Border Gate VMRH Cotai Connection ... - The Venetian Macao

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.

LONG write up - TLDR - I had a successful Macau trip.
It's a little after 6pm in Macau and I've decided to shut the trip down and relax for the rest of the night. My flight back to Shanghai is tomorrow at 1pm. What an experience it's been so far.
Day 1 - Wednesday I flew into Zhuhai on Wednesday night, and had hoped to catch people heading to the Macau bus, but everyone scattered and there were no tourists to follow. I went to the taxi line, got in a cab, and told the driver 'Macau, Macau'. He looked at me funny and after a minute of us trying to convince each other of something... he finally took off. An hour later, I'm dropped off at this train station looking place, where there's hordes of Asian people trying to cram through the gates. This is the Macau customs inspection point. I manage to get through and hop on a free shuttle bus to the Venetian. Upon my arrival, it's already past 10pm, so I take a look around and grab another taxi to head to my hotel, which is off the strip. Pretty uneventful day 1. I'm just glad I made it to my hotel in one piece lol.
Day 2 - Thursday Couldn't sleep well last night. I woke up at around 8am and decided to head over to the Venetian. I ended up walking, but damn that was a mistake. It's a bit humid for the morning and I'm sweating by the time I get to the casino, which is about 2 miles away. I finally get to the Poker room at around 10am and there's a couple tables running and a list of about 10 people. That's not bad at all! I was expecting it to be busier. I get my name added to the list and now it's time to get some money out.
There were 3 tables going with 50-100NL and 100-200NL. I think the USD to HKD exchange rate is about 1 to 7.85, so these are 6/12NL and 12/24 NL. Min buy for the 50/100 was 5K to 30K ($3,800 USD). The 100/200NL has a 20K min buy with no cap. I put my name down on the 50/100.
I went to the ATM soon after and was only able to pull out 3k HKD at a time. After 5 ATM transactions, I manage to pull out 15k HKD and head back to the poker room, only to find out... I can't buy chips there. So back to the cage I go. LOL. Dammit. Ok, finally seated at the table after a short little wait.
My first day can be summed up in 3 consecutive hands, which I'll get to.
50/100NL, Pre-flop action is typically 300 (first to act). I've seen a 3 bet go anywhere from 900-1.2k (this is HKD of course). I don't have too much experience playing 5/10 so I decided to play ABC and tight. Also, it was difficult to understand exactly how much $$ the pot was so I had to re-program my brain to just go off pot size rather than try to convert this to USD in my head. I think at my highest, I was sitting on 24k ($1.1K profit) and about 11k at the lowest. So all in all, not too bad. Next like 5-6 hours, I'm completely card dead and hovering around 16k. Then comes the trifecta of hands that make my evening.
Hand 1 of 3
I'm starting to get tilted from no action, hungry because I haven't had anything to eat, and dizzy.
Hero - 9s5s on button Villain - is on my direct right, and he's been a solid player all day.
Pre-flop, 1 call, action around to Villain, who pops to the 300, Hero calls, SB calls, MP1 calls. Flop comes 6-6-10 (2 clubs). Checks to villain, who bets pot, 1.2k. I'm so bored out of my mind and energy fading at this point, I call 1.2k. Rest fold, it's heads up. Turn comes an off 8. He leads out for 2.2k. I realize I'm losing my mind, but I have no choice... I count out 2.2k, pause for a bit, then decide to go over the top for 5.2k. It's time to bluff this one or go home. He took about 30 seconds to think. I'm putting him on pocket Js or Qs. River is a off 2. Flush misses. He checks, I announce all-in for remaining ~9k. After about 2 minutes of making me sweat, he folds. I flip it up, cuz I'm feeling re-energized and the whole table explodes in laughter. Villain turns to me and says "a bluff?!" Then I can see his shoulders slouch and he avoids eye contact. Couple Chinese guys come over to give me a fist bump and start asking me where I'm from. I say California. This will be important later.
Hand 2 of 3
Very next hand. Button is now to my left. UTG calls for 100, MP makes it 400 to go, I call 400 with Ad8d, UTG 3 bets to 1.2, MP folds, I call. It's heads up, and one of the Chinese guy says "bluff again!" in broken English.
