Hi 'Vee Riverking'.

Sounds like a genuine inquiry from someone considering coming to Cambodia to play poker to me. Let me give you a quick rundown of the scene here.

Naga sucks because they have **** dealers. Riverking sucks because they have no players and no game. The Redfox sucks because everybody is stone cold broke. Sihanoukville sucks because the whole town is a **** hole. Riverking1 Pub sucks mostly because of the little bald man who runs the floor there, about his only endearing feature is that he is terrible at poker and thus easy money.

Yeah... that about sums it up.

I'm not really trying to put myself out there, which this will do so whatever. I went by RiverKing Pub1 today and everyone there was great. The Manager introduced himself and explained all the promo's going on. The person above the manager also introduced himself which was nice. The dealers are really on point and you get maximum hands per hour. Free food, drink and smokes. Keep cash in the cage so you don't have to wonder around with your lunch money. PLO is going along with multiple 1/3 games. One other thing that is pretty important, there are many people working there and thats pretty important. Ill come back and update my experience in a week or two.

So what doesn't suck aside from your play?
Negative much?

Come on guys, that was pretty funny. If the manager was going to shill for the room covertly, perhaps he could've picked a better name then his own. Vee, welcome to the forum. For better or worse you have been part of the poker community for many years in Cambodia. You should feel free to post openly, as long as the totality of your contributions aren't just adverts for your room.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

I rode in a car all morning, to be thrown into a hold'em game as soon as I arrived at Bao Mai. I promptly lost $500 as my KK got out flopped by QQ. I needed to blow off some steam and the game was plenty populated so I pulled some friends and headed to the Square. I was way too drunk to pull any girls but that didn't stop my friends. Pops probably got the cutest one of the night. Mine wasn't half bad either but I probably would have just passed out on her, like I'm about to now...





Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

Don't post about your room, only Poker_triad can do that.

Why don't make new thread about RK1?I'll love to hear about it..
Btw where's WarMage?we could always need unique and honest trip report

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using 2+2 Forums

Actually, if you really dig deep down into this forum, it was Rk1 from the get go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Say what you want about advertising your own room in this thread, but PT and I are using our own accounts that we've had for years, and these guys created accounts this month specifically to hawk their dirty poker room. They have no intention of contributing to the community, and that's the distinction that needs to be made here.

So if he made the account a few weeks ago, so now he is taking advantage of social media that is all. Who knows if he had a different account and didn't think that account name was in the rooms best interest? Who know if he insulted anonymously, people that play in his room?
Do you have a crystal ball that tells you what if any he will contribute to the forum? Only time will tell, hope he does contribute.
It sounds personal that you do not want him here, it may or may not be but that is how it sounds.
It is always good to get another persons point of view as long as it is kept civilized.


As for his screen name, I just had to open a new account to change mine, I used Gambit2300 and now I changed it to my screen name on WSOP.com and put a link in my profile to my old screen name so no one can say I am hiding something.
New name same azzhole.

It would be very easy to argue this I suppose since many of the original owners of Riverking are current shareholders in RK1. And more importantly, nearly every member of the original staff are now at RK1 including the dealers. And truthfully I agree with you that by that logic RK1 is rightfully "Riverking" and that once the new ownership took over and I became the General Manager the room became something completely different. There is a lot I can say but I will recount one incident to illustrate this point.

In the past Riverking has held a Sunday tournament that allowed players to rebuy for the first five levels and then an add-on during the first break. After all of the money was collected the manager would then go to the cashiers cage to count the total sum, deduct the rake and then figure out the prize pool distributions from the remaining money. Shortly after I became the General Manager I began to run the tournament by myself and it was at this point that I discovered something unusual. When I went to the cage during the first break and counted the money, I noticed that the cashier wrote a second amount to be deducted in addition to the rake. When I asked what this was for she informed me that it was for the dealers. I then asked her and the other managers at the time if the players were aware of this deduction and I was told they were not. I apologize to the players who played in our events over the next few weeks because I let this go on a bit as I wanted to observe this a bit further. I discovered that the amount would often change depending on the number of entrants. If the field was small they would take out $50, if larger $100 and I even saw an amount for $150. And during our $7,500 Guarantee event they took out an additional $200, once again without the player's knowledge. And of course they would double dip at the end with a manager always saying at tourney's end, "Please don't forget your dealers."

I finally put an end to this and came up with a different system. I gathered the dealers and informed them that if we had one table I would give them $30, if two tables $40 and for three tables $50. But most importantly I decided that whatever the amount, it would come out of the house end and not the players pool. The dealers of course hated this new system and greatly protested proclaiming that it was just "small money". Poker rooms do not make that much money off of tournaments so I could not give them as much as $150 out of some events and I certainly could not continue taking it out of the player's pool. I was rather surprised at the behaviour as the dealers all received healthy salaries + tips and lived better than most of the players and even the shareholders in some instances. I'll be the first to admit that they deserved most of it. I say most and not all only because in instances like this they simply got too greedy, and did so at the player's expense and the management at the time knew all about it.

So perhaps you are correct because the room did change a lot once the new owner and I came in. And perhaps we weren't "Riverking" anymore and the room shouldn't be called that anymore. If I had the power to do so, I would renounce the name for them right now, because the Riverking that I know and helped to build is fuc*ing dead. And please, let's create a separate thread for RK1 because there is so much more to talk about.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

Bayesian inference means that someone who started their account in May 2018 and made their first posts in this thread has ulterior motives. Yeah maybe it's a false positive 1.5% of the time, but I can deal with that.


