Morocco Poker Trip Report Part 2 (The bad)

In most of the cities I was in, I barely saw any other Asians, so I stood out like a sore thumb. Whilst sometimes that is kind of cool, and you get friendly people saying hi or trying to strike a conversation, you also attract scammers, hustlers and beggars. During this trip I voluntarily gave money and food to people I felt needed it. For example one day as I was heading out to a tournament, I saw a guy dumpster diving for scraps of food. I turned around and gave him a 20dh note. A few days later I saw a homeless person sleeping out in the cold. I bought 5 bananas for him for 5dh. So I guess the first guy got like 20 bananas worth. However there were a couple of times I wanted to help but got kind of scammed also. There was one guy in the markets of Tangier asking me for money and as I was reaching for some coins he said no, please buy me food. He took me to a stall and he bought 54dh worth of food, gave me hug and left. I was stunned but okay, at least he seemed happy about it. Another time a woman was selling tissues usually for 1dh each. I felt bad for her so I bought one. I gave her a 10dh coin but she only gave me 5dh change. Oh well, it's not that I mind the money, but I don't like to be cheated. 

While I was walking around some towns, you have to be careful where you step because some places are really full of shit. You can see piles of shit on the floor! Of course I didn't take pictures of them but you smell them as you go. There was a corner on a street of Rabat where there were piles of feces. I don't know if they were human, cat, dog or horse but it spoiled my appetite for that day. Most places are not very clean as well especially in Casablanca. 

Literally a litter of cats

Stray cats are well treated in Morocco and are healthy and well fed. Stray dogs however are sometimes bullied, kicked at, shooed away. I understand it is haram in Islamic teachings but there are also Muslim dog owners in Morocco who care about the animals too. People seem to turn a blind eye on drinking and prostitution but somehow dogs are a no-no. I saw a poor dog down to her bones and scared of people. It took her a while to have the courage to come near me. I ran to a nearby store and bought her some dog food. After that I continued on my walk. On my way back she found me. She sat up straight in front of me and gestured at me with her paw. She seemed to recognize me and wanted me to pet her. If I lived there I would have brought her home. 

Poor girl was scared to walk up to me

There were many times random strangers would give me directions when I look lost but never asked for anything. But there were a couple of times I was scammed. One guy wanted to bring me to his shop. Thankfully he wasn't pushy and I left without buying anything. But the second time two boys brought me to have soup at a stall. When I asked how much it was, they wanted me to pay 5x the normal price. Another lady customer that was with me shook her head in disgust. Even the shopkeeper looked guilty as he collected my money. I knew I was scammed but didn't want to fight it. There were some Moroccans that I have come across that I felt was out to take advantage of me, including one of the hotel hosts. Just don't be too trusting of people. Taxi drivers especially in Marrakesh would take advantage of tourists too. But I must add that I have come across honest ones too and usually I would pay them more than they asked for. Whereas the greedy ones I would just say no. I also witnessed a snatch theft not 10m away from me. I am so thankful it wasn't my phone that was snatched but also felt bad for the guy at the same time. There was also a police station just 30m away. 

Those two guys are scammers

As far as poker goes, I didn't like that they allowed smoking on cash game tables. In Tangier they allow 30bb buy ins and in Marrakesh 20bb. It made some games a shove fest. Marrakesh also felt like had an uncapped or pretty high cap rake. On the tourneys most of the tables I played on were soft. However I felt that some of them either didn't like me, or they were ganging up on Asians. But of course there were those who felt bad for me, even made friends with me and told off the local bullies. There was one lady I immediately tagged as a fish. From reading her I knew she had a flush draw, on the turn her body shook so I said she hit a pair with her flush draw and I was 100% accurate. Soon after I had KK. Utg had just opened and I flat. She 3b in position, utg called and I 4b, both called. Flop came J75cc. Utg jammed his small stack, I called, she rejammed and I snap fold my KK. Sure enough she had 77. Imo she was such a fish until later I saw her Hendon Mob had 900K+ in cashes. How can such a bad player win so much? Life is not fair hahaha. Anyway second part of my series I fired twice in the main, first bullet I jammed all in with a straight, he had trips and called. River the board paired. Second bullet I was 1 or 2 levels away from making day 2, I 3b jammed AK was called by AT, runner runner straight. Fired twice again in the deepstack, only highlight was I was on the same table as Lon McEachern. 

