Month: August 2019

In 2018 casino industry in Georgia had been growing fast because of active tourism from neighbouring countries – Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran. New gambling establishments had been opening their doors in Georgian capital Tbilisi and other regions of the country. This tendency was especially strong in Adjara autonomy and it’s central city Batumi.

At the moment I visited that beautiful place on summer 2018, there are around 10 casinos in Batumi, and the most prominent of them was the new project of Eclipse casino. With 37 gaming tables and 163 slots from the very beginning of operation it became the biggest casino not only in Adjara but in whole Georgia as well.

The casino was located just 20 minutes away from Turkish border, so most of the players are from this country, where live gambling is prohibited since 1997. But Eclipse was doing it’s best to attract junket players not only from Turkey, but from Israel, Ukraine, Russia and so on. Excellent service and possibility to make the biggest bets and to gamble for the biggest amounts of money were the things that put Eclipse casino to the top of the gaming industry in the region. The best action in stud poker was also there. Texas Hold’em and Omaha were played more often, and the bets could be really high regarding to the common wealth of the area. Eventually, as on some of my reliable inner sources, the original owner of Eclipse casino lost it playing poker in the Vip room of his own casino during spring time of 2019! That’s how it happens over there.

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I didn’t play at Eclipse on my own, only bought some low value chips for my collection. They were made by Abbiati, what, in my opinion, doesn’t honor that italian brand – I don’t like the chips. Their raw material, logo and quality of “construction” equal to cheap chinese sets for playing poker. I know that Abbiati company produces chic gaming tables and other furniture, but their gaming chips show a regrettable lack of taste. Probably, one day the casino will be won by someone, who is aware of it, and chips from there can become the highlight of my collection, but for now I need to be satisfied with what I have…

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It was 2013 when I visit Davao city – the fruit capital of the Philippines – for the very first time. This big city has it’s own international airport, shopping malls, 5-star hotels and 2 casinos. There also was a card house – Metro Poker Club Davao, located on Quirino Avenue, where some wealthy Filipinos (it obviously takes to be relatively rich to join the game without puting a big part of your money on risk) and plenty of foreigners, living or spending their holidays in Davao, have been gathering for playing poker. I’ve been visiting there often and used to play their daily tournaments as well as cash-games. We even participated “Family tournament” with my friends – poker event for teams. Unfortunately, playing poker in the Philippines has some features which r not very good for spending a lot of time on the tables and earing money in poker. First of all, the commission of the house (rake) equals to devastating 10%, and also some fixed amount from every hand goes to Bad Beat Jackpot (what is bad for professional players because they have no advantage in hitting this Jackpot against weak players?). Secondly, the club opens it’s doors at 4pm and works till the morning, and I prefer to finish all my activities before the sunset (it starts around 5:30pm and at 8pm it’s already completely dark in Davao city).

At third, and it relates to all the countries with mostly warm weather, it just takes a big effort to do anything when there r sea, sun and fruits just a couple of steps away!

In a few years of playing poker in the Philippines, I became a regular visitor in Metro Card Club, met some amazing people and, of course, took different chips for my extensive collection.

I don’t know where those chips were produced – probably somewhere in China. It’s made of cheap plastic with low quality printing but I still evaluate them because of having plenty of cheerful memories associated with this poker club. And there’s a chance that while u r reading this article, my friend, I’m playing poker at Metro Card Club Davao, Philippines. Wish me good luck then!

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Lots of various surprises are waiting for the player which perhaps involve people to visit casino. However, we would like to avoid some surprises. For example I lost as much as I could not even imagine in just ten hours of playing stud poker at the Palms Beach casino in Cannes in 2011.

I visited a lot of casinos within my trip to the south of France. In fact, each little resort town provides its own small casino, intended for Frenchmen, having a vacation. There were several casinos in Cannes, one of which was Palm Beach, controlled by Partouche company, was located on the city’s promenade edge. I remember that day quite well. I was walking along the promenade while admiring the exquisite audience, arrived at the Cannes Film Festival (there was also a casino in the building, where the film festival took place) and reached the Palm Beach casino. The gambling house positioned itself as an elite one.

So, I started playing at Palm Beach Casino at stud poker. I started to bet big – 100 euros per ante. But the game did not stick at all. I lost a lot. Then I lowered my bet, first to 75, then to 50 euros in ante. But I did not lose less! I made an exchange, closed and played croupier cards on my poker combination although before I just threw out the antes. Then I lowered the bet to 25 euros antes after about five hours of playing. I finished playing in ten hours with a loss of 18 000 euros!

It was quite simple to lose 18 000 euros while betting just 1 000 or even 100. But I lost over 450 bets at a time that day. Subsequent calculations confirmed that such an event probability is less than one hundredth percent. I.e. it was almost impossible to lose so much money in poker in such a short time. But nevertheless, I lost. So, I did not tempt fate further. I decided to go to Nice to play blackjack, leaving Cannes. Maybe I’ll come back there later (although Palm Beach casino seems to be closed) …

Here are the chips it was quite hard to get at Palm Beach casino in Cannes:

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I first visited the Caribbean in 2009. I arrived to the five-star Bavaro Princess Hotel in the Punta Cana resort in the Dominican Republic. There I first realized how is it living on «all inclusive» basis, when all dishes types for breakfast, lunch and dinner are served for free (i.e. included in the price). Despite it’s quite strange, but I fully refused from drinking alcohol in Punta Cana, once having drunk the last thimble of «Mama Juana» (national drink in Dominican Republic). Mostly I ate fresh fruit, sunbathed and played ping pong. Besides I played in the Tower Casino as well.

In general, every big resort in the Dominican Republic provides own casino, but all of them are intended for their guests only. It was quite hard to get into such casinos without any recommendations. I wandered along the endless Punta Cana beaches to enter the casino from the sea while searching for good luck and new chips. But mostly I spent my evenings at Tower Casino – it was located near of Bavaro Princess while being available to all tourists, striving to play.

Tower Casino was quite large casino, but the main action took place at the slot machines. As for me, I played blackjack. There I first became acquainted with the American blackjack version, when the dealer puts two cards at once – one opened while the second was holy card. It’s common in both Europe and Russia when the dealer takes just one card. This contributes to blackjack strategy change. I can’t say that I was lucky at Tower Casino, but the casino impressions remained positive largely due to beautiful chips from Paulson, which I took to complete my collection.

I was also impressed by the promotion table with blackjack, located in the Bavaro Princess lobby. I haven’t met with such a marketing move before. Tower Casino croupiers dealt cards directly at the hotel and it was possible playing for free in the evenings. Just a few tourists used that tourist trap, but preferred playing free blackjack and took training chips from Bavaro Tower Casino.

I spent a wonderful three weeks in the Dominican Republic and fell in love with the Caribbean. I am going to visit all Caribbean countries and collect chips from all the current region’s casinos.

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