Money & Poker

Czech Republic Koruna (Money)

Travel and money seam intertwined but traveling in multiple countries with different currency well there is a whole new cook book to ways of doing it. 

The usual problems are the worst exchange rate that is out there. Its almost unavoidable since the money changers has to make a living and even bank rates are always slightly lower.

You are always a loser when it comes to traveling and changing money which was what I felt. Unless of course if you travel during a crisis (Euro debt) like me which feels awesome since I have never seen the Euro dip so low in respect to the Singapore Dollar. 

Still every time I draw money out the rates are bound to be better the next few days. Dang it. So new currency and I change the minimum amount in Bratislava just so I could get to the hostel or buy a ticket once I arrived Prague. 

Emergency money! ATM was easily found and I drew out the most money in Europe …. A FEW THOUSAND KORUNA.

Lets see …. 1 SGD = 0.56 Euro and 1 Euro = 25.04 CZK and 1CHF = 18.18 CZK …

I was constantly on my calculator and that was not funny. I got cheated too at the money changer which listed 1 CHF = 18.18 CZK but only if you change a lot of money so for my balance Swiss francs of 128 CHF I got a measly 1836CZK ….

Are you confuse yet ??

Poker Match in Prague Casino

I could not help noticing all the casino at Prague and I was slightly spoilt for choice. Prague would make it three successive country + city which I would enter a casino and try to earn my keep. 

After much procrastination by visiting old town Prague and keeping myself busy with sightseeing gimmick my will buckled and I headed out at night for the casino.

Juggling Multiple Currency 

Entry Log on Casino Losses

Some were kind of small with only slots machines and limited games. Others were medium in size but low key. I found one that had table games and you had to check in your coat. 

Small for a casino for they only had two roulette table and two Caribbean stud poker a few blackjacks and one casino taxes hold’em poker where you play with the dealer instead of the players. 

The place was packed with people filled with smokes from cigarette and merry with chatter. People actually socialized in the casino.

It was my first time too where the non-alcoholic drinks are free and they served you pretty much everything even if all you do is change chips and sit down. 

I took my time warming up the seat with black jack and slowly eased my way to the poker table. A few hours later I noticed a new table open and they were playing Texas Hold’em poker players to players with the dealer as a facilitator. 

How much was the blinds I asked. 10 & 20 Koruna the dealer replied and I hopped in the last seat available. This was my first time playing Texas Hold’em players style in the casino with random strangers. 

Usually it would be with friends over a casual house gathering with drinks hence the wagers were normally small and you don’t aim to wipe your friends out. I folded the first few rounds.

How good is your POKER FACE ??

Unlike playing with the casino whereby the dealer is not concern of losing money and always play with a set of rules, player poker involves bluffing which makes it more thrilling.

There are a few scenario which could occur :

1. You have GOD LIKE cards in hand … but BAD POKER FACE … hence everyone backs out and you don’t make a killing

2. You have GOD LIKE cards in hand … makes everyone thinks you are bluffing and fish in the money … PILE UP THAT STASH BABY ..

2. You have dirt shit hands, and so does everyone else and if you are able to read their expression which tells you everyone has shitty hands anyway … NOW how could you bluff them into thinking you have a winning hand and back away …

3. You have lousy hands …. GIVE IT UP

Then there is the TAIL …. A form / gesture / action / look / twitch / that everyone has which is instinctive and uncontrollable. 

There was finding a random strangers TAIL and at the same time be very cautious of your own action which may form a TAIL. 

It is said it is impossible to identify one own self TAIL and it is equally as difficult to identify someone else’s, however if you do manage to identify, it that would be a HUGE power advantage.

Of course there is also the planting of a fake TAIL which I did. It was like a fishing game. You put the bait … wait for it …. wait for it …. Sacrifice the small bait …. Put up another bait …. and reel in the big fish …. 

I first went semi crazy upping the stakes all the way to the end … with a pair of deuce which was useless as all the commodity card was already higher than my deuce. 

I still opened my card when it was time to determined the winner and everyone laughed. I put on my best little boys face !!

Stagger of the hand … hesitant to put down more money since I had lost a few rounds already … everyone joined in my doubled up bet. Smirk … I had them nipping. 

More pondering and finally putting down chips only matching and not raising, but some idiot double up and everyone followed … Hooked. 