A more realistic local market

Many Moroccans have a short fuse. I have witnessed at least 6 altercations on the street, strangers yelling at each other, and even bloody fights twice. Taxi drivers are impatient and drive dangerously. Within a nano second of the light turning green they would start honking. A few times some people yelled at me for taking photos. I don't know what the problem was. But it reminded me of rude people from my country doing the same thing to other tourists. Sigh...

Almost all of the Tangier taxi drivers I met were nice

There were those who saw me as a tourist, an opportunity to make money from, someone to take advantage of. Come on, I read people for a living, I can see through every intention. But sometimes I just choose to ignore it. But there are those who wanted me to feel welcomed in their country. Someone who wanted to leave a good impression, wanted to be my friend. Those people make me want to give Morocco a second chance. 

Morocco Poker Trip Report Part 1 (The good)

I am going to split this into two parts, the good and the bad. I've always wanted to visit Morocco. Maybe because I am a huge fan of the Jason Bourne series and part of it was filmed in Tangier, or I've seen so many travel videos of Marrakesh especially the night market at the square, Jamaa el Fna. My food heroes Anthony Bourdain, Mark Wiens, Gordon Ramsey had eaten whole roast lambs, snails, tagines in Morocco. It is a beautiful place with deep history and now with great poker as well. 

I landed in Marrakesh after just 30 hours of travel, and the next day hopped on a train to Rabat the capital. There I met a local who sometimes host live and online poker games who showed me around. Rabat is called a green city and it really is beautiful. Majestic trees lined the streets, parks everywhere, orange trees, palm trees, it was very nice. I stayed in one of the Riads (guesthouses) inside the medina (old town) and it was a nice experience. I went to a local poker game twice but the first time I didn't get a seat but the second time I lost 400bbs lol. But I made plenty of friends. 

Rabat's old castle (Kasbah)

From Rabat I took another train to Tangier where there was a casino with a proper poker room. I managed to visit some of the places where Bourne Ultimatum filmed their scenes. 16 years later the places were still recognizable. Had a coffee where Julia Stiles sat at. It was by chance I happen to be in Hollywood 16 years ago also on a work trip and I was at the premiere where I saw Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. This was a nice follow up to that. The cash game was good, 50/100 dirham game and I believe a rake cap of 300/350. But unfortunately I only broke even in the two times I was there. 

Very typical Tangier (feels like it's stuck in the 80s)

On my way back to Marrakesh I had to make a stop at Casablanca so I spent a couple of nights there just to chill before the intense poker ahead of me. Strayed into a very old very local market, had a sardine bun for just €0.50. There are stray cats everywhere but the occasional stray dog. The people are very nice to cats and would put food and water out for them. Dogs not so much but you do see the occasional dog lover who would do something for them too. 

Did you know they use red for meat markets so the
blood doesn't stand out?

Finally I was back in Marrakesh for the WSOPC. All the cities had a different vibe. Marrakesh is very orangey and brown. Almost every building is in a different shade of brown/orange/beige. The Es Saadi casino is on the smaller side but the hotel complex was very beautiful. The turnout was very good. The opening event had 554 runners and I finish 33rd. The second event I played in there were 631 runners and I finished 12th. (painful exit as I jammed AK into AJ aipf with a decent stack) The third event I played had 207 runners and I finished 20th. (I was chip leader with 28 left and I had AK vs AQ aipf, then got 2 outered and then out) But 3 cashes in 3 tournaments I was pretty happy. I played well too. Folded QQ correctly preflop losing only 4.5bb, over jamming KK correctly getting snap called by AJ preflop for a 200bb pot.... The rest of the series I will leave for part two.

Jamaa el Fna at night

Food in Morocco is pretty good and surprisingly I didn't have any serious stomach issues the whole trip. Maybe a bit bloated after a couple of meals but that was about it. I definitely overate the first few days then I had to force myself back to my intermittent fasting routine. The Moroccans definitely have a sweet tooth and I was not used to that. But after my first cake in Rabat I was hooked! They do their desserts really well so not recommended for diabetics. I also had a lot of firsts, boiled snails (I've had baked snails before), sheep's head (eye balls, tongue and everything), lamb ribs, cow lungs, cow hearts and they were all pretty good. 

