Raymond Wu talks about China's poker boom

PokerStars Team Pro Raymond Wu recently visited the 2014 PokerStars.net Beijing Millions, and shared his experiences regarding Chinese players, their superstitions and what's next come in China poker wise. He also talks about the culture of poker teams and teaches us some Chinese poker lingo.

Wu played in Beijing for a couple of weeks and go to experience the poker boom first hand. By his accounts, everyone is playing poker, the Beijing Millions drew 2,732 entrants and was a huge success. Most of the players are really enthusiastic but don't know much about strategy at this point of the boom, but they are very eager to learn. The 2014 Beijing Millions were the first big-scale live poker event organized in mainland China, and is part of the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour (APPT).

Wu talked about some of the superstitions, like players using specifically dried and preserved walnuts, which can be up to a 100 years old and very expensive. He shares a story about a player called "Mr. Walnut", who puts a walnut on his cards and brush the walnuts with an electric toothbrush before going all-in. He also talks about plays that "you have to see to believe" and  about the shouting and slowrolling, which, contrary to Europe and the USA, is totally fine and accepted.

The PokerStars Team Pro also talks about the group mentality that most of the players exhibit. A group of players from particular cities or provinces will travel and play together in tournaments, while wearing similar shirts/badges, and rooting for their fellow teammates. Even a small buy-in team events are hugely popular, every team had their own name and uniform.

Raymond also shares some of the strategies that the players incorporate. For example, with pocket Aces, the players don't want action, they wan't people to fold in order to avoid being outdrawn, so they usually raise big, trying to "close the door". If someone slowplays a monster and gets sucked out on, they're often told they should've "Closed it harder." 100 big blind shoves with Ace King and Queens/Jacks is also a common move, because they don't want to play the hand post-flop. Raises like this are called "violent raises". 

There are also some unique phrases, a flush is called "gold" and a combo-draw is called a "scary draw". So when you are chasing a flush, you are "trying to find gold", while with the "scary draw", the player holding the made hand has to be scared of all the outs.

The Chinese poker boom is just beginning, but as Raymond Wu states - "it's something different - and bigger. And it's only starting".

Lot of the operators, both online and offline, have started to put increasing focus on the Asian market in the past few years with Team Pro signings and branded tournaments. If somehow the Chinese poker boom could open casinos or online gaming sites that are available for everyone, another global poker boom could happen in the near future. Let's hope Raymond's predictions are correct and that the growth of the game in China has just begun.