Free drinks... - Review of Casino At The Venetian, Las ...

INTRO
It was a completely spontaneous thing. I was in China on a 2-week trip to visit some relatives and had just arrived in HongKong when I realized Macau wasn't too far away and I had nothing planned for the next couple of days. A 2-hour bus ride later, I set foot in Macau for the first time in my life.
The first thing that struck me was just the sheer number of casinos and the ease of access to them. Shuttle buses were everywhere (mostly free!) and taxis were quite abundant as well (started at 19HKD for the first bit, + 2HKD every 100m I think). I quickly made my way into a couple of the casinos in hopes of hopping into some Holdem. A few attempts later and it became apparent that Holdem was not a popular game in Macau at all and only a few casinos offered it (Venetian, Wynn Macau, and possibly some others). The lowest stakes offered were 50/100HKD (about 6.5/13USD), with the lowest rake being 5% capped at 200HKD. These stakes were a bit higher than the 1/3 and 2/5 I was used to and I didn't have that much cash on me, but I wasn't about to come all this way and not play poker, so I got some help withdrawing money from an ATM at the Wynn and walked in with 20K HKD hoping to not bust 2 bullets in what was likely to be a deep game (25K buyin cap).
Some sidenotes before getting into the main action:
1/ The casinos were all really nice: very well designed, good service (people opening doors and greeting you), air-conditioned.
2/ Some potentially mafia-associated people would approach you on the casino floor quietly asking you if you needed HKD, but a brief shake of the head or ignoring them sent them on their way.
3/ Women would occasionally approach you on the casino floor asking you if you needed 'service'.
4/ No railing the tables if you weren't playing, and also no phones at the tables (you had to stand up to use a phone).
5/ No 1K chips were allowed to play at the poker table (not sure if for all the casinos or just the Wynn Macau). Had to use 100, 500, 5K, and 10K chips, with the dealers giving you 5 and 25 chips as change occasionally.
6/ Mandarin, Cantonese, or English were the only languages permitted at the tables.
7/ Good selection of beverage and food (drinks were free).
8/ No tipping! I tipped an extra 10 at the end of a session and got flashed a funny glance by a dealer. One of the regulars made a joke about me donating to Mr. Steve Wynn.
9/ Tables were all 10-handed.
INTERESTING HANDS
1/ Battle with a Reg: Preflop Edition
18K effective. Good reg HJ opens for 300. I 3bet As4s to 1100 from the BTN. HJ makes it 2700. I 5bet to 5700. HJ tank folds.
2/ Funny Business with My Favourite Hand: Part 1
10K effective. I open from the HJ with JhTh to 300. SB weaker reg calls, BB folds. I cbet 400 on 9h7h5s. SB checkraises to 1300. I tank 3bet to 3300, hoping to fold out some pair or pair+sd type hands. He calls. Turn comes an As. He checks and I jam. He quickly folds.
3/ Funny Business with My Favourite Hand: Part 2
13K effective. I open (same orbit!) from UTG with JhTh to 300. Only a rec UTG+1 calls. Flop comes 5s5h5c. I cbet 200 and get snap called. Turn is the 9h. I lead for 800 and get called again. River comes the 2c. I overbet 5K and get a tank fold.
4/ No Fear
20K effective. Folds to me and I open 5s6s on the BTN. SB rec and BB good reg both call. Flop comes Ks8h9d. SB donks 300, BB calls. I make it 1500 and to my surprise, both call (slightly concerned about BB slowplaying a set but SB is FOS at this point). Turn is an inconsequential 3d, bringing a bdfd. I make it 2700, the rec calls rather quickly and the reg folds to my delight. The river brings the Js and the rec checks after a couple seconds. The best hand he can have here is a straight, but calling turn with a naked QT is unlikely even for this player, so with him holding so many 76, T7, JT, and possibly just Kx, I went for blood and went for a pot-sized 10K bet. My bluff gets through and after consoling the agonizing rec that I indeed had a set, I raked in my chips.
CONCLUSION
Poker in Macau is rather tough, and casinos don't seem super interested in promoting it, with a number of rooms being shut down over the past years. It might have been soft before, but not anymore. I assumed that sitting at the lowest stakes offered the games would be much softer than they were, but though there were still some weaker players, games were significantly tougher than the games I play in Vancouver, which aren't that soft compared to other places in the world. There were barely open limps except from one or two weaker recs, and for the most part, even the weaker regs were sizing and range aware. 3bets were also quite common and I suspect 4bet-bluffing was a thing among a number of regs as well. The overall vibe was more serious and competitive. I sat at 3 different tables over the course of 2 days, and the table composition was usually the same: ~3-4 tight weaker regs, ~1-2 good regs, ~2-3 recs, ~1-2 tight passive OMC, and me. It was an experience I'm definitely glad I had, but to maximize hourly, I'd for sure play elsewhere.
In total, I played 10 hours, and was up +22600 HKD.

