Match Day 6 of the English Premier League (EPL) sees Liverpool continue their soul-crushing form with six wins from six; Man City move into the second spot with a five-star display in Wales, and Chelsea stutter at the London Stadium.

I grew up in Reddish, Stockport.

Safe to say, nobody, supported Stockport County.

It was Man Utd or Liverpool.

The Macau economy is expected to grow 5.8% for this year, followed by 3.9% growth in 2019, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

News outlet The Macau Hub reported on the EIU’s forecast that the special administrative region’s growth in gross domestic product (GDP) will continue to be fueled by the gaming sector, which itself has seen below-expected gross gaming revenue (GGR) the past year.

Macau’s Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) had previously released data for the first half of the year, showing 7.6% GDP growth year on year.

The EIU said that the Macau government’s attempts at diversifying the economy outside of gambling would remain largely unsuccessful. However, according to the EIU, the government should continue working to grow its non-gambling tourism activities to boost the entertainment sector.

The share price offered by the operator of City of Dreams Manila to its shareholders prior to being delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has been criticized by analysts as too low, local news outlet BusinessWorld reported.

Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines) Corporation, in its petition for voluntary delisting, had set a tender offer price of PHP7.25 ($0.13) per share for about 1.57 billion shares, constituting about 27% of the company.

This price, as calculated by independent financial adviser FTI Consulting Philippines, Inc. (FTI CPI), is higher than the stock’s price of PHP6.21 ($0.12) as of September 7. Furthermore, the volume weighted average price of the stock was calculated at PHP7.32 ($0.14) over a one-year period, and PHP6.52 ($0.12) over six months.

Even so, the price is half of its initial public offering (IPO) price of PHP14 ($0.26) back in 2013.

Australia gaming manufacturing giant Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd. announced yesterday in a filing with the Australian Securities Exchange that its CEO, Danny Gladstone, will be stepping down from his position next year. His last day as CEO will be June 30, but the executive will still remain with the company, which, according to Ainsworth, will give the company the ability to retain the experience and expertise Gladstone has accumulated over the years in the gaming industry.

Gladstone will remain in his current position until a suitable replacement is found. When that happens, he will switch to an unidentified role within the organization.

Graeme Campbell, who serves as Ainsworth’s chairman of the board, said that Gladstone has been responsible for driving the international growth of the company. He added, “Ainsworth is much stronger for Danny’s contribution. We are delighted he will continue to assist us in the future.”

Ainsworth saw impressive profit during its previous fiscal year, even though it was less than the previous year. In its financial report issued in August, the company reported a net profit of $23.3 million for the year, about 15.8% less than the prior period. Revenue for the company was approximately US$192.6 million. The company added that sales were better in the second half of the financial year than they were during the first half.

Yesterday, Macau’s Statistics and Census Service released its August data for the gambling mecca. According to the agency, 3.4 million visitor arrivals were recorded in the month, an increase of 18.7% over the same period last year. This was a bigger climb than what was seen in July, which recorded a 4% jump year-on-year.

Chinese visitors were the biggest segment, accounting for 2.53 million visits and an increase of 25.3% year-on-year. The number of visitors who took advantage of China’s Individual Visit Scheme increased to around 1.31 million for an impressive jump of 31% year-on-year. The Individual Visit Scheme is a system that allows mainland Chinese to visit the exterior independently, rather than as part of a tour group.

Most of the feeder markets into Macau also saw increases in their visitor numbers. The ones that didn’t were Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea.

For the eight months ending August 31, visitor arrivals to Macau increased year-on-year by 8.9% with a total of 23.25 million arrivals recorded. 70.5% of this, or 16.4 million, came from mainland China. The segment increased by 14.2% over the same period last year.

The Card Player Poker Tour (CPPT) is returning to one of its favorite venues, the Bicycle Hotel & Casino in California. The Bike will host the CPPT Big Poker Oktober poker festival, a series of 17 events, including the always popular $1,100 buy-in NLHE tournament with a whopping $500,000 guarantee. Big Poker Oktober will get underway on October 1 and run through October 21.

