Poker in Africa (Tanzania to be specific)

[jackinbeat]

I'm here, Tanzania is already a place I love, the people make you see the shit that gets to you in your everday life, the little niggles are nothing, these people are warm, genuine and have a smile for you. Which if you even start to hear what their day to day life consists of is nothing short of incredible. Of course there are good and not so good people everywhere and it's not a place to go walking about at night, but then again neither are certain parts of the UK.

Will fill in the scence setting more as I experience it.

As for poker, well, what can I say, not what I expected, the casino I work for only provide electronic tables (although this is set to change), but the buzz (minus the chip shuffling) is just what you get in any card room anywhere in the UK. It's mainly locals, some Indians who have made money here, and a few Chinese (who are just starting to set up business here).

If there's any poker boom going to happen in this small world of ours i'll stick my neck out and say Africa is the place next ready forn the boom switch, Ladbrokes suprisingly already have a prescence here and the casino I'm at although independant is closely linked to other operators in Sudan, Uganda and many other places. It's a whole new world for me, but feeling positive, even though I'm having to learn slot machine management software, and do a bit of inspecting again, personally I'm happy with my choice, If i'd chosen to go back to the Salford casino over here, I probably would never have realised what an opportunity/experience I was missing out on.

Day 3 feel good vibes possibly, and a lot of hard work to come, but learnt some Swahili, and met the other expats who have a huge amount of respect for the people here, something I'm sure I will also feel once I'm settled in properly.

[Marky147]

Sounds very interesting, good luck mate and looking forward to following the diary.

[jackinbeat]

Day 6 (or 5 not sure i'm working hard), any jobsworth casino floor managers should not come to Tanzania, being told to forget all I know about managing floors, is really the best advice I've had so far.

We've had a game every day and I'm now being given a title of the white witch of poker games, which I'm trying to convert to magician, not sure being known as a witch is a good way to go in Africa, but they all say it with a smile. The games are still on electronic tables, which is amazing for rake, but not so for players running bad.

They play mainly 1000/2000 Tanzanian Shillings, with a 50k minimum buy in (getting my head round the exchange rates), but it's basically between .50/1 and 1/2 so small, most will sit with about 200k, and pots average at 100k-150k, they get it in freely. To get a bigger game we need the live tables, might be a while convincing the slightly paranoid (and who can blame him) casino owner to allow it though, and then a while longer to train the dealers.

We have just sent the first advert off to the press, it's for about €7500 guaranteed tournament in about 2 weeks time, will update more details over the next few days.

On the lifestyle, might have to start playing golf again ( I was a 13 handicap player at 17), as it's one of the only really safe ways to have a decent walk about. I have my own place being finished at the moment, very modern, air con, 3 bedroom bungalow, in a secire compound. There's Masai guards (these people are unreal), a maid and driver, and apart from food have almost nothing to pay for. Which is nice. Tanzanians are amazingly friendly, warm, giving, and have strong values (thieves are treated to people justice and it's not shocking to hear of a bag snatcher being beaten to death in the streets, they actually run to the police if they are seen and chased).

Internet needs some work though...

 

[Fenix35]

Nice, I enjoyed my (brief) stay in Tanzania. If you get time or a long weekend head over to Zanzibar that island is amazing. I never went to the casinos in Africa when I was there, but have a good friend who grew up in Mombasa, North Kenya and believes all of the casinos in West Africa are crooked with dodgy roulette tables and stuff. Coming from poker I'm naturally skeptical about gamblers who lose calling everything "rigged" but I wonder from your experience so far what you make of this so far.

Looking forward to following this blog - have fun out there!

[jackinbeat]

Nice, I enjoyed my (brief) stay in Tanzania. If you get time or a long weekend head over to Zanzibar that island is amazing. I never went to the casinos in Africa when I was there, but have a good friend who grew up in Mombasa, North Kenya and believes all of the casinos in West Africa are crooked with dodgy roulette tables and stuff. Coming from poker I'm naturally skeptical about gamblers who lose calling everything "rigged" but I wonder from your experience so far what you make of this so far.

Looking forward to following this blog - have fun out there!

Friends have just come back from Zanzibar, I couldn't swing a few days off so soon, but from the pictures and stories It's in my top 5 things to do.

As for casino's rigging games, Tanzania have a gaming board, and it runs along similar lines to the UK equivalent, and the machines, roulette wheels and croupiers are all scrutinized as they would be in the UK, no difference from what i've seen so far. As for the rest of Africa, well I've no I dea, but haven't heard any recent stories of any wrongdoings from either casino's or players.

In the casino, we are about to start our first cash race, maybe the first in Africa, so been really busy getting the staff ready for that, will try and write a proper update soon.

[Mango99]

Tom from Bristol Poker Meetup / GNF is there at the moment doing charity work for a couple of months, and plays a bit of poker whilst out there - though think he travelled to Uganda for his most recent game. Reckon he'd love to meet up for a game if you 2 weren't too far apart.

