As I was talking about earlier in the week after visiting the Venetian Macao Casino and witnessing the huge amounts being gambled nonchalantly all around, it’s an environment where a “high roller” is perhaps necessarily a less conspicuous entity. In other words, we’re in a place where Phil Ivey actually has what could be considered “peers” gambling-wise, if you can believe that.

Was kind of hoping to get out for a real sit-down meal last night, even tentatively arranging to do so when it looked like play might end early enough for us to be getting out somewhere near the dinner hour. But alas they went on a little too long, then I was saddled with some extra writing at night’s end that got in the way.

Such is the way it often goes on these trips, where there might be short windows of opportunity to get out and explore here and there, but a lot of the time is taken up working the event and thus mostly experiencing different places and cultures from inside relatively familiar-looking poker rooms.

A week ago I was relating how my flight here (from Chicago to Hong Kong) had been canceled and rescheduled for a day later. That meant rather than arrive here a day early -- and perhaps experience something other than poker -- I was arriving just as the first tournament I was due to cover was getting started. So it was straight to work. And while I have gotten out a couple of times to see the city over the days since, most of those days have been occupied by work.

And I fly in the morning, which’ll mean an early start on Monday to catch the ferry back to Hong Kong. I expect today’s final day to be a long one, too, with the average chip stack more than 60 big blinds to start play this afternoon.

Still, I’m enjoying the experience and grateful for seeing what I have thus far. And for meeting the people I have, too, which has made the trip all the better. Makes the big scary world seem a little smaller and easier to manage. I suppose it’s like Ivey somehow seeming less intimidating when sitting among the other high rollers, the world as a whole becomes a less daunting place the more you see of it.

(Ivey photo via Hong Kong portrait photographer Kenneth Lim.)

Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Main Event, Day 3

Was another day spent strictly inside the Grand Waldo yesterday, about 14 hours of it or so down in the Grand Waldo Conference and Exhibition Centre where the poker room is located.

Day 3 of the Asia Championship of Poker Main Event -- a.k.a. the APPT Macau ME -- lasted the absolute maximum length of time yesterday as they played from 56 players down to 22 and the cash bubble bursting.

They began with a half-hour left in the 90-minute Level 10, with the plan being to get to 22 and the money or stop at the end of Level 16. The structure is super-deep, with 700/1,400 and 900/1,800 levels stuck in there along the way to ensure the average stack was at least 60-70 big blinds for much of the day. So it wasn’t too surprising things took a while.

As it happened, they made it to the end of Level 16 with 23 players left, having gone to hand-for-hand play at the last three tables for several hands by then. The level reached its end and was extended an extra 15 minutes, and in fact it had been announced they would be playing the very last hand when Linh Tran was knocked out in an A-K versus 9-9 hand.

Michael Kanaan (Australia) and Andrew Gaw (Philippines) are basically tied for the lead as of now, with Mike "SirWatts" Watson (Canada) in third. Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu (Chinese Taipei) is still in as well.

This marked my seventh straight day of work, with two more to go. Kind of an arduous schedule, longer than usual for these trips although I know I’ve worked this many days in a row at the WSOP in the past. But as I’ve mentioned before the APPT/PokerStars Macau folks are great to work with, and it’s a fun, supportive environment.

Had a chance yesterday to speak briefly with the last American player left in the field, Alan Sass, for a post. Very nice guy who echoes my sentiment about Macau being a fun place to be. Sass, by the way, participated in that wild $2 million (HKD) turbo sit-n-go in Macau back in late August -- essentially a quarter-million USD buy-in -- and took ninth for a cash worth $705K.

Am also liking very much that the PokerNews folks are here -- Donnie, Remko, Lynn, and Andrew -- as well as others like Jenn who does PokerStars’ Japanese blog.

Speaking of Lynn and Andrew, we shot one of those “nightly notables” videos late yesterday, if you’re curious.

As I say, time is running out here, so I’m cutting this post short today with an idea of trying to sneak in some souvenir shopping before play resumes this afternoon. Check the PokerStars blog today for my posts as well as the live updates from the PN guys.

(Photo above via Hong Kong portrait photographer Kenneth Lim.)

Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Main Event, Day 2

After a short Day 1 on Wednesday, yesterday’s Day 2 of the Asia Championship of Poker Main Event was a long one, starting and ending late. Just 56 players survived the day, and the plan is for them to return today and play down to the bursting of cash bubble at 22.

