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Public Zone 公開區 => Travelogues 遊記相薄 => Topic started by: chin on 02 January 2010, 04:40:45
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I personally found Macau more and more appealing as a short traveling destination. After the gambling reform about 5 years ago, Macau now has many nice hotels and restaurants and a good place to spend a few relaxed days.
The first downside is that the nice restaurants are now more expensive than before, especially the ones that get Michelin stars. The second downside is that it's much easier now running into some very rude mainland gamblers.
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We went to Macau on 28 Dec 2009 to 1 Jan 2010. And this is the first time I went around a little bit to take some pictures.
On 31 Dec 2009, we went to the Lou Lim Ieoc Garden 盧廉若公園 at around noon time. The first thing that attracted my attention was the small number of 盆景 (Penjing, or miniature Scene in a Pot, or Bonsai to most non-Chinese speaking people.) The Penjing are not as refined as those in the Hong Kong Flower Show (http://chinman.com/index.php/topic,108.0.html) but still nice to look at and admire.
The first one is a side way trunk, with the inside already exposed. Yet new roots are growing underneath, and new life are forming inside the exposed "interior".
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This one looks like burnt on one side, and cracked open on the other side, yet it's still surviving and growing strong in the shallow pot.
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How old is this tree?
The garden was formerly a wealthy family's residence, thus right in the middle of the city. In the back of this picture, you can see the rather old houses nearby.
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This is my personal favorite - a miniature forest.
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Compare the thickness of the trunk verse the branches, one can't help wondering how much time and effect it took to shape these two. When the season comes, they will have nice flowers.
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Another interesting one, with a hole in the middle.
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This one maybe younger? Perhaps in the future it will be another one-tree-forest.
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Two more before moving on to the larger scenery.
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According to the tourist brochure, the Garden was built by a wealthy 19th century Chinese merchant, Lou Kau, and was inherited by his son Lou Lim Ieoc in 1906. The son contract an architect to transform that garden into a Suzhou style garden. The next two pictures are the two sides of a 涼亭 that is features in almost all Chinese gardens.
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A Chinese garden would always have a pond, with willow trees, a zigzag bridge, and preferably golden carps in the water.
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When the family fortunate declined, the garden fell into ruins but it was eventually purchased and restored by the government in 1973, and opened to the public in 1974, according to the tourist brochure. When we visited the garden, we saw many local residents, mainly elderly people, were exercising in the nice garden.
The main building in the garden is now a pavilion for for arts & craft exhibition and other cultural activities. This picture is the back of the pavilion with two balconies over the pond.
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There was a separate lotus pond. By the time of our visit, the lotus are withered. I imagine how nice it would be in the summer when the lotus are in full bloom.
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In my opinion, even the withered lotus has a rustic beauty. :)
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Nice to see some green in the dead of winter.
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Some details of the building, decorations, and plants.
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;D
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These tulips at the entrance were nice, but a bit "out of sync" with the rest of the garden, IMHO.
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Among the first creatures to greet us were stray cats. They seems to be well taken care of. We saw a woman fed the cats, right next to the sign that says No Feeding Stray Cats & Dogs.
An old woman told me that these cats are famous, and they all have names. Two of the lighter colour ones are called "知知" & "佐佐" - roughly means Mumble & Jumble.
This particular one just made this patch his (her?) home. Notice the cut on the ear - it means the cat is steriled.
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Our next stop was the Guia Fortress 東望洋砲台. After re-reading the tourist brochure, I realized that we should be visited the fortress first, so we can just simply walking down to the garden, instead of taking two taxi trips.
On the approach to the fortress, the first thing caught my eyes were the banyan (?) tree growing on the wall. Then another tree growing on top of rock. (Did they took the little bonsai tree and grow it on the hill? ???)
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At the time of the visit, the fortress was under renovation. I wasn't not very sure if it was open, but went in anyway.
Right inside the doorway were a bunch of typhoon signals to be hoist on the hill when typhoon approaches.
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Some random pictures taken inside the fortress.
All the lamps have the anchor design, perhaps reflection of the Portuguese naval prowess at the time? In the background is a real anchor.
The bell was one of the few featured historic artifacts.
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In the fortress is a small chapel, perhaps with restoration works going on then.
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More random pictures before we moving on to the historic lighthouse.
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According to the brochure, built in 1865, this lighthouse was the first western style lighthouse on the China coast, and marked the exactly location of Macau's coordinates.
The large padlock says something like "Her Majesties Lever Patent", could it be also a historic artifact?
The last picture is a view of the doorway to the lighthouse, with lotus-shaped Grand Lisboa in the background.
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This time we stayed in the Grand Lisboa. My original top choices were Wynn or MGM Grand, but they were fully booked when I tried to make the booking two weeks before the trip. I would like to stay in the town area so all the new hotels in the newly developed Taipa site were out of the question.
During my previous trips to Macau, I found the Grand Lisboa had too many tourist hanging out and wasn't very impressed. But it was the only hotel still had rooms available, and it was rated among the top 4 in the 2009 edition of Michelin's, I decided to gave it a try, and was pleasantly surprised. The rooms were clean, large enough, bright and airy. Each and every room has sauna, stream bath and jacuzzi. I have been to hotel rooms that had 1 or 2 but not all 3!
Whilst I liked the rooms very much, there were just too many loud talking rude mainland gamblers everywhere in the hotel's public space. Like guys smoke in the elevators, people don't line up and gets defensively loud when told to line up, and people who think staying in a room in the high floor means it's OK to be rude to others, etc... Either I had particular bad luck bumping into many, or it's simply nature of people who gambles in casinos.
