Archive for December 2007
Genting Highlands- First Poker in Malaysia
December 20, 2007
After a few days in Thailand with Jack Fox, David Lamb, Maryann, and I, Savage Tournaments headed to Malaysia and the Genting Highlands which is 6000 plus feet at the top of a mountain which is a amazing place to see with over 10,000 rooms, a theme park, over 90 restaurants, and a huge shopping complex, not to mention a sprawling casino with too many VIP rooms to count. There is definitely something for everyone at the Genting Highlands. We were scheduled to stay on property for 15 days and the goal was to introduce the great game of poker to their cardholders over two weekends, the first for their two lower tiered players and the following weekend for their VIP players. They made it easy to qualify for this tournament with the hopes that players would sign up for a game that few had ever tried or even heard of to that point. Amazingly the tournaments sold out after just one day giving me hope that the players would have some understanding of the game going in. As it turns out it was a great experiment in introducing poker to Malaysia. We were again using dealers that were first timers trained by Savage Tournaments expert trainers Justin Huxley and Kyle Morris one month earlier. I am impressed that you can teach dealers a new game and without any live experience they are able to perform at an acceptable level and there attitudes are better than most dealers I have ever worked with.
The top management at Genting Highlands shows a unique passion for the game of poker and with their enthusiasm I believe poker will thrive in their market.
Upon completion of the card holder tournaments the focus has already turned to 2008 and the likelihood of a couple more of these style events and then a major open tournament hopefully in September. We are already planning a tournament schedule that will include a $1,000,000 guaranteed 1st place prize and a relatively small buy-in. Plus two more large buy-in events with $1,000,000 guaranteed first place prizes. Please stay tuned to SavageTournaments.com for more information or send me and email at Matt@SavageTournaments.com.
Macau-Asian Poker Open
December 19, 2007
Macau is an amazing place and a real "Gamblers Paradise" From the time that you arrive; you see how different it is than Las Vegas. There are no extravagant water fountains, mega shows, or over the top expensive restaurants, Macau is the real "Sin City". We arrived in the Hong Kong airport at around 10pm, too late to take the airport ferry to Macau so we had to take a taxi to the 24 hour ferry the problem was that my wife, Dave Lamb and I were packed for one month and their taxis are built for light travelers so we had to take two. We arrived at the ferry terminal with our bags in hand and paid for the executive ferry seat which I think means that you have a seat. Opened up the destination Macau magazine and saw my picture included in it with a story about the tournament we were about to run. We arrived at the host site Grand Waldo Hotel at about 3am tired but excited about the next days activities which included meeting the dealers and staff of the Grand Waldo. Savage Tournaments had sent two representatives (Sam Quinto and Chinh Chung) over a week early to further train the dealers who up until about a month earlier had never even heard of Texas Hold'em. The dealers turned out to be a VERY pleasant surprise and although they were very slow, they were very conscious of the job they were doing and mistakes were minimal. At the end of the tournament Savage Tournaments issued certificates to the dealers as qualified to deal major tournaments. On the tournament itself, I was contacted by a young man named Elton Tsang of First Impression Ltd. in April about the idea of having the first poker tournament in Macau and of course I was interested as many predict that Asia will be the next big boom in poker and I agree. I then contacted my lawyer/ partner Jack Fox and we took a flight over to scout the property and prepare a plan for the APO. Another service Savage Tournaments provides is helping put together online sponsors with tournament promoters and that was the plan here. We first contacted Full Tilt Poker as of course they have great value in bringing the biggest names to worldwide events. Unfortunately it did not work out due to timing and FT's current commitment to Aussie Millions being too close to our event in Macau. A deal was finally struck with Poker Stars a little over one month before the tournament was scheduled to start. It was added to the Asian Pacific Poker Tour and marketed quite well for the short time we had left. The $2,500 main event was attended by 352 players which is the largest field ever in Asia to date. The tournament fell on Thanksgiving Day so I was surprised to see the amount of American players in attendance including pros Scotty Nguyen, Liz Lieu, Aruba winner Travis Rice, Chad Brown, Vanessa Rousso, and Bill Chen. International pros included Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, Graeme Putt, Isabelle Mercier, internet pro Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier, and 2007 WSOP runner up Tuan Lam. The final table was a good one that included Joe Hachem, Liz Lieu, Guillame Patry, and Elky . The tournament was eventually won by Dihn Le which I ended up naming "All-in" due most in part to his before the flop playing style. This event was immediately followed by a $15,000 USD High Roller Event. This event attracted 64 players and a pool of nearly $1,000,000. Pros Barry Greenstien and Kirk Morrison came in for this one to add to a star studded field. The final table of this event included John Juanda, Bo Sehlstedt, Liz Lieu once again and Australian Emad Tatouh came in as the chip leader. Chatty Australian Eric Assadourian stole the show with his aggressive style and took down the $368,640 first place prize. $500 daily events, mega satellites, and sit and go's accompanied the two big events and were smoothly handled by Dave Lamb. Overall it was a very successful first tournament series in a new country that seems ready to take poker to the next level. I truly believe that the Savage Tournaments staff is the best in the world and I really appreciate all of their hard work.