The start time was pushed back to 5 p.m. yesterday to allow players and staff to sleep a little later following the late night party at the D2 Club in Macau. I said last post I’d link to some video of ElkY dancing to PSY’s “Gangnam Style.” Here’s a post I did yesterday with some pics (including one of ElkY) and a PokerNews video at the end which doesn’t show the dancing but gives a sense of the scene nonetheless.

Having a little bit of time on my hands yesterday, I took a cab to the Venetian Macao Casino located not too far from the Grand Waldo here on the Taipa Island of Macau. Really had no particular plan in mind other than to go see for myself what the world’s largest casino looked like.

After a short cab ride over, I took the main entrance and didn’t have to walk for very long before arriving at the casino that appears to occupy most of the street-level floor. It’s a massive building -- 40 stories high, the largest hotel in Asia, and apparently the sixth largest building, period, in the entire world.

Once you pass the guards and enter the gaming area, the casino extends on as far as you can see. Apparently there are 800 tables and 3,400 slot machines, and I’d spend probably an hour or more just walking around watching.

There were blackjack, craps, and roulette and other “money wheel”-type games. But the most popular games going were baccarat and Sic Bo, the latter being kind of version a roulette with dice. And those tables were packed, especially the baccarat ones, with all seats often occupied plus 10-20 people encircling the players, either sweating the action or placing bets themselves.

Baccarat is a drawing game involving the “player” and “banker” which allows players to bet on either to win (or on a tie), and for which the cards’ numerical value is all that matters (i.e., suits aren’t involved). If you’re curious, you can read the rules here and then visit this site where you can play a free flash version of baccarat to get a better idea of how the game is played.

It took me a while to appreciate the fact that many of the tables I watched had minimum bets of 800 or 1,000 Hong Kong dollars, and in a lot of cases the minimum was higher than that. (I didn’t wander into any of the “high stakes” areas.) In other words, the minimum bet was the equivalent of about $100 USD, although players usually were betting a lot more than that.

Afterwards Remko was quoting a statistic to me about the average wager in Macau being several times that placed Vegas, and searching online I’m seeing various references to that being the case.

I didn’t hang out at any one table for very long, usually just standing behind the crowd and watching a single hand before moving on. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but afterwards wondered if maybe I’d have been considered bad luck had I gotten too close or was too conspicuous with my railing. I suppose I was drawing on these years of learning how to be discreet while watching poker hands being played. Also helped that at six feet I’m taller than most here and thus could easily watch from a distance, standing behind the crowds.

Two players would be designated the “player” and “banker” each hand and thus were allowed to squeeze the cards, which they’d routinely mangle and crease to the point of destroying them, the dealers dropping the no-longer-usable cards in a plastic box for discarding later. All hands featured multiple players betting, and it seemed like most of the time everyone would bet the same way, thus eliciting a collective response one way or the other when the hand completed.

Like I say, baccarat and Sic Bo were really the main games getting most of the action. I did see in one corner some poker happening. I can’t tell you how many tables were reserved for poker, but it looked like only a couple were active. I believe the limits were $50/$100 (HKD).

I’m reading online about how the Venetian casino has different themed areas -- Golden Fish, Imperial House, Red Dragon and Phoenix -- but to be honest I didn’t really appreciate any distinctions between one area and another as I walked around. That is to say, there was a kind of coherence to the design all over the sprawling room, and I felt at times the place resembled a small city with neighborhoods of citizens all focused on their games.

There was smoking, and indeed afterwards I could feel in my lungs having been exposed to cigarette smoke more than usual, but it didn’t seem overly bothersome while I was there. In fact, the casino seemed especially clean with air freshener being pumped through to giving a more mall-like ambience.

I left and explored the shops upstairs for a while, which very much resembled what you find at other hotel-casinos in Vegas. There was the same canal and trompe d’oeil ceiling like you find at the Venetian in Vegas, too. An imitation of an imitation, I guess.

Am glad I looked in on the place, even if only as an observer. I kind of felt like I was in reporter mode as I walked about, even pulling out my notebook to jot down things from time to time. I suppose whenever visiting a foreign country where one doesn’t speak the language one will inevitably feel detached to some degree, but at the Venetian I felt doubly so whenever I considered the amounts being so casually bet all around me.

