Grinder backpacking Asia round 2

There is a cafe restaurant saloon or whatever it is supposed to be in Oatman, AZ. The walls are covered in money throughout the entire place.
Should be fairly easy to get a free lunch.🙄🤑

“There is always money in the banana stand!”

I just got the white guy treatment again at Titan King casino. They shuffled for BJ and the dealer cut 4 decks off of the 6 and when I laughed the boss told her only to cut 3 decks lol.

I just saw a car in Bavet, Cambodia with a South Carolina license plate... wtf?!?

Quote: PokerGrinder

I just got the white guy treatment again at Titan King casino. .

One would think it would be the Asians who would get such treatment: inveterate gamblers with math skills and a memory to exploit every trick in the book.

Note: when big gas guzzler cars were being shipped to Japan by American restorers for huge sums of money they were always asked to ship the license plates as well even though they were totally useless in Japan.

Are we to believe you went to cambodia/thailand and didn't sample any of the local cuisine? ...you know what I mean.

PG I know it is none of my business but how the he'll do you afford to travel for 1/3 of a year? If it is all poker income I am moving to winnepeg To play poker with you.

Quote: Romes

Are we to believe you went to cambodia/thailand and didn't sample any of the local cuisine? ...you know what I mean.

I sampled a couple of different Cambodian dishes... none in Thailand though.

Quote: GWAE

PG I know it is none of my business but how the he'll do you afford to travel for 1/3 of a year? If it is all poker income I am moving to winnepeg To play poker with you.

I travel more like half the year but yes poker is good just not in Winnipeg. I haven’t spent any money on this trip yet.

Actually I should correct that. Poker is average in Winnipeg, not bad but it’s much better elsewhere.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I travel more like half the year but yes poker is good just not in Winnipeg. I haven’t spent any money on this trip yet.

PG,

I understand the hostels and local foods are (relatively) inexpensive. But, what about airfare? Covered that also?? Wowie! You da' man, boss!

Quote: PokerGrinder

I sampled a couple of different Cambodian dishes... none in Thailand though.

Due to the risk of it being a fugazi in Thailand? 🤔😃

Quote: LuckyPhow

PG,

I understand the hostels and local foods are (relatively) inexpensive. But, what about airfare? Covered that also?? Wowie! You da' man, boss!

I’ll get to that in my next update. I’m a couple cities beyond on the updates. Let’s just say poker has been good.

I got to Phnom Penh and headed to Riverking poker room to see Andrew who is a friend from Winnipeg that lives in Cambodia during the winter. I got there and had dinner (the club had ordered amazing Mexican in for the players), food is always free in the poker room but it usually comes from their kitchen. I got a seat and played for a couple of hours and made just under $400. Cambodia’s main currency is the USD and the poker is all in USD. It was a pretty uneventful game other than the $350 donation I was given. Utg opens to 15, utg+1 calls, I 3bet the button with AA to 65, original raiser folds and after asking to see my chips the guy who called ships it all in and I hold. He clearly thought I was 3betting light. I learned over the next few days that this guy had a tendency to spazz.

The rest of the night was a shit show. Andrews Cambodian gf joined us for for beer and we shot some pool.
Barrel of beer.

They have been on and off for months and Andrew has told me how crazy she is but I finally got to witness it! So we played pool and she is the sweetest girl, Andrew is laughing cause she is on her best behaviour. After we finished there we headed to the girly bar street to Andrew’s friends bar. We got there and the drinking escalated. Gabriel the owner keeps doing shots (free) with us and Andrew keeps ordering tea pots which are teapots full of random alcohol.
Tea pot.

This along with all the beer and we were pretty destroyed. I’m not into the girls that work in these bars so I was playing connect four with the bartender when Andrew and his gf start arguing. Apparently he made a joke and she slapped him hard. He said ok you’re done go home and the fight was on! She was starting to unleash the crazy. They broke up at some point and she wanted her stuff from his room but he said no I’m drinking with my friend, you can have it tomorrow. They argued for a while and I just kept drinking with the bartender and losing at connect four. The bartenders are insanely good at the game because they play it all night with customers, apparently sometimes for money. I was just buying her drinks instead. At some point the security guard drove Andrew and his now ex to his hotel to grab her stuff. The bartender and I are hammered at this point and having a good time.

Andrew gets back and has quite the story. Apparently in the room he gave her her stuff but she wouldn’t leave. She pushed the security out of the room, smashed a bottle on Andrews head and tried to slit his throat. He overpowered her and held her down for 5 minutes until she ran out of energy. At some point this 90 pound girl also punched the granite counter and broke a chunk right off. The security thought she was a hooker and despite Andrew telling him they were dating he eventually gave her $50 which she took along with $100 of her own, ripped it up and threw it at him lol. She also used the bottle to cut up her wrists and try to convince the poker room that Andrew did it. They didn’t believe her and told her to leave. (I should mention the hotel he stays at is where the poker game is held) She is a nut job for sure! Andrew and I kept drinking until the early morning. I got the tiny bartender too drunk to work lol. Overall a great night.

