AsiaLIFE

Poker has officially arrived in the Penh, with Naga Casino opening five tables in September. Chris Tessitore, an American straight out of Las Vegas, has been integral to launching the game in Cambodia. Words by Nora Lindstrom

“The movies and TV shows about Las Vegas aren’t that widely exaggerated,” says Chris Tessitore, who used to work in the poker rooms at Caesar’s Palace casino in Las Vegas. “There are people who come in dressed very nice and with lot of money. They get great service...”

Chris’ first month in Phnom Penh was spent training staff.  “They were all fresh, no knowledge or experience of poker, so we basically started from scratch,” Chris says. “Four weeks later we opened the doors.” He says the training went smoothly. “To be a poker dealer, the most important thing is to understand the flow of the game,” he explains. Consequently, he first made the dealers-to-be play the game themselves.

“The difference between a good and a bad dealer is efficiency. Keeping the game moving, keeping it fair, and when a customer does something wrong explaining clearly why it is wrong,” he says. “It’s a management situation.”

Speculative Risk

Like many other poker aficionados, Chris points out that unlike most other games at a casino, poker is in fact not gambling, but a game of speculative risk.  “It’s a game where you out-think your opponent, in black jack or baccarat you’re simply at the mercy of the cards,” he says. “You have the opportunity to win, although most people don’t of course...”

It is this characteristic peculiar to poker that keeps people playing for hours, Chris says. “If they believe there is a skill involved, they want to play more.”  He describes how a typical poker player will play for four or more hours, with some spending the best part of the day or night at the poker table. Chris says he on occasion has left the poker rooms in the evening and returned in the morning only to find the same players, in the same clothes, still sat there.

At Naga, it is the Texas hold’em variant of the game that is played. It was popularised partly being screened on TV, and partly when Chris Moneymaker in 2003 won a US$40 online poker tournament and turned it into $2.5 million victory in Las Vegas at a major poker tournament. “That put Texas hold’em on the scene,” Chris says, noting that the game has since then spread around the world like wildfire. “It took about four years before it reached Macao, and now 18 months later it’s in Cambodia.”

Though poker still has some way to go to become established on the Cambodian gambling scene, Chris says the poker rooms at Naga see about three games a day. The twice-weekly poker tournaments have also proved popular. “It’s mainly Cambodians with foreign passports, and a lot of Koreans and Chinese who play,” Chris says.

Because so many customers are new to the game, the casino offered training sessions ahead of the poker rooms opening. Lessons will be continued this month on Saturdays at 11am and 7pm.

The poker rooms at Naga Casino are open 24/7. Poker tournaments are held twice a week; a US$20 no limit with unlimited US$20 rebuys occurs every Sunday at 2pm, and a no limit US$55 freeze out takes place on Mondays at 8pm.