Point taken. I really did change the rule. It's made our resident house Finn very happy.

I was thumbing through some old photos on my phone today and came across some pics of when I first lived in Sihanoukville a few years ago. I commented to one of my friends on the table how nice it was living there back then and being able to ride to the beach on a regular basis. I used to ride out to Otres 2 all the time, whether it was to swim in the ocean or just to grab a bite to eat on the beach. How tragic it is now that most of that has been taken away and if you were to go to Otres 2 now the water is brown from all the sewage that's being pumped in from the beaches up the coast. Kampot is reminiscent of what Sihanoukville used to be, which is probably why so many of the expats have moved here.

The poker game has obviously grown with the town here as it didn't even exist prior to the migration of expats from Sihanoukville. And it looks like the jump in stakes has stuck as we've run the game $0.50-$1 for the last few nights. I had mentioned in a previous post that I had instituted an iron man promotion to give away a cash prize to the last man standing each night. It has worked better than I originally thought as games are going until 8:00 AM each morning. It's created an interesting problem as we're not staffed to go that long so we've stretched out everyone as much as we can. A couple of dealers are working later than normal and Pops and I are here easily over ten hours each shift. But I suppose all of this is a good problem to have. My wife did complain about it last night as our daughter is a bit sick and she was angry that I didn't come home earlier. Just about everyone in my life knows that I am a work-a-holic. It's a trait that I picked up from my father as when we first arrived in America we had very little money and he worked two jobs to keep us afloat. I basically have one goal in life right now and that's to make sure that my daughter never sees the inside of a girly bar. I've been working as many hours as possible to help the game grow and continuing other projects such as the online poker club in an effort to make as much money as possible. School for my daughters will happen before I know it and admittedly I have a few debts I have to pay back as well. Up in Phnom Penh I was trying to do too much and wasn't doing any of them particularly well. Down here I get to focus on a few things and put my efforts towards things that show real results. Not to mention all the temptations that exist in Phnom Penh as well. All that will happen down here as well in due time, but until then I'll try to keep life as uncomplicated as possible.

I'd recommend changing the promotion to "everyone still playing at x time splits x amount."

These winner-take-all last longers create some bad atmospheres and resentment.

This is a great goal, u dont want to end up being Coinflippers father-in-law once that dude fulfils his dream of marrying a hooker.

I understand what you mean as the other night we had a player get stacked a couple of times trying to go for it. But for the most part they always chop it and it's only gone to a single player once. Last night's game is still going, now 26 hours in. But about 4 hours ago the new players on the table voted to let the two remaining players from last night split the prize as both had been playing 20+ hours. It's a pretty chill group here, not so cut throat. And the game didn't end there. In fact the two guys that split it are still playing with one sitting on about $800 in a $0.50-$1 game. For the most part the guys here just like to play. The promotion just gives them an excuse to keep going and play a bit longer.

how big is the prize?

It's gotten bigger since the jump to $0.50-$1. Tonight it's $60, last night it was $80 and $78 the night before that. And it's progressive so if it doesn't get hit one night it grows the next night.

PT, what is the rake now that the game is $.50/$1.00?

Ah that's cool, sounds good

As I've stated on previous posts I am a fan of the 10% rake. That having been said I compromised a bit and have it taper out to 5% at the higher levels. It's capped at $5 at $100. Judging by our hourly rate it's beatable. It isn't finalized by any means and I may tweak it a bit.

I have to go back to Phnom Penh at some point to clear out my apartment. I had an interesting discussion with my wife about this as I did not want to go. When asked why I replied that I know myself too well and that if I go back I'll probably call some friends, go out, get drunk and god knows what else. I really am trying to be a good boy I guess. In any case my saying that made my wife really happy that I did not want to go back for that reason.

If she organises the apartment clean out that's a big win.
You can always find some bs excuse to go back to PP down the road.