The next day I woke up, showered and felt great despite how drunk I was the night before. I went back to Riverking to play a session. I play a few interesting hands. The first: early position raises to 12, three callers. I 3bet to 70 in sb with AKo. Original raiser folds HJ, CO call. Flop K98r, I bet 110, first guy calls, next guy tank shoves for 220, I shove and the first guy shrugs and calls off last 130. Board runs out 6 4. No draws come in and these two are fishy so I figure I’m good. The guy who shoved has a blank 9 and the other guy had QQ, both played the hand atrociously.

The other hand I open utg with AJd to 15, old guy 3bets to 40, I call. Flop is 683 two diamonds. I check he bets 50 I jam for 250 he tank calls and I make nuts on turn. The reason that I jam here is because out of position I don’t really want to play the hand passively, I want to take full advantage of the gold equity I have when I jam. Basically it’s great when I get him to fold and when he doesn’t I am not in bad shape at all. I finished the session up just under a grand.


For dinner I met my sister at the Lone Pine Cafe which is where the amazing Mexican food came from. We shared nachos which were excellent and then I had street tacos.


After dinner we walked around the area and took some pictures.
Important building, can’t remember which one lol.

We ended up at Nagaworld Casino. The new Naga2 expansion they built is out of this world. It’s nicer than most if not all Vegas casinos. I lost $45 playing $10 BJ to collect a chip.
Nagaworld expansion.


After Naga Maegan went back to the hostel and I met Andrew and his friends at Spider-Man bar. The bars all have weird themes. I had a couple beers with them but called it a night around midnight as I didn’t feel like getting drunk again.

The next day we took a tour of the killing fields (exactly what it sounds like) and S21 which was where the prisoners were held and tortured by the Khmer Rouge. It is a nasty stain on Cambodia’s history. I’m glad we went as it was good to learn about it but wow is mankind repulsive. I couldn’t believe how this could happen and I hadn’t heard of it until a few months ago. I highly suggest reading up on it.

After a very somber afternoon I went to Riverking 2 which is the other poker room in town. Basically it was opened a few months ago by one of the former owners as a f*ck you to the original RK. They even named it the same thing. I waited about 90 minutes for a seat and then when I did get one I won a whopping $30. I had the chicken bacon penne which was beyond amazing. I would have happily paid $15-$20 back home for that meal and it was free. Every two hours they run a splash pot where the room puts $100 in the pot and the winner gets it. Splash pot went like this $100 in the middle, straddle, re straddle. Utg jams 200, next jams 200, short stack jams 40. I rejam 450 with AKo. Short stack wins main, I take the side pot on A high board. Short stack turns straight otherwise I would have picked up about $260 more. Oh well.

My last day in Phnom Penh Maegan and I went to one of the players restaurants for lunch/breakfast, I was told his Lebanese place has the best shawarma and they were right. I had the lamb shawarma and it was one of the better ones that I’ve had.

I then played a short session at RK1 and won $55, the game was mediocre so I left. Later that day I went to RK2 and played a session. Early on I lose AK<98 all in pre for $80 when he gutters the river. Everything was uphill from there. I play a hand where this loose Cambodian guy who has been 3betting light came at me. I open utg to 15, one caller and the loose guy 3bets to 65, I know he’s been doing this light so I 4bet to 195, folds to him and he thinks for a while and calls. I have 205 behind. Flop is Q73 two diamonds, he checks and I jam all in. He thinks for a long time and calls. Board runs out 10 7 and I we both show... he shows me 42 off, I was very right. I found out later this is the owner of the club, he loves to gamble and is one of the top ten richest people in Cambodia.


Other fun hand was just a cooler. I over set a guy and then I river quads which is good for a $200 bonus. I ended up winning just under $600 plus the bonus $200.


I almost forgot so I had the penne with amazing Australian beef perfectly cooked med/rare for lunch and for dinner before the I left I had the chicken bacon penne with a crusted salmon filet. Have to take advantage of the free food!


I went back to the hostel to pack for the bus ride to Sihanoukville the next day. Overall I won about $2200 in Phnom Penh. To be continued...

PG,

Great chapter! I followed all the poker except I didn't understand what this sentence meant:

Early on a lose AK<98 all in pre for $80 when he gutters the river.

