MACAU, CHINA, September 6 2010 – PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa held a hugely successful Macau Poker Cup (MPC) from September 1-5 awarding a record HKD $4,512,353 in prize money through the 5-day poker celebration. Three tournaments set personal record prize pools and total player entries crossed the 4-figure mark for the first time with 1060 players registering into the 7 cash tournaments.

314 players entered the Red Dragon main event making it the second largest ever and awarded HKD $2,859,912 in total prize money. The Red Dragon offered a handsome prize of HKD $643,000 for the winner. “PokerStars and Grand Lisboa are always striving to offer the ultimate poker experience for the players.” said PokerStars Macau Operations manager Danny McDonagh, “The team has worked hard and it’s rewarding to see the three biggest Red Dragon events this year.”

After 14 grueling hours on Sunday’s Day 3 Final it would be James McCarty from Japan coming out the victor. When the Red Dragon was down to the final three players it appeared as if local hero Ginger Keong was destined to bring home the title to Macau for the first time. Keong had over half the chips in play and seemed to be grinding down the competition. However, McCarty had a key hand where his pocket aces not only eliminated a player but simultaneously decreased Keong’s stack to 400,000 chips.

The two remaining players entered heads up play with McCarty holding a commanding 7-to-1 chip lead. Keong made some progress moving all-in each hand where McCarty folded. Eventually, McCarty made the call on the fourth shove and showed a dominating Q9 vs. Keong’s Q2. The board wouldn’t improve either player’s hands which meant McCarty would take down the pot and main event.

“I come here (to PokerStars Macau) every couple months and specifically like the deep tournament structure.” said the 27-year old winner, “I feel I played well but also got lucky at the right time .” Photos copyright of PokerStars Macau.

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An exciting Final Round of the Third-annual World Series of Mahjong was held today at The Venetian® Macao-Resort-Hotel. 16 mahjong players battled against each other and after 9 hours of 3 elimination rounds, the World Champion was crowned. Chan Tak-Kwan, a furniture salesperson from Hong Kong, outlasted the other 200 participants from more than 10 countries to win the title of “World Champion”. Pao Jin-Long, another player from Hong Kong, settled for the second place while Yang Xun-Zhi from Taiwan and Li Jin-Dai from mainland China won the third and fourth places in the tournament respectively. It is the first time for the World Series of Mahjong to have players from Greater China playing together at the Final Table.

Chan Tak-Kwan, a 34-year-old furniture salesperson from Hong Kong, becomes the third World Champion from Hong Kong. He has been playing mahjong for over ten years. He was encouraged by his friends to participate in the qualifier organized by Blue Girl Beer in Hong Kong. Then he was sponsored by Blue Girl Beer to participate in the World Series Championship tournament in Macau, and fought his way bravely to the Final Table today. He did not perform very well for the first two days of the World Series, and he was originally in the fourth place at the Final Table. However, just like what happened to the 2008 World Champion, Chan fought over the other three players with confidence in the last few hands and changed his fate near the end. “The first thing I want to do now is to thank my friends who have encouraged me to participate in the Blue Girl Beer qualifier in the beginning. Chan took home a cash prize of HK$180,530, a World Champion necklace, a unique Venetian mask sponsored by The Venetian® Macao-Resort-Hotel, and a free seat in the 2011World Series of Mahjong.

Pao Jin-Long, the 31-year-old first runner-up from Hong Kong, has been playing mahjong for 18 years since he came to live in Hong Kong from America. “My parents taught me how to play mahjong. I think mahjong is very challenging, so it is a very suitable sport for a smart person,” said the confident Pao. He was awarded with HK$155,078 prize money.

Yang Xun-Zhi, the 51-year-old player from Taipei, has been playing mahjong for 35 years and settled for the third place today in the World Series. He had participated in the Second World Series but did not make it to the top 128 players on the second day of the tournament. “So I went home, studied the game rules and practiced hard. Today I can enjoy the fruit of my hard work!”, said Yang proudly. He took home a prize money of HK$124,297.