If he's on blonde he'll probably be under tfeilding or ashhen usernames?... Or you could try adding him/messaging him through facebook (Tom Feilding - spelled that way, not Fielding), or contacting him through APAT. Here's a link to a thread there explaining what he's doing out there (hope linking to APAT is okay?): http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=13136.0

[jackinbeat]

Hope it's ok to have a little beg here, some will know I'm in Tanzania where I'm working to grow a card room within a casino, amongst other casino work.

There's not a great deal of money here, the GDP is in the bottom 10% worldwide, basically the people are amongst the poorest 10% worldwide.

So I want to promote poker, at all levels (there are some biggish games too), there's a decent player pool already, poker being played every day, I've seen well over 100 players, here and in other casino's. I have some contacts in both live and online poker, and would like to add to this, any individual or company looking to promote their business or just having poker related good and products they can send. Anything considered (from card protectors, magazines, clothing, offers to players, etc, etc) and of course will be pushing blonde and DTD online, as we don't have a site yet, so hopefully you'll see some new members/players from Tanzania and further afield in Africa soon.

Hope it's ok to post this, will understand if it's not, just wasn't sure who to ask, and really busy so thought I'd post and see

For my email please PM me, or post your details here. Thanks in Advance.

[jackinbeat]

Tom from Bristol Poker Meetup / GNF is there at the moment doing charity work for a couple of months, and plays a bit of poker whilst out there - though think he travelled to Uganda for his most recent game. Reckon he'd love to meet up for a game if you 2 weren't too far apart.

If he's on blonde he'll probably be under tfeilding or ashhen usernames?... Or you could try adding him/messaging him through facebook (Tom Feilding - spelled that way, not Fielding), or contacting him through APAT. Here's a link to a thread there explaining what he's doing out there (hope linking to APAT is okay?): http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=13136.0

Sounds great, will contact him, thanks

[jackinbeat]

Hope it's ok to have a little beg here, some will know I'm in Tanzania where I'm working to grow a card room within a casino, amongst other casino work.

There's not a great deal of money here, the GDP is in the bottom 10% worldwide, basically the people are amongst the poorest 10% worldwide.

So I want to promote poker, at all levels (there are some biggish games too), there's a decent player pool already, poker being played every day, I've seen well over 100 players, here and in other casino's. I have some contacts in both live and online poker, and would like to add to this, any individual or company looking to promote their business or just having poker related good and products they can send. Anything considered (from card protectors, magazines, clothing, offers to players, etc, etc) and of course will be pushing blonde and DTD online, as we don't have a site yet, so hopefully you'll see some new members/players from Tanzania and further afield in Africa soon.

Hope it's ok to post this, will understand if it's not, just wasn't sure who to ask, and really busy so thought I'd post and see

For my email please PM me, or post your details here. Thanks in Advance.

Would Blonde or DTD be interested in getting some exposure in Africa?

[ashhen]

Hey - I'm the Tom Feilding who Mango posted about above (thanks Matt).

Ive been in touch with the OP via FB and we might be meeting up in 10 days in Dar es Salaam. I'm out here for a few weeks with a fellow poker player but we are in rural Tz, so there are not many games here, or much of anything really.

As chance would have it, we played a few HU games last night and taught some local friends how to play. I particulary love the mix of glazed expressions and outright sleeping going on in this photo:

Click to see full-size image.

I'm not sure of the rules regarding links on Blonde, so feel free to remove it if needs be, but this is where I write about what I get up to: www.tomintanzania.com - A couple of blonde players bung some money in my direction from time to time too (and not just on the tables, fnar fnar). (My attempt at bringing this back on topic).

I was vaguely aware of games here. In past years Ive tried finding stuff in Dodoma (technically the capital, but in reality a sandpit). With no joy. Antonio Esfandiari was playing out here 18 months ago tho, so there must have been something going on. I found an amazing game in Uganda a while back. Poker was new to Kampala and people stacking off for 5x pot with a gutshot was standard practice. Despite being an uber micro stake player back then, I won enough over a few nights to finance a WSOP trip.

[jackinbeat]

What's the address (location) of the casino please?  I have a old school friend running a solar business there and maybe it is close to where he is.  If so, I'll get his thoughts on the place as he's been there years...

There's 5 casino's in Dar es salaam, I will list them all. If you want to visit the casino I work at, please PM me. Want to try and work this round to Poker in Africa, and not focus on where I work so much.

The casino's are:

Sea Cliff - regular poker games
Palm Beach - regular poker games
Las Vegas - smaller stakes and electronic tables, MTT's.
New Africa - some poker
La Grande -some poker

I believe there are others coming, and I've heard of some larger stakes private games.

Biggest games on a regular basis in casino's are 2000/4000, with the occasional 5000/10000 Tsh.