Last bet and a huge pile went down from the guy across me … I smiled … and double up his huge pile … everyone backed out left one …

“What do you have boy ? Pair Aces ?”He asked I smiled a little, raised my shoulder to indicate I don’t know in a cheeky way. Lick my lips … and waited. 

He matched my stack and it was time to duel it out. I had a straight beating his trips … sweet sweet taste of victory.

I played a while longer but I had used up all the tricks I knew … time to move on while I had winnings.

The next stupid thing I did right after was hit the dealer tables. Overconfident with my wins over players I played on the tables games thinking I had the best luck in the world. 

Within an hour I had made almost an equivalent of 400 euros but alas due to my brain blunder in the currency conversion I thought I had only made 40 euros. 

I did not cash out and continue with the games thinking I had only won 40 euros and not long after lost everything back to the casino.

If I did learn one thing from this … THERE IS NO BLUFFING THE CASINO

Bribe The Police in Europe Checked !!!

Good ole Richie Rich gave me not one but two new mini adventure after a long time. We were going to a couch surfing event he created which was on the outskirts of the old town Prague set in a gym that serves beer and has a ping pong table. 

I am still not quite sure what kind of place it was for it had two ping pong tables, foosball tables, pools table, bowling, air hockey and a bar.

So on the way to some ping pong and drinks event he created we went out waiting for the troller-bus on a Sunday evening. As we board the troller-bus I asked Richie what about tickets … bus tickets …

“Just sit down, Its fine”, Richie said

Seeing as Richie had been in Prague for a significant amount of time chasing skirts or in his manly valor charming explanation “I have to go see about a girl”, I assumed he knew what he was doing.

Few stops later two guys in casual clothing tapped us on the shoulder and asked for tickets and showed us a badge cupped closely in their hands like it was a secret operation. Richie did all the talking, said we don’t have tickets and we were both shuffled off the bus.

So there was a fine for not paying the bus ticket, 800CZK a person. The asked for passports and ID which Richie said it's back in the hostel and I just pointed at him pretending not to know English. 

Richie did his best innocent look and explain how he did not know where to get tickets on a Sunday since all the tickets shops are closed. (They sell them in grocery stalls apparently which is close on Sunday, so you need to buy in advance or at the train stations)

“F*cking Americans”, the cops in casual clothes said.

A random photo of Money ^^

I just put on my dumb look and hoped for the best. Everything they asked I replied with hand gesture or a shake of the head and a blank look to Richie. 

Richie had work to do and a small Chinese guy did not look as attractive (money wise) as a young American guy.

Richie went through three of the five stages of grief for parting with money.

1. Denial
He actually denied doing anything wrong. As if the tourist is not at fault for not knowing how to buy a ticket.

2. Anger
Richie voice did got louder at a point with arms in the air saying it was ridicules to pay such a heavy fine for not buying a ticket. I watched as he tactically scolded the cops but with no success … it just made things worst

3. Bargaining
This one work out the best … he yanked out some money from his pocket and showing the balance of an empty pocket said that was all the money he had. The wallet was still smugly tucked in his jacket. So he worked out the BRIBE COST FOR TWO = 600CZK

So my share of the bribe was 300CZK about 21 SGD. Not bad Richie ….

Couchsurfing Event Experience

Average Hostel - Good Company

Charles Bridge - Prague

The hostel I choose was not the best one nor was it the worst but nowhere within my comfort zone to stay there for more than a week. Something to complain about however make good conversation in a hostel dorm. I made two new friends there out of all the many people that stayed in the hostel.

*Richie Rich* would be a sarcastic American which thinks he could get away with anything by adding the word ‘I’m Joking’ at the end of the sentence. 

Dark humor was his thing however I couldn’t help messing with his head whenever I could. A writer for his profession and he would send me links to his articles and ask for my opinion. How I love sweetening the pot before burning it all down. Dark Humor indeed.

Then there was *Denise* a Danish girl who was there for work and stayed in the hostel. Richie love poking Denise around but she was always so polite regardless of how sarcastic he became. My addition to the conversation was backed subtly by Denise in trying to mess with his head.

It was good fun company …

Couch surfing Event in Prague

So Richie created a couch surfing event to play ping pong in a local pub outskirt of town just to get his potential girlfriend out of the house. 

Talk about motivation in chasing skirts, this was a whole new level. Then again it did not cost anything other then internet time and networking.

