Obviously Duhamel’s success attracted the attention of numerous poker sites including the world’s largest site – PokerStars. In fact, Duhamel recently became the newest member of Team PokerStars as announced by their blog. The PokerStars blog read, “Though you might have assumed so by now, this morning PokerStars made it official: Duhamel, the 2010 Main Event winner, is the newest member of Team Pro.”

You can expect to see Duhamel representing PokerStars at lots of live events in the future, including the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure where he’s currently playing. So far Duhamel hasn’t had much luck at the PCA poker tables, but there’s still plenty of time for him to get something going.

Once Duhamel is done at the PCA, he’ll join forces with Daniel Negreanu to promote “Home Games.” Home Games is a unique concept that allows friends to start their own online poker club, and play against each other over the internet. This is perfect for those who want to play poker with their friends, yet don’t have the time to get a live home game together.

But Home Games is more than just some buddies getting together for a little friendly poker action. PokerStars will also be offering prizes to the clubs that meet certain requirements. One of the top prizes gives players the chance to fly to Macau, Austria, Buenos Aires or Vancouver to compete against Daniel Negreanu for major cash.

Negreanu is one of the most excited about the home poker games as he wrote on the PokerStars blog, “Nothing like the PokerStars Home Games has been offered before, and it’s so easy to use. You have so many options when you open up your poker club. You can customize it any way you want, just like you would in a home game with friends.”

If you’re interested in Home Games, complete the poker download for PokerStars and get started.

According to multiple news outlets, a giant cash game formed on the side of the Asian Poker Tour Macau event this past week.  Several Chinese business men formed the poker table, and started games where the blinds reached $5,000/$10,000 and $10,000/$20,000.  Eventually, the pros found their way to this table with Dwan, Ivey, John Juanda and Chau Chiang all taking part in the game.  As you can imagine, the casino poker pros were all big winners in this game.

While it’s difficult to get a totally accurate number on how much cash each player earned, it’s estimated that Dwan won somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 to $9 million in the 30-hour game.  What really makes this story incredible is that Dwan essentially blew off the Macau poker tournament so he could keep participating in this juicy cash game.  In addition to Dwan being a big winner, it’s also been reported that Ivey, Juanda, and Chiang all made some nice profits too. 

Getting back to Dwan, it’s amazing to think that the 24-year-old began his poker career just seven years ago with a $50 birthday gift from his dad.  Dwan has since turned this initial $50 bankroll into a multi-million dollar bankroll by learning lots of poker strategy and earning tons of rakeback money.  The story of Dwan just goes to show that just about anybody can make it in the internet poker world if they play well and take advantage of online poker deals.

Companies such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts both have casino resorts and hotels in the Macau area and the Chinese division has certainly saved the day when it comes to turnover this year. With the Macau revenue for November 2009 at $1.55 billion, which is 59 percent higher than the turnover in November 2008, it is no surprise that there are a lot of happy businessmen and bankers out there. First reports of the stocks performance were disappointing as the market seemed ruthless towards the casinos. It was unfortunate that the shares were debuting in Hong Kong on the same day that Dubai was announcing some serious problems financially.

Financial strategist Jonathan Galaviz said, “Half of Dubai’s story is tourism. There will probably be some negative sentiment toward tourism assets globally, such as casino operations, as Dubai gets squared away.” The downturn was only temporary as the wise investors saw through the decline and bought up the bargain shares. It certainly seems now that Macau can do no wrong and that it really is the Chinese equivalent to the bright lights of Vegas.

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Macau has really dominated the press and the casino industry in the past 12 months as it seems to be defying the worldwide downturn in fortune and to be actually making a profit. This is great news for entertainment companies who are always the first to suffer when people pull back on the purse strings and start counting the pennies. It seems like the novelty of gambling legally for the Chinese and other Asians is turning Macau into a teeming resort, and is too much to resist. The government has done a lot to encourage the growth of the industry in recent months with visa amendments to enable visitors to come to the casinos more frequently.

Macau is now getting a lot of focus from developers and is planning to continue growing with limits to stop over developments. The Sands resort is to start up again with their construction that was previously put on hold due to financial problems. Now it is clear that to miss out on the Macau popularity and growth of the Asian Vegas would be foolish. Already owners of the Venetian Macao, which is the biggest casino in the world, Sands China looks set to open its new resort later in the year.

Sands has come through with a positive plan for the casino’s fund generation and estimates that around 30% of the turnover of the casino and resort complex will come from non Chinese customers. This is quite a statement as they are saying that they fully expect international travellers and gamblers to recognise Macau as the international Vegas of the Far East. At the moment, the majority of visitors to the area tend to be Hong Kong residents that are doing a day trip to the region to enjoy the legal gambling that is on offer. Macau is the only area in China that has been given a license to have casinos and where gambling is legal.

The Chinese government has worked hard to sustain the success of Macau during the financial downturn and as a result of their efforts, the region has seen relatively little losses compared to their counterparts in the west such as Vegas. Now that the area is doing so well as the economies seem to be in a sign of recovery, the focus is going to shift to encourage more longer distance visitors to the area. Chairman of the Sands co Sheldon Adelson discussed the Macau prospect “When people fly in, they bring a much bigger budget than does a day-tripper, highlighting efforts to drive business from Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and India.”

