need stars money living in Phnom Penh let me know can do local meet up

is there actually a poker community in Cambodia or just people doing there visa? If yes what is the pro and cons of being in Cambodia compare to Thailand?

I am not a professional poker player, but having been to both countries, here are the pros and cons of Cambodia to Thailand in my opinion:

Pros:
- food is cheaper
- legal live poker (NagaWorld), should be mentioned that home games are illegal as far as I have heard, though
- visa situation is easier / better
- more people speak English (ie: taxi drivers, etc)
- seemingly less stringently enforced prohibition laws, thus lots of happy pizza, etc
- smaller thus easy to get around the city / become familiar with the different areas

Cons:
- good accommodation is more expensive ($700 - $1500 for a nice 1BR serviced apartment in a good area in PP compared to BKK about $500 - $1000)
- girls are generally less attractive
- no gogo bars, there are hostess bars but HIV rate is 30%+ among sex workers
- less developed infrastructure
- way more "sketchy" foreigners (not to say Thailand doesn't also have its share), although you can avoid them by not frequently going to sketchy areas / places
- probably Thai is more useful than Khmer as a language
- not many good healthcare facilities
- Cambodia is not part of the "SE Asia" HON group of countries yet, so have to play on world servers with high ping
- not as many nice beaches
- domestic airlines are of dubious safety

hey thanks you very much Squibz this is a realy usefull post
A1

And is there a poker community?

There is a group of people who play microstakes (mostly Omaha) live at Red Fox most nights, although I don't think any of them are professionals, maybe one or two play online seriously. If you like Omaha (and smoking) I guess it's good fun as the game is not raked.

I have only been to Naga a few times to check things out, but it appears to me that there is a "community" of sorts of people playing live there. Another poster, djz, played there quite a bit about a month ago, and said the games were good. I will let you know my impression when I get a roll and some free time together to play there for a few sessions.

The Red Fox has tournaments with $20 buy in 3 times per week, no 'pros' just a friendly game with generally two tables going.

Here at Charlie Harper's we pretty much have the same.

For $300 per month in Sihanoukvillle you'd get a nice apartment, well kitted out.

As for 30%+ HIV rates in Sex Workers ....... don't believe the hype!

This is really far off imo. There is tons to do in Macau. I stayed there almost 3 months and it ended up being one of my favorite places in Asia. I met some awesome people there (not poker players), there is countless bars and night life. Lots of activities including basketball courts everywhere, free rock climbing wall, indoor soccer etc. Running and bicycle clubs. Can go hiking. Lots of cool stuff going on in Macau.

Food wise it has tons of options. May fall short of BKK but destroys anywhere in Cambodia for quality and variety. Not cheap though.

Sihanoukville has a nice beach and laid back vibes, completely different place for far cheaper. Not saying one is better than the other but there is really a lot to do in Macau

Charlie: does $300 / mo include cleaning service, fast internet, security, parking, elevator, gym, and pool, all in a good neighbourhood? I imagine it's possible as Sihanoukville is smaller than PP, but that seems crazy cheap.

As for HIV rates among sex workers, it's definitely very high, I've spoken with some health field NGO people about it as well as looked around on the internet. What are your sources for believing that the high rates are "hype"?

Well yes, for $300 you can get a room in a number of local hotels long term. Everything there except the elevator (only two floors) and gym. The best Gym in town is less than $50 per month though.

I live here and hear these claims pretty much weekly, it's only obvious that i'd do a little research into it, I have to reassure my family at the very least!

http://www.avert.org/aids-hiv-south-east-asia.htm

Here you'll see that thailand has 1.5% of it's population infected against Cambodia's 0.5% (2009). Cambodia's infection rate is still dropping from the high of 3% in 1997.

Regarding sex workers, well lets just say I have met many during the 6 years i've lived here. I also lived in Thailand for 3 years.

Sadly, NGO groups need funding and using aged statistics depicting what would be seen today as extremely high rates, is one way of painting a poor image for Cambodia.

Stayed at Charilie Harpers for a 3 days, had a great time. Nice big rooms, great location across the street from where the bus drops you off. Staff were friendly and helped to arrange a scooter for me to rent for my stay. Poker game was also fun with a group having good times unlike red fox where people are taking it very serious for very small stakes. Would stay again.

yea the nit crowd at red fox tilted me a lot. people were taking the 10cent/20cent game way more seriously than the 2/5 players were at Naga. ran into 3 very tilty/annoying people in the two times i played there.

like, in level 2 of the rebuy tourney at red fox i wasn't really paying attention (had my ipod out and was writing an email) and went to muck my cards then i realized there was no bet so i pulled them back. the dealer didn't grab them and they didn't go over the line. a few people folded and one guy just went APE**** claiming i was trying to angle and i should just muck my cards. he went on for a good 10 minutes about this and kept imitating before i literally said to him "cool story bro" and he shut up. i mean, wtf there was about 10cents worth of equity in the pot i 16+ tables these tournies.

later he recommended the guy on my right read 'the mental game of poker' loloolol.

good bars in macau? really? i didn't see any...do most ppl party in HK?

also the food was pretty meh from what i experienced. i ate pretty well in cambodia fwiw.