Richie called me along to join in the fun and I thought why not since I have been curious about couch surfing ever since I started my journey an event was not as scary as asking someone to bunk you. The ride to the place involved bribe to the local police but I’ll save that for another post.

We reached there and almost everyone bailed out of the event last minute. Richie potential girlfriend included. Almost but fortunately one Romanian Girl *Marie* did turn up for the event and we had fun playing ping pong. 

I now understand how couch surfing events works for people who would like to expend their friends circle by just turning up in random events. Worst case scenario … dun give him your number.

After much ping pong and some table air hockey we all bid farewell with me and Richie headed back to the hostel while Marie went back to her place.

Meeting up random strangers for event … is weird …

Black Light Theater - Prague

If you are into plays and performing arts the black light theater in Prague is not to be missed. I have seen many Broadway shows and this one is definitely one of a kind. 

The whole theater is pitch dark that once you are seated and the lights goes off you cant see anything at all even your hands.

The whole play is done in darkness using glow sticks, painted glow in the dark costumes and props and spot lights at certain angles only to create illusions where a normal theater cant. The play is also wholly non-verbal - hence you wont need to know the local Czech language to understand.

Black Light Theatre in Prague 

There are a quite a few of the Black Light Theater in Prague and most have different stories but I choose to explore the classic ‘Alice In Wonderland’. 

Many tourist and locals fills the seats every night and you can see from kids to old chaps enjoying the show. The ticket was ok at 680CZK about 27 Euro but I thought it was totally worth it

Due to the very dark theater the character Alice started off in the middle of the air and spun round and round as if falling into wonderland. 

I knew they had to have some sort of wire to pull it off but the simplicity of camouflage was amazing. You could get away with lots of illusion tricks making the show totally spectacular without much effort.

Dancing butterflies were done using people dressed in black clothing and because of the lack of lights you cant see them but only their hands which was painted with glow in the dark lights. The butterflies would appear out of nowhere and disappear as magically as they came.

UNESCO World Heritage - Prague

Here I was at last Prague. I have heard a lot about this place from fellow dorm mates and recommended by many people whom I met along the way. It was a built up expectation which is always not a good thing for me.

Fred & Ginger Building - Dancing House 

Prague old town is indeed interesting. I took a stroll and first weird thing I saw was the Gingerbread building or more commonly known as Dancing House. 

I stood there looking for a very long time remembering how I saw a photo of it once somewhere. It was unique when I saw it on a photo but seeing it in reality was weird. 

My eyes kept following the lines of the building only to end up somewhere I lease expected. It was like a trick building with optical illusion, look too closely and it becomes difficult to hold it down in place hence like a Dancing House.

Charles Bridge Prayer to a Saint - Prague 

Charles Bridge was filled with visitors and tourist despite the early cold bite of winter and snaps of photos were endless along the bridge. 

There was statues or sculptures every few meters of saints and at one of them a queue line had formed where people would touch the bronze picture of one saint and offer a prayer before the next in line walked up to it.

There would probably be a story to it if you joined one of the many free walking tours in Prague but I was happy browsing randomly alone. 

The bronze picture of the saint was the only part of the sculpture that shone bright like gold where the other parts were highly weathered bronze.

Jazz musician played along the bridge in the chilly winter and they were good too. There were many trinkets stand shops which moves with the tourist and the police and some hand churned musical wagon as well. Charles bridge was a landmark and a beautiful one at that spiced with unique entertainers.

I crossed over the bridge and explored the far end of old town Prague which led me to a castle or palace which I did not really bothered to find out what it was but one thing for sure it was huge and magnificent.

View from Charles Bridge 

Astronomical Clock - Prague 

Walking back to old town Prague almost all tourist would stop in front of the Astronomical Clock tower for a picture and stare at it for a few minutes. Me included of course but the smell of food caught my attention soon after.

Close by was two carts selling food. I an not sure if its always there or its just during the winter. Still I was intrigued on how they cooked Ham right out in the open and when the cook carved out a huge chunk to be sold, how my mouth watered.

Slow Roasted Ham - Prague 

Cannabis Vodka 

Hmmm …. I contemplated very long in front of that shop if I was going to try something crazy such as Cannabis Vodka or if I am not wrong also known as Absinthe. 

I have heard magical wonders that if you drink it enough you would be able to meet the blue ferries.*Grin*. Okie than lets try it I thought but alas the shop was closed for the winter and I never got another chance at it. I’ll be back …