Mammoth post incoming..... I read a lot of posts in this thread and others to help me prepare for my first time backpacking in South East Asia, used mostly reddit and youtube to collect information and in return to all the helpful people who advised me, I want to add a bit to the info out there. This was our first time backpacking in Asia but we have both travelled a decent amount, apologies to those seasoned backpackers who might eye roll at the obvious things I point out! And how long this post is! few linked included where possible.
I travelled with my boyfriend (both in our mid 20s) for 7 weeks from Nov 2019 to Jan 2020 covering 4 countries; Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We travelled as a couple, not really looking for the typical hostel/partying experience. I had spots/cities we wanted to stop in picked out more so I could check that our return flight back gave us enough time (bf had job to come back for). For those interest I travelled with 40l backpack (Osprey ladies size I recommend for small gals). and 15l day back and boyfriend had 65l backpack. I really reccommend getting up to date on vaccines and/or visiting somewhere like Nomad travel (UK major cities only) for additional shots. We also bought a medical kit from them which came in very handy and I would buy THIS one (works out cheaper than making your own).
Our original plan was to buy a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh and then use that as our main mode of transport to bike across Cambodia and then finally go to Bangkok, so there's a section about bikes at the end.
I am plant based / have a pretty strong dairy intolerance, so I'll add a section about travelling as a 'vegan' as I found it more difficult to get concrete advice on that before I left.
We are from UK so our budget/prices we evaluated against £ GBP
Hong Kong - this was the most built up and relatively similar experience to our lives at home and eased us pretty gently into travel. I would compare Hong Kong to a metropolitan place like London. We stayed in the Wan Chai district and would recommend the are for first timers. Not as expensive as the Central District and gives more local flavour with the street markets which you are likely to explore or pass through on the way to the MTR. Stay on Hong Kong Island over the peninsula as a lot of activities are there and though it is more compact you get a good sense of what HK is really like.
Prices - cost of restaurants was about the same as home - £8-10+ for a meal. Transport - incredibly cheap, routes often less than £1 or 50p Lots of 7/11 and Circle K with reasonable prices for snacks or eating in
Things we did: - Victoria Peak - there are some views more 'within' the city if you take the giant escalator up and walk a bit further as opposed to going straight to the top - Mong Kok area and surrounding markets - Hong Kong museum - quite dated and nothing on history of recent years but it is free - Hong Kong Peninsula night time view of HK island (symphony of lights show) - Temple Street night market - Dragon's Back - this was easy to get to via bus and a nice welcome break from the city. An easy hike. - Ching Chung Koon, Tao temple - really beautiful temple with turtles, easy trip by bus to visit
Shenzhen - We went to Shenzhen as we wanted to see what China was like and had some intrigue about it being a Special Economic Zone. My advice to absolutely everyone, unless you know of something on the other side you want to see, is do not go.
We read that it was free to enter but you would have to get a short stay visa stamp. We ended up stuck in immigration after getting off the MTR for about 2 hours, first you must go and get a photo and a visa put in your passport which includes filling our a form and being asked a few questions about your stay, then you go downstairs and fill our a landing card, get fingerprinted and then pass through to Shenzhen. There isn't a clear explanation as to where these different rooms are to get the whole process done and you're at the mercy of how busy the waiting rooms are for how quick you get out, no visas would be ready and then they would surge in 10 being ready for collection at once.
Shenzhen was a very homogenous city, we couldn't find any historical sites or areas designed for non Chinese to engage with the local fare, though bare in mind Shenzhen is absolutely huge and we were short on time after arriving later. Tube system is cheap and in English and we used cash to pay. When we tried to use bank cards to take out more money I had no luck with Mastercard, Visa and Visa credit card at more than one ATM. The best part of the trip was a small antique shop in the train terminal with genuine trinkets, pottery etc. The guy was quite fair with our haggling too.
Macau - Again we visited this as another special zone outside of HK. Again unfortunately I don't recommend going. To us, Macau was missing all the parts of the Vegas strip that would make a high concentration of casinos together worthwhile; no smoking indoors, no open carry on alcohol on the streets, no street vendors or anything to create an interesting people-watching street, not helped by how spread out all the casinos were from one another. We visited the Venetian which brought us away from the casinos on the ferry side of Macau, so that might have made a difference. The Venetian at Macau had the same feeling as The Trafford Centre if UK readers are familiar with it. If you have been there you'll have your own opinion about it and use that to inform going to Macau.
Hong Kong Protests - Before leaving for HK I'd been keeping up with the protest news. Though by November the 'peak' of protests seemed to have passed a lot in UK news there were still plenty of reports of violent clashes daily. From digging around online I felt that it was still safe to go but just to be mindful of large groups of people collecting or the university area. Whilst we were in HK we didn't see anything that alarmed us or made us feel unsafe. While I don't think the media outlets were incorrectly reporting protest clashes, the actual volume of them appears to be exaggerated (but that's how news makes money, right..). We saw graffiti at most MTR stations and some bus stations that had english text posters and print outs explaining the situation that were even updated overnight to new developments like Trump's treaty. One mall we tried to go to adjacent to some university buildings was closed and the MTR next to it was all smashed up but other than graffiti we felt very safe when wandering round the city both day and night. I would say the university area probably needs the most caution, but if the MTR is stopping there again then there has probably been improvement.