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I don't gamble but still like to walk around the casino to see.
One of my long time puzzles is why Baccarat player always "peek" & "rub" their cards?! From what I observe, all the gambling are done before the cards are dealt, and there is no decision to make after. Why not just open the cards? Every single player I saw would rub the card as if they can magically will the cards into something they want, or peeking at it from a very low angle with just a tiny corner flipped up. Are they perpetuating some kind of myth?
During this trip, one of my "new" discoveries (new to me, maybe not new in casinos) seems like another gimmicks to separate gamblers from their money faster. The casinos now provide a small plastic picks that the slot players can jam into the play button, so the slot machine will keep running one game after another without stopping for the gambler to push any button! With that little "advancement", a gambler can easily play multiple slot machines without moving and/or thinking! ::)
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The only reason that I can think of about peeking and rubing the card is.......to increase the excitement of the game...sometime you may hear they say something like "三邊". Merely an emotional movement. Anyhow, Baccarat is the most "fair" game in casino, as far as I know.
About the slot machine, there will be no fun at all if they do that.... >:(
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The only reason that I can think of about peeking and rubing the card is.......to increase the excitement of the game...sometime you may hear they say something like "三邊". Merely an emotional movement. Anyhow, Baccarat is the most "fair" game in casino, as far as I know.
About the slot machine, there will be no fun at all if they do that.... >:(
Yes excitment is probably the reason. It's fairer in the sense of lower rake/commission than the other casino game, but none of them are fair in the sense of expected value. Perhaps because of the "most fair" label, it seems to be the most popular game, in terms of number of tables.
And during this trip, I learned Texas Hold'em in the casino's learning table. The house commision is 5% which is among the highest in casino games. How much does skill counts in this poker game? If skill is a major factor, then there is good chance to overcome the 5% rake. (I teached my kids this poker game, and we had lots of fun playing at home. :))
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And during this trip, I learned Texas Hold'em in the casino's learning table. The house commision is 5% which is among the highest in casino games. How much does skill counts in this poker game? If skill is a major factor, then there is good chance to overcome the 5% rake. (I teached my kids this poker game, and we had lots of fun playing at home. :))
Is the game played against the house, or other players?
In poker where player is against player there are cases of a positive EV for any given hand when the pot reaches a certain dollar value, regardless of skill.
Furthermore, I believe professional poker players employ sophisticated game theory to tilt there odds in their favor.
For instance, I once listened to a radio story where a professional poker play, who was a lady, stayed in a hand that she shouldn't have (based on probability)
because one of the other professionals at the table (a man) believes that "girls can't play poker". Even better for her, relating to her deep game strategy, was
that she had a lucky win. Which just confirmed what the other professional thought...
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The game is player vs player. The house takes a rake.
It looks to me luck plays a very large part of how likely you can win a hand. But, like you said, posturing & psychology can increase your payoff in the event that you have good cards, i.e. tilting the odds to your side.
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It looks to me luck plays a very large part of how likely you can win a hand. But, like you said, posturing & psychology can increase your payoff in the event that you have good cards, i.e. tilting the odds to your side.
Well regarding the hand a player receives poker is a game of chance, so from the perspective of playing the game without the betting phase the winner is determined by luck.
When betting is introduced to the game, then I think it depends a lot on the rules of the game, and the attitudes/skill level of players. For instance, it may not be advantageous
for a professional poker player to play with a table full of amateurs, since the game may be too chaotic for a "professional strategy" to apply.
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We went to Macau again for Chinese New Year. I met up with a friend there who told me some remarkable stories about playing pokers. I will retell the details later.
First some pictures of this trip. This time we stayed at the Venetian Hotel. It wasn't my first choice but the other hotels like Wynn, MGM Grand were fully booked 6 weeks ahead. Anyway Venetian was having a special event getting this guy to build a very large house of cards, using 3800 decks.
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On 13th Feb, I took these two pictures on the way to Canton for the New Year's Eve dinner.
The light rains make the City of Dreams look a little dreamy. At the door of the casino there the banner says "Luck is here". I am sure it's very true, just that the luck is mostly on the house side.
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One of the main reason for going to Macau again is to play fireworks during Chinese New Year.
One of our favorite firework is this large blue cone that my kids call "Christmas Tree". It starts kind of lame with slow and low sparks but soon grow to strong fierce volcano-like breathing sparks. Most of the stalls would sell this at $80 to $120. But after a few rounds of bargaining, we usually can get it at around $100 for 3, or $40 each.
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My kids' another favorite firework is the large rockets (2 to 4 cm in diameter) that shot up and explode into a nice firework. Again the prices varied by very large margins. Many packs of 10 to 20 rockets would start from $300 to $400 per pack and can be bargained down to around ~$100 to $200. On the second night, we paid $700 for 3 packs of total 60 rockets, including 15 very large ones at about 5 cm diameter and about 1 meter long.
The one in the following picture was a medium sized one, and the one in the video was probably a large one.
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Then comes the real multi-million dollar firework by the Macau Government. Too bad I did not have a tripod with me.
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More fireworks.
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Somehow the green, red, blues, colored ones are harder to take pictures of.
Maybe only the white-ish ones were bright enough for hand held photography but not the other colors...
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I will post more picture and the poker stories in a few days...