The lineup includes a number of satellite events, bounties, HORSE events and, as always, NLHE and Pot-Limit Omaha games. Buy-ins start for as low as $150 and can go as high as $4,300 if someone wants to buy directly into Day 2 of the Main Event.

The Main Event will start on October 17 with the first of three starting flights. There will be one flight each day beginning at 11:30 and satellite tournaments are available with buy-ins starting at $200.

Last year, the festival’s main event attracted 550 entries, which broke the guarantee and saw the prize pool swell to $673,180. 23-year-old Andrew Wisdom from San Diego scored his first title when he took down the event, pocketing over $165,000 in the process. He has since gone on to cash at a number of tournaments throughout the US, including a number of final table appearances.

The largest Winamax Poker Open (WPO) ever wrapped up Sunday in Dublin after Karol Wojciechowski out of Ireland was awarded the tournament’s champion. 1,191 entries were recorded for the game and Wojciechowski was awarded €89,716 (US$104,967) for his victory. His largest cash prize prior to the WPO was a €19,940 (US$23,427) pot he collected this past August, also in a tournament in Dublin.

Following his victory, Wojciechowski stated, “I will try to play more big festivals now because I’m on a really good run. The poker world is open! It’s a great place; it’s not just the capital. There are a lot of places to play poker if you like to do this all over Ireland. So if you like, it’s [a] great opportunity living in Ireland and enjoying it…6-max is totally different. I like both but they’re totally different tournaments. You need to play more aggressive in this one. I don’t mind action but I like both. The French players are very friendly and good players, but they’re not crazy.”

Day 3 saw 17 players remaining and several quick exits soon reduced the field to only two tables. France’s Matthieu Lamagnere, who began the day as chip leader, maintained his lead for the better part of the action, due in part to a lucky river win that gave him a set of 7s over Irish player Marc Macdonnel, who was poised to earn a massive pot when he picked up top pair on the turn with an A-K hand. The 7 on the river was a shocker and sent him packing.

Lamagnere kept hammering away at the competition, eliminating Dominque Potenza. Coming up from behind, however, was Wojciechowski, who gave Macdonnel a little revenge by scoring an Ace on the river to steal a big chunk of Lamagnere’s stack. When the final table was finally set, Wojciechowski was sitting in the lead.

Three tales from the tongues of live events from around the globe including a victory at the World Series of Poker Circuit for Jerry Wong, a similar experience for Tokuho Yoshinaga in Macau, and a tournament donk luckboxing his way to a cash game title. 

Halloumi burgers, brioche buns, chilli jam, vegan mushroom burgers, and rooibos and orange tea – hallmarks of an up and up cafe. No black teeth. The type of place that throws a blanket over your freezing genitalia as you sit in the garden, sipping something, hoping the wind and the rain would bugger off to France.

And yet I can’t see Jerry Wong’s Hendon Mob profile.

The former World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Niner hasn’t gone all GDPR on us, the cafe’s internet connection blocks you gambling related bits and pieces.

The Effective Altruists over at Raising For Effective Giving have launched the REG Fund in a bid to focus poker player’s attention on the long-term pain and suffering of our descendants. 

Neil has travelled to many galaxies. He told me the night before I made my way to the stones to celebrate Equinox. I didn’t know people could go to other galaxies. I thought Equinox was the name of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart’s band.

His voice was sincere; unshakable confidence. I wanted to believe, but the cynic inside of me took a baseball bat to his words and knocked them out of my ears.

Neil met God and God gave him a mission.

Erkut Yilmaz wins the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, and Champions Club member, Yevgeniy Timoshenko settles his legal dispute with his former buddy Frank Gu. 

I’ve never been to Atlantic City. I guess I’m not a fully-fledged writer of poker – not quite yet, and maybe never. But in the summer of 2018, 260,000 more people ventured that way than they did in 2017, all hoping for a quicker win than working for it.

Business in the AC casinos has been booming in the past 12-months. Two more opened for business providing jobs for close to 7,000 more people, and gaming revenue was up by $54.8 million.

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.