Vietnam - We flew into Ho Chi Minh city, stayed for about 3 days. I'm curious to return to Vietnam in the North of the country, while the South was very interesting to see I was more than ready to move on after about 8 days. Didn't really get a good feeling out of HCMC; extremely loud, sticky, busy place. The best thing we did was go to the War Remnants Museum, things like the old post office were interesting but they don't really take up much of your day. A phone sim for 2 weeks with unlimited data was easy to get and cost less than £10 I think.
HCMC is a good place to take advantage of cheap taxis and cheap food. We could get a good meal and a soft drink/smoothie for £2.50/£3, grab taxi was about £1 anywhere and £1.50 in a grab car, Circle K essentials like a sewing kit were about £2.
Would recommend the Grab app for getting around - though it wasn't my favourite place we visited, I was really able to appreciate the pace and culture of the city zipping through little side streets on the back of the bike from District 1 down to other places in Chinatown area.
There are plenty of markets to visit, but when you've seen the stuff at one the others aren't really much different and people didn't really want to haggle with us.
We did a Mekong Delta day trip, though I'm not always a big fan of a guided tour this was fun and worth going on. Have a look on a site like Klook and pick something that sounds interesting and in budget - we visited temples, honey farm, coconut farm, held some snakes, traditional boat on Mekong and lunch for about £18 each for everything.
Nha Trang - we visited here as somewhere in South Vietnam by the sea before heading westways for the rest of the trip. It was a much calmer and quieter city than HCMC but I'm not sure I would visit again, very windy in November. An unbelievable amount of Russians here, more built up and developed than I was anticipating too. Long Son Pagoda and Ba Ho waterfalls were good to visit, though Ba Ho seemed to be having a very big touristy development built on it which was a weird contrast to the very difficult to climb and almost untouched waterfalls. We biked to Bai Dai beach - just make sure to take the first turn down to the beach before you hit the strip of resorts being built because it goes on forever and they won't let you through for access to the sand. Beautiful views on the way down but can see the whole area and Vietnam in general being swallowed up by package resort tourism which is a shame.
Cambodia - This ended up being my favourite country of the visit. Though there's not really pavements or waste management or sewage and you can't drink the water etc, but there was little rampant tourism, people were kind, the weather was great and we saw some beautiful places. Phone sim will cost you about $5 and you can only top up limited data about $5 for 8GB.
Prices - Cambodia has 2 currency system with USD and riel though most of the time you're using USD (4,000 r = $1). I felt like because of USD prices were rounded up a bit more so it was still cheap, but more expensive than Vietnam. Eating out probably about $5-7 or more if you're not holding back. There aren't many chain stores in Cambodia so you're at the mercy of individual places for a good selection of snacks and then hopefully not grossly inflated prices especially on Western imports ($2.50+ for pringles?). I did find that pharmacies were cheap. Make sure you haggle with tuk tuks or use PassApp, but that app needs some work so it's often easier to take one that's in the street. In PP/SKampot getting around we paid no more than $3. In SR to go to the airport $7.
We took a bus to Phnom Penh from HCMC which made the border crossing quite easy. We had e-visa already printed out etc but it didn't seem to make our waiting time any shorter but saved us having to fill out any forms at border control.
Phnom Penh - felt a lot nicer than HCMC as soon as we got there really. Still hot and dirty and hassled like hell for tuk tuks but I felt more kindness from Cambodians. Compared to HCMC this was a whole lot quieter and more relaxed. Not every building has a formal address so if you're not staying at a hotel (airbnb) bear in mind you might need more visual instructions to find your stay.
We stayed near the Royal Palace and the area round there, though more for expats was chilled out and there were local markets, not far to walk to temples and sites etc. There are a few hotels in this area with pools if you need to cool off. The one we tried we just took the lift up to the roof no problem, but I had messaged another nearby that said it was for residents only.
Siem Reap - though this city is pretty much here for Angkor Wat tourism I enjoyed being here not just to see the temples. We stayed at THIS airbnb which was very reasonable and probably one of our favourite stays. No pool but there were a few places nearby that were happy to let us use theirs, we just bought drinks and food. There are a few temples in the city near the city where you can see fruit bats all in the trees. The river here is nice, big market, lots of cats.
Angkor Wat: we bought a 3 day pass and went on a sunrise tour one morning and then did our own thing on the other days. Doing the tour means you get up and in for sunrise at the right time and it's good to get some history about the places you're seeing. Angkor Wat temple itself wasn't the most interesting to me and there are hundreds if not thousands of people there in the morning that makes it a lot less enjoyable. We also visited:
Ta Phrom - temple from Tomb Raider Angkor Thom city gates Bayon Temple - this was a cool 2 storey temple that is merged with depictions of Hinduism and Buddhism Preah Khan
You can hire a tuk tuk driver for a day around $15 mark or you can hire electric bikes in SR centre and take those around (tourists not allowed to ride motorbikes in temple complex) $5 for 24hrs. Just make sure to give your electric bike a good charge beforehand as the battery doesn't always read right. There is a restaurant in the complex you can swap your battery at - the whole temple area is an extremely large place, you can be 15mins drive in between spots so plan carefully.
