Golden SNGs Review

Last year I complained about the fact that SNG players had a lack of promotions compared the the cash game players. Seeing that every billionth [cash game] hand there is free cash giveaways, and happy hour for cash too, it didn't seem right. Yes, we had the Battle of the Planets promotion, but that was an ongoing thing and is actually quite hard to achieve.

On the first week of December, Pokerstars had their 3rd Golden SNG promotion. They had one in June, October and December. The idea of the Golden SNG is that they are randomly chosen SNGs that have extra money added into the prizepool. It is a fantastic idea and a great way to get more players playing SNGs those weeks.

The snazzy golden coloured table when you get a Golden SNG!

The promotion started in mid June and was part of the road to 100 billion hands celebrations.

There are 3 different types of Goldens;

• 2x Multiplier - Double prizepool and Double buy in back for all players.
• 4x Multiplier - Quadruple prizepool and 4x buy in back for all players.
• 10x Multiplier - 10x prizepool and 10x buy in back for all players.

In October they had it again as part of the Carnival of Tournaments promotion, celebrating 800 million tournaments;

• BIG - 2x Multiplier and 2x buy in back.
• BIGGER - 3x Multiplier and 3x buy in back.
• BIGGEST - 5x Multiplier - and 5x buy in back.

Now seems a bit weird to name them this way since "Biggest" is smaller then the 10x from June's Golden SNGs.

December's Goldens part of the December Festival promotion and were like this;

• Bronze - Your buy in back.
• Silver - 3x Multiplier and 3x buy in back.
• Gold - 5x Multiplier and 5x buy in back.

I'm sure your noticing a theme going on here. Seems like these Goldens are gettting cheaper and cheaper. I managed to finally hit 2 Goldens in December and they were both Bronze ones :(. In fact it really didn't feel that much of a promotion, I have no idea why they decided to not 2x the prizepool, it seemed like the logical pattern. I mean, freerolling is nice, but then you are just playing for a regular SNG and that doesn't seem that special at all. What is the thinking behind this adjustment to the Goldens?

Maybe they increased the chance of getting a Golden and in turn decided to scrap the 2x prizepool? If that is the case then it doesn't really make sense to do that because well, Goldens are random and therefore people shouldn't really complain about getting/not getting them?

To me obviously the June promotion is the best, but if they only wanted to give away 5x then keep to the October promotion. Hitting the two Goldens where you only got your buy in back wasn't really that exciting and to be honest quite disappointing.

Now of course I'm gonna get a bunch of people saying that I should appreciate the fact that there is a promotion coz there easily could be nothing. The point I'm trying to make really is about consistency. If your gonna do a promotion, do it well and make it make sense. If it aint broke then why fix it? I like the Golden SNGs and thought that it was fantastic that finally SNGs are getting a promotion, but it just seems that Pokerstars are making them cheaper and cheaper lol... What's going on?

My Hongky Kong! Part 2 - #Foodie

Such a late part 2, I'm so lazy haha! 

There's nothing better in my opinion then spending time with friends eating! Its a great icebreaker and you get to enjoy some great food as well (hopefully). I spend a lot of time meeting people and had the pleasure of enjoying some amazing food in Hong Kong!


THE CHEAP 'N DIRTY

The food within this category I would say is definitely one for the cheap ones. Foreigners might shy away from this because for this price, it seems kinda dirty and crowded. But that's part of the experience! What is interesting is that the cheap and dirty style foods are still appreciated by everyone pretty much, even the wealthy embrace it here, all that matters is the taste!

STREET FOOD - Here you will see market stall style foods being sold. Usually meat on a stick like fishballs or battered food, its kinda made for walking and eating. Super cheap stuff, like $5 HK Dollars which is about 50p or just over $1 usa!

Various fish/meat balls, seafoody stuff and sausages on a stick!

These street food venders like stay open for real late so it can be a good snack on the way home after clubbing or a late night out.

LOCAL RESTAURANTS - These might seem kinda shoddy but in fact they do fantastic food. I remember in London there was a cheap Chinese restaurant place that was famous for terrible service, but it was cheap so it stayed in business! Kinda like that these local places seem kinda dirty, and actually its now a given that you get some boiling water and rewash your bowls! Oh, and also the menu is in Chinese most of the time, but most people can still speak some kinda English.

I remember having this awesome "Ying Yang" rice dish at a local restaurant, which is a white sauce and a tomato sauce with rice!

A more food court style place where the food is great and the prices are cheap! But yea, wash your bowls...

I've also heard that the old Hong Kong Airport has now used that space to be a massive outdoor marketplace seafood place.

THE MIDDLE GROUND

These are basically less dirty, but a bit more expensive options. More formal, but still fun!

YUM CHA - This directly translates into "Drinking Tea" but is used as a term to describe having lunch. The lunches would consist of many small dishes, mainly dumpling style foods like various prawn dumplings and even the foreigner favorite Cha Tsu Bow (BBQ Pork Bun)!

Yum Cha at a restaurant in Sha Tin... 3 Floors of it!

What makes these different to the Chinese Restaurants in my locals where I live here, is that in Hong Kong they have these women who push trolleys around with food on it, and you basically take what you want and then they stamp your order. You can order things too, but generally most of the food comes to you!

HOT POT - A hot pot is where they have a big pot of boiling water on a stove on the table, and you put the ingredients into it to cook it and eat. There is loads of things from veggies, meat, seafood, and lots of sauces. Some places will give you like a half split hot pot, one side for spicy and the other for non spicy. Its messy, has tons of food, and lots of fun!

One of my favorites because its like even more social then usual! Afterwards you can drink the soup too!

SPECIALTIES - This includes foreign foods, fast foods, and specialist places. Hong Kong has tons of non Chinese foods too, its pretty westernized. There are Maccy Ds, Pizza Hut, and KFC here too, but they have their own ones as well. Cafe De Coral is like their own fast food, but for Chinese food! Super cheap, like £3 for duck and rice which in UK is usually like £5!

The famous Pork Buns (on the right) at Tim Ho Wan at Central! So famous that it got some Michelin Stars for it! We had to queue up for a white to get a seat, and they were great!

Shanghai Food! - Sweet and Sour Soup, Corn Chicken and some Pickled Veggies!

Top left one of my favorites, Dumplings with Soup inside of it! 

One of my favorite places I went to was in the new Hysan Place Mall (yes, they feel like they don't have enough malls) Food Court in Causeway Bay. Its a Japanese fast food brand for steak! Cant believe the price, how fast it was and how amazing the steak was! You get it kinda raw, but still cooking on your hot grill thing, then you mix it all up with some rice and sauce when it cooked enough for you.

Pick yo' Steak at Pepper Lunch!

Let it cook to how you like it... This was about £8!

Nomomomomomomomom! Delicious! 

And of course, there is the 3rd category, which is actually the most uninteresting... the posh rich food. So I wont go into that! 

Food is great... so how are us Asians not so obese? I reckon one of the biggest reasons is that we drink a lot of tea, and walk a lot because the cities are close together and crowded so you don't need a car to get around. Man... all these #Foodies made me full!

Part 3 coming soon!