Li Jin-Dai, the 39-year-old beauty practitioner from mainland China, was disappointed about finishing in the fourth place. “Mahjong is my only interest and I have been playing for over 20 years. I often participate in the national mahjong tournaments in mainland China. Today, I had a leading position at the Final Table, but lost a lot of points to the Champion in the last few hands. Still, I believe I am a professional mahjong player!” said Li, who received a cash prize of HK$112,839.

The World Series of Mahjong was a three-day championship tournament launched in 2006 by World Mahjong Limited, a group of international media veterans and entertainment industry professionals. The World Series of Mahjong gathers top mahjong players from all over the world to vie for the enviable title of “World Mahjong Champion”. Details about the event – registration, rules and regulations, etc – are available on the official website www.wsom168.com.

Photos copyright World Series of Mahjong

MACAU, CHINA, August 9 2010 – PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa hosted the Macau Millions from August 4-8 where the Asia poker tournament record for player field size was smashed.

Entering the first week of August, the record was held by the PokerStars.net Filipino Poker Tour at the Metro Card Club and stood at 679 players. On August 7 the record would officially belong to PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa. Asia’s biggest poker room proudly announced the Macau Millions had a total of 741 entries.

Hong Kong’s Justin Chan was crowned champion along with HKD $275,000 in prize money. The tournament’s one million dollar guarantee was easily surpassed as HKD $1,467,180 was awarded to the 54 players that made it to the Sunday Day 2 Final.

Chan played an aggressive game worthy of the historic event and outlasted a landmine of pros, top ranked players, and title holders. However, the 30-year old MBA student would admit that the turning point came when he got all his chips in with Team PokerStars PRO Raymond Wu. Wu’s pocket aces severely dominated Chan’s AK but two kings on the board saved his tournament life. Chan never looked back as he relentlessly raised and re-raised numerous pots on his way to the final table. By the time heads up play began, Chan had built a 4-to-1 chip lead over his lone remaining opponent, American Tom Chou.

On the final hand, Chan moved allin and Chou made the call with K7. Chou had a slight edge as Chan only held 89. However, the flop paired Chan’s eight and sealed his victory as the remaining cards didn’t help Chou.

For the Macau Millions Winners List please click here.

Despite a definite preference for tournaments instead of cash games this was only the Hong Kong winner’s second visit to Asia’s gaming capital.

“This is my first major poker win,” said a humble Chan. “I was looking online at PokerStars in the Macau tab and joined because I wanted to play a big tournament!”

Chan’s online search paid off as he now moves into into 6th place on the Asia Player of the Year (APOY) Leaderboard. Raymond Wu maintains his number one ranking on the APOY list but now finds 8 other players within 1,000 points for Asia’s most prestigious poker award. PokerStars sponsored Victor Chen from Taipei is one of those players as his third final table in 2010 moved him up to 7th place and fellow Team PokerStars PRO Bryan Huang is a close 2nd.

PokerStars Macau now prepares itself for the Macau Poker Cup which takes place from September 1-5 and features the Red Dragon event with HKD $2,000,000 guarantee.

Photos copyright PokerStars.com

Mike Leven, president of Las Vegas Sands Corp., made an interesting comment that was not pursued enough by those listening to the conference call in the wake of the Sands China results this week. He said the company was having a rethink about its aggressive premium-direct strategy as it was worried about alienating junkets. Sheldon Adelson even said – and, to quote Dave Barry, we swear we are not making this up – that, “We are in active discussion right now since we terminated Steve Jacobs about the wisdom of accentuating the effort for direct premium play.” There is no way that Adelson could not have been the one who pushed that strategy in the first place, so to hear him challenge his own wisdom, albeit at the expense of the departed Jacobs, must mean something serious is going on. Stay tuned.

Used with permission & copyright to IntelMacau

MACAU, June 22, 2010 The world’s mahjong tournament, the “World Series of Mahjong” (“WSOM”), will return to Macao this summer for the third time! The long-awaited tournament will be held from August 19-22, 2010 at the prestigious The Venetian® Macao-Resort-Hotel. Registration begins today at The Venetian Macao, the official registration venue for WSOM. Mahjong players do get ready to step on the glamorous path to stardom in the mahjong world, and enjoy the thrilling experience!