Flop Ah Qh 8s
UTG Checks around to me, I put in a bet of 1.2k. He raises it to 3.75. I call.
Turn is a off suit 7. No help. He grabs a stack and puts out 5.5k. He started with about 30k so he's got me covered. I take my time and put out 5.5k. Off to the river. River comes 6 off suit, no flush. He pauses for 5 seconds, then announces all in. I have about 12k in front of me and feel sick. I tank for a minute... then convince myself of a call because of one thing. When he sat down, his buddies ridiculed him in Cantonese (I think), which I couldn't understand, but picked up the words bluff, bluff, bluff over and over again. Just went with that piece of info as the icing on the cake and decided to call it off. He doesn't flip right away, so I flip A-8. He tables K-Q a second after.
The entire table goes ape shit. My neighbor says "Hero bluff, Hero call!" One guy starts chanting 'USA, USA', LMAO! More people are talking in English now and interested in talking to me.
Hand 3 of 3
It's the last of the 3 hands before I get up soon after... and it's a bit uneventful, but hilarious nevertheless. I'll make it short, but essentially UTG is tilted and decides to spew the rest of his 7.5k stack off pre-flop. I think he's small or big blind at this point and he goes all in when it comes around.
I have pocket Jacks LOL. Insta-Call. The whole table erupts in laughter again. On a side note, the poker table vibe was very chill versus how it is in US. I don't know if they know each other or not, but the mood is very casual and people make fun of each other. It's hilarious. One guy who spoke poor English told me he thought I was a robot, because they were all crackin jokes and he said I never laughed. When he found out I wasn't Chinese, he was like OHHHHhhh. (I've been told I look Chinese)
Anyways, everyone says face up, so I flip Jacks and UTG decides to play it down. Board runs out 10 high. He turns over pocket Queens! LMAOOOOOO... the mob says money back! money back! Everyone is happy. I can't remember if I play a couple more or not, but decide to color up soon after and go eat dinner. It's 6pm, raining outside... taxi line is about 200 people deep. I walk back in the rain.
Day 3 (Today!) Not as exciting as yesterday, but was another good day. I took a cab to the Wynn... only to find out the Wynn near Venetian doesn't have Poker. The Wynn up north has the Poker room. I didn't know there were 2 Wynn casinos here LOL. WTF. Forget it, I decide to walk back to the Venetian again.
Once I get to the Venetian, 10am and there's a list of 25 people for 50/100. Mother of God... By noon, they still haven't opened any new tables and the list is 60 people deep. Finally, dealers stroll in and they quickly open up 3 new 50/100 tables. I manage to get seated by 1pm. I was #27.
The table today is a lot weaker than the one I played last night. Guys were doing funny things like doubling the blind by the big blind after it gets around, LOL (maybe it was just this one guy). Players had interesting bet sizings. very little aggression. No one tried to steal pots. It was very weak tight gameplay. I was able to push people off pots once my chip stack got bigger.
I ended up cashing out positive again today for a short 3 hour session. For the trip, I played about 10-11 hours. Started with my original 15k HKD and cashed for 64k HKD, for a profit of a little over 49k HKD ($6.2k USD).
On my walk back to the hotel, I managed to find this currency exchange window called P&W, and exchanged everything back to USD. They gave me a pretty good exchange rate, so I'm a bit confused how they make money... oh well.
In summary... it was a good trip. Sorry the write up was long. If an idiot like me can make it to Macau, play poker and make it back... you can too. And you'll probably make money. I literally did little to no research.

I live in Macau, (a mod on the Macau subreddit!), and a few weeks back saw a lot of people around the city wearing "Poker Star" jackets. I googled and see that there was a poker tournament in town.
Is Macau becoming a destination for people from around the world to come and play poker? I did not realize the casinos here had a large poker scene going, seems I always see everyone playing baccarat.
Any poker redditors ever come here to play?