PokerStars have added another live poker room to their business model after PokerStars LIVE Manila opened for business in the City of Dreams Manila Casino in the Philippines.
What a monster PokerStars has become.
I don’t mean the type of monster that hides underneath your bed and scares the living crap out of you when you are least expecting. I’m talking about the Sully type monsters from Monsters Inc. Huge, scary, but somewhat cuddly and loveable.
They smother the online poker business, and their European Poker Tour (EPT), is fast becoming the premier poker tour in the world; surpassing both the World Poker Tour (WPT), and World Series of Poker (WSOP), in terms of prestige.
They link the two quite nicely with their PokerStars LIVE card rooms. They have one situated in London (at the Hippodrome), one in Madrid, Spain (at the Gran Casino), and they also have a home in the gambling mecca of the world: the City of Dreams in Macau. Now they have another foothold in the burgeoning Asian market after opening PokerStars LIVE Manila in the City of Dreams Manila card room in the Philippines.
The card room opened on Sunday 14 Dec with a tournament free roll guaranteeing entry into the upcoming Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon – an event that will be hosted at PokerStars LIVE Macau. There were also 10 cash game tables offering low stakes games of $0.50/1 and $1/2.
PokerStars have connected with the gambling giant Crown Melco, on this project, and news reports suggest that the room’s rake is on par with anything else being offered in this beautiful part of the world. Whilst news has yet to emerge regarding any grand future plans, for the poker room, it’s widely expected that it will host the Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Manila stop 31 July – 9 August 2015.