The third World Series will include two separate tournaments, namely, the 3-day single-elimination Main Event World Championship and the US$1,000 buy-in Riichi Rules Tournament. The buy-in fee for the Main Event is HK$5,000 (US$650), plus HK$500 registration fee. The second World Series paid out the highest US$1 million prize money in the mahjong history, while the prize pool for this year will be based on the number of participants in each exciting tournament. The top 32 places in the Main Event will be awarded prize money according to the rankings.

The Main Event Champion will receive the top cash prize, a World Champion necklace, an unique Venetian Mask sponsored by The Venetian Macao, and a free invitation to the fourth WSOM Main Event in 2011. All tournaments are open to any mahjong player who is at least 21 years of age and ready for the money and fame. The WSOM will employ a simplified World Series of Mahjong Rules® for the 13-tile game, and a scoring system that is fair to all different players in the world. For more details, please visit the official website at www.wsom168.com.

Interested players can register for the tournament through The Venetian Macao. Special travel packages will be offered to all participants. For registration enquires, please contact CotaiTicketing™ in Macau (853) 2882-8818, Hong Kong (852) 6333-6660, or visit the CotaiTicketing website at www.cotaiticketing.com.

“We wish to sincerely thank The Venetian Macao for their enthusiastic support of the third-annual WSOM. This enables us to bring together the top mahjong players in the world, and provide them with a brand new tournament experience at a world-class venue,” said Mr. John Hardyment, CEO of World Mahjong Limited, founders of the WSOM.

“The Venetian Macao is proud to host the third annual World Series of Mahjong tournament from August 19 to 22. It is just one more example of our effort to bring the best in sport and entertainment to Macau. With this tournament, we look forward to welcoming the world’s most skilled mahjong players to The Venetian Macao,” said Mr. Mark Russell, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, The Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel.

Schedule:

19th Aug (Thurs): Players check in & practice day

19th Aug (Thurs): Riichi Rules Tournament

20th Aug (Fri): Main Event World Championship – Day 1

21st Aug (Sat): Main Event – Day 2

22nd Aug (Sun): Main Event – Day 3. Final Round

22nd Aug (Sun): Awards Ceremony & Check presentation

Looking back at the numbers for May, there is one that really stands out on the peninsula. And no, it’s not Wynn’s staggering jump from HK$45 billion to HK$60 billion in rolling-chip turnover; we have already covered that in previous e-newsletters. It’s the 30 per cent jump in mass gaming floor revenue at MGM Macau.

We understand there are changes underway at the property at the end of the street that don’t involve rearranging Macau’s traffic grid. With a proposed IPO in the planning, it wouldn’t need a rocket scientist to predict that management there are interested in jacking up their numbers. But what we have heard about so far involves mostly plans for ramping VIP play. We are not aware that anything drastic has been changed on the main gaming floor. Why, therefore, the sudden jump in mass revenue?

One reason may just be blind luck. Visitor arrivals are jumping again from the mainland (up 43 per cent year-on-year in May under the IVS) and it may just have been that a disproportionate number decided to walk the extra few meters to reach MGM, and they lost more there than they usually do. Another more plausible reason is that Encore didn’t just draw new business to Wynn, but also to MGM, whose casino main entrance sits directly across the road. Wynn saw its mass revenues jump nearly 18 per cent in May, and MGM was coming off a lower comparative number, so its surge could largely have been a case of piggy-backing. But another, more interesting reason to consider is that MGM has crossed a threshold of sorts on its mass floor, where critical mass begets critical mass. It’s the old analogy of the restaurant that’s full: passers-by assume it must serve great food, and so they queue up outside, attracting more interest, and so on. We have noticed what appear to be good attendance figures on the MGM floor this month; so perhaps word is getting out that the place has a better vibe.

We can only assume that the gents across the water at City of Dreams must have looked enviously at those numbers going through MGM. Although everyone gained from the rising tide of mass-market arrivals in May, as you can see from the attached charts, there is a closer correlation between MGM and Wynn than there is between Cotai No. 2 and Cotai No. 1. Not that Sands China has too much to crow about, though: its big box on the peninsula has not exactly been keeping up with the Joneses.