Back to the tournament today. I’ll probably try to sneak out at least once more either Saturday or Sunday morning to explore some more before I begin the journey home on Monday.

Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Main Event, Day 1

There’s a look out of my hotel window from one of the upper floors of the Grand Waldo Hotel. Looking left, straight out, and to the right. Mainland China, just a few kilometers away. It is foggy out, but warm and balmy, as it has been all week here in Macau.

I probably should be giving titles to these “travel reports” -- i.e., something a little less generic than just noting what day of the event they cover. Usually these excursions are to events lasting just three or four days; thus the non-descriptive titles aren’t so conspicuous. But in this case I’ve come to Macau to cover two events stretching out over nine consecutive days, and so probably should’ve adopted a different convention. I always encourage students to title their papers, after all, telling them how it often isn’t so inspiring to pick up to read something called “Essay 2.”

That said, I would probably have had a difficult time coming up with a title for this particular report. The day was long and varied, and as I sit down to write no particular theme comes to mind that might be covered with some witty bit of wordplay up there in the header.

I’d been up until probably 5 a.m. the night before, and after sleeping three hours or so was already awake and starting to pull myself together for the day ahead. By the time I hopped on the elevator to ride down, Barack Obama was already being declared the winner of the presidential race. He was about to take the podium in Chicago, the place I’d spent my last night in the U.S. before flying to Macau, and so my thoughts were pointing back in that direction when Donnie and Remko appeared to join my ride down to the poker room.

I’d seen Lynn the day before, who is here with Andrew to shoot videos for the event, and knew Donnie and Remko (here reporting for PokerNews) had arrived and so was glad to see them. Not long after we got to the Grand Waldo Conference and Exhibition Centre where the poker is being played, Donnie had the live stream of Obama’s acceptance speech up and running on his laptop, and a group of us gathered to watch and talk a little U.S. presidential politics before starting the day.

Day 1 of the Main Event was relatively short (just six-and-a-half hours’ worth of poker), the schedule purposely arranged to make it easier for players and staff to attend the welcome party starting at 11 p.m. A total of 184 players ended up registering for the 100,000 Hong Kong dollar event (equal to a little less than $13,000 USD), so we’re talking a big prize pool and a first prize worth around $544,000 USD.

Nothing overly dramatic happened poker-wise yesterday. Johnny Chan arrived at the very last minute to play, then busted in short order. Joseph Cheong had a double-up early and ended the day near the top of the counts. Tom Marchese, Kenny Shih, and Danny Wong all built above-average stacks. And all 10 of the Team PokerStars Pros who entered made it through to Day 2.

All week PokerStars has set up this nifty “Mobile Lounge” right next to the tournament area where anyone passing by is invited to play sit-n-gos or take something called the “Zoom Challenge” on iPads. I ended up doing both and writing a fun post about it for the PokerStars blog. As I mention in that post, the set-up is a bit of a trial for an actual $1,000+$25 buy-in “Zoom” event that is going to happen at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January.

Suffered a kind of hilariously brutal beat in the sit-n-go I played -- flopping a set, getting it all in, then losing to a river two-outer to be the first eliminated -- made more risible by the fact that all the players were sitting in a circle in bean bags and chairs playing anonymously on iPads. Thus it wasn’t until I got up to go that anyone knew who had busted.

Like I say, the night ended early and by 11:30 p.m. Donnie, Remko, and I were on a shuttle bus to the D2 Club situated on the second floor of the AIA Tower across from the Grand Emperor Hotel in downtown Macau. (The photo features the Grand Lisboa situated nearby.) The nighttime ride down revealed just how much the place resembles kind of a smaller version of Las Vegas, with some American casinos (MGM Grand, Wynn) mixed in to suggest the resemblance even further.

The scene at the club was appropriately festive, with food, drinks, dancing, and uninterrupted loud music spun by a DJ at a high bpm. I stayed about three hours or so, enjoying in particular Robin Lim, PokerStars’ Senior Events Manager, performing a raucous magic show in which he involved some of the Team Pros and others.

Lim is apparently one of Malaysia’s most famous magicians or “mentalists,” and he definitely kept the crowd entertained, particularly when he got Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and others dancing some Gangnam Style. (I promise there’s some video of the latter which I’ll come back and link to later.)

