Very intersting article, good read.
My observations having been here for 7 months, is that its going to be a very long time before poker kicks off big time in Asia as a whole. The majority of "local" people simply do not have the money to play BIG poker.
There are regular/weekly tornaments held in 3 or 4 casinos in the cities, from what i understand they are not overly popular, anything from 10/30 players is the figure i was quoted, and they are £10 freezeouts.
The PanAsia poker tour was set up i believe to bring poker to Asia and unfortunately as yet it hasnt seemed to work!!!!
http://www.panasiapokertour.com/One tournament in Nov 2006 (poorly attended) and nothing since.
It is my wish that poker does kick off here, then i can start playing again.
I don't think you can use the part of the Phillipines you are in as a judge mate.
South Korea, Japan, Singapore
, Maccau are all well advanced financially and technically. India and China have a growing middle class and the Asian people in general love a gamble.
I have played poker in Seoul, the only problem is that the casinos are for foreigners only so that kind of cuts down your potential adversaries.
I have also noticed a lot more of the Filipino workers on the sites playing stud and Omaha which was never commom before, when I talk to these guys none of them know of public places to go and play when they are home and there does seem to be a lot of legislative problems.
I think the law rather than the amount of money available is more of a problem for curtailing grass roots poker in Asia but I'm sure the poker bug will bite and some of the biggest games will eventually be played in Asia.
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