She just asked again today when we can go up to Phnom Penh. I may just have her go by herself like you suggested but we both have a lot of stuff in there apartment so that may not be possible as I don't want her to try and carry all that herself. We'll probably end up going together and I do want to see some friends. Definitely need to catch up with Renton in person although we do speak everyday and still run a business together.

To the guy who posted asking about how a fat white guy would do in Kampot and deleted the post, you'd do no worse then a fat Asian guy. It depends on what you're looking for I guess, but body type doesn't seem to be a big obstacle in these parts.

My daughter has been ill the past few days. I took her to a local hospital but they didn't do too much and she was still coughing up a storm today. I started to freak out and so decided to take her to the major hospital here in Kampot called Sonja Kill. The facility was set up years ago by German medical professionals. And while most working there seem to be medical students, still they seemed to know what they were doing. It was certainly better than the local place I took her to previously. No fluid in the lungs and her tonsils are fine; just a viral infection apparently. So they gave us some meds and sent us home. It was a bit out of town so the two rides ended up costing almost as much as the doctor's visit which was only $10, including the medication. I think I picked up something at the hospital as I didn't feel that great when I got to the poker room. So I booked a $100 win in the game and came home a bit "early" at 3:00 AM. My daughter is sleeping comfortably and my wife stayed up to let me in as I didn't have my key. Sometimes, just for that brief moment, all is right with the world.

So it was my birthday on the 23rd and I asked for the day off. I slept in and had a very nice dinner with the wife and kid at a local Japanese restaurant. It's not a full on sushi place, but has everything else and another nice edition to the restaurant scene here in Kampot. My intention after that was to go back home and spend a nice quiet evening with the family. But I got called into work due to a slight situation that we have been dealing with the past couple of weeks. Although only two at the most are used at any one time, we technically have four poker tables in the house. There has been talk previously of a group coming here to rent a table, but that has yet to come to fruition. There is a local group who had wanted to rent a table but that deal is very problematic on many levels. Our game is currently $0.50-$1 and this group wanted to run a $1-$1 game. The issues with that are obvious but I would contend that even had our game stayed at $0.25-$0.50 that it would still be the same game. The buy in levels are so tightly close together below $1-$2 that it doesn't really matter; they are all the same game. So a situation would arise in which a second table of the same game would come in that would compete with our current game. And without a big enough player base for two tables consistently, one will eventually die out and the whole purpose of renting out a table to a second group would become moot.

This is something I sussed out early on in the negotiation process but the boss of the game and house wanted to proceed as he had been assured by this second group that it would be a separate game and that our game would not be affected. Their intention was to rent out a table for a certain amount per month, and then fill that table partly by gathering a group of six players that would all be promised 10% each of the nightly take from the rake box. Once again, this is problematic on so many levels. First of all they don't have "the six" yet. I know they are talking to players but have yet to constitute a full lineup. The two players that they do have, one has been banned from the villa already and the other already plays in our game semi-regularly. They are still talking to players in an attempt to fill out the remaining spots in their roster. I know who some of these players are and I mean no offense to them, but if constituted this would be the worst game in the history of time. And if they are having this much trouble attracting players with a promise of 10%, I highly doubt they would be successful in attracting random players once their "six" is constituted as, once again, it would be the worst game in the history of time. So that leaves the current player base that we already have. And while the boss has been told that the game would be separate and that the current base would not be affected, I know for a fact this is not true as most of those already playing in the room have been contacted by this group in an effort to have them play on their table. In fact, some of them have been offered the same 10% that others have been promised as well. This would all be moot if they were to run a truly bigger game such as $1-$2 or $2-$5 as it would have to be a different group of players altogether. But we've been told already that they are not able to do this. So bottom line is they are proposing to come in with the same game that is already being run, without an influx of new players and thus would create a situation in which the two groups would compete with one another for the same player base.