[johnkeen]

Are you taking any malaria precautions? It's not very pleasant to get. Neither is mefloquine to take either lol
I took antibiotics for about 2 years, which is kind of inadvisable. I also wore long sleeves a fair bit, used the sprays, and a net at night.
Presume that someone will try to save money by serving you water from a tap, presented in a mineral water bottle. Refuse to drink it unless you saw the seal broken with your own eyes.
Don't know the HIV rate, but pretty high in all of West Africa. You certainly don't want to go sleeping with anyone there, easier said than done when you're on your own, drunk, at 2 am in a nightclub and local lovelies are throwing themselves at you. Then you wake at 10am, she's gone, so is your money, and the pack of condoms has remained unopened. Or, she's planted drugs, and called the cops, who are about to show at your door for their share of the pay-off. So the best precaution is not to get wasted at night in places full of hookers. I did write up a big guidebook once on getting by, it didn't stop most people I was with taking no antimalarials and taking plenty of ladies of the night.
Went to a couple of casinos, would expect them to be pretty corrupt, almost as much as the gaming boards. I refused to pay bribes to government officials (who demanded it to my face), nearly did jail time as a result. Good luck.

[jackinbeat]

What's the address (location) of the casino please?  I have a old school friend running a solar business there and maybe it is close to where he is.  If so, I'll get his thoughts on the place as he's been there years...

There's 5 casino's in Dar es salaam, I will list them all. If you want to visit the casino I work at, please PM me. Want to try and work this round to Poker in Africa, and not focus on where I work so much.

The casino's are:

Sea Cliff - regular poker games
Palm Beach - regular poker games
Las Vegas - smaller stakes and electronic tables, MTT's.
New Africa - some poker
La Grande -some poker

I believe there are others coming, and I've heard of some larger stakes private games.

Biggest games on a regular basis in casino's are 2000/4000, with the occasional 5000/10000 Tsh.

Cheers but I think you misunderstood.  My friend may be able to give some local information on what you should and shouldn't do with regard to personal safety etc, but maybe you already know that anyway.  I'll not be leaving these shores anytime in the forseeable future...

Edit; His company is in Arusha which appears to be circa 400 miles away from you, so I guess life in the bush may differ from life in the city.

No worries, well, I've got Masai guards/local security company for home, and our own casino security too. But any tips are always welcome. The casino is central, house is near where the USA embassy staff live so good security all round.

Had all my jabs, malaria is different here than most of Africa, so you need different tablets i'm told, but took some and so far all good.

[jackinbeat]

Hey - I'm the Tom Feilding who Mango posted about above (thanks Matt).

Ive been in touch with the OP via FB and we might be meeting up in 10 days in Dar es Salaam. I'm out here for a few weeks with a fellow poker player but we are in rural Tz, so there are not many games here, or much of anything really.

As chance would have it, we played a few HU games last night and taught some local friends how to play. I particulary love the mix of glazed expressions and outright sleeping going on in this photo:

Click to see full-size image.

I'm not sure of the rules regarding links on Blonde, so feel free to remove it if needs be, but this is where I write about what I get up to: www.tomintanzania.com - A couple of blonde players bung some money in my direction from time to time too (and not just on the tables, fnar fnar). (My attempt at bringing this back on topic).

I was vaguely aware of games here. In past years Ive tried finding stuff in Dodoma (technically the capital, but in reality a sandpit). With no joy. Antonio Esfandiari was playing out here 18 months ago tho, so there must have been something going on. I found an amazing game in Uganda a while back. Poker was new to Kampala and people stacking off for 5x pot with a gutshot was standard practice. Despite being an uber micro stake player back then, I won enough over a few nights to finance a WSOP trip.

Great pic Tom, looking forward to meeting you. I've been told it was my card room that Antonio visited, back then we had great games, bad management ruined them, but already the players are coming back to meet me, so all being well they will be back for good.

I'm also looking for a good charity or three to raise funds for, in the casino and card room, from the brief amount of your blog I've managed to read (just really, really busy) sounds like exactly what I'd like to support.

Look forward to meeting you, and to the posts about safety and maleria etc, yes, all advice is welcome, but please keep it relevant this is a poker in Africa thread.

[jackinbeat]

Nearly 4 weeks in, and every day is still an adventure. Loved the place when I got here, and it's still growing on me day by day. Moved in to a new house, and might be given sole responsibility for the card room soon to, which will be great, as the current staff really haven't got a clue (about poker, they are great with the players), which is probably why it's been quiet so far.

The games so far have been limited to 1000/2000 Tsh, about 50/100 pence, any bigger and they want to play on a real table, which is still in transit here (or so i've been told). It can be frustrating how long it takes to get anything done here, not like London where all the equipment, trained dealers are readily available, but as one of the fastest growing cities in the world, I'm really excited about the future here.

Still looking for more link ups from poker related products and services, we have the largest card room in Dar es Salaam, and room to expand!