She who must be obeyed’s obsession with Facebook poker continues. Her co-workers are similarly obsessed with the game, and so it is no surprise that she announces we are to host an evening of poker at our condo featuring four ladies and me.
Being Thailand, the evening starts with food. I have learned by experience that the best thing to do on these occasions is not to worry where people are going to sit or what they are going to eat. If there are four Thai women involved, it will be sorted. And so it was; yummy food and we sat on the patio floor. The food came from apparently nowhere and was cleared away such that there was no evidence of its existence.
Then it was time for poker. Of course gambling is illegal in Thailand, so we just used coins as chips, the princely sum of 100 baht each. Much giggling, bluffing and downright lying; and after an hour or so there was only Khun Goy and myself remaining. She had about 20 baht and I had five hundred baht less about 20 baht. Sadly it proved impossible to relieve her of her remaining coins and I became increasingly bold and increasingly frustrated, throwing down enough cash to buy a cup of coffee in a single hand, only to lose it.
My desire for a gin and tonic overcame my desire to squabble over a couple of hundred baht, so I handed over to she who must be obeyed who finished off Khun Koy in a few minutes. The ladies then settled down for a female only session and I played World in Conflict for a couple of hours until someone had won another 400 baht and they all went home.
She who must be obeyed decided she prefers playing on the computer. You don’t have to bother with all the shuffling and dealing, and what the hell do you do with 500 baht’s worth of 1 baht coins?
Comments 🔗
2009-05-24| Pete - FrogBlogger saysCouldn’t you have played poker and drunk G&Ts at the same time? Much more fun.
As for the gambling, slightly more on the serious side, a member of my Thai family started off like that, then got so seriously addicted she was off playing cards every week unbeknown to anyone at home, gradually gambling away the house, borrowing against its value, remortgaging… rattled up about 500,000 baht in debt over about four years. You wouldn’t think it possible just to look at her, looks like an ordinary grandma caring for the family. Even when we found out, it was impossible to stop her… she still sneaks off now and again if she can get a game :-(
2009-05-24| Spike saysMight have made the cards soggy.
Yeah, I am aware of the risk. Hopefully, given she who must be obeyed’s ability to lose chips in Facebook, she will understand that using real money is not a good idea. She knows she would not find any help from me if she headed in that direction.
2009-05-25| Pete saysMy own SWMBO got lifted playing dominoes for toothpicks by the swimming pool. I was off at work abroad at the time, and she had no end of problems trying to get out of the Soi 8 branch of Pattaya’s Finest. Eventually got a friend to come down, take her necklace out of the cells and pawn it to pay the 5000 Baht fine. Had no trouble with gambling in my house since …..!