Pok Deng - Beginners Luck

Met a great group of Thai folks traveling in Luang Prabang for the Thai Constitution holiday - some PhD students in biology traveling with their teacher. They invited me to dinner and I accepted. A few bowls of noodle soup later and we were all friends. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me pay for dinner, but I offered to buy some beer later. It seemed like a fair trade.

Back at the guesthouse we started a nice game of high stakes gambling for 20 baht a hand.

The game was similar to black jack but here's the official description. Everything was based on nines. Everyone is dealt two cards including the dealer who acts like the house. If your cards add to 9 you are an instant winner. Kings, queens, jacks and tens are all worth 0 points. If your cards add to ten or more you just keep the last digit (e.g. a 9 and a 7 = 16 which equals 6 points). After the first round you have the choice of taking one additional card or not. If your cards add to more than the dealers you win, if they are less you lose and if they are the same it's a push.

Payout is where things get a little crazy. If you have a winning hand and both of your cards are the same suit you win double. Sounds great doesn't it? Well, the dealer can also get two of the same suit and you can lose double... haha There is also a double payout if the winning hand has two of the same card (e.g. two 4s). Things pay triple if the winning hand has three cards of the same suit or same number. A couple of special payouts: a hand of three kings, queens or jacks or one of each pays triple even though the sum is zero; a hand of three aces, if it wins, pays quintuple!

Enough of the rules... Let's get to the fun, I ended up taking all their money, a couple hundred baht at the end of the night! haha, I thought it was a great game! I felt bad for receiving a free dinner and then taking all their money... But they ended up winning it all back the following evening and I bought beer. It all works out in the end.

Simple yah? Except the counting was all done in Thai language...