Here’s a scary tale from a poker player here in Thailand who thought he might scratch his poker itch by getting in on some action at a poker room on the Thai / Cambodian border.
Hi guys;
I had an interesting experience hunting down some “legit”poker in Poipet at Grand Diamond Casino that I thought you should be warned about… becaus ethere is wholesale cheating. BE WARNED before you lose ur cash.
Being ecstatic to have found a legitimate (legally, anyway) poker game in Thailand (Cambodian border) I wandered off to Grand Diamond City Casino in Poipet, Cambodian border.
I played for the evening and was shocked and amzed at the CHEATING.
I hid my (albeit small) understanding of Thai during 4 hours of play… to discover that a group of Thai men were speaking in Thai any time a Farang joined the table…. This is what I saw in ONLY ONE SESSION.
1) The Thais were telling each other what their cards were pre-flop… OK that makes it hard.
2) They were continuing on to collectively calculate odds of winning if they called any Barang bet..
3) The Thais were comparing their hands to strong Barangs bets, so that only the strongest hands call… eg: “Ï ahve two pair”, leading to a top pair folding prematurely.
4) A thai, calls a arang bet on the turn, misses the river and folds his hand. Aussie shows his weakish hand (He had bluffed the turn). Thai raches INTO THE Muck and retrieves his cards to show bottom pair AND IS REWARDED WITH THE POT!
5) A Korean guy hits some great cards, and cleans up over about 3 hours. The Thais start abusing him and calling him a cheat. They threaten to drag him outside and beat him. Supervisor comes and checks he is accused of marking (Aussie guy says he went and looked at the cards too). None marked.Management comes and warns Korean about cheating (I WAS DUMBFOUNDED), leaves and doesn’t play again. Thais are happy.
6) Indian guy, very aggressive is raising ppre flop a lot and going after pots… Thais collude and say Äll Thais call every flop and top pair stays in against, OK!
7) The catch word all night was “Farang, Farang, Farang” An Aussie guy asks asks me what they were saying cos he’s been getting hearing this for a month, he says. I told him you don’t want to know brother! Same old racist bull we hear evrey day here, ‘cept worse and it was continuous.
8) A Canadian guy pushes All In, loses a Bad-Beat… 8 Thais cheer and clap and pat the Thai winner on back after the Farang was felted “Saying in Thai, go home Farang”… OK NOT cheating but highly offensive.
9) Thais were changing seats, playing each others stacks, very random.
10) I didn’t see this, but japanese guy who was playing said that chips are often removed/added in the middle of ahand depending on if the Thai guys had a draw or the NUTS. He had been there 2 days and was also NEVER returning.
An Aussie guy I spoke to said he had played there for 2 months before this group of Thais had begun colluding and cheating. He was playing his last session there ever he said. Even the PROFESSIONALS CAN’T bEAT CHEATS!!! He went to tell me he had written a formal complaint to the English Poker Manager, and to other managers, had been laughed at, ignored and told that Thais were the Casinos number one clients.
Some other interesting facts for you…
* 3% UNCAPPED RAKE
* 6 Hands per hour.. yep ubelieveabe i know but i swear its true…
* Dealers and supervisors (according even to Management) are scared of Thais and will not say anything to them.
* There is no blind post, so Thais come and go missing blinds (which they do)
* There is no waiting list, so standing there only means you get to see someone take your seat you have waited 3 hours for…BASICALLY STEER CLEAR OF GRAND DIAMOND CASINO POIPET. You can’t beat cheats… The Thais don’t wanna play with you, the management don’t want you there (Englishman) so save urself money time and stress!
None of this really surprises me. I was offered a chance to sit in on a underground game in Bangkok and turned down the invite precisely because I suspected something like this would take place.
Photocred goes to cogdogblog