I know many people play Texas Hold 'em in Taiwan, but everyone says it is illegal.
We play weekly in Hsinchu with friends, and never really worry about that.
Has anyone ever heard of a Poker game being busted by the cops?
If not, maybe we should organize an Annual National Taiwanese World Series of Poker Tournament
In Hsinchu we had before a 1500NT buy in tournament that had about 50 people show up.
Let me know if:
you know of Poker getting Busted
you know of any big tournaments in your Town/City
you know any people interested in Helping organize a National Tournament.
[quote=“jimipresley”]The amount of utter imbecilic crap that written on these forums sometimes … :roflmao:
Guanxi, cops, gangsters! It’s wild out there, boys! Keep your ears to the ground![/quote]
Cyborg Ninja, ever since he was a young lad all he ever wanted when he grew up to be was a gangster. He’s been making secret trips to the Oaklahoma USA where he bought a plot of land and has a cache of personal weapons to practice with. One good thing about the USA is they like their home grown militia’s.
He even shot me in the chest last year, good thing I was wearing a bullet proof vest.
If I recall correctly, they do have small buy in tournaments (1000-5000nt) but they do run million NT pots.[/quote]
I don’t think Mr Presley was referring to the games. Rather the common idea that all things are run by gangsters.
Here is a brief description to help you understand Taiwan better.
You see a guy with a black suit, chewing betel nuts looking like he is going to kill anyone who gets in his way. He drives the way he wants to skipping red lights, swearing and cutting of anyone and everyone. Is he a gangster? No…he sells houses.
[quote=“jimipresley”]The amount of utter imbecilic crap that written on these forums sometimes … :roflmao:
Guanxi, cops, gangsters! It’s wild out there, boys! Keep your ears to the ground![/quote]
exactly
OP: There are tons of games, there is even a Taiwan Poker Tour which top finishers win trips to Macau. Problem for you is you live in Hsinchu where most of the Laowai are probably nickel and dime ass tightwads. Go to Taipei for some live action.
I don’t think playing poker is illegal, but gambling is illegal.
However a lot of Taiwanese plays majhong with real money (read: gambling) but it’s mostly a private deal, not running underground casino, so if you were doing it with a group of friends wagering pocket change, I don’t think anyone would notice. However if you start inviting strangers in and wagers real money, cops will be knocking real soon.
I’ve heard mafia who runs underground casino has enough connections with the police (I guess as long as they give each other space) that they can run casinos as long as they maintain a certain discipline. But I guess the same could be said of prostitution rings, and this goes for any country, not just Taiwan. The American Mafia had connections with the police in order to run their operation…
If I recall correctly, they do have small buy in tournaments (1000-5000nt) but they do run million NT pots.[/quote]
I don’t think Mr Presley was referring to the games. Rather the common idea that all things are run by gangsters.
Here is a brief description to help you understand Taiwan better.
You see a guy with a black suit, chewing betel nuts looking like he is going to kill anyone who gets in his way. He drives the way he wants to skipping red lights, swearing and cutting of anyone and everyone. Is he a gangster? No…he sells houses.[/quote]
who the fuck has millions of NT’s to blow on poker games? You think the dude that sells houses has that type of dough? real fucking gangsters are the dudes at the back of the bar, ordering large amount of food and drinks and having a good time with their buddies without causing any shit.
man you guys don’t really know how taiwan works, especially taichung now do you? Any place with a store front including hospitals, bars, clubs, restaurants, manufacturing business etc etc all either have relations or pay protection fee. of course you guys don’t see “gangsters breaking shit everyday” because they keep a low fucking profile.
Luthers: If it’s in Taipei its most likely four seas or bamboo running it, which both sides have huge political and police connections. if something doesn’t happen during the games (eg someone getting shot etc) cops don’t really bother with that shit. the high end cash games end up with million NT pots and they’re usually the lao da’s who aren’t going to cap someone over a few mil at poker and start a gang war.
[quote=“cyborg_ninja”][quote=“heimuoshu”][quote=“cyborg_ninja”][quote=“jimipresley”]The amount of utter imbecilic crap that written on these forums sometimes … :roflmao:
Guanxi, cops, gangsters! It’s wild out there, boys! Keep your ears to the ground![/quote]
Hell don’t take my word for it go to their games yourself.
If I recall correctly, they do have small buy in tournaments (1000-5000nt) but they do run million NT pots.[/quote]
I don’t think Mr Presley was referring to the games. Rather the common idea that all things are run by gangsters.
Here is a brief description to help you understand Taiwan better.
You see a guy with a black suit, chewing betel nuts looking like he is going to kill anyone who gets in his way. He drives the way he wants to skipping red lights, swearing and cutting of anyone and everyone. Is he a gangster? No…he sells houses.[/quote]
who the fuck has millions of NT’s to blow on poker games? You think the dude that sells houses has that type of dough? real fucking gangsters are the dudes at the back of the bar, ordering large amount of food and drinks and having a good time with their buddies without causing any shit.
man you guys don’t really know how taiwan works, especially taichung now do you? Any place with a store front including hospitals, bars, clubs, restaurants, manufacturing business etc etc all either have relations or pay protection fee. of course you guys don’t see “gangsters breaking shit everyday” because they keep a low fucking profile.
Luthers: If it’s in Taipei its most likely four seas or bamboo running it, which both sides have huge political and police connections. if something doesn’t happen during the games (eg someone getting shot etc) cops don’t really bother with that shit. the high end cash games end up with million NT pots and they’re usually the lao da’s who aren’t going to cap someone over a few mil at poker and start a gang war.[/quote]
I never said the guy has the cash. What I said was there is no reason to “keep your ears to the ground” because we fear what the mafia is going to do. Yes they are there and like you correctly said, they never cause shit. They are usually quite friendly. Just don’t mess with there business. Now if you want to g play a few games of TH, you have nothing to fear.
About a month ago there was a raid on a house in Taipei where some guys had been having poker parties. They arrested several guys and confiscated about 300,000 NT. It seems one of the losers made a complaint and the police got a search warrant based on the tip. A friend is now representing one of the guys and challenging the search warrant.
I’m playing right now and often do. The servers are based in Europe after the USA kicked them out. So where do I stand legally about that?
Say a tourist comes to Taiwan and accesses his poker game on the Internet. Is that illegal?
You can organize ‘home games’ on Poker Stars too: " PokerStars Home Games lets you create and manage your own private poker club to play online poker games of your choice, with just your friends, on your schedule.
Creating a club is easy – just pick a club name and invitation code. You’ll then be presented with your own exclusive poker lobby that you can customize with private Home Game tables and tournaments of your choosing."
What if people are sitting around in a cafe playing a home game among themselves on servers in Europe? Is that illegal? There are no cards or money on the table. What are the cops gonna do about that?
Internet is most likely illegal but the police have enough to do with busting unbuckled taxi passengers to have times with the likes of hundreds of thousands going across the table illegally unless there is a chance of . . . .