Koh Rong Island - we took a flight from SR down to Sihanoukville to then get the ferry across to Koh Rong. Our flight ended up being delayed by 12 hours (welcome to Cambodia) so we had to stay a night in Sihanoukville and go across the following day. Travelling from Sihanouk airport to Sihanouk we had to wear bandanas over our faces to stop breathing in the dust, even though only one window in the car was cracked, it's hella dirty. If you are travelling from the airport to town I highly discourage taking a tuk tuk or rickshaw; the roads are not well surfaced in a more extreme manner than what I saw in PP and SR, there are a lot of freight trucks which will need to be over or undertaken in order for the journey to not take hours. Taxis are unfortunately the most expensive here and the journey cost $20.
Sihanoukville - I'm told recent infiltration and development of Sihanouk by the Chinese has completely transformed the city in the last 2/3 years at an incredible rate with no care for the local Khmer population. It was possibly the worst place I've ever visited. Dusty and dirty on another level, open building sites and construction absolutely everywhere. Very young looking boy in a digger pulling up the pavement less than 5ft from a busy restaurant. I had to climb up a 3ft pile of loose rubble to get to an ATM because the whole side of the road had been obliterated.
If you are waiting for the ferry on Beach Road and you need an ATM but they're all broken like they were when I was there in December, there is an ATM on the actual pier. I was stressing about taking money out for Koh Rong as I heard there was no way to get cash on the island but when I was there I saw a few places that offered cash out (but I didn't try them).
I reccommend reading THIS reddit thread and the LINKED article by a Chinese blogger about Sihanouk.
I read THIS travelfish article about Koh Rong which was very helpful too. I had an impression from the article that the island is quite under developed, which in some ways was definitely true, however it was easy to do what we wanted and we didn't struggle for places to eat etc. We stayed on the main pier (though really this is still a small strip of restaurants and shops, no resorts) and spent most of our time on White Sand Beach. Koh Rong could not be any more different than Sihanouk and it was a great place to spend Christmas and unwind. We didn't do much other than swim and lie on the beach and it was great! There were boat tours to take but a lot seemed to end with 'free drink and party' and we weren't interested in that. Prices on the island were the same as PP/SR. The only things that were a lot more expensive were activities - someone had a jetski you could rent for $100.. and there was some tree top zip line you could do for about $20.
We visited 4k beach next door which was a lot more remote, beautiful as well but only one option to eat. We came past Coconut Beach when we left on the speedboat and that looked to a bit less than the main pier but still stocked with a good few options. Overall the food we had on Koh Rong was some of the best!
Kampot - A small town/city on the river. Very chilled with a nice central part of town with good places to eat. There are hardly any big hotels or buildings over 3 stories - it felt like a more real Khmer place than somewhere like Siem Reap. From Kampot you can visit Bokor Mountain, Kep, salt fields, a lot of natural escapes. Unfortunately we both got very sudden aggressive gastro-bug or food poisoning so we spent 5 days pretty much inside doing nothing (was going to happen at some point). Kampot was a quiet place and we were able to recover well here though.
Kampot to Koh Chang - From Kampot we travelled to Koh Chang, Thailand. I'd seen some speculation online that it wasn't possible to do this trip in one day, but having done it I can say yes it is but it is a long day. Almost every bus trip we took on our adventure meant that we lost all of the day (no motorways in Viet/Cambodia) however the quality of transport means it can take even longer. Vietnam was good with sleeper or semi sleeper buses, however in Cambodia our 6.5 hour trip from Kampot to the Thai border at Trat was 16 people in a 12 seater minibus plus a baby.. so bear in mind long distance trips in Cambodia can be testing! From Trat border we got a minibus to the bus station, then a songalew/thai taxi to the ferry and then a minibus took us to our hotel on the other side [12 hour trip].
Thailand - Much more infastructure and felt more modern than Cambodia and Vietnam, but I couldn't really get a vibe for the place and felt like a lot had been lost to the prevalent tourism. I would maybe visit again but staying away from coastal areas - if felt like the Spain of South East Asia.
Prices could be a little more on top of Cambodian prices but you could find cheap places to eat. About £5 for a meal. Taxis cost about £3 through Grab. 7/11 and Family Mart very cheap snacks for pennies.
Bangkok - as this was our last stop we didn't travel to many temples or big spots outside the city because money haha... we stayed away from the expat areas, the Museum of Art & Culture had a cool free exhibition, the malls Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon are worth visiting for the food halls and just to see. Where we stayed had a pool so we took it pretty easy. Went to Chatachuk but too much tourist and sweat..
Bikes:
We bought a bike in HCMC via facebook marketplace - I would suggest if you know anyone Viet to get them to help you get the true price because as a tourist you're probably seeing an inflated price tag. If not that it might be possible to get one from another backpacker, but then you may be at the mercy of any damages or issues with the bike they're not aware of as they aren't familiar with bikes.