I grabbed a cab back from the Macau Peninsula to the Taipa Island and the Grand Waldo, getting to bed around 3 a.m. Meanwhile the party continued well into the night/early morning, with the pushed-back Day 2 start time of 5 p.m. -- a “party start,” as APPT President Danny McDonagh calls it -- designed to allow for such.

Am thinking I might take advantage of today’s late start and do a little exploring today, perhaps going to check out the Venetian Macao Casino which is not far from our location. The Venetian is the world’s largest casino and three times the size of the Vegas version. No idea if I’ll find any unifying themes for the day while wandering through the hundreds of gaming tables there or not, but in any event I’ll be back tomorrow to let you know what’s there.

Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Warm-Up, Day 3

Not too much scribblin’ time today, but did want to check in with a quick update.

The Asia Championship of Poker Warm-Up event went late last night, not ending until around 3 a.m., and I was up another couple of hours after that tying up loose ends. Meanwhile, today starts the Main Event with that big buy-in of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $13,000 USD). So between preparing for that -- and being mildly distracted by the election coverage that’s yammering away on the teevee in my hotel room -- I’m not so able to produce a full post today.

Yesterday’s Day 3 of the ACOP Warm-Up played from 18 down to a winner, with Jeff Rossiter of Australia coming out the victor.

Both Johnny Chan and Joseph Cheong made the final table. Chan ended up finishing seventh, having been unable to get things going once the final table started and Rossiter began building on his chip lead. Cheong made it all of the way to third place and could well have won, I think, although by the time they got to three-handed Rossiter’s lead was formidable enough to make a comeback less likely.

They’re optimistic about getting a decent-sized field for today’s Main Event -- probably at least 150, with hopes of maybe even getting to close to 200. There will be a lot of Team PokerStars Pros and other familiar faces in the field today, with a lot more of them familiar to me now that I’ve been here for four days following the Warm-Up.

There’s a welcome party tonight which will provide another chance to get outside the hotel and see a little more of Macau. And the schedule has been thoughtfully constructed to end early today (Day 1) and start late tomorrow (Day 2), which means I’ll probably try to do a little sight-seeing during the day on Thursday, too.

Has been fun thus far, and really I can’t praise the APPT/ACOP staff and PokerStars folks enough for how hospitable and helpful they’ve been. Sure, traveling 8,000 miles from home to go to work represents a helluva commute. And the days have been long and exhausting at times. But once again I find myself in an incredibly supportive work environment, something I’ve been fortunate to experience frequently in the poker world.

Check over at the PokerStars blog to follow the ACOP Main Event today through Sunday. The PokerNews peeps are here now, too, and so there’ll be even more updates and chip counts, plus videos and more.

Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Warm-Up, Day 2

It is Tuesday morning in Macau. My post will be dated Monday, and I know it is still Monday for many of my readers back in the U.S. But I also know everyone is thinking about Tuesday, anyway, so perhaps it is appropriate somehow I write you from there.

I’ve just returned from a visit to the breakfast buffet downstairs, a daily ritual as it includes procuring the two cups of strong black coffee required by me to continue further. On the walk down and back up, I glanced at television screens along the way set to one of the American news channels on the line-up here at the Grand Waldo Hotel (pictured above). The scrolling items and other headlines consistently indicate various pronouncements about tomorrow’s presidential election.

I usually find some nourishment to go along with the caffeine, and during the time I spend down there I’ve been carrying my used paperback copy of Garry Wills’s absorbing Nixon Agonistes. Am about halfway through, and was just reading yet another keen passage in which the author describes American culture and its government.

Not to rehearse the entire argument, Wills here speaks of the significant component of chance that influences success or failure for Americans, then characterizes how government more or less operates to oversee or manage how ideals of rewarding merit or skill or work can be maintained in such an environment.

People “luck” into money, resources, or other favorable circumstances all the time. They also earn those things, too. Yet all are playing the same game, so to speak. Characterizing capitalist society as a kind of contest in which the natural gifts of the “player” and the vagaries of chance are both important factors, those who govern (Wills explains) seek ways to “contrive the systematization of luck,” with political or ideological differences often manifesting themselves according to one’s approach to that task.

