PokerStars Live Manila Opens Up In City Of Dreams

PokerStars is known as the biggest online poker website in the world but the company has also started to launch live poker rooms under the new leadership of its parent company, Amaya Gaming. PokerStars recently launched its first ever PokerStars Live Manila poker room in the City of Dreams, Manila.

PokerStars decided to launch its poker room at the Melco Crown (Philippines) Resorts Corp which is located at the Pagcor Entertainment City, a location that is government sponsored. The Melco is affiliated with the Belle Corp, an organization that is owned by Henry Sy, who is a tycoon in the retail market. This is the second live poker room that PokerStars has launched in Asia, the first one being in Macau, the largest gambling hub in the world.

The Philippines is a small country but poker analysts believe that it has a lucrative gambling market and PokerStars wants to establish itself early to capture as much market share as it possibly can. The live poker room is located on the 2nd Level of the casino floor and will offer customers a number of popular cash games and tournaments. The live poker room has 14 permanent tables which can be increased when special events like the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Manila Poker Festival arrives.

The City of Dreams Manila is an integrated casino and resort project of the Melco Crown (Philippines) Resorts Corp. The casino is estimated to have cost close to $1.2 billion and will have 6 hotel towers featuring the Hyatt Hotel, the Crown Towers hotel and the Nobu Hotel Manila. The City of Dreams had a soft launch on December 14 and will make use of the festive season to offer a number of promotions and discounts to attract prospective clients.

In a statement, PokerStars’ director of live operations for Asia-Pacific, Danny McDonagh said

Our relationship with City of Dreams has been nothing short of amazing in our poker room in Macau. I have the utmost confidence that our continued collaboration in Manila will take poker in the Philippines to new heights.

PokerStars Live Manila is currently running a number of special tournaments and promotions during Friday, Saturday and Sundays. McDonagh has plans to launch a number of special events during the early part of 2015 as he wants to create a loyal player base to ensure that the poker room grows in popularity and becomes one of the star attractions in the City of Dreams.