Would you mind translating? You were all-in preflop, so it played out from there, but I don't follow which hand was yours or what "gutters" means. I take it you won the hand, because "it was uphill" after that, but I'm guessing you had the 98 and won, crashing his very favored AK? Thanks!

Really enjoying your travel reports and am glad to hear Phnom Penh was so profitable. I can't get over the quality of the free munchies they give out! That salmon+penne looked really tasty. Wish we had places like that here in the states.

Quote: beachbumbabs

PG,

Great chapter! I followed all the poker except I didn't understand what this sentence meant:

Early on a lose AK<98 all in pre for $80 when he gutters the river.

Would you mind translating? You were all-in preflop, so it played out from there, but I don't follow which hand was yours or what "gutters" means. I take it you won the hand, because "it was uphill" after that, but I'm guessing you had the 98 and won, crashing his very favored AK? Thanks!

Haha I was worried some people might not get the lingo. No I got it in with AK against his 98. He had a gut shot straight draw and he hit it on he river. The board read 6510 2 7. I like to think I’m better than ever getting it all in pre flop with 9 high lol. It was all uphill from there because I won a bunch after that hand.

I forget to mention how lucky you are that you are getting to share this amazing trip with your sister.

Have you taken advantage of any of the PG massages? An hour was less than $10 my trip there.

Quote: TumblingBones

Really enjoying your travel reports and am glad to hear Phnom Penh was so profitable. I can't get over the quality of the free munchies they give out! That salmon+penne looked really tasty. Wish we had places like that here in the states.

The food was spectacular! The salmon and penne would have been $30 in a restaurant and I would have happily paid it. Free is better though.

Soopoo: It is fun, and we have only fought a few times. I think it works well that we do a lot of our own things so that we don’t kill each other. She loves museums and I well, I just don’t lol.

I sadly haven’t. My body was bruised after the bike accident and then I was busy in Cambodia so I haven’t yet. Tomorrow I was planning on getting a massage though.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Haha I was worried some people might not get the lingo. No I got it in with AK against his 98. He had a gut shot straight draw and he hit it on he river. The board read 6510 2 7. I like to think I’m better than ever getting it all in pre flop with 9 high lol. It was all uphill from there because I won a bunch after that hand.

Ahh. Gutters = made a gut-shot (inside straight). That and you all-in AK makes much more sense. Thanks!

Just two questions:

What is "connect four"?

and

When is the wedding day for Andrew and his girl friend?

At 'short stack turns straight' I nearly thought "good for him, its fine to lead a lawful life" but then I realized it was "short stack got a straight on the turn".

Utg had me buffaloed for a while. I was trying Ultimate Texas something until I remembered it was Under The Gun.

Killing Fields.... I remember when the Kmer Rouge declared cities to be bad and anyone no matter what their age or medical condition who did not immediately leave was killed outright.

Not to downplay any other mass killings but what was really incredible is that the Khmer Rouge were killing their own people.

Quote: Hunterhill

Not to downplay any other mass killings but what was really incredible is that the Khmer Rouge were killing their own people.

Saw the mountain of skulls from the killing fields, not sure if it was time or life magazine, but they did
a full or double page shot of it, think it was 1974. Black and white, only made the bleaching skulls more prominent. Might be most horrifying thing I've ever seen, although the naked child running in front of the Napalm exploding, and the guy with the pistol to his head, about to be executed, also haunt my dreams from back then, too.

Poker Grinder appears to have ground to a halt.
Perhaps he is meeting with Cambodian officials since they recently announced they are seeking foreign investors in their casinos.
Any pool going on Andrew and his girl friend's wedding date?

Quote: FleaStiff

Poker Grinder appears to have ground to a halt.
Perhaps he is meeting with Cambodian officials since they recently announced they are seeking foreign investors in their casinos.
Any pool going on Andrew and his girl friend's wedding date?

Ground to a halt? I posted the Phnom Penh update 3.5 days ago lol.

I sure hope Andrew stays away from her this time but I have my doubts.

So my original quote about the Cambodian "cuisine" said "...you know what I'm talking about". I'm not talking about the food lol.

LOVED the update with the poker stories and pictures. Holy hell Andrews ex sounds crazy as *%&(...

Quote: Romes

So my original quote about the Cambodian "cuisine" said "...you know what I'm talking about". I'm not talking about the food lol.

LOVED the update with the poker stories and pictures. Holy hell Andrews ex sounds crazy as *%&(...

Lmao yes Romes I know that and I answered accordingly.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I sampled a couple of different Cambodian dishes... none in Thailand though.

Romes here is my response, not sure how you misunderstood what I meant lol.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Romes here is my response, not sure how you misunderstood what I meant lol.

Ha, I just assumed there would be stories to be told ;-). Like did you go to some 'shop' or were you propositioned at the casinos, or did Andrew know of a "reputable" establishment? etc etc etc.