We took our bike (Honda Cub c 50) to Nha Trang with us stowed in our sleeper bus - we visited a few bus trip/tourist places and one was happy to do it for us. I think for 2 people and the bike was about £23 one way, so not bad at all. You'll have to empty the fuel before it goes in the bus so just remember that at the other end you might have to give your bike a min to run the fuel through it again. We sold it in Nha Trang because it wasn't quite powerful enough to get us around with any bags (i was not in charge of buying bike haha...). Bikes are more than easy to rent in every country we went to for probably £5 a day max. We had a bike in Koh Chang but I know in Thailand there are more rules about tourist rental so I would swerve riding on the mainland. The most hectic place we rode was HCMC so I would just suggest avoiding that if you can, even if you ride in your home country.
We sold our bike in Nha Trang via facebook marketplace. We took a loss but it was more about cutting our dead weight before the rest of our trip so to speak. If you really want to ride a lot in SEAsia, Cambodia has no restrictions on tourists having bikes up to 125cc if you want to play the legal legal route (not that I saw any police in Cambodia over 3 weeks!). A bike is also a responsibility and if you're wanting to feel completely free while travelling it might not be right to buy one. Do thorough research! I travelled with a full face helmet and I was grateful for it on windy rides and hectic places likes HCMC. If you're not planning on riding a lot then this is definitely not essential but finding a full face helmet, that fits, that isn't too bootleg to break on you might be some things to consider (bare in mind I was planning on doing long rides when planning this trip initially).
Veganism / plant based / special diets: As mentioned I have strong intolerance to all dairy products and am generally vegan; I still eat eggs maybe once a week and might have fish and chips a few times a year.
With the exception to intolerances and allergies I think the best approach to eating in South East Asia or travelling in general is be willing to be flexible. I only like to eat plant based, but I'm happy to eat eggs and at a push will eat fish or chicken. This is obviously not what I want to do for every meal but consider that you might be getting places late at night, options that are clearly described in English as not containing your allergens may only have meat in them etc.
When I travelled to Japan and also for all these countries, I wrote 'I cannot eat dairy etc' in English on Google translate and then screenshotted the response in the desired language if I needed to show someone to confirm ingredients. For Japan I looked up pre made examples as I know the kanji can sometimes not translate directly, but here I just had the google translate page as a back up.
Hong Kong - a lot of English spoken here and a lot of specifically vegan places however they are more expensive. At 7/11 they sell the 'Kind' granola bars which are vegan and yummy! and I also ate the ready made egg and rice sushi balls. Some ingredients were listed in English but I don't remember finding any other easy go-to's. At bakeries, of which there are a lot, almost everything appears to be cream filled, buttered, flaky pastry. I found I could eat walnut and raisin breads without any noticeable issues, but I didn't have an ingredients list to check.
Vietnam - in HCMC I was very lucky to be staying down the road from a fully vegan restaurant that had ice cream, vegan banh mi, smoothies etc (Healthy World in District 1, there is another somewhere else in the city). Tofu was on menus and on an English menu in a Viet place I could safely pick something veggie. Asking for a dish to be 'chay' means veggie and that works too. Because everything is so cheap, it seemed to be easy enough to eat here. Desserts were limited with the exception of a vegan shop.
They do have Oreos, in general for all these countries, I hope you like Oreos because they're the only dessert option most place !
Cambodia - Sometimes easy and sometimes not. Tofu did appear on menus, I would recommend trying Tofu Lok Lak as a veggie Khmer dish (it will probably come with a fried egg) and I was able to ask for curries just veggie or with tofu. I ate mostly eggs and toast of some kind for breakfast because that was a filling option. Every city I was in there was at least one vegan cafe or restaurant that was not too much more ££ than a normal meal so I knew at least I could get myself something nice and safely vegan every other day while keeping a budget. I was concerned about Koh Rong being a remote island that I would struggle to eat but this was one of the best places! There is a purely veggie/vegan restaurant on the main pier, as well as other restaurants offering vegan pizza, veggie pad thai, tofu curries etc. I also found a second kind of chocolate biscuit that wasn't an Oreo here!
Koh Chang/Thailand - though we were back to having access to 7/11 the options seemed more limited and Thailand was my least favourite place to eat. In 7/11 I did find a few different kinds of Almond milk (& oreos!) but ingredients were rarely in English. Some options at the food halls were inari sushi, Subway (hash browns) and a few other (but more pricey) dedicated vegan restaurants in the central district.
You deserve a medal if you made it this far - any questions please ask me, thanks :-)

This was my 2nd time to Macau (poker-related) and I have good news and bad news for anyone considering a trip.
The good news: The games are pretty fishy and if you are a decent player you have a good chance of walking away with a profit. Both this trip and last trip I tripled my original buyin over 3 days. This time, won enough to cover my flight and hotels and still have a profit. Didn't get especially lucky either; there were upswings and downswings but I just played disciplined and aggressive poker. Note that I'm talking about the lowest limits (25 - 50 Hong Kong dollars no limit, which is about $3 - 6 USD) so games may be tougher in 50 - 100 or above.