So this is why I had to come in on my birthday night, so that I can speak to the boss and to give him a rundown of the entire situation. I would like to add that I do not have a personal issue with the man that is heading this new group. I understand that it's a dog eat dog world and as a capitalist I can appreciate how he's looking out for his own interest. The group that I represent that is running the current game has an interest in seeing a second table develop as they get a share of everything that happens under this roof. But that is why we oppose this deal as a second table under this scenario is completely mythical and at the end of the day there is still just one game. The man leading the other group is just a renter and doesn't really care about a second table, but rather has every interest to see that his table makes the most money possible, even if it means the original game dying. So his game being the complete albatross that it will be, he will have to poach players from the current game in order to succeed.

But the boss was very insistent on wanting this deal to proceed. So what I came into the room to really do was to tell him that myself and the group that I represent were out, that we would see things through until the end of the month but then would step aside. If the boss wanted to work with this group that badly, then we did not want to continue as we saw the situation being created to be completely untenable. It would be very easy for this new group to simply take over and essentially replace our current roles. I can't speak to whether or not they would do an equal or better job, but in theory they can slide right in as we slide right out. But a funny thing happened during our discussion. In the process of explaining to him why we were done, the boss saw the reason and logic of what I was explaining and came to agree with us. He concluded that if there was really only one game, that he would rather continue on as currently constituted. He had me contact the man fronting the group to inform him that a table was no longer available for him to rent. And this morning the boss gave me $100 for my birthday and texted me later that he would like me to hire an assistant to be a floor man.

I am aware that there is a member of this other group talking to players in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville offering them the previously mentioned 10% deal. While I realize that things can change quickly in this industry, for the moment that deal is dead and if any of you have been offered this deal I am sorry that your time was wasted. The game is $0.50-$1 and I do believe we will eventually have a second table, but if I have any say in the matter it will happen organically as players migrate to the city and game out of their own desire and not because of some deal. The game is already running 10 hours per day on average, going until 11:00 AM a couple of days ago and 36 hours straight last weekend. It is my belief that we'll get through the wet season with this one game but then during the high season others will see that which I do about this town and naturally migrate over. Everything is a fraction of the cost in Phnom Penh, the food is great and it's really super chill here. The internet service is pretty good and the overall infrastructure is more stable than what one would originally think. The only thing that really lags behind is the nightlife, but that has actually worked in my favor both financially and personally. It also hasn't hurt that I've been crushing the game, but that's another discussion for another post.

The only thing I miss about America is the food. And while one might think that I might miss the sushi or steak, actually what I crave more than anything else is orange chicken. We have this chain of fast food "Chinese" restaurants in America called Panda Express. And they have this one dish called orange chicken that is basically my version of crack. I often joke with my friends that I would murder one of them if I thought it would get me some orange chicken. So over the past few months I've had a friend who's wanted to do some restaurant type ventures here in Cambodia and I've been trying to convince him that he should make this dish. He ended up buying a sports bar called the Raging Bull here in Kampot and it is actually where I live in a room upstairs. Anyway, weeks of grinding away at him finally worked as he offered it as a special today and as a regular menu items starting next month. I had my doubts but I gave him the exact recipe that I found from the restaurant's YouTube page and I have to say that it came pretty close. So close that when I woke up and came down to the restaurant, I ordered a second one right after finishing my initial order. I put it all over Facebook today of course and I got a message from Renton that read, "You seriously didn't just get the Raging Bull to make orange chicken?" It just goes to show you, if you want something bad enough...

I've had an eventful week outside of all the orange chicken madness. I have mentioned on previous posts that I haven't spoken to anyone in my family for over three years. But this last Christmas they reached out to a friend of mine, who then contacted me and informed me that they asked for me to contact them. Honestly I was excited and the first thing I thought was to send them an email immediately telling them of their granddaughter. So I attached a few pictures and introduced Sarah to my parents. But then nothing. No reply and any attempt on my part to contact them were not answered. Then I realized what I had done and remembered how racist OG first generation Koreans are. It probably did not please them that I have a child here with a Khmer woman. Still, my friends encouraged me that they would eventually contact me again. And so this past week I received an email from them wishing me a happy birthday. They asked me to call them, which I haven't been able to do as I've been really busy. But I sent them off another email letting them know that Sarah was near one year old and that she would be having her first birthday on the 10th of June. I attached a few more photos of her and as they are attached to my Google Drive account, I received notification an hour ago that they were trying to access the photos. Perhaps this story will have a happy ending after all.

