Screw Star Cable

One of the downsides of living in the DR is the unspoken, but quite common, anti-American sentiment that exists here. I am not sure if it is because the US invaded this country several times during the last century and has continued to meddle in their affairs, or possibly there is just a jealousy based on the poor level of income here, and consequently poor lifestyle, as compared to the US. Regardless of the cause, periodically I am exposed to this sentiment. Being a Poker player, I am often in one of the casinos here in Santiago. Now remember, regular inhabitants of any a casino anywhere in the world are not generally considered to be the cream of society. The casinos in the DR are no exception. Here, there are some people who virtually live in the casinos. The get their food, drinks, cigarettes and entertainment for free. I was told a long time ago that within a casino the most classless customers were found in the Poker section. While I hold some Poker player friends as some of my dearest acqquaintences, the truth is that all the angle shooters, lowlives, and small time crooks (and maybe some big timers) are found in the Poker section. From time to time I will experience some spoken resentment of the fact that I, an American, am a constant winner. I am not a great Poker player, however, I do understand the game. I understand the math and make better decisions than most other players and consequently I win probably 8 out of 10 times that I play. Really, I am not a great player, however, I have the necessary patience, I can figure probabilities, and I know how my opponents play. I play in the equivalent of a $3-6 No Limit Hold'em game.
Sometimes the anti-US feeling is expressed blatantly; a comment is made, a sign on a wall, etc. But sometimes the feelings are expressed in a much more subtle way. I have lived here for almost 10 years and in that time I think that I have every cable company on the island. There are some that have no reception when it rains. There are some that have no service when the power in the area goes out. The power goes out daily, no matter where you live. There are two that don't need rain or poweroutages to disrupt their service. I have been with Star Cable for more than a year. They offer three of the four major US networks (no CBS) and