I missed the second part of your post Romes, yes Andrews ex is batshit crazy. I got hit in the face with the deck in Phnom Penh. I’ll never apologize for good variance.

As good as I ran in Phnom Penh I ran equally bad in Sihanoukville. (Poker) Sihanoukville is an interesting town. It used to be beautiful, it still is in areas but sadly it is being overrun by Chinese money. The Chinese are coming in and building giant casinos and hotels and they are ruining the beautiful natural landscape.

We took a minivan from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville that took about 5.5 hours. Once we got to Sihanoukville we grabbed a tuk tuk to our hotel and checked in, or tried to at least. They wouldn’t check us in without the booking number even though we had the email from Expedia. I told them to look up our name and after about 20 minutes they checked us in. The hotel was fine, pretty basic but it did the trick.

We walked over to the beach/boardwalk and went in search of food. We eventually just stopped at one of the beach restaurants and got white person priced. We ordered a dish each and ended up paying $9 each which we found out is high even for Sihanoukville, oops. I had chili shrimp on rice and Maegan had squid with rice. They were both good.

After lunch I started my casino chip collecting and there was a lot of that in Sihanoukville. Thank you China! The first casino I stopped at was the Bao Mai Casino where the Riverking poker room from Phnom Penh would be opening their new poker room the next day. I played $10 baccarat and all the staff at the Chinese casino were very amused by the white guy playing baccarat. They were even more amused that I knew all the rules to the game, not that the rules are difficult. After I played a few hands the dealer gave me a $10 free play but said it had to bet on banker for some reason. Luckily the next hand was banker so I won the free play hand. I left after winning $45 plus a chip.

My next stop was the New Macau casino across the street from our hotel. I played $10 baccarat there and won $9. The tables are so large that the dealers have a giant paddle with a handle to pick up both cash bets and chip bets.


I then went back to the hotel we were staying at, the Golden Sands and visited the casino. Again I played baccarat as that’s the most common game since the casinos cater to Chinese clientele. I won $8.50 playing $10 minimum baccarat. The chips $100 and up are really large oversized chips. I’ve never seen oversized chips for such a low denomination before. A bunch of these casinos had plaques in their trays that they kept telling me were used for “rolling” but nobody spoke enough English to explain what that meant. A couple of days later I would find out that the casino gives bonus chips for large buy ins. Basically you buy $3000 worth of chips and they will give you $3050 worth of rolling chips which have to be played. If you’re playing anyways I guess you might as well take the extra chips.

That night I went next door to a poker room I knew about at Ya Duo Li which is in the same building as the Bao Long Casino, a two for one! I played for a very short time at a 1/1 no limit game that was beyond boring. I won $9.50 before leaving the snooze fest. I then took the escalator upstairs and played $10 baccarat and again I had an audience since I’m the white guy playing baccarat. I won $33.50 and headed on my way.

Eric messaged me and told me about a game at Lion City Casino so I walked there and checked it out. They play 1/2 NL and it was a decent game. All the table games were closed and I found that weird, until the casino ended up closing 7 days later and the next time I played poker there all the slot machines were gone. They did have female dealers dealing baccarat for an online Chinese casino as well.
Poker didn’t go very well as I got one outed for $350. I had K9 on a Q99 4 K board and he shows me KK on the river. Yuck! I also lost AA to JJ when he flopped a set. I managed to only lose $318 in the game so I’ll call that a win lol.

My last stop of the night on my way back to hotel was Ri Yue Xin Casino where I played a couple hands of $20 minimum baccarat and won $28.

The next day was the opening of the new Riverking poker room. I played during the day and lost $570. It was a mix of bad luck and playing bad. I lost one hand where I lost A10 to 55 on a A105 flop, can’t do much about that. I did however like I said play a couple hands pretty badly. A couple of ill timed bluffs that didn’t work and I later realized weren’t thought out very well.

After poker I visited 2 casinos before returning to Bao Mai casino for the Riverking grand opening pool party. The first was New Mei Gao Mei Casino which they call New MGM and even use the MGM logo which I’m guessing MGM wouldn’t be thrilled about. I played $10 baccarat and won $9. My next stop was the White Sands Casino where I lost $91 playing $20 baccarat, so much baccarat!

I went back to our hotel and changed into a bathing suit for the party. The casino roasted a whole lamb on a spit. The lamb was out of this world!

The flavour was amazing and the meat was so soft, almost velvety. They also had an open bar and they hired 11 Russian girls to drink and swim. The party was so much fun and we all got beyond wasted.