Yeah... I was playing quite a bit at Red Fox, and overlooking the marked cards / Omaha / smoky room to a large degree because I wanted to have fun, but the level of seriousness that some of these guys have about their NL/PL20 game is ridiculous. Last straw for me was one of the waitresses accusing me of trying to leave without paying my $10 bill or w/e.. after I'd been tipping at least 10% for 3 weeks. Some may enjoy hanging out there, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're excessively bored. Charlie's bar sounds interesting, will definitely check it out when I finally make it over to that town for a visit.

As to Macau being boring... lots of thing to do. Saunas, clubs, and some great restaurants. If you want easy to find, The Kitchen in Grand Lisboa is extremely good, and the buffet there is also good (and reasonably priced). The "Cafe 180/360" in the tower is also reasonable food for reasonable price, with a view. Also go party in Central in HK, it's a great time, you could probably spend a week clubbing in LKF and still not see everything.

There are tons of bars in Macau. I could go to about 10 bars popular with expats within a 5 minute walk from my apartment in Taipa. That doesn't include the classier bars and lounges inside the casinos. Then there is rooftop bars, night clubs etc. Can find anything you want in Macau. Tons of night life. Sure people go to HK sometimes, it is only an hour away but there is no need to leave Macau if you want to party til 8 in the morning.

Same with food. Far superior for variety and quality than in Cambodia, granted more expensive. I could walk to Portuguese, Indian, Thai, Italian (pizza), Spanish, Mexican, Western (burgers etc.) all good places and that doesn't include any of the casinos with their food courts, restaurants and fine dining options. Then obviously wide variety of Chinese restaurants and Western fast food chains like subway, KFC, McDonalds, Fatburger etc. . It is an intl city. Food wise Cambodia is nowhere near the same level as Macau, that is really not close. If somebody likes Cambodian more than Macanese that is understandable, but on the whole no way.

Cambodia is probably more my style but Macau has everything within walking distance. They are completely different places but yeah, Macau is pretty damn awesome. I can party hard there and have an amazing time w/o ever entering a casino floor

I just moved to PP a few weeks ago. If anybody wants to get together for a beer or something sometime let me know. Maybe we can actually start building a poker community here.


BTW, I think comparing Cambodia to Macau is pretty hilarious. I love both, but it seems kind of like having a conversation comparing Ecuador to Las Vegas.

Was nice to meet you and thanks for the kind words, be good to have you back too.

Hey Charlie,

You said you guys have rooms available for 150$ a month?? I looked at the website and saw a picture of a room. Would the rooms for 150 be like the one in the picture? TV? Fridge? etc.


Thanks

yea i guess macau and PP aren't truly comparable cause one is a 3rd world country obv, im just trying to figure out where to spend some time doing . will prob end up doing both.

the games i played in macau seemed reallyyyyyyyyyy small/passive. i feel like grinding online in mornings and PP at night would be more profitable than grinding macau unless i was playing like 50/100HKD.

Yes, that's a pretty typical room. No great 'frills', but TV, Fridge, WiFi, AirCon, Hot Water and balcony.

All the rooms have their own meter, so long termers pay only for the electricity they use, water is not metered and included in the $150pm.

Had around 8 guys in for the Cash game yesterday, played from 4pm till midnight then headed down to the Fortuna Casino here in Sihanoukville. Played till 8am.

A good night

Charlie can you take and post some pictures of the rooms you have available to rent at your establishment? The one picture on your site really doesn't show much. Curious to see what the balcony views look like, etc.

How hard is it for an American to open a bank account out there?

I tried to read through the whole thread and it was just too long. I got through about 15 pages and went to the last, so if this has been addressed already, I apologize.

How did you originally end up living where you are? Did you go to Cambodia and travel around, or know some people there, or something else? What advice would you give someone who is intrigued by your story and is trying to get up the nerve to try something similar? What have your best and worst experiences been? Thanks.

No offence intended, but if you can't even find enough motivation to read through 500 posts, you are probably not well suited to trying to set up in a foreign country.

Where can i find a decent gym with air condition in Phnom Penh? Close to heart of darkness would be a plus.

Are the games at Naga still 1-2, or have they had any higher games lately? How about omaha?

why u leaving pataya omaha?