It all resonates strongly with poker, of course. In fact this very idea -- about American society being like a game in which luck and skill both matter -- has become a kind of a central tenet for me whenever I am called upon to argue for the peculiar “American-ness” of poker. (One of a few tenets, actually.)

Continuing the discussion, Wills addresses the oft-employed card-dealing metaphor suggested by FDR’s “New Deal” from long ago. “The New Deal was this attempt at systematization.... Some people had been dealt out of the game, or given too few cards, or cards from the bottom of the deck. To protect the game, the government would give everyone a new deal, making sure it was a fair deal....”

The problem, Wills goes one to say, is that the perceived need for “new deals” just keep happening over and over again. “Each time the cards have been newly dealt, we must collect and reshuffle them to allow for the new players who have drifted up to the table; we are endlessly ‘dealing,’ never getting to the game.”

I think back to the tournament I’m covering today, the $25,000 (HKD) Asia Championship of Poker Warm-Up event in which 18 players remain, Johnny Chan and Joseph Cheong among them. We’ll play down to a winner tonight, which will likely mean another lengthy day of poker.

That the game involves a lot of luck has been shown over and over already, just as every poker tournament does. That it also involves skill has been demonstrated, too, of course.

But one thing that’s somehow assuring is the way the rules of the game are maintained throughout. Each “new deal” is made according to the same principles as the one that came before. That is to say, these “new deals” aren’t like the ones the U.S. government is making over and over when constantly changing the game. As Wills judges the use of the poker analogy, “the metaphor is a mess.”

I imagine I’ll get to sleep one more time -- again, probably just for a few hours -- before waking up tomorrow (Wednesday) and tuning in to the American news channels here to see how things are playing out on Tuesday night. If the presidential election is close, it’ll probably still be in doubt by the time I go start covering the ACOP Main Event on Wednesday afternoon.

Of course, no matter who wins the election, the future of the “game” will be in doubt, too.

Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Warm-Up, Day 1b

Good morning once more from Macau, where if I’m following the whole daylight savings situation correctly I am now yet another hour ahead of most of you (Eastern time plus 13 hrs.). Probably will continue to follow this schedule of writing entries in the mornings and thus posting at a time that is late night back home.

Yesterday went well at the tournament, the Asia Championship of Poker Warm-Up event with a buy-in of $25,000 (HKD). Ended up being able to post frequently on the PokerStars blog throughout the day as the Day 1b field whittled down to 71 players, which means a total of 138 will be coming back for today’s Day 2.

Poor Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier got bounced during the first 15 minutes or so of the day, getting very unlucky in a spot where he got his stack in especially good yet the cards didn’t cooperate. That provided an easy first post of the day, with the player who busted him, Artem Lobus, wearing a hilarious message on his sweatshirt -- “Russian Fi$h” -- that kind of provided a punchline to the hand.

Johnny Chan arrived midway through Level 2, and just as he was about to take his seat gave me some time to do a quick interview for a post about him. I’ve covered Chan in several tournaments before at the WSOP, but this was the first time we’d ever really talked and I have to admit having gotten a kick out of it.

Chan was born nearby in southeast China, then moved over to Hong Kong with his family where he lived until he was 11 before they moved once more to the U.S. We mostly just talked about poker in Asia and Macau for the post, although afterwards I told him about my “Poker in American Film and Culture” class and we spent a little time discussing that, too. I explained to him what we covered in the course and how we watch Rounders (among other films). I told him how I’d be going back to tell my class about our visit, and he was genuinely intrigued, asking me questions about the history of poker and other aspects of the class.

I couldn’t resist also asking him about “Full House with Johnny Chan,” but he just laughed and said he couldn’t really talk about it other than to say he was surprised at all the hits that YouTube teaser got.

Chan survived the day with chips and so will be back today along with Joseph Cheong, Dominik Nitsche, Mike "SirWatts" Watson, and several APPT notables. PokerStars Pros Randy "nanonoko" Lew (Online), Celina Lin (China), and Vivian Im (Korea) are still in the mix, too, with Lew returning to a decent-sized stack.

Play finished up around midnight or so, and it took another hour-and-a-half to get all the loose ends tied before we could leave. Then Fred Leung, the Country Manager for Pokerstars here in Macau, took me out to join a crew of players and others at a restaurant not too far from the Grand Waldo.