After the party we decided to go to The square which has a ton of bars. I went back to the hotel, showered and changed. We were waiting for some people at Bao Mai so I sat the poker game which probably wasn’t a great idea but I did. I made trips on the turn and won $150 in less than 10 minutes. I warned everyone when I sat down that I was only playing for a couple minutes so they didn’t care that I picked up after winning.

We went to the square, played pool with some Cambodian girls and drank beer. At some point one of the guys said we should go to a bar at Otres Beach so the 6 of us hopped into a tuk tuk and he drove us the 15 minutes to the bar.

This bar sucked! The DJ was terrible and kept having dead air. Getting a beer here is an ordeal. Beer is $1 so I went up to the bartender and ordered a beer. I handed her the American dollar and she said no you need hippie dollars?!? I said what and she showed me a hippie dollar. So I said how about this I’ll give you this dollar, you give me that dollar and then I’ll give you that dollar for the beer and obviously I’m drunk during this so who knows if she understood me. She walked away leaving me with the beer. We walked over to the hippie dollar booth and bought money. We walked back and said we’d like to pay for 2 beers so she gave us 2 beers, I said no you already gave me this one and she said no I didn’t. So after all that she wouldn’t take my real money but she gave me the free beer, wtf lol?!? We didn’t stay long cause the bar wasn’t much fun. We headed back and the guys went back to the square while I called it a night at 4 am.

I stopped at the Oriental Palace casino on my way back to my hotel and won $45 playing $10 baccarat. Off to bed for the drunk guy.

The day after the party I slept in and woke up feeling perfectly fine. Maegan and I went to this Mediterranean restaurant and had the seafood platter which was insane.

It had fish, a whole soft crab, squid, octopus, shrimp three ways, fries and salad. It was so good and despite being expensive for Cambodia it was only $16 each. After we finished we walked down to the pier to try and book Maegan a boat to Koh Rong which we weren’t able to do but she figured it out online. I found a casino in the backpacker district called LA Vogue which looked very nice and new. I played this weird North American game called Blackjack and won $20 at a $2 minimum.

That night Maegan and I went to the Otres Saturday night market which is basically a hippie hangout with food stalls, a couple clothing/jewelry stalls and a bar. We sat and listened to the live music, had a drink and a donut before heading back to our hotel.

So much chocolate!


My night then got extremely long unintentionally. I went to Fortuna Casino and played poker. The game was a bunch of South Koreans who had no idea what they were doing. The problem was the rake was insanely high, it was 5% capped at $20 which is insane for a 1/2 game. I won $250 and left after about a hour mostly because of the rake. I walked next door to the WM Casino and played outsides on roulette )$10 min) and lost $7. Very nice brand new casino.

I then switched directions as headed to the two casinos the other way. First up was Kompongsom City where I lost $41 playing $10 baccarat. This casino looked like it had been around for awhile, it was sort of dingy in there.

My next stop was a much nicer casino just down the street at Jin Bei. They had BJ! I played $5 BJ for longer than usual because I was enjoying the mid 20’s group of Israelis. My Hebrew is not great but I was actually picking up a decent amount of their conversation. Apparently I know words that I didn’t realize I knew. I ended up $49.

My thought at this point was since I was wide awake I’d go to Queenco casino which is about a 15 minute drive away and it’s isolated all by itself... I was wrong. There turned out to be a ton of casinos out there and it probably wasn’t a great idea to start collecting them all at 12:30 am. The area has really been built up lately.

So I paid a guy on a motorbike $4 to drive me there and wow I don’t like being on the back of one of those things, not comfortable at all. He dropped me at Queenco and I had seen more casinos on the way. I hit and run Queenco for $5 at $10 baccarat before heading across the parking lot to the new casino they just built, Wan Long Entertainment City. I played the cash table because it was a $10 min instead of $30 if playing with chips. So I won $7 and grabbed a chip from the tables with chips, the dealer thought I was nuts.

Next I walked down the street to the Golden Sea casino which was just off the main lobby of the hotel. It was small, dingy and worn down. I played $10 baccarat and lost $22 while grabbing one of their old worn out chips. As I was leaving I realized there was a casino across the hall as well. It is a VIP baccarat casino called Golden Sea Royale. It was completely empty and the ladies were very nice and let me bet $10 a hand on the $100 minimum table, they even charged my phone for me. I stayed here longer than usual because they were charging my phone but also cause the boss, the two dealers and I were having a nice conversation. I spent around 30 minutes there.

I walked up the hill where I thought another casino was but there wasn’t. I found another one attached to the Wan Long Casino called Rich Casino. I lost $26 on $10 baccarat and collected a really nice chip.

