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.