Today (Monday) is Team Pro Celina Lin’s birthday, and the party was in full swing by the time we arrived. Had a good time eating some sushi and roasted squid while chatting with a few PokerStars folks and some players, too. Had to beg off around 3 a.m. and head back to the hotel while the group left for the next karaoke-related stop. I’m still fatigued from the trip and first couple of days of work -- I’ve yet to really catch up with a full night’s sleep -- but even if I were fully rested I’m not sure I could’ve kept up.

Was great to get outside the hotel, even if only to go a few blocks away, as I’ve been fairly immersed in the work side of things thus far. It’ll remain busy that way for me, but I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get out to see more of Macau over the next week I’m here.

(Photos by Hong Kong portrait photographer Kenneth Lim who is here helping out with the coverage of APPT Macau.)

Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Warm-Up, Day 1a

Good morning, all. Or evening. Or whatever it is.

I write to you from the other side of the longest one-way journey I’ve ever taken, having flown all of the way to Macau, that Special Administrative Region of China located near Hong Kong on the east coast of Asia where poker is happening for the next week-and-a-half. It’s the first ever Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP), an official stop of Season 6 of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT).

As I wrote yesterday from Chicago -- really more than a day-and-a-half ago -- I had a flight delayed for several hours then finally canceled, which meant it took me more than 24 hours just to begin the 15-and-a-half-hour plane ride to Hong Kong. That is about twice as long as any other flight I’d ever flown before.

The route indeed took us up through North America, over the North Pole, and dropped us back down through Asia to our destination. Was seated in a less than ideal spot that prevented window gazing, and thus ended up passing a lot of time listening to tunes, reading, gobbling up the two meals and snacks provided, and watching the programming provided. Saw Wes Anderson’s terrific, inspired Moonrise Kingdom and was suitably transported for that hour-and-a-half.

At about the halfway mark of the flight I marked the occasion with a long chat with a Dutch traveler named Rene whom I’d meant the day before. We’d been scheduled to sit next to each other on the original flight, and during the three hours or so we sat on that ultimately aborted trip had a fun conversation trading stories about our respective pasts and immediate futures. A nice fellow, and I have to admit, between his accent and inquisitive nature I couldn’t help but think of our buddies Frank and Remko more than once, the latter of whom will be joining me here in Macau a couple of days as part of the PokerNews team coming to cover the Main Event.

I also got further along in Garry Wills’ fascinating Nixon Agonistes, a book I picked up a short while before leaving. I mainly did so after having revisited Richard Nixon’s poker playing and thus built up some further curiosity to find more references to it. But the book has proved especially interesting and timely during this run-up to the election on Tuesday. Written after Nixon was first elected and pre-Watergate, it covers the 1968 campaign extensively and thus includes a few mentions and analyses of Mitt Romney’s father, George, one of the Republican hopefuls that year.

We landed about 2 p.m. local time yesterday, and it was a simple matter finding the counter to purchase a ticket for the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau which cost $235 HKD (about $32 USD). (There is a pic of the ferry above.) I think the trip was about 45 miles or so to the Macau Peninsula where I went through customs.

By the time I read JMF’s comment on yesterday’s post, it had been less than an hour after I’d experienced the customs line he described (“Heaving tendrils of humanity!”).

In truth, that wasn’t too terribly arduous, although it was the case that by choosing window #13 rather than #14, I got to spend the wait watching a line move twice as quickly right next to me as the officer expertly stamped people through at a clip much more rapid than the fellow I’d chosen. Thus it took about 45 minutes for me to get through while those who came after me and avoided unlucky #13 were out the other side in 20.

Took a taxi over to to Taipa island where my hotel is located, checked in at the Grand Waldo Hotel (site of the ACOP), tossed my bags in my room, then went downstairs to the tournament where I immediately began pulling together my first post of the day for the PokerStars blog. They’d been playing for a couple of hours by the time I arrived, only starting at 3:10 p.m. local time (rather than the noon start I’m used to with other tourneys).

This had not been the plan, of course, as I was supposed to have arrived a day early, gotten checked in and rested, then been there to start reporting as the first hands of the tournament were dealt. But the ACOP/APPT guys were especially helpful and the scene was fairly relaxed, which made putting in a full day of work immediately after all the traveling easier to accomplish.