This is the point where I wasn’t quite sure where to go next but I knew there were more casinos in the area. A tuk tuk driver offered to take me to the next one for $10 and I got him down to $4. On the way to Holiday Palace I saw the Golden Palace and got him to stop for 10 minutes by giving him an extra dollar. I played Niu Niu and lost $11, I didn’t have any idea what the game was but it was open. From there I went to Holiday Palace where I lost $2.50 on baccarat so basically the commission. This lady wanted something but I couldn’t figure it out. She tried giving me a chip, then got mad when I left after end of shoe. She didn’t speak English but wanted me to come play the other table, I didn’t want to. This is the oldest casino in Sihanoukville but at a new location.

At this point I asked my very confused driver to take me to more casinos in the area. He didn’t understand why I was going in for such a short time. I said I’ll pay him and then he waits and I’ll pay him to take me to more. All of a sudden the driver that barely spoke English spoke much better English when he realized it helped him. He knew all the casinos in the area perfectly, even the one that closed and the one that only allowed Chinese gamblers in. I checked the information on both of those later and he was correct.

So... Diamond Sea Casino lost $43, gave him money...then he took me to SV World and I gave him $5. I played Niu Niu again but this time read the rules online and found out it was very simple. I won $28 and the dealer cashed me out right at the table which I’ve never seen before. The driver asked me to grab smokes for him as they are free in the casinos so I grabbed two packs. He was happy! Last was Bao Du, I lost $21 on baccarat, grabbed him smokes, gave him $5 and we were off to my hotel. I gave him $2 more dollars for the ride home and thanked him. All told he took me to 5 casinos and waited for me over around 3 hours plus a ride home for $22. We were both happy. I didn’t get to my bed until almost 6:30 am cause I’m crazy.

I slept until around 2 and then headed to the Riverking. No game was running so I ordered a burrito and ate with the manager. I then found the island casino behind my hotel. I won $18 and collected my first jeton which is a French chip that isn’t flat but rounded on the sides. I explored a bit more but I think I got all the casinos in the area. I did miss one right by my hotel but I figured that out the next day.

That night I lost $340 playing poker at lion city. I lost a big pot where I get it all in with QQ against AK on 544 flop. The board runs out 3 2, yuck.

My last day in Sihanoukville Maegan and I had pretty terrible sushi for lunch. I was not impressed at all, she didn’t seem to mind it though.

We booked a plankton snorkelling tour for that night and headed to Otres Beach around 5. They took us out on the boat and let us snorkel.


I apparently have claustrophobia issues when snorkelling and that mixed with cutting myself on coral ended my snorkelling early. We went back on the boat and had some beers. I was told to practice breathing into the tube so it feels normal. We watched the sunset which was beautiful.


Once it was dark I went back in and although I didn’t like breathing through the tube I did it with no issues. We snorkelled in the dark and when you move the plankton light up blueish/purple. It was so amazing swimming in the darkness of the night and seeing the plankton. I loved it.

We went back to the Mediterranean restaurant with Eric that night. Meg and I shared a pasta and a pizza. The pizza was a little odd with tuna on it but not bad. The pasta was amazing with mushrooms and a cream sauce. After dinner Eric and I Casino hopped a bit as he collects too. I found the casino I almost missed and we split a $38 win.

The next morning I grabbed a bus back to Phnom Penh as the day after that I would take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. Sihanoukville was fun but I don’t think I’d go back any time soon.

This post is very long and I’m too lazy to edit it on my iPhone so, ya sorry I guess? Lol

Great post! You should have a travel show like Anthony Bordain only with gambling instead of food as the theme.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Sihanoukville is an interesting town. It used to be beautiful, it still is in areas but sadly it is being overrun by Chinese money. The Chinese are coming in and building giant casinos and hotels and they are ruining the beautiful natural landscape.

I've been using Google Maps to check out some of the places you mention in more detail. The overhead sat image, dated 2018, shows all the casinos you mention but dropping into the street view (from 2014) shows a lot of vacant lots and construction sites for places like JinBei and WM Casino. Like you said, a lot of change and construction. Wonder what the place will be like in another 3 years.

A lot more casinos! They are in the process of building 8-10 more already. There are a couple that look like they are close to completion.

Btw I love Anthony Bourdain’s parts unknown!

Quote: PokerGrinder

The tables are so large that the dealers have a giant paddle with a handle to pick up both cash bets and chip bets.

Check out the signature line on one of the posts from odiousgambit, like this one.

I’ve never noticed that. This is the first time that I’ve seen one of those.

I forgot to post my results from Sihanoukville -
Poker -$819.50
Sides +59.50 (25 casinos, I’d say I ran pretty insanely good on sides)

Cutting yourself on coral? Well, not as bad as stepping on a cone snail but I hear it can be pretty bad. Did your sister, the medic doctor take a look at it?