Macau has seen a record breaking last three months of takings in its casinos and this has brought hope to the entire industry that the darling of the east is a sign that things are turning around in the casino industry. Some are sceptical that the opening of the new resort hotels will result in a shock to the market and a glut of accommodation landing on the market all at once will just devalue the existing rooms. The government however is working hard to avoid this result with a massive campaign to raise the profile and accessabilty of the region.

The casino that is being built has been on hold for some time and it is a welcome boost to have the schedule for construction resumed. The project has an opening date of 2011 and the plans are for 14 hotels with over 20,000 rooms to become available. The final result is hoping to emulate the Las Vegas strip and to attract wealthy businessmen from all over Asia to take their business to the new resort.

If you can’t wait until 2011 to check it out, you can try your hand online at the top online poker rooms, with the highest rates of rakeback.

Macau seems to have survived where others have struggled due to the support from the Chinese government. Macau is the only Chinese location that legally allows gambling. The government has also supported the region during the times of crisis by making visas for tourist more obtainable for gamblers wanting to spend some time and money in the resort. The Beijing and Macau governments are expected to continue their support for the region as it is an election year and the area is just too valuable to lose.

Galaxy is expected to invest $1.81 billion dollars in the building and launching of its flagship casino and hotel. The casino resort is to be 55,000 square feet just off the Macau peninsular and will have 600 gaming tables, hotel rooms numbering near 2200, as well as villa and suite complexes. Galaxy is not the only one to see the potential in the Asian casino market as the Sands group are considering re-launching their project build on hotel and casino complexes. It is clear that the Chinese government have taken the right course of action to protect businesses in Macau and have encouraged growth in a time of crisis and are sure to continue to do so to encourage investment.

The story is set in Asia and is the tale of two poker playing rivals that are competing in the same competition for the crown. 

The movie was filmed in the world famous Asian casino capital of Macau and has already caused a stir when hundreds of players arrived at the city during the APT Macau Festival last August while the film was being shot. The film was not short of willing extras as poker players arrived and flocked to get a place on set to be in the movie. 

Texas Hold ‘em has already seen an increase in popularity thanks to the world of online gaming where players can compete from all over the globe. Now it looks like it is about to have a huge impact on the poker scene in Hong Kong and other Asian cities. 

 The Film premiered with a star studded audience and the stars Louis Koo and Lau Ching-Wan also attended. Actor Louis Koo said, “This game is very popular in the West. Perhaps it has just started to develop in Asia. I had to learn mannerisms and skills from players outside Hong Kong.” 

We can’t wait to see this movie and hope that it will soon be on release in the West. It will certainly be interesting to see how the game is handled by the eastern players as it is such a relatively new game to them!

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People in the tourism trade in Vegas would rather erase the past twelve months from their memory as the economic downturn has hit them hard.

“In 28 years in the industry I have never seen anything like it,” says Bobby Baldwin, chief design and construction officer of the MGM Mirage. 

As you walk around the city you can see the effect with empty restaurants and rooms advertised at amazingly cheap prices. It is hard not to notice the looks of gloom on many of the hotel and casino managers faces. It is not all bad news in the neon strip as this week sees the opening of the new MGM CityCenter project. At a cost of $8.5 billion to develop and build, it has brought much to the city during its construction and it is hoped that this new hotel and casino will hit the spot with visitors. 

The good news for us is that there has never been a better time to make your way to Vegas and have the holiday of a lifetime at a drastically reduced cost! Visitors can snap up bargain rate rooms and suites and the best tables in restaurants for a fraction of the price. 

The ironic thing is that although the casinos in the USA are suffering from the financial jitters, on the other side of the world in the Asian version of Vegas, Macau, the financial outlook is brightening! A press release by the Gambling Inspection and Coordination Bureau has announced that the casino’s in Macau have seen a revenue rise of 22.3%. 

This third quarter rise means that the revenue for casinos in Macau has reached $3.8 billion. Perhaps due to the success, the Macau government has just recently decided to adjust its policy concerning gambling in the region. Announcements that the government is going to limit the number of gambling tables and also raise the age limit for casinos from 18 to 21 does not seem to have lowered the celebratory mood. 

Forecasts for the fourth quarter are expected to result in continued growth. Much of the success that Macau has experienced is due to the tight gambling restrictions imposed by China and most other Asian countries. This means that Macau is really the best option for any would be casino visitors. This year Macau saw a positive result to visitor numbers due to the Chinese government relaxing visa restrictions to allow people from different areas to enter Macau more frequently. This visa relaxation is stopping now and the previous restriction of Chinese citizens only being allowed to visit once every 2 months. 

2009 is definitely a year that will be remembered by casino owners, some will have good recollections but others unfortunately will feel that lady luck abandoned them for a spell. Let’s hope that she returns to the strip soon and the Vegas lights brighten again to their previous glory.

If you can’t make it to Vegas or Macau, take advantage of poker cashback and promotions from RakeTheRake and let the good times roll!