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My kids' another favorite firework is the large rockets (2 to 4 cm in diameter) that shot up and explode into a nice firework. Again the prices varied by very large margins. Many packs of 10 to 20 rockets would start from $300 to $400 per pack and can be bargained down to around ~$100 to $200. On the second night, we paid $700 for 3 packs of total 60 rockets, including 15 very large ones at about 5 cm diameter and about 1 meter long.
The one in the following picture was a medium sized one, and the one in the video was probably a large one.
BTW, in fact you can play that rockets by holding it with you hands....... :o It sounds scary but it is fun indeed.......as long as your grip pressure is light...... ;D
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BTW, in fact you can play that rockets by holding it with you hands....... :o It sounds scary but it is fun indeed.......as long as your grip pressure is light...... ;D
I can imagine, but I wouldn't want to take the risk. The fireworks are not exactly subject to the highest quality control. We have seen some that exploded right away, instead of doing whatever it's supposed to do first.
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More pictures.
This time we visited the nice little Lou Lim Ieoc Garden 盧廉若公園 again. In our last visit in Dec, almost half of the garden was closed for renovation. These pictures were mostly from the part that was closed in our last visit.
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Even the bamboo graffiti are more "poetic" than just the person's name, or the usual "x loves y" type. This one wishes everyone always happy.
The former residence in the background of the second picture was opened this time, hosting a small exhibition of Chinese ethnic minority cultures in Yunnan. The exhibition featured quite a few women customs from different minority tribes. One of the sets was probably quite old - part of the decoration on the outer clothes were about 10 old coins. On careful inspection, the coins all says "Yunnan Province" in English, with no Chinese writing at all.
I do not know anything about coin collection or old coins. I imagine the coins were from the warlord dominated period right after the collapse of Qing dynasty, and the coins were minted outside of China by the ruling warlord in Yunnan.
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Random pictures from the garden.
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More Penjing 盆景 at the corners of the park.
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The garden is small, but it has many nice features of classical Chinese gardens. One of the features is the many couplets 對聯. This one says,
Strolling on the winding bridge searching for the draft of paintings
Leaning on the rock formations listening to the song of books
The "draft" was probably referring to finding inspirations, and the "song of book" was referring to ...??
The pastel green building at the back is part of a school near the garden.
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Another set describing the nice cozy scenery in the garden. Many of the couplets are dated in 1975, when the garden is taken over from the long decline family of the original owner. The garden was subsequently taken over and managed by the government.
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One more set. There are probably more than 10 there.
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This time we stayed in Venetian Macau. This is the second time we stayed in their Rialto Suite. The suite is very large at about 1700 sq ft, but the layout and amenities are not well thought out.
- For example the door has no door bell or knockers, so you have to bang the door with your own fist to get attention.
- The suite is large but there is no place to sit near the door to put on shoes (see pic below.) I moved one of the dinning room chairs to near the door but the house keeper move it back.
- And there is no place to hang clothes inside the toilet.
A friend of mine was one of the senior construction managers who help built the complex. I told him about these problems in my first visit in Dec 2008. He told me that the owner wants to build the hotel/casino asap so he can start taking gamblers money, so the entire plan was copied from the US Venetian. >:(
When I made the bookings, I couldn't find bigger rooms. But at check out, I found out that Venetian do have some nicer and bigger suites, but not available to direct sales. The nicer suites are all reserved for whales. Maybe the nicer suite would have door bells?
My kids took the following pictures, with a small camera. So the quality is not so good.
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In my last trip to Macau, I learned to play Texas Hold'em in Grand Lisboa. And I found it a nice game to play with my family in our gatherings.
We started playing with coins for chips, but they are dirty and hard to count quickly. We then went for chips from Mahjong shops, but the chips were made from cheap injection mold plastics with very rough edges and cannot be stacked for quick counting. I then found some decent chips in women street and they cost about HK$2 per chip. But none of then had the feel of the casino chips.
So one of my goals for this Macau trip was to find good poker chips. A few days before our travel, I found out the nicer poker chips are made of clay and are very expensive. There is a niche market for poker chips because in a typical poker game, the players have to handle the chips very often, vs in Mahjong the chips were only used as notation at the end of a game.
At the hints of my friends, I found the following in Grand Lisboa poker room - HK$575 for 300 chips. They are made of ABS and probably has metal insert to add weight. They feel much better than the previous "chips" we used. We ended up spending quite a bit of time playing poker in our suite.
(I eventually ordered some Protege Clay Chips from buypokerchips.com and will take some pictures later. The clay chips do feel very nice in the hand. And did I ready say that they are very expensive?!)
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Poker chips vs regular casino chips (not from their poker room.)
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In the course of researching for nice poker chips, I contacted a friend who made his living playing cards, and learned many interesting stories.
This friend of mine was originally from Hong Kong. Although he did not finish high school, he was smart and persistent enough to have done something not many people can do. When he was still in school, he found a book teaching how to play blackjack. He was able to learn, memorize, and apply the probability tables and played well enough to join the blackjack playing/counting teams that made the rounds in casinos in the 1980s. From then on, he moved to Macau for the lower cost of living, and has been traveling around the world to play blackjack.
(On a separate note/rant, I have seen many university graduates who couldn't even speak passable English or understand enough English outside the narrow technical fields in order to establish personal rapport with English speakers. Whereas this Form 3 graduate was able to learn & play in English in a team of mixed nationalities, and participate in English blackjack forums. The problem is not learning enough vocabulary and learning the right grammar, but mainly the willingness to communicate with confidence.)
