Poker in Beijing

Imposter

Ok let's try this again!

Does anyone know if it's possible to play live poker in Beijing? How safe is it etc.. (I'm guessing it's illegal!)

Does anyone have the link to the other similar thread? (I think it was about Hong Kong)

I'm there for a few weeks on a work trip and i'll be trying to play online if my companies lovely IT dept hasn't blocked poker clients. Otherwise it looks like i'll be getting a much needed break from poker

El Stuntman

Hi Imposter,

AFAIK online poker sites are blocked from mainland China (so that they don't corrupt the socialist ethics of the youth!!).

No idea about live games although seeing some of the lunatics that play the casinos here, you should certainly want to! Would expect any casinos to be 'westerners only'. I hear Macau gambling is nutso...

best of luck, I expect a trip report!!

Gholimoli

El Stuntman wrote:

Hi Imposter,

AFAIK online poker sites are blocked from mainland China (so that they don't corrupt the socialist ethics of the youth!!).

No idea about live games although seeing some of the lunatics that play the casinos here, you should certainly want to! Would expect any casinos to be 'westerners only'. I hear Macau gambling is nutso...

best of luck, I expect a trip report!!

there must be some underground places there after all isnt China where the word "Po" originated.

El Stuntman

Gholimoli wrote:

there must be some underground places there after all isnt China where the word "Po" originated.

you must be thinking of Kung Po beef Gholi?

El Stuntman

Imposter, when travelling abroad one must be prepared to experience new cultures and pastimes (I'm sure you have donned the old lederhosen and indulged in the arse-slapping dance many times in Austria)....

how about some mah-jongg instead of poker?

Doc Farrell

Hi Imposter,

I posted about this yesterday but the system ate my homework when i went bellyup yesterday afternoon.

basically I did a quick google and there seems to be plenty of home games for english speaking people.

good luck with it! have a read of The Education of a Poker Player, the last third of which is set in Hong Kong before the 2nd world war, a great read!

Imposter

I read your post before it got nuked Doc!

lol @ El stuntman you guinness drinking leprechaun. I was thinking more Chinese poker although worst case scenario the chinese might know how to actually play it!

I won't be using the chinese firewall over there so most of the internet shouldn't be blocked but I haven't tried playing poker over the company servers before so i don't know if it'll work I know the sites themselves are blocked.

If I find poker i'll do a trip report :d although there's a few things to see over there so I don't plan on needing a poker fix for the first few weeks but you never know!

mathias

I was in China for a tour in March , Trips to Beijing ,Xian , and Shanghai , the usual trip , anyway , the internet is heavily restricted across the whole country from the ISP end. Any attempt to access a restricted site redirects you to a cnsc site which is China national security. There is no way to bypass this without risking arrest , and believe me , thats something you do not want to risk.
All ISP's including search engines like google are under strict agreements with the government to supply any user data on request.

On the up side for gamblers , Mah-Jongg is played everywhere for cash by gangs of people on the street. One of the first things I saw in Beijing airport was a group of old chinese guys screaming at each other over a mah-jongg game with a big pot of cash in the middle up for grabs.