Thai tourists account for 95% of Poipet’s customers, so it caters to them – Cambodian-born Sophal Ear, a professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles, once took offense that he couldn’t bet in Cambodia’s national currency. In a good year, insiders estimate Poipet’s gaming revenue reaches $400 million, split among about a dozen casinos. With Thailand’s royal mourning period over, the good times seem ready to roll again, and market leader Star Vegas is revving up.

Poipet going global:
Fobes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/muhammadcohen/2018/03/16/poipet-cambodias-number-two-casino-destination-gears-to-go-global/#4207c3351ba8

She’s not a medic, she’s a doctor. She said it was fine, just a lot of blood but that’s status quo with me.

Better to lose blood than a red chip.

How many new chips have you collected?

Fleastiff I actually read that article yesterday. Very interesting.

GWAE I think I counted 71 new casinos the other day.

I took the bus back to Phnom Penh (Meg flew to Ho Chi) and arrived around 2 in the afternoon. My bus was detoured by an accident on the highway. I stayed at the hotel with the Riverking poker room in it. Players get a room for $10. I checked in, showered and headed to the poker room. I had sausage and mashed potatoes while I waited for a seat. The poker game was pretty uneventful but I did finish up $120.

I went back to the Lone Pine Cafe for dinner. It was the Mexican place that I really liked the week before. I had the nachos with carne asada on them and it was excellent. After dinner I just took a leisurely stroll through Phnom Penh for about 90 minutes. It was quite nice because at night the streets and trees are lit up with coloured lights.


I headed back to get some sleep as I was taking a 7:30 am bus to Bavet which is the border town with all the casinos on my way to Vietnam.

I missed my shuttle to the bus by accident so I grabbed a tuk tuk to the station. I grabbed some street food for breakfast. I had chopped pork and sliced sausage on rice or dog on rice depending on if you believe them. Either way it was delicious.

I got to Bavet and I needed to find somewhere to drop my bags for a few hours. I figured a casino bag check might take them. I took a tuk tuk to the border and went into the Crown casino. I left my bags with the girl who was very surprised with how big my travel backpack was and didn’t understand why I was leaving it there.

The casinos in Bavet gamble in Dong and USD. Crown casino had cash tables in both usd cash and Dong cash. They also had a couple of chip tables but not many. I won $18 playing $10 minimum baccarat. I then had lunch at the free buffet for players. They had a couple different dishes, the noodles with veggies were quite good. I then snuck out of the casino past the bag check because I didn’t want my bags back and headed across the street to the next casino.

I should mention it was beyond hot in Bavet so I had to be dedicated to my insane collection to walk 1.5 kilometres on one side and then 1.5 back on the other side. I drank a lot of free casino water!

The next casino was odd. It was the Good Luck casino but the awning said May Man Casino and the chips used at the tables said Golden Island Casino on them. Basically I’m not sure what the place was called. Whatever casino it was I lost $46 playing baccarat. Most of the tables used cash but they did have 5 tables with chips.

The next casino I encountered something interesting that I found at about half the places. Players can’t buy chips at the tables or the cashier, I had to buy from workers walking around with chips. They would also cash you out, I assume this is just a way to hustle for tips.

At Casino Mocbai I won $4 and kept a $5 chip because they had no $1 chips and the $2 were beyond worn out. I tried to play BJ but they were dealing some random game on their only BJ felt, I was thoroughly confused. I went back to my old faithful baccarat.

The Venus casino looked quite new and more upscale then the previous 3 casinos. They only had 6 tables using chips, 4 of which were open and the minimum bet was $30. The rest were tables where you bet cash (USD or Dong). I played 2 hands and left down the commission (and my chip) of $2.50. Don’t worry I was still able to eat that night.

My next stop is where I finally figured out what the rolling chips are for. At Gwin Casino I bought $110 worth of rolling chips for $105. The $5 went to the chip runner, I don’t really get the point but I’ll take free money. I lost the free money and $47 more playing baccarat. Sometimes the coin flips don’t like you.

Next up was Las Vegas Sun Casino where I lost my whole $100 buy in. I guessed wrong a lot! I guess I won’t become a professional baccarat player, darn.
This was the room where they sorted and counted the cards. A lot of casinos had these and you could watch them.


Golden Galaxy was one of the nicer casinos in Bavet and they had BJ! I won $41 playing $10 BJ before moving on. The table wasn’t open but they were more than happy to find a dealer and open it for me. They seemed really worried that I wouldn’t take the food they were offering, I was still full from lunch.