Most players there are weak-tight. 80% of the time there is no pre-flop raise. Post-flop there is more aggression, but you can profit if you learn which type of fish each player is. Some fold too easily, and some call to easily. Once you determine which is which, easy game. A few are good local regs, mostly TAG's. Just avoid getting in big pots with them if possible.
The bad news: Poker is not profitable for the casinos, so more and more hotels are closing their rooms, limiting the number of tables, and upping the limits. Hotel Lisboa used to have a big room with 50 tables or so, tournaments, and lower limits (10-25 I think). Just recently they closed it all down. Hard Rock Hotel also closed their poker room. The reason is that there is a cap for each hotel on the total number of table games they can have, and baccarat is much more profitable than poker. So hotel owners look at the numbers and are ditching or really cutting back on the poker, replacing them with baccarat tables.
As a result, there are only three hotels left that spread poker: The Venetian, the Wynn, and StarWorld (and this may change so check this thread on 2+2 before you go; click last to go the most recent dated post) http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/200/regional-communities/macau-488/ So that's not much of a problem in itself. My biggest gripe is that they only have 5 to 10 tables each, so the waiting list is always super long. First night at the Venetian, I was 18th on the list and ended up waiting 6 hours. That was the worst; but other times it was always 2+ hours wait. So basically, the best strategy is to put your name on a list (early afternoon, like 2 or 3, is best), go eat, come back, sit down, and stay there all day and all night.
Details and impressions about each place:
Venetian: Terrible service. Rude and super slow; plus estimates for wait time were never accurate. Little to no drink service (all costs money). Play is supposed to be softer here but I didn't notice a difference. Limits: 25-50, 50-100, 100-200; NLHE only (others if there is interest) Rake: 5%, 250 HKD cap
Wynn: Excellent service. They send you a text when your name is on top of the list, so you don't have to sit there waiting. Decent drink service, free unless alcoholic. Play was pretty soft at 25-50. Limits: 25-50 up to 1,000-2,000; apparently they spread the highest in the world here. They also regularly have PLO but I think 100-200 was the lowest. Rake: 5%, 200 HKD cap
StarWorld (Poker King Club): I had high hopes but didn't get to play here. You can call ahead and put your name on the list, but if you're not there within 30 minutes of being called, it's back to the end of the line (which is long). They are the only place with a players card. Limits: 25-50 was the lowest; don't remember how high they went. No Omaha. But they have Sit-N-Go's on Fridays and Saturdays. This is the only "tournament" left in Macau. Rake: Don't know
Another thing - not sure if it was coincidence, but most of my profits on all 3 days came between midnight and 6:00 AM. During the day time there were more nit-regs, and night time is when more tourists came out.

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Date: 2012-10-12
Link to submission (Has self-text)

Questions	Answers
What's the craziest bet someone have made?	Hmmm. The craziest would probably be a double down bet on a hard 20. They were playing at a fairly high stakes table and they were at max bet; around 3 grand. They, sadly did not get an Ace.
Why would they double down on a hard 20?	I don't know why they did it. That story of crazy betting was another coworker's experience and not my own but I have seen my own players double on a twenty just not with a few grand on the line. Some do it out of frustration, some just think they can get lucky while others don't know better. I've seen some pretty crazy plays before.
Do you have to announce that to the floor?	Yes dealers ares supposed to announce when someone is doubling down on any hard hand.
Did they do a walk of shame out of the casino or did they keep playing? :P.	They keep on trekking. It's crazy to watch.
What do you say in those instances? Do you try to give people advice if they don't know what they're doing?	If it's obvious that someone has no clue what they are doing, I will try to steer them in the right direction. Our supervisors are the only ones who can give advice, so usually I tell them to help a customer out.
Why wouldn't they split? They can double on the split, depending on the house. ಠ_ಠ	People will sometime split their tens, and we allow for them to do so. Like I said, people do some interesting stuff if they have a "feeling" about a hand or if they are just grasping at straws.
Do you like your job. 2. How much do you make? 3. How do you become a dealer? I need an occupation change.	I do like my job. Some days it is monotonous and mind numbing. Some nights it just plain pitifull watching money fly out of their pockets but it' fun. I make a varying amount each month due to tips but they are pooled so it is roughly 1200 every two weeks. Seeing as how I only work for 4 days a week and I get a 30 minute break every hour and a half, I can't complain. :) As far as how to become a dealer, it depends on the facility. I got lucky and my place trained me for free! Very lucky. I recommend the job for. People who don't mind night shifts. I work 10pm-6am and I love it. Sorry the reply took so long. I'm actually at work right now :)
What is your win - lose ratio? Do you gamble sometimes, outside of your job? What's the pay like - enough to survive?	I don't know any specific numbers but I tried to recount a scenario tonight and I won about every 3 out of 4 hands. Sometimes it's better than that sometimes it's worse. Lots of basic strategy pushers will say that, by playing basic strategy, one can expect to win about 53% of the time. That may be the case, but that is following basic strategy wholeheartedly and probably over a long period of time. i.e. 5-7 hours of playing. I'm not an expert on actually playing and winning the game myself because I don't gamble. Most people expect a dealer to join in after hours, and a lot of my coworkers do gamble outside of our casino but it's just not my thing. The pay is most assuredly enough to survive, considering the cost of living in my area. I really think I have a good gig going.
