Hey, Poker Playas!
A new poker room has just opened in Manila. The Philippines, after all, has the most accommodating laws for interested people who want to build a poker room in Asia.
If you want to have a poker room in Manila legally. the government actually quite accommodating on this venture.
The market is also quite good, 4 poker rooms went toe to toe just a few weeks ago and none of them suffered any overlay. So the market is good.
However, a new poker room just opened. Is the market ready?
Red Dragon comes to Manila
Red Dragon Poker Room
New coast hotel
Pedro Gil st
On paper, the Red Dragon looks good. Boasting automation and new specs that would make playing poker easier.
You can even earn points if you play and they did put an extra effort to really make the words spread and how great their team is.
But is it enough?
Time will tell
The Philippines is rich with poker players, no doubt about that. But then some rooms do make it and some don’t.
It’s just the way it is.
But that is because the world has changed as well. There are players who have become sophisticated in their taster even before the pandemic that the old formulas are off.
Looking back 10 years ago, A new poker room can easily create a freeroll and more than 100 players will go.
But just before the pandemic, this strategy was proven to no longer work when a poker room offered free-entry tournaments ranging from 100-300k with re-buys and add-ons which look good on paper. but failed miserably in implementation.
The house was actually staking players just so players would join a free entry tournament.
The market evolved
When the lockdown was eased, some poker rooms tried to offer small buy-in tournaments even freeroll which ended up with disastrous results.
Was the Market bad? no. it is just got more sophisticated.
Some poker rooms operate like a mom-and-pop stores. it simple as that.
A lot do, they would take something proven make it as cheap as possible, and then push it on the market.
But unless you have a big brand name and an online site to push it. It would fail.
An example of cheap tactics is like increasing the starting stack and proudly telling people they did. however, behind the scene, they skip a few levels to make it sill a bingo game is just silly. Of course, most players would be happy and believe hey the tournament looks great. We have a big starting stack!
But the smart players understand that nope it’s just a cheap trick.
Yes there is hope
Although, we still don’t know at this point how the Red Dragon will act.
There will always be the Masters Poker. People who did not play the Masters Poker tournament missed a lot.
Just to give you an idea of the blind. it started with 100/100, then 100/100/100, and then 100/200/200 and there was even a 200/200/200 level.
Most players will never understand the value of a great structure. But the champions and heroes you know today will tell you how important it is.
Big tournaments will always have a good structure. You won’t evolve and become a real champion if you play bingo games.
Just ask any champion you know today.
Masters Poker APC Feeder
Masters poker APC Feeder
A seat to a 20 Million GTD that would be held in the Metro Card Club.
nuff said.
