I've looked into playing before in Tz but have never found a game.... until this thread came along.
You'd think casinos would be rather shite in Africa, somewhat like this:
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But that really isnt the case. This pic is from a week or so ago but from a small arcade thingy in one of the smaller cities. Instead the casinos tend to be large, with the latest slots and table games, plus they tend to be rather generous when it comes to freebies like food and drink. The Las Vegas was no exception. We had food and drinks comped all night which was as appreciated as much as it was abused.
The casino has ordered poker tables but in the mean time they are using Electronic tables. I expected these to be really rubbish and so Shane and I made plans to go for an hour, say hi to Matt and play a few hands before heading off to dinner someplace around 9pm. Instead, following a warm welcome and short lesson about using the tables (we played a 4 handed SnG which I binked by adopting a policy of going in with the worst of it each time), we got into the game and didn't leave until 5am - just in time to grab our stuff and catch our flights back to the UK.
The game is 1000/2000tshs or around 40p/80p. The tables were very impressive. The days of dealer dealt cash tables has to be numbered. The machines can be programmed for just about anything. You could straddle, sit out, reload and do anything you would normally do on a regular table. It also negated issues like string betting and the time bank meant the game didn't dawdle. We were playing 50 hands an hour. The rake was just 2% - although this was uncapped. I gather there is discussion of a cap being put in place but it didn't much matter at this level.
I intended to take a photo of the tables, but the free beer got in the way. Here is one lifted off the internet:
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The players are what made the game. There was a mix of indians and Africans and one other white guy. All lived in the country and knew each other to varying degrees. Everyone was welcoming. The guy who stands out the most was the white guy who seemed to work in the more exotic end of the adult entertainment industry. At one stage he passed around his phone showing off a clip of some transexual shennigans. Another guy was black Tanzanian but spoke English better than most Brits. He had spent years in the UK and it turned out he knew the Matt the card room manager from playing in London. He name dropped a few Brit players, was producing his own Tanzanian gangster film and was well dressed - so I expected a balla. Instead he was being rolled by someone and played so incredibly nitty. A couple of hours in he was complaining about running badly but he was down under 2BB and (hadn't to my mind) played a single hand.
The other players were mainly Indian. The ability was better than expected. In fact some of the players were pretty darned good. And others not so much. It was certainly far ahead of the game I found a few years back in Kampala.
I brought in for 100k (£40). I figured Id rather start on 50bb so I could get a feel for how the table played. Sure enough after 30 minutes I spew it off with 89 on a 27T flop with multiway action. I reload another 100k and run well. I had QQ a bunch of times and made quite a few straights or flushes with other hands. After a couple of hours I was labelled the nit from Bristol but by the end of the session I was called Tom the pro. This had more to do with the hands I was being dealt than any playing ability though.
The porn guy was the aggressive player and I soon got a feel for how he played. Several times he had good hands and I folded out, usually cos I had crap, but I got to rebluff him and show my hand when he was telling the table how he knew I had a monster. He asked how I knew to avoid him when he was strong on the other hands and I told him I had a physical tell on him. He didn't clash with me at all after that. After the game packed up he took me to one side and said because we would never play together again then could I let him know what it was he was doing. It was quite amusing seeing his relief as I told him he didnt have any that I had spotted.
I spun my stack up to a peak of around 850,000tshs (£350ish) and decided I would leave when I hit the million. I then lost 300k over a few hands. Flush under flush was one that sticks in my mind. Another was when I bet 100k on the river into an 80k pot when I had taken a weird line semi-bluffing only to back into kings-up and he had rivered a gut shot for the 2nd nuts which he flatted behind me. He had a habit of calling any bet regardless of the ratio to the pot so I figured it was the right time to overbet. I guess not.
At 5am I cashed out for 550,000tshs and Shane had spun 200,000tshs into 350,000tshs. As we left, the table broke. That's often a sign that we are the fish but I think the game usually only lasts about 3 hours and had instead lasted around 7.
The good thing about the tables is you can see your stats. Here are mine:
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Finally - thanks to Matt for looking after us and introducing us to everyone. It was a cracking end to a good trip.