Why Poker Doesn’t Work In Sihanoukville

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Kung-fu Hillbilly
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Why Poker Doesn’t Work In Sihanoukville

Post by Kung-fu Hillbilly »

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by Poker Triad
April 22, 2020


One poker room operator once confided in me that he considered Sihanoukville to be “hell on earth”

All of a sudden games were running as high as nosebleed games anywhere in the world. Poker rooms were opening nearly as fast as casinos were being built. And yet not a single one of those games is still around today, either having changed ownership multiple times or many being closed altogether. So what exactly is going on down there?

I would return to Sihanoukville two more times, my first return being two years ago to manage the poker room at the Bao Mai Casino. And when I say this I do not mean that the casino hired me as the General Manager, but rather that my friend rented the space from the casino and then hired me and the rest of the staff. The casino really had nothing to do with us at all other than the fact that we were tenants.

Then there were the private deals in which select players were offered a certain higher percentage of each night’s rake. Having to pay out so many players combined with the high rent, this was hardly a sustainable model. I know this because this is what happened in our poker room. In order to compete we had free food, game starter bonuses and a $10,000 freeroll. In the end it was just too much to keep up with and we closed after six months.

The main attraction of these games were that they were populated by Chinese players who for the most part were recreational players. They were used to playing casino games and losing so they didn’t really sit down at the poker tables with a high expectation of winning. They played for the thrill of the few hands that they won and for bragging rights over the regs who constantly bum hunted them.

All this is to say that Sihanoukville became a very difficult place to live or even stay for an extended amount of time. Hotels that were once $200 per month could easily cost almost the same amount per night. And apartments were difficult to come by as new residences could not be built fast enough. During my last stay in the city, small studio apartments were going for $600 to $700 per month. The changes in the city did not only affect the expats, but created a city that the Chinese themselves did not like. One poker room operator once confided in me that he considered Sihanoukville to be “hell on earth” ...

full https://pokercalendar.asia/en/article/w ... noukville/
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