I met him about 7 years ago. I was looking for a hard to find book on the subject of computer modeling. The book was published in 1980 and the modeling was done on mini-mainframe computers! We contacted the author but even he did not have copy of the book (or not willing to sell?!) By then the author switched career and plays poker professionally. (The book has less than 100 pages and a used copy now selling for about US$300 on amazon. Although published 30 years ago, some of the insights discovered in the book still work today! But that is a separate story.)
Luckily I came across my Macau friend's personal blog, which has a picture of his bookshelf with mostly blackjack books. But one of the books was the book I was looking for, and I made the contact and obtained a copy of the book. Since then I would try to meet with him every time I go to Macau.
When I asked him where to find nice poker chips, I was surprised that he had no idea and did not even know that nice chips are made from clay. It's kind of irony that someone who makes his living playing cards does not care about the quality of chips, whereas amateurs like me are spending money on chips.
7 years ago he told me that he did not play blackjack in Macau, because the rules are trying to throw off positive expectation players. (Rational, probability based players who bet on positive expected values.) In recent years, with many new casinos opening in Macau, some casinos offered rebates to agents who introduce new customers. They rebate 0.8% for every $100,000 chips purchased. My friend and his card counting friends were able to minimize the losses on playing blackjack and make money on the rebate.
When the casinos stopped paying rebates, so did their plays. Some of them started looking at poker, and particularly Texas Hold'em.
More stories to follow.
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As poker getting more popular in casinos, some of his friends started to learn. Initially they played free poker on partypoker.com and the likes. And they would be consistently losing. Eventually they found some probability tables on the internet, and were able to apply the probabilities properly. They started to winning hundreds of millions fictional cash on the free poker games.
The next logical step was to play real money. Poker is a player vs player game with the casino taking commission from winners. It's the unsophisticated players who are feeding cash to the professional players and the casinos.
His poker playing friends found many amateurs in casinos where there is a learning table - the same place where I first learned poker in Dec 2009. He told me that there are many casinos visitors who would change, say, $10k casino chips and try out many different casino games without understand the finer intrigues or fairness of the game. This is the groups of willing givers whose money buy them entertainment and hopes. They also probably believe in luck rather than probability expectations.
In my own learning experience, I have seen a few players who learned 10 or 20 mins then would start playing with real money. If the casino on an average day has 20 unsophisticated players who cough up average $2000, then the handful of pro players hanging around in that casino would have about $40k between them, minus the not too small casino cut.
I don't know how many times the amateurs' money can turn before total losses. If the money can turn 5 times, then the casino's cut would be $10k at 5% and the pros would have $30k between them. If 10 times then the casino's cut would be $20k. Thus each pros may earn about $3k to $5k per day.
IMHO, at this rate one can make a comfortable living, but nowhere near rich or wealthy unless investing the income wisely. I always thought that biggest pile of money for pro pokers are tournament prizes. And even that is not too big. For example the author of the book mentioned above made "only" US$1.7 million in the past 15 years, according to his official web site. Considering he's already a "name" in pro poker, that amount is not exactly huge. His other income would be endorsements.
Then my friend told me where the large pile of money is for some of the pro players in Macau.
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In his short excursion into the poker world, my friend and his pals found a small group of very wealthy players playing pokers in casinos. He told me that very often the chips on the table would exceed HK$100 million! And usually at tens of millions minimum. Sometimes they would have side bets that's 10 times the amount changed hands on the table.
This small group would only play with other members of the group. They choose to play in casino instead of their own home or office because of the casinos already have all the security device in place, and the casino's cut is capped at $300 per hand which is almost nothing compare to the amount involved. They found enough comfort in each other's company but not enough trust to play in one of their home or office.
I asked who were these people, and why they played such large amount of money. I was told that these are Macau locals or mainlanders who became super wealthy super fast in the economic boom. My friend's impression is that they are really playing for entertainment, and not a front for money laundering or any hanky-panky stuff. They are well aware that they could be the target of professional players, thus they refuse to play with pros from the US. Only occasionally some Chinese speaking Chinese Americans could play a few games with them.
One of his friends hung around long enough and eventually earned enough trust from this small group of whales, that he was allowed to fill in when one of the whales was absent from their poker games.
Since the money on the table are in the tens of millions, my friend's pal need to gather a war chest of tens of millions in order to join the game and have staying power. He had the skill but not the capital. The guy was eventually able to raise capital among friends and investors. I was told that in three months, the pro player's share of profit reached $3 million.
One of the vital and more intrigue skills a pro player needs is to have the appearance of luck and winning by only a small margin. The whales would not like to be seen as being skinned. So the winning has to be subtle (and slow?) I imagine this pro would probably never want to be in the tournament circuit, because getting famous is hazardous to playing with the whales & winning from them.
My friend started as a blackjack player more than 20 years ago so he's naturally a Kelly player. I asked if betting poker could be modeled successfully, and plug into one of the online poker sites to win from the human players. His observation is that it's difficult for unlimited hold'em, but possible for limited hold'em. The possible variations are smaller so perhaps advantages can be modeled more accurately. However, this is assuming the computer modeler can get pass the biggest hurdle - that online poker sites bans AI players.
I have seen many types of gamblers, and I am not yet counting those playing the financial markets.
My Macau friend belongs to the group of true professionals who play with objective probabilities and bet only when advantageous mathematically. They bet very conservatively. They don't gamble on anything else for fun. Gambling is just a mean.