Golden Galaxy was the last casino on that side of the street so I crossed over and started back towards the border. VIP casino was shut down so I moved onto Titan King Casino. Again they were more than happy to open up the $5 BJ table for me. I played one shoe and won $42. At one point in the shoe I got 2 BJ’s in a row and tipped the dealer, she said thank you but looked confused what to do. She had no tip box and I got the impression players don’t tip very often. The chips said Caesar’s on them for some reason but they had the Titan King logo which was odd.
Sign at the BJ table. Anyone want to Bouble down?


I almost walked by the next casino. New World Casino looked gated off but I saw a couple cars so I checked it out and it was open. I won $3 playing baccarat and kept a $5 chip because the $1 chips were so faded that they were just red.

At Le Macau they have a cash casino and a chip casino. One interesting thing is that at the cash table a $5 BJ pays $7 USD and 10,000 Dong which means that BJ doesn’t pay 3-2, it pays 119-80. Yes I’m a nerd. I lost a whopping $4 after 1.5 shoes and called it quits. They shuffled the cards using a tiny shuffler like one you’d buy at Wal Mart, I was amused.

I had food at the buffet which was again pretty decent. I had noodles and seafood rice, not bad for the price of free.

My next couple stops weren’t lucky. The Sun City Casino was closed and Emperor and Roxy casinos only used cash at their tables so their was no reason for me to play.

I picked up my bags from a confused guy working there and headed for the border. I got stamped out and then tried to enter Vietnam but an angry worker wouldn’t let me. He looked my visa which was stapled into my passport like the embassy told me to and threw it at me. He then refused to talk to me even though I asked him what was wrong multiple times. I went to the other guy and he just took off the bottom staple so he could stamp the back of the visa. Not sure who shit in the first guys cornflakes that morning.

I got stamped into Vietnam and finally got scammed. I knew the bus should be $3-$5 but a guy offered me a seat on the bus that was right there for $10 or 200,000 dong. I said that was too much but I didn’t know where the bus station was so I paid it. I was also really exhausted and didn’t feel like figuring it out without internet. I got on and all the Vietnamese were paying 50,000 dong, oh well they got me lol.

The bus took me within a 20 minute walk of my hostel. I walked and picked up a SIM card on the way. Maegan and I had pho for dinner which was great and I called it a night.


All told I collected 10 new chips in Bavet and lost $91.50 USD.

Do I get an award for writing two write ups in two days?

Quote: PokerGrinder

I One interesting thing is that at the cash table a $5 BJ pays $7 USD and 10,000 Dong which means that BJ doesn’t pay 3-2, it pays 119-40.

Y'all know I am not a mathematician but I'm working on three to two in base forty stuff. I'll let you know next week sometime.

Quote: FleaStiff

Y'all know I am not a mathematician but I'm working on three to two in base forty stuff. I'll let you know next week sometime.

Oops that’s supposed to say 119-80.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Oops that’s supposed to say 119-80.

That's okay I was learning about Pad Thai having been invented to save a nation so I only worked on the math challenge a short time so it was only one application of lotion to my fingers for all that math.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Oops that’s supposed to say 119-80.

Okay here it is:
If you are betting 80 that is equivalent to betting two 40's. If you bet 'two 40's' a payout of 3:2 would be three 40's. Three 40's is 120. So a Proper Payout of 3:2 would be 120, but instead they pay only 119. Which of course doesn't seem to be all that much of a "nick" for them to be taking. Took me quite a while though I'm not sure if this is dollars or Dongs or what.

With the amount and quality of the food that is available even to lower tier rollers, I think that is a very minor "nick".Perhaps this is a lesson Vegas (and other casinos) need to relearn, but instead we are getting ever increasing "resort fees" and ever more slimmer pickings on the casino floor.

Quote: FleaStiff

Okay here it is:
If you are betting 80 that is equivalent to betting two 40's. If you bet 'two 40's' a payout of 3:2 would be three 40's. Three 40's is 120. So a Proper Payout of 3:2 would be 120, but instead they pay only 119. Which of course doesn't seem to be all that much of a "nick" for them to be taking. Took me quite a while though I'm not sure if this is dollars or Dongs or what.

With the amount and quality of the food that is available even to lower tier rollers, I think that is a very minor "nick".Perhaps this is a lesson Vegas (and other casinos) need to relearn, but instead we are getting ever increasing "resort fees" and ever more slimmer pickings on the casino floor.

This is correct, I found it amusing. Also if you bet an even number like $6 then you get the full 3-2 payout. It’s only odd number bets like $5 that this issue comes into play because they don’t have $0.50 USD to give you.

I’m pretty sure their overhead, even including payola and triad donations, don’t add up to the taxes and fees in the USA. I think that’s why the food and drink are so liberal. It must also help the bottom line to pay your dealers $15 a day.

Quote: PokerGrinder

This was the room where they sorted and counted the cards. A lot of casinos had these and you could watch them.

It looks like they were watching you.