Finally got to sleep around 2 a.m. or so, then woke up to weird dreams of presidential candidates playing poker, inspired no doubt by Nixon Agonistes, thoughts of the election which will be happening in my absence, and the poker I’d been following during the hours before I finally rested.

Will be back at it today for Day 1a of the ACOP Warm-Up. Word is Johnny Chan is supposed to be playing today, among other big names (ElkY, Katchalov). You can follow my reports that will be appearing every couple of hours or so over at the PokerStars blog starting this afternoon.

Traveling Travails (Macau Awaits)

Was a day full of teases, I’m afraid, as far as getting to Macau was concerned.

Made my flight to Chicago yesterday without incident, then settled in at O’Hare for a nearly four-hour layover before boarding for the flight to Hong Kong. We made it away from the gate a couple of times, on both occasions under the impression we were really leaving. But both times we went back.

Electrical problems, they said. They even described “restarting” the sucker, which sounded a little like turning a computer on and off after you don’t know what else you gotta mash to make it do. Finally they had to give up, and we got off the plane and waited in the terminal another hour or so before being told our flight would be leaving in the early evening, about six hours after it had been scheduled.

Given food vouchers, we all dispersed then quickly reconvened, this time at a different terminal designed for a much smaller plane than the big 747 we were flying. Or hoped to, anyway.

That meant there were about 60-70 seats when there were something like five times that number of people waiting, including a lot of whiny infants. And, eventually, some whiny adults. That picture above was taken while sitting on the floor, listening with everyone else to the announcements about “cleaning the plane,” and “security checks,” and finally something about a pilot coming in from another flight.

I flashed back to my May adventures trying to get back from Uruguay, and thus already knew some time before the announcement was made that our flight was probably not going to be leaving last night. In fact, others knew it, too, because a few had received email alerts showing the flight had been canceled, which helped ignite a small multi-lingual revolt that was finally quelled by the official announcement.

It would take another hour-and-a-half or so to get shuttled to a nearby hotel where I stayed the night. Now readying to try once more, hoping that we really will leave at 9 a.m. as they said we would. Gonna be missing part of the first day of the ACOP Warm-Up event, I’m afraid, which starts midday Saturday but I won’t be getting there until later in the afternoon.

But I’m rolling with it, not getting worked up. Kind of like when I logged into my Full Tilt Poker account for the first time in more than 18 months a couple of days ago only to see my account balance read $0.00 instead of the $279.85 that had been there the last time I’d logged off in April 2011.

Like those community cards that may or may not cooperate with your holdings, best not to get too upset over that which you cannot control.

That said, wish me luck today in my efforts to fly 7,787 miles to Hong Kong, then catch that ferry over to Macau.

Now... Macau

I mentioned earlier this week I have a big trip coming up. Today’s the day... this morning I leave on what will be the longest journey I’ve taken yet -- for poker or anything else. Following a short flight to Chicago, I’ll be headed to the other side of the globe to Macau to cover a couple of Asia Pacific Poker Tour events for the PokerStars blog.

This Macau stop of the APPT is also known as the Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) and features a couple of weeks’ worth of tournaments. In fact, the ACOP has already gotten started with some preliminary events (here’s the schedule). I’ll be covering two tourneys in particular, the ACOP Warm-Up ($25,000 HKD; ~$3,200 USD) that begins Saturday and the Main Event ($100,000 HKD; ~$13,000 USD) that cranks up next Wednesday.

I know there’s a lot of buzz in that part of the world regarding that Main Event, which features a buy-in bigger than the WSOP ME and sounds as though it will be attracting a large field. And of course, we’ve all been hearing about Macau for some time, which a few years ago overtook Las Vegas as the biggest gambling spot in the world (in terms of casino revenues) and which has been the site of the world’s highest-stakes games over the last couple of years.

All of it will be new to me, of course, as this will be my first go-round on the APPT.

Thankfully I have a couple of days to get up to speed, although obviously a lot of my time between now and Saturday will be taken up with traveling. It’s a 15-and-a-half-hour flight from Chicago to Hong Kong, basically one of the longest flights there is. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe we’ll be flying up over the North Pole as make our way westward. And then comes the ferry over to Macau.

Time-wise I’ll be 12 hours ahead of where I normally reside while I’m there. Will hopefully find time here and there to post a few updates here on the blog, but we’ll see how the schedule goes.

Okay, gotta run. Talk to you on the other side. (For real.)