The other groups are those gamble to entertain themselves. Be it the multi-million dollar betting whales or the $10k-and-bet-everything types. I can even count some of my relatives in this group - they set a budget before set foot into the casino, and just playing for fun. There is not much expectation for win, and any winning would be a bonus.
The worst off are the group of daydreamers who dream of being professional gamblers but lack the right attitude, intellectual capacity and perseverance. I still vividly remember reading one guy's exuberant declaration that he made the first step toward being a professional gamber. His achievement was getting a ruby VIP card from the Sands Macau that allows him to have free lunch there, and maybe free ferry tickerts from HK, playing Baccarrat!
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Over the years, I have heard many interesting stories from my Macau friend. Maybe I will write some more when the time is right. :)
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One of the many fun things for my kids was they got to play 啪啪紙. We were test firing in the hotel. ;D
This is a simple toy that we got to play a lot in our youth, but increasingly hard to find, and perhaps already outlawed. A few months ago, a smart but not very wise high school kid extract the tiny little explosives from the 啪啪紙 and made a small explosive device that accidentally went off and blew off his own fingers.
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Pictures of clay poker chips. Supposedly the chips are from the same manufacturer who made chips for Vegas casinos.
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that story really reminded me that I've once made some little money (around US$150) from the internet casinos. yes, it is also blackjack with counting technique. And they even offer free chips but you have to wager 2 times the initial endowment. Right now, they are asking more than 5 times so no one can beat them anymore.
Sounds we have to study texas-hold'em
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that story really reminded me that I've once made some little money (around US$150) from the internet casinos. yes, it is also blackjack with counting technique. And they even offer free chips but you have to wager 2 times the initial endowment. Right now, they are asking more than 5 times so no one can beat them anymore.
Sounds we have to study texas-hold'em
You learned the counting techniques?
What stop you from using a computer probability program alongside with the online BJ?
BTW bjmath.com has lots of math related to BJ and gambling/investment in general.
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that story really reminded me that I've once made some little money (around US$150) from the internet casinos. yes, it is also blackjack with counting technique. And they even offer free chips but you have to wager 2 times the initial endowment. Right now, they are asking more than 5 times so no one can beat them anymore.
Sounds we have to study texas-hold'em
You learned the counting techniques?
What stop you from using a computer probability program alongside with the online BJ?
BTW bjmath.com has lots of math related to BJ and gambling/investment in general.
That was many many years ago that I can't hardly find any computer program. (plus I enjoyed learn counting that time)
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Another trip to Macau during the 中秋 holidays.
One of the main purposes of this trip is to take pictures of the annual firework show.
http://www.macautourism.gov.mo/en/events/majoreventsdetail.php?rid=63
This would be my first time trying to photo fireworks seriously - meaning actually schedule the time, bring the proper equipment, etc... However I still ended up ill prepared. Like forgot to bring my tripod and lens hood. The tripod problem was solve by buying one in Macau. The lack of lens hood turned out to be a much bigger problem, and as a result many photos have some unwanted halo like lights.
Another item I did not have was a black card to cover the lenses.
Before going to Macau, I read messages and look at pictures posted on a Macau based photo forum (ecpz.net), trying to guess where is the better location to take photo, the technical details, etc... The research was fruitful. I was able to identify the popular location in Taipa, near 海洋花園. After the photo session, I found a better location, but more dangerous, may be on the bridge highway much closer to the firework barges, and with better background using the Macau Tower. See below map.
Looking at other people's picture, I was able to decide before hand to use ISO100, F8 to F13, set shutter speed to B to control the exposure time there and then. The only thing did not planned well was the selection of lens. The 85mm probably would be a better lens with tighter image, then the 24-70 used for virtual all the photos.
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We had a nice dinner at Tim's Kitchen in Lisboa. I was sort of rushed out to reach the first shooting location maybe 10 min before the firework started at 21:00. The first team was from Japan.
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As I was late to the location, and afraid of not getting enough time to prepare, I just pick a location where the taxi dropped me off. It was at the head of the bridge (see First Location in the map above.)
It turned out to be a difficult location. First the strong street lights on the bridge created quite a bit of problem - many of my pictures taken at this location have bright hazy color on the side. I think if I have taken with me the lens hood, the problem would be minimized somewhat. Or if I had a black card with me, I could have cover the right side a bit to reduce the light coming into the lens.
I realized the use of black card after seeing almost everyone around me had one. ::)
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Another problem with this shooting location was that it lined up the firework barge right in front of the Macau Tower. A bit off-set would created more balance and interest in the framing.
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The Japanese team had some very interesting fireworks - like Hello Kitty faces, Micky Mouse faces, spell out the word Macau, etc... However due to my inexperience, I was trying to change lens in the middle of the firework display, I missed the chance to take pictures of the faces. >:(
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More pics
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Last two of my pictures of the Japanese team.
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After the Japanese team was done, I had about 30 min until the French team start at 22:00. I moved a bit further down to the second location.
In this picture, the lotus shaped Grand Lisboa hotel is clearly visible to the right. While I went to Taipa to take these pictures, my family was in the Grand Lisboa wathc the fireworks from their rooms.
Also in this picture you can see the many street lights on the bridge. These lights created the light pollution mentioned in #63.
This was the French team's first firework.
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The French team actually had some creative works, but not the cute ones like the Japanese team's faces. There were many people around me were comparing the two teams, and most thought the Japanese team had better show.