I'll corroborate this story and I didn't play the RK tournament ever again once I found out about it. It's worth noting that each person that was involved in this skim job is currently employed at RK1. This is basic Cambodian (or more broadly, Asian) business practice, folks. Graft exists at every level of the organization, and it's one thing that makes me glad I'm no longer working with people like that. Poker_triad sacrificed personally to legitimize RK when he worked there, and I tried to maintain the same standard, but was forced to resign because I wouldn't engage in similar double-dealing myself.

New members welcome to post ldo. I will say that PT was never "shilling" for his company. He revived this thread, and posted lots of tr which included his work. There is a big difference.

Cliffs; Riverking has moved location to st 172 and the poker room at Comfort Star 2 is a completely different/new room now...

I've actually just started working as a floorman at the new Riverking... Was my first day today but the game was just how I remembered it.. the entire table drinking, 3+ drunk bongs spewing... I was forced to drink by one of the shareholders and then ended up at KTV after..

Trying not to be a shill here but there is really no reason for anyone to play at old RK anymore. Since PT and Renton have gone they have hired managers who don't seem to have a clue, the dealers are... meh, and the game isn't that great either... I want to be as unbiased as possible here because I've had a lot of great times at Comfort Star RK and I owe a lot to PT and PT's boss (don't really wanna mention his name :S), they have always been good to me.

I really wanted Old RK to survive when the new room opened but it looks like that's not gonna happen...

We need to get K2D back to Cambodia. Thread was much more interesting then!

Even though you resisted the offer for weeks and didn't want to really take the job, I still encouraged you to take it as I knew your situation. All in all I'm glad that you did and I sincerely wish you well. You and I have talked extensively over the past two years so I know you know what's up with everything that's been discussed on this thread as of late. They hired you for a reason so let them pay you for it and do what you got to do. My only advice to you is don't get too involved, stay out of the way and whatever you see just turn a blind eye. Good luck.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

When we first opened about two months ago I used to say each morning that I had to compete with twelve other poker rooms that day. Now I wake up each day saying a similar mantra, except now the number is more like six. Predictably so some rooms have come and gone and it looks like a couple more will drop out soon as one or two more seem ready to join the market.

So we finished up our second month and unlike the first we managed to turn a profit. We were severely understaffed the entire time and everyone moved heaven and earth to keep the room busy. We broke a bit early yesterday and while that usually means a trip down to the Square for some debauchery, I instead decided to take the entire staff out for drinks on the beach. There's something about having a cocktail right in front of the ocean water. And while I had fun, the only thing I missed were the working girls that used to litter bars like this one when I lived here previously. All I saw were a group of ladyboys standing outside and well, I wasn't that drunk.

It was a much deserved break for everyone and help will soon be arriving in the form of Renton555 and a couple of new dealers. The players and I agree we have the best staff in town and they've helped to make the poker room more than a place of work. And I've just been told by phone that three players are waiting so I should probably head in, especially since one of those new dealers is starting today.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

What is up with all that vague stuff recently about the happenings in either RK? (Also the posts with/about Renton). You guys realize that you're doing a heavy anti-promotion for either place at present, with all those hints but not mentioning anything in particular (apart form the backstory about the tourney which appears to be unrelated)
Also realities of doing business in Asia, hmm, graft and corruption exists everywhere, but you could never pull off something like that PT story in the regulated rooms in Macau or Korea, and much less so in other businesses, I think it's much more a reality of (semi-legal/illegal) gambling hubs in 3rd world countries
FTR once (at least once that I can remember) I cashed in the tourney as well and gave the dealers a generous tip, not the least on the suggestion of PT.

Ya, would be great if someone could post all the dirt as we would all love the gossip but doubt we will be so lucky.

At the least would be good to hear what promos are going for all the rooms.

Specifically is the free beer draft only?

Riverking have free food.and liqour

Sent from my CAM-L21 using Tapatalk

Glad to see that my account is still logged in on the Riverking house phone. Pheap please kindly stop using my account. Thank you.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

You have to appreciate that we must avoid mentioning specifics, especially names. My time at the helm of RK was like a film noir playing out in daily life.

It was exhausting being virtue-bound to running my poker room in a fair and ethical way while the other place had no scruples whatsoever. RK1 had no issue with lying to players, reneging on tournament guarantees, advertising players by name in public groups, advertising things that weren't remotely true ($8,500 a month!), and harassing our staff with veiled threats. It was twice as exhausting watching our players go and put in most of their time in RK1 in spite of all of these things, all to chase a promo or play in a game with a slightly higher bong ratio. And it was more than I could handle to deal with the internal pitfalls; owners who wanted me to engage in the same dishonest practices as the other place.

Where I'll disagree with p_t is that Naga is no alternative. In a town of corrupt poker rooms, Naga is king. An above-board operation means nothing when it's the state getting your envelope and in return decreeing that no other casino can open for a 200km radius. If you want to play in an honest poker room in Phnom Penh, I'd suggest the Red Fox. Otherwise, I'd suggest joining the (relatively) free market for gaming that is emerging in Sihanoukville.

Basically what Renton said about not being able to be too specific and there's too much anyway to write down in one sitting. On your next run here come down to Sihanoukville and I'll tell you the whole sordid tale over a beer.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

I was ambivalent to say the least about tips for the dealers during the tournaments in light of what was going on. I just never could get over the audacity to steal from the players only to turn around immediately after and ask for a tip. After I made the changes I would make the obligatory "Please don't forget your dealers remark." But I also tried to let the players know that something was coming their way from the house and if they wanted to tip on top of that, such was their choice.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk

Just thought I'd show everyone what cardshark's girlfriend looks like. I know she doesn't look it now, but she was a real stunner before the meth really took its toll. I swear this girl always finds him by the end of the night. Some things are meant to be.

Sent from my MI MAX 2 using Tapatalk