We only wish that we had numbers for the Grand Lisboa to put in here alongside Wynn, MGM and Sands. We suspect it would be ahead of all three. Which, in the bigger picture, augurs well for those properties near the intersection of Avenida da Amizade and Avenida da Lisboa, suggesting they are building critical mass among people who walk all three properties, perhaps at the expense of the neighborhood around the ferry terminal. This is a trend worth watching more closely over the coming weeks and months as tourism arrivals continue to grow strongly. Don’t be distracted by the headline VIP numbers: mass is where the margins lie.

Used with permission & copyright to IntelMacau

Visitor arrival numbers for May show visa restrictions are clearly a thing of the past, as mainland arrivals jumped 43%, driven almost entirely by those coming in on the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS). The composition of the 2.09 million visitors in May was largely unchanged in percentage terms: 52% are still day-trippers, and about the same percentage are from the mainland. Growth in mode of transport was evenly spread between ferries and land (16% year-on-year up for each). Noteworthy was growth in air arrivals (up 9.6%), while Indians continue to show their passion for Macau, as numbers more than doubled over last May at 25,000, roughly the same as Koreans.

Analysis: The trend we spotted back in January is continuing, as more mainland visitors realize they no longer need to circumvent IVS curbs by going through travel agencies and getting tour-group visas. Overall, the mass market is where the future lies, but more so for some than others: we note a correlation with good revenues on the mass gaming floor in May for MGM (up a whopping 30% over April), Wynn (up 18%) City of Dreams (up 9.6%) and Venetian (up 8% on a big base). Meanwhile, growth in Indian visitation is continuing to please the folks at Venetian, but not necessarily all of them. Casino management would probably prefer to have Chinese in the hotel rooms, as they gamble a lot more, but mall management is pleased as the shops seem to be doing very well. This source market still has a lot of room to grow, even with the opening of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Used with permission & copyright to IntelMacau Photos source: Macao Govt Statistic & Census Service

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We have been treated to a fabulous time at Encore, Wynn’s new all-suite hotel, these past two days, and so must admit to feeling a little biased towards the place right now. Yet we understand that we are not alone: channel checks suggest that Wynn Macau is on track to have a blowout month and will likely gain market share once the May numbers are released.

It is easy to see why. Wynn has raised the bar again with this property, and it’s a knockout beauty, easily the top of the market for decor, amenities and service. The Golden Flower is a clear choice as Macau’s top Chinese restaurant – as evidenced by the fact that Paul Tse was dining there on Wednesday night and the place was full of people paying easily around MOP2,000 per head. The spa leaves all others inhabiting lower levels of the atmosphere. The suites are luxurious yet not stuffy, and clearly aimed towards the tastes of elite Asian visitors.

More importantly, however, Steve Wynn has chosen to focus Encore’s charms on his own direct-VIP players. The premium mass area is small enough to be cozy for people who like playing just HK$50,000 a hand in cash chips. On Wednesday night it was full of such players. The Wynn Club is the only other gaming facility on the ground floor area of the Encore corner of the property. (There are two VIP salons near the Golden Flower restaurant, but they have been open since last December.) While some junkets are asking to bring players upstairs to the mansions and the top-floor “Sky Casino”, we understand that the management team is (bravely) favoring players who would prefer to play with the house. And there is a 250-strong team of people on hand, most of whom wear skirts, to cater to them.

As we have pointed out before, this business is where the future lies for Macau’s concessionaires as China’s wealthy class are increasingly able to move more of their assets offshore. Margins after rebates are nearly double what they are through the junkets, and win-hold percentages are usually higher as the casino management often makes tougher credit decisions and finds other ways to ensure the loyalty of their customers than the junkets do. Where Wynn Macau beats all other by a mile is its International Marketing team’s ability to source direct-VIP players, particularly in China. This is not a concessionaire that simply hopes whales will turn up on its property; Linda Chan’s platoons go out and aggressively find them.

And that’s just on the table games. We note with appreciation the presence of VIP slot machines in the Sky Casino. It says something about Wynn’s strength in this segment that they have their own rooms that include a dining area and three specially designed chairs for slot whales.

Concerns about concessionaires getting into riskier credit decision-making scenarios are not unfounded in the direct-VIP business, to be sure. But when the market is this hot, this is the segment of it where they want to be. And Encore is the best of the best on offer to these players right now.

Article used with permission and copyright to Intel Macau.com . Photo used with permission and copyright to Wynn Macau