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Some very colorful fireworks by the French team.
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The blue ones were nice. But I probably under-exposed these pictures.
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After the fireworks show finished, I walk back from the second location back to Grand Lisboa by the bridge. It was a nice 40 min walk, and I think I may have found a better location to take firework pictures in Macau. See the marking on the map in #61.
However there were 2 small problems with this location. First the bridge is mainly for motor traffic and the pedestrian space is less than 1 meter wide and just enough space for tripod. When I walk on the bridge, there were many time passing vehicles zooming by only 2 feet from me.
The second small problem was the time required to walk to the right spot on the bridge. That means need to budget at least 20 min just for the walk.
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The French firework is very stylish, very elegant. I wonder if the color shown is 100% matching the color of the nake eyes. I felt the colors are "colder" than usual fireworks!!!
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These pictures are nice enough to be a post card already.... :D
Yes...I like the French team more...it looks simpler in style but it has a finer and good colour contrast.
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Wongyan, my monitors were color calibrated, and the pictures look quite OK. I have the color calibration device in the office. You can borrow it to calibrate your monitor.
The Japanese ones were flashier, and the general impression from people around me and my family was that they like the Japanese one better. Only when looking at the pictures then I found the French one are also quite unique.
And don't forget, when I take pictures of the Japanese one, it was really my first time so the timing, etc.. may not be very good and missed a few good ones.
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Wongyan, my monitors were color calibrated, and the pictures look quite OK. I have the color calibration device in the office. You can borrow it to calibrate your monitor.
The Japanese ones were flashier, and the general impression from people around me and my family was that they like the Japanese one better. Only when looking at the pictures then I found the French one are also quite unique.
And don't forget, when I take pictures of the Japanese one, it was really my first time so the timing, etc.. may not be very good and missed a few good ones.
I've tried both my old monitor at home and my dell laptop. Still the color is colder than I expected. Sounds I need a better monitor and then borrow your calibration kit.
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I've tried both my old monitor at home and my dell laptop. Still the color is colder than I expected. Sounds I need a better monitor and then borrow your calibration kit.
Then may be you percetion of coolness is different from mine. :)
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The only reason that I can think of about peeking and rubing the card is.......to increase the excitement of the game...sometime you may hear they say something like "三邊". Merely an emotional movement. Anyhow, Baccarat is the most "fair" game in casino, as far as I know.
About the slot machine, there will be no fun at all if they do that.... >:(
I am reading a book about casino table game design, and came upon some interesting tidbits about baccarat.
1. House Edge. The book did not list the actual house edge of baccarat, but did imply that the house edge in this game is small. The author of the book mentioned this site, and I found a house edge table in the below link. You make notice that in Blackjack, the house edge seems very small, but that's assuming the player playing perfect strategy. Any deviation from the perfect strategy means more edges to the house!
http://wizardofodds.com/houseedge
2. Drop & Hold. In casino management terminology, Drop is the amount gamblers changed from cash to chips, and Hold is the percentage of Drop retained or won by casinos. Hold is a function of all of the following - house edge, speed of play, stake sizing, etc... In baccarat, the hold is actually on the low side of around 10% (vs around 12% for blackjack and 20% for roulette.) However, the Drop of baccarat is very large. In Nevada in 2009, the number of baccarat table is only 1/15 of that for blackjack, but generated 70% as much Drop in the 12-month period. In the same period, craps has twice as many tables as baccarat but only generated 40% as much Drop as baccarat. So per table profit in very large in baccarat. (Note these are only Nevada numbers.)
3. Characteristics of Baccarat.
- "The players are highly superstitious"
- For the Asian markets
- Baccarat players are generally more upscale. (I don't quite understand this point, perhaps he meant the larger average bet amount?!)
None of the above concepts are really new, but it's still interesting to see concrete numbers and research from people in the industry. So yes baccarat is more fair than other casino games, but on average players are betting sufficiently large amount in this negative edge game such that they loss just like any other suckers.
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3. Characteristics of Baccarat.
- "The players are highly superstitious"
- For the Asian markets
- Baccarat players are generally more upscale. (I don't quite understand this point, perhaps he meant the larger average bet amount?!)
By "more upscale" I think the author may mean Baccarat players tend to be richer than the average player of other games.
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I bought these Portugal wines in a recent trip to Macau.
- The 2001 Herdade Do Mouchao was bought in the shop inside the wine museum, at ~MOP870.
- The 2005 Mouchao in the ferry terminal duty free, around MOP350.
- The 2004 Adegoborba ~MOP220.
Probably all priced higher than in smaller wine shops, but then I did not get the chance to really shop...
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[hide]
I was shocked to read the below this morning.
I knew Navin for many years. He's the lawyer we used for many years in Quam after the company gone public. He's an Indian who speaks fluent Cantonese, always nice but also very sharp. A good lawyer to have on one's side. Since I sold all my shares in Quam, I have not seen him for 7 or 8 years, and only found out about this today from SCMP.
I asked my friend who was Navin's client until his arrest 2 months ago. I was told that Navin's had a gambling problem! He's gamble away the millions in Macau! He even got my friend a very special VIP reception in Sands once. When asked about the cost of accommodation, Navin told my friend that he did some work for the Sands owner, thus get the VIP membership. I guess it turned out he earned the VIP membership the usual way - by losing millions.
How does a smart, sharp guy like Navin get into this kind of trouble?! How come and why he's couldn't stop?! This is a shocking news to me.
Also from Mingpao...