Seriously good cake

Overall Morocco is a nice place to visit. Most people I came across were nice. I obviously do not look local, so I would get people talking to me, smiling, saying Konichiwa, Ni Hao, where are you from that kind of thing and I would respond back. I find if you respond nicely they will be nice to you. Don't be like some tourists who think everyone is out to get them. Kids would come and talk to me, some would shake my hand, and especially when I was wearing the Moroccan national team jersey. Random people would smile and yell Ziyech as I walked by. It took awhile for me to realize it was the name of the guy on my jersey. I made a lot of friends at the tables too, from all over the world. Took a couple of pictures with Lon McEachern (WSOP legend) but I was surprise no one else seem to recognize him. He was very nice in person and very approachable. I also got to brush up on my Spanish and now can even speak some basic French on the tables. Oui oui. 

Casablanca

If given the opportunity I would definitely return to Morocco for poker and if you are interested in going for the next WSOPC, you can contact me and I can offer you advice that is tailored to a poker player, ie. where to stay, how to get taxi, how to change money, how not to get scammed, etc. Feel free to contact me at happyriverpoker@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

2023 goals and resolutions

Setting goals and resolutions are my way of gauging how my year went. It is also to keep myself  accountable to my pledges and commitments. But if I've learned anything last year, it was like the old Yiddish saying "Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht", man plans and God laughs. We think we control our future but the truth is we don't even know what will happen the next second. I will still set my resolutions but am welcoming all the surprises this year has in store for me with open arms. 

I told Mr. Mandela I was planning to win
 a trophy in SA.... he laughed...
.....Well, I did finish 2nd

I took a long hiatus from tournament poker partly because of COVID but also I was focusing on cash games. However the main reason was I wasn't making enough money from tournaments for it to make sense. But due to the lack of a proper poker scene here, in 2022 I had no choice but to travel for poker. Often I would pick tournament locations and dates because usually cash games are the best during those times. I dabbled in a few of them last year and felt that I had a breakthrough in my game. In the past I felt I had hit a wall, and even after studying I couldn't seem to progress. In 2022 I managed to turn a healthy profit from my tourney results and had a new arsenal of weapons I never had before. 

So the first goal of the year is to 1) play as many tournaments as possible. In two days I will be traveling to my 21st country for poker and hopefully by the end of 2023 I will have played in 25 different countries. In 2022 I managed to cash about $50k (June - Dec) and came close to winning trophies a few times. So this year my goal is to 2) hit $150k in cashes and to win at least 2 tourneys. 

I want to travel, see the world. When we leave this earth, we can only take with us the relationships and memories that we've made. Thankfully I am currently in a position to do so. So far I have made plans till April 2023 that I will be 3) traveling to a different country every month. I hope I can do that for the entire year. 

Turbulence is part of life

In the past years I have worked on my discipline and I feel I have come a long way. But I am still keeping it as another goal of mine. 4) Degen-free, disciplined year for 2023. I know I am far from being the best poker player, the richest, the most generous, the most creative, but if there is a category I have a possibility of leading, that is the happiest poker player. I have a positive outlook on life in the first place. Not putting too much emphasis on monetary wealth helps. But I have a wonderful partner in life that I never dreamed possible. I have a career that allows me to spend time with the people I love, doing the things I love, living my life to the fullest. So for 2023 I want to 5) be happy and thankful always

A bullish 2023 would help

In the past I have given 10% of my winnings to charity. But this year I want to commit to doing more than giving money. I want to care more for the people around me, be kind, be a good example, be an inspiration, be a shoulder to cry on, be a listening ear, be a mentor, give good advice, be a positive influence. I may not be able to change the world, but I can change someone's world. 6) Give my time

Me acknowledging a security guard at the tourney. Probably
no one even spoke to him the whole series.

Join me in my journey this year and see how it works out. Follow me on Instagram if you haven't yet for my journey in pictures and videos cause I know not everyone likes to read. Click HERE to read my review of 2022 if you haven't yet. Happy New Year everyone! If you would like to contact me you can email me at happyriverpoker@gmail.com