Continuing on the familial front, I had a mild fight with my wife the other night. She doesn't really know anyone in Kampot yet so she often comes into work with me. On one particular night she was being very affectionate and basically wouldn't stop touching me as I was trying to play. She kept doing things like looking at my cards first as well and it was somewhat distracting. I ended up losing $200 on that night and while I didn't blame her, there was no way she wasn't going to interpret it that way if I said anything about it at all. So of course I told her that it was distracting and that she could still com e in with me to work, but that I needed to be left alone when playing. She wasn't thrilled about it and we had a mild fight about it but everything was back to normal by the next morning. We're short on dealers here as two are leaving this week for higher paying jobs elsewhere. So I've decided to start training her and inserting her into the staff in the poker room. This is probably a fatal mistake on my part as I have always told people it's a bad idea to practice nepotism at work. It never really worked at Riverking where one of the dealers was with one of the managers and even Pops having his girlfriend deal here in Kampot has been less then ideal. But the infusion of money would be nice for our family and it would give my wife something to do. So yeah, I'll probably have a lot less sex moving forward as I'm just asking for trouble doing this.

Raging Bull Sports Bar
សង្កាត់កំពង់កណ្ដាល, Krong Kampot
https://maps.app.goo.gl/o7mapVuM5PjgxWKg6

damn that looks ****ing delicious doesnt help im hungry atm lol

Yep the orange chicken is the classic Murican "Chinese" dish. You can get it in some places in HK, but that doesnt make it any more Chinese, youd never get that at a proper Chinese place. Its yummy though if its done well, just dont expect it to be any better healthwise than KFC

I saw the owner pour in the sugar for the sauce, then the brown sugar. Yeah healthy it definitely is not.

Playing in our $0.50-$1 game and I limped in a family pot from the small blind with AdTd. I thought about raising but I got distracted by work duties and just limped. But then the big blind raised to $7. It felt so much like a squeeze that I re-raised to $30. It's a super weird line I realize but then I got him to fold. And he did so face up showing QQ! WTF?!??!

Just won a big three way all in while writing this with Kd9d. I raised preflop UTG+1 to $3 and got calls from Pop, the button and the big blind. Flop came 78T with one diamond and the big blind led for $15. I called and Pops then raised to $35. The button then went all in for about $45. The big blind folded and since Pops couldn't re-raise I called and he called. Turn brought another diamond but paired the 7. I checked and Pops angrily checked; he really gave it away with that reaction. River completed my flush with a 3 of diamonds. So I put Pops all in and he called with a flopped straight and the button showed two pair, with Th8h. Running good!

Anyone know Long term apartment prices in Kampot, 6-12 month lease? Having trouble finding online sites with this info. $150-$200 range. Better to just walk around and search after arrival? Thinking of arriving in September.

I'll double check with a local realtor tomorrow but fairly certain you can get in that price range. We also have rooms for rent in the poker house; $150 per month for the regular sized rooms and $200 for the big one upstairs.

Are these bedrooms in an actual house or more like hotel/apartments in a building? Are hours required at the poker table to get the room rate?

Also, this may seem like a stupid question, and not to doubt your character, it’s more of a piece of mind thing, but I assume the poker room in Kampot is official/legit like something you find in a casino or cardroom here in the US? I ask because I only play in licensed/legal cardrooms here and am looking for the same there. Thanks for checking on apartments and all of your help in general.

If you really value that stick with Naga in Phnom Penh.