【明報專訊】微軟始創人比爾蓋茨父親創立的高蓋茨律師事務所（K&L Gates），其在港辦事處合伙人涉偷取律師行金錢以償還賭債。調查後，香港警方發現事務所的損失由原來的1660萬元大增至7.8億元，本地及海外受害人亦增至22名。
受害增至22人
由於案件需轉交高等法院審理，故裁判官促警方加快調查進度。
任職律師的被告Aggarwal Navin Kumar（44歲），被控3項盜竊及3項偽造罪。他涉於去年1至7月間三度偽造授權書，以盜去高蓋茨律師事務所戶口中的金錢。案件押後至12月12日再訊，以待警方從受害人身上取得更多資料，其間被告還押。
[/hide]
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Really regret to hear this kind of news! However, it really reminds me that a "professional" doesn't necessarily mean he can handle everything well. He is just doing very well on certain sector. I knew a very smart guy in China who ran a LCD factory and got investment paid back in one year. And more, he had 3-4 consecutive successful years until he got drug problem. Then company collapsed and he ....
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[hide] Legal profession is a job of high stress. Though they may dress well and eat well, most of them are always in high stress. So I use to see lawyers drinking a lot which turns to alcoholic, smoking a lot which always give me a tobacco nose, etc.
Gambling may be one way for them to relieve from stress, that may also be the reason that when police raided some illegal gambling establishment in central, they always find some lawyers playing there. [/hide]
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So everyone has his Achilles Heel
每個人都有自己的死穴
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The best way to release stress and pressure is Sports. The body can have a refresh! Try it!
Our Achilles Heels are as follows:
Our tongues want to taste too much, however, body can have not much! ;D ;D ;D
Our mouths want to drink too often, however, it will not happen! ;D ;D ;D
Agree? ::) ::) ::)
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That's why we need .... GOLF... ;D
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Really regret to hear this kind of news! However, it really reminds me that a "professional" doesn't necessarily mean he can handle everything well. He is just doing very well on certain sector. I knew a very smart guy in China who ran a LCD factory and got investment paid back in one year. And more, he had 3-4 consecutive successful years until he got drug problem. Then company collapsed and he ....
And I knew a very smart guy in HONG KONG who is running a LED factory and is seduced by his friends to be an alcoholic. Now he stored about 5 cases of wine in his office and waiting his friend to go to have a drink there...... ;D ;D ;D
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And I knew a very smart guy in HONG KONG who is running a LED factory and is seduced by his friends to be an alcoholic. Now he stored about 5 cases of wine in his office and waiting his friend to go to have a drink there...... ;D ;D ;D
Yeah, whatever. Just don't gamble in Macau. ;D
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Yeah, whatever. Just don't gamble in Macau. ;D
wow! This is the advice from our good friend who probably wagered the most among us!!
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wow! This is the advice from our good friend who probably wagered the most among us!!
[hide]
Not in Macau, not in casino. ;)
[/hide]
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I came across this article last week about how junkets work in Macau. The Seeking Alpha article is a bit of a promotion for the stock, but the business description should be correct. I also found a Daiwa research on the same stock.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/307864-asia-entertainment-wealth-play-with-high-octane-business-model-set-for-rapid-growth
Some of the interesting numbers about this VIP room operator:
- 30 gaming tables in 3 casinos
- US$2 billion betting turnover per month! That's HK$17 million per day per table!
- Revenue is 1.25% commission of US$2b, or HK$200 million per month.
- Major cost is rebate to agents, @ ~0.95%. So they keep $47m/mth before operating expenses.
- Baccarat the probably the most popular game, with house edge 2.85% (see Daiwa report). The house kept 1.6% after commission to junkets.
- At US$2b turnover with 2.85% house edge, the hold (gamblers money loss on the table) should be US$57m/mth!
- I believe collection from losing gambler is the highest risk in this business. How much of the US$57m/mth is collected?
For me, the most interesting would be the actual collection rate, but none of the two reports seems to have any number. The Daiwa report says "major shareholders have guaranteed to absorb personally any credit costs". Does it mean that they are popping up the P&L? And why?
Or maybe the major shareholders are having side bets that's supposedly very common among junkets, and supposedly amount to the same or even larger than the reported turnover. However these side bets are not counted in the official report, with all 2.85% profit margin going to the junket operators. If true, the side bet income may be more than covered the credit cost to the major shareholders.
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Just come back from another trip to Macau. Golf, eat, sleep, eat again, etc... lived like a pig.
Anyway, on the way back, I checked out the Duty Free shop which normally would have many expensive brandies or whiskies. But today all expensive stuff are SOLD OUT! Not even a bottle of regular XO.
Who says the economy is bad?!
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Some pictures of the Banyan Tree Macau.
The room is very nice. The only complain I have is the TV - it's incredibly hard to operate. Otherwise it's very nice for a relaxing stay.
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The bedroom part of the room.
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The relaxation pool is about 14' by 4'.
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Tea by the pool.
Our group booked more than 10 rooms. In some room the relaxation pool would start pouring hot water in the middle of the night, thus woke up the occupants. They had to call in the hotel staff to turn off the auto temperature keeping function.
Almost everyone in our group liked the heated, automatic toilet. One couple said they are going to install one at their home.
The wooden bath tub has two small wooden stools inside. When the bath is filled with water, the stools would float! It didn't make sense to me. However later I found out that the stool should have a few small suction cups at the bottom to hold it to the bottom of the tub, but in most of our rooms the suction cups were broken or gone. Consider the hotel is only 7-month old at the time, this design does not last the test of time.