Have you ever seen somebody completely lose it because of the money he lost?	Oh my goodness, yes. People can go bonkers sometimes. They have become irate towards me and also other players. Most of the time, players will just throw little fits and have weird, mumbling pity parties at the table as if they didn't know what the very essence of gambling entails. I was not there when this happened, but one player flipped a whole table over. He was obviously arrested for that one.
Easy.	Haha. exactly.
How come the dealer wins so often? Edit: Grammar	We win so often because we are the last to draw out of the whole table. Every player either hits or stays before my turn, therefore I have no one left to interfere with my hand when it's all said and done. I think the house edge is something like 5%. But if you play basic strategy, the edge can be knocked down quite a bit.
What's a good strategy for a player?	Good strategy, that I would play by, is basic strategy. It's fairly simple to understand and you can print out a chart online to keep handy. We let our players use them at the tables if they like. In fact, I think some of our stores sell the basic strategy cards.
I never knew you were allowed to used charts.	I don't know if all casinos let you use charts, but mine does. Basic strategy is common knowledge, so it's not a big deal to want to use it.
Thanks for the help. Now to convince the GF to go to Vegas.	No problem. Vegas is awesome.
Do you only deal blackjack? why not the other games? and if you do deal other games, which is your favorite? Craps is my favorite...	I do deal other games, and I'm so happy that I do. Blackjack can get very boring after awhile. I deal Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Holdem, Baccarat and this new game called Pick One 21. We don't have Craps or Roulette yet as they are dice and wheel games and our gaming commission is working on their approval.
What's the premise of Pick One 21? Never heard of it before.	Pick One 21 is like a mush of Baccarat and Blackjack. There are two hands; red and blue and players wager which one they think will get closest to 21. It's pretty simple and it's caught on a bit more where I work.
Truthfully, have you ever taken advantage of a clearly intoxicated player or know of dealers who do?	Truthfully, no I haven't taken advantage of a drunken player. There are so many cameras on a single table, the punishment isn't worth committing the crime. Also, I would feel bad. I make mistakes sometimes and I am always so thankful to the players who point out that I've done something like overpay them. I'd like to think that if I take care of them, they will do the same in return. Doesn't always happen but, it's something I try to uphold. There are a few people that have screwed some people over before. It's just not something I'd be willing to risk my job over. Besides, the drunk ones are entertaining. I want them to come back. :)
A player has pointed out you've overpaid them? I have gambled for a long time and I would never ever ever do this.	Karma.
Ever had one of those crazy high tips?	Yes! It was awesome. I only spend a small amount of time at each table and sometimes I will keep track of my tip balance for that portion of time. I've definitely made a good portion of my paycheck in 30 minutes. Like I said though, we pool our tips so I share that with the rest of the dealers. Pooling is nice, because I've have also made only 50 cents in a whole night...
Is Blackjack even worth playing when the payout is 6 to 5 for Blackjack?	A blackjack payout can be 6 to 5 at some casinos but ours is 3 to 2 or time and a half. The bigger you bet, the better that ratio looks. I'm not too familiar with the 6-5 payout, but to exemplify...A $10 black jack would get paid $12 with 6-5, but with a 3-2 rule a $10 blackjack gets paid $15.
How difficult is it to cheat? I mean cheating in every possible way.	If you're familiar with the game and handling cheques, cheating seems easy. People cap and pinch their bets a lot, and it's something I look for a lot though, I've never caught someone in the act. Card counting isn't really cheating but mostly frowned upon and will get you asked to leave a casino. We have machines that shuffle the cards for us, using multiple decks so it cuts down on that a lot. When and if someone is caught cheating, they are usually asked to leave for the day. If it isn't apparent, casinos love money so we aren't going to turn away a paying customer for more than a day, no matter how shady their plays may be. As far as a cheating player and the dealer is concerned, it is a big part of our job and it is something our pits hold us accountable for. We probably wouldn't get fired for not seeing someone cap their bet, but they will talk to us about it.
Continuous shoe, or just a shuffling machine?	We have both manual shoes and and continuos.
I think you might be thinking of "21" because "Holy Rollers" is about overseas ecstasy smuggling.	Here is a link to the movie Holy Rollers...the documentary one. Link to www.holyrollersthemovie.co Other one sounds good too though.
Any chance you could link me to a the strategy guide that you think has the best success rate? Thanks!	Sure! Basic Strategy is usually the best way to go and it's fairly easy to understand. The link is to a basic strategy chart. The chart tells you what to do based on your number and the dealer's number. Link to www.blackjackinfo.com
Have you ever had any celebrity or famous person on your table?	Personally, not that I know of. Ball players will frequent a lot, so it is possible that I dealt to one of them and never knew... But, famous people do come out and gamble every once in a while. Sometimes a few performers have been known to play a few games while they're in town. I've never had the pleasure.