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Some pictures of the dinner at Tim's Kitchen. ;D
(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7372xSz.jpg)
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:)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7377xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7379xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7380xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7381xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7382xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7384xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7385xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7386xSz.jpg)
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(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t199/oo888/TimsKitchenMacau/IMG_7387xSz.jpg)
;D
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I did not eat the curry crab meat fried rice!!!!
How sad.... :(
Talked to much.
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More interesting read about gaming in Macau
http://www.asgam.com/component/k2/item/1284-the-asian-gaming-50-2011-1-10.html
http://www.asgam.com/
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After Robuchon a Galera moved to the Grand Lisboa and changed name to Robuchon a Dome, the spot where Robuchon occupied in the old Hotel Lisboa is changed to a fine dining Portuguese restaurant Guincho a Galera. We went there for dinner tonight.
The food was quite OK, but not as refined as Robuchon. The service needs more fine tuning. The waitresses were trying to be nice and attentive, but always something missing. Like not all the main courses arrived at the same time (one came maybe 10 min before others, so OK this was the kitchen problem), one waitress did not know to wait for all main courses to arrive before opening the cover, not remembering which customer having what food, etc... small but noticeable mistakes.
To give them some credit, the place was opened less than a week. The serving staff is probably all new too. So new that a few of waitress did not know how to operate the iPad for the huge wine list. They seemed only know how to turn on the iPad and run the app, but not how to search for a particular wine.
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Don't they have a Sommelier ?? Are they using the same wine list as the Robuchon??
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Don't they have a Sommelier ?? Are they using the same wine list as the Robuchon??
They may have one. When placing order, the waitress didn't know what to do, they just repeat the inventory #, year, and price.
But when the wine came, one guy was showing me the wine, and when I ask if the wine is fine, he said the aroma is fine. So maybe he's the guy.
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BTW I had visited Robuchon a Dome 2 or 3 times since it moved to Grand Lisboa. I am sorry to report that while the food remains good, the service has degraded quite a bit. They are not as attentive as before, including occasion where they serve when one of the guests is missing from the table, and did not allow enough time to finish the last dish before serving the next one. It seems the staff turnover is also high as there is no familiar faces.
Don Alfonso, on the other hand, is getting better and better. You can simply see it from the low staff turnover. The manager Salvatore has been around for few years. 2 or 3 of the waitresses has been around 7 or so years. I remember their faces although not the names. The food is definitely getting better.
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Don Alfonso looks tempting. What dishes you recommend?? how much per head in average??
BTW I had visited Robuchon a Dome 2 or 3 times since it moved to Grand Lisboa. I am sorry to report that while the food remains good, the service has degraded quite a bit. They are not as attentive as before, including occasion where they serve when one of the guests is missing from the table, and did not allow enough time to finish the last dish before serving the next one. It seems the staff turnover is also high as there is no familiar faces.
Don Alfonso, on the other hand, is getting better and better. You can simply see it from the low staff turnover. The manager Salvatore has been around for few years. 2 or 3 of the waitresses has been around 7 or so years. I remember their faces although not the names. The food is definitely getting better.
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Don Alfonso looks tempting. What dishes you recommend?? how much per head in average??
When in doubt, just take the tasting menu. :)
The cost is lower than Robuchon a Dome. Forgot the exact details. ;D
Should we make a food, golf, gambling trip to Macau? ;)
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When in doubt, just take the tasting menu. :)
The cost is lower than Robuchon a Dome. Forgot the exact details. ;D
Should we make a food, golf, gambling trip to Macau? ;)
Sure. But only after I finish this job and make more $$$.
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Sure. But only after I finish this job and make more $$$.
BJ?
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:P TNND >:(
BJ?
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Construction Site! My arena in my old days...... :D
Your working place?
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:P TNND >:(
If you can get the Macau hotels to use your glasses....
There is a construction bloom in Macau now. I can see the Sands strip is expanding into perhaps the 3rd phase? Also there is a new complex near Galaxy (Hotel Roosevelt or some name like that), and of course the Galaxy expansion. The Fisherman's wharf also being torn down, and at least one building already being constructed facing Sands. The Tang City near the ferry terminal also being flatten out.
So many construction sites...
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Speak of Macau, the following is a bit off tangent...
I was coming back to Hong Kong from Macau by helicopter the other day. Usually the helicopter would approach from Pok Fu Lam, then Sai Wan, then Sheung Wan.
But this time, maybe the pilot was having fun? It went from Pok Fu Lam to the south to Aberdeen, then went north over the peak, came down to Happy Valley, then follow the harbor to Wan Chai, Central, then Sheung Wan. ;D
You can see Ocean Park, etc... in the following pictures. Like a Helicopter tour...
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It looks gorgeous and I bet it will even be better if it was night-time. Well, the pilot I guess is arranging a courtesy trip for frequent flyers!!
Speak of Macau, the following is a bit off tangent...
I was coming back to Hong Kong from Macau by helicopter the other day. Usually the helicopter would approach from Pok Fu Lam, then Sai Wan, then Sheung Wan.
But this time, maybe the pilot was having fun? It went from Pok Fu Lam to the south to Aberdeen, then went north over the peak, came down to Happy Valley, then follow the harbor to Wan Chai, Central, then Sheung Wan. ;D
You can see Ocean Park, etc... in the following pictures. Like a Helicopter tour...