Do many people try to cheat?	People do try to cheat. It's a very aggravating thing to have to deal with. We work a lot to maintain the game's integrity to keep both us and the player's in good hands, but someone is always going to try to get some sort of edge, be it on the tables or at the machines.
Have you ever had a card thrown at you?	Haha. No, I bet a poker dealer could answer yes to that question tho. Blackjack doesn't allow anyone but the dealer to touch the cards so that would be a feat.
This is not true. Some casinos allow players to touch the cards.	Really? I had no idea. Our casino seems kind of rigid about card handling.
Do you see yourself as a good blackjack player?	I would be terrible at playing the game. I'm much more comfortable on the side of the table with the bank.
I'm going to a charity casino night, I've never been to a casino before or properly played blackjack with other people. Is there anything I should avoid doing? table etiquette? Also is the game basically 21 but with gambling?	Charity events would be the most relaxed to play at (I can only assume), so it's a good place to start. I would look over basic strategy rules and learn when to hit, stay etc. because blackjack is kind of like a team sport. Everyone at the table is affected by what every player decides to do. I've seen people do very well by working together as a team and following strategy. And yes, I believe blackjack has also been called 21 in the past.
Why not the first biggest?	We are only the second because of how a casino's size is measured. It can be measured by square footage, in which case I do believe that we are literally the largest. A casino can also be measured by machine game count, which is why we are second. I think that answer is correct, but from what I've heard we are always neck and neck with other casinos for that spot.
If you live in the US, your casino is not the second largest in the world. Venetian Macau/Marina Bay Sands/City of Dreams are all larger than anything here.	I just know that second largest is how we advertise ourselves. Like I said before, there are different ways that a casino's size is measured so that has to be factored in when considering the rankings.
What is the biggest percentage-wise win youve seen? (for example; starting with $100 and going up to $1000 is a lot more impressive than starting at $1000 and cashing out $2000) Reason im asking; deadmau5 (the DJ) plays bj and some of his wins are pretty crazy. the first time he played for real at the wynn he started with $1000 and cashed out $100K, another time he started with $4K, ran it up to $500K and lost it all, and one other time he started with $4K and cashed out $200K. (he does play marathon sessions though: 8+ hours at a time) Do wins like those happen regularly (if so, i have to start playing bj)...or is he just one very lucky guy? :D.	Quite honestly, people come in and out so frequently and so often that I have never paid too much attention to one person's particular winnings. I know that winning as much as 100K definitely requires wagering big too. That's awesome that the deadmau5 guy has walked away with that much. And yes, I would assume that he won it over a time span a few hours. I think blackjack is a game best played for fun without expecting anything in return. Lots of people come to play expecting to walk away loaded but they are out of the game in around 20 minutes. It's more fun to play, if you are there to just have fun and play.
How does your casino deal with counters? How many decks in your shoe?	I don't really know how our casino would handle a card counter because I've never come into contact with one. But, I know that we take lots of measures to ensure that counting is essentially impossible due to the amount of decks and the shuffling machines that we employ.
worlds second largest casino. doesnt have craps or roulette. What? how does that happen? you would expect a casino that big to have what some would consider some of the most classic casino games...	Yeah, I know that new table games are always being considered but there are so many rules and regulations that come with implementing them that it takes time for the many approvals.
Are there really tough punishments for cheating? Like cutting off fingers and sodomy?	Haha. No cutting off of limbs, as we are fairly new testament in our punishments.
Ever seen a gambler pick up a cocktail waitress? That is, get her phone number, or a date or something? Thef get hit on all the time, so I figure it would be a feat.	I don't know. I'm not a cocktail.
I love playing Blackjack. My goal is usually more to find a fun table and have a few drinks than it is to win big. (Though that doesn't hurt.) My question is this: I try to have fun with the dealers and kinda backtalk a little, but always in a playful manner, never crossing the line. Some of them enjoy this but a lot don't. Is this because they experience this throughout their shift and tire of it or am I just an asshole?	If I were to play the game, I would be like you; have a few drinks and talk to people. It would just seem more fun that way. I don't usually mind it if people joke around with me, but I know that some people do. I look at it this way; it is our job and sometimes people just don't want to be at work so if someone has ever given you the cold shoulder, it's probably because they can't wait to clock out.
I'd imagine you're right for the most part, but people also tend to tip well when they win big, which is something the dealer can't control and doesn't want to happen.	On the contrary, I DO want people to win big. Sometimes those who win big will tip big, and it's always really great to work with them
How can I make money counting cards, without the casino trying to keep my winnings or backrooming me.	I don't know a lot about counting cards. I've never had any interaction or experience with that situation so I don't know how it would be handled but I'm sure basic protocol is to just ask a counter to leave.
Are you going to answer any other questions?	Yes.

Last updated: 2012-10-12 23:23 UTC | Next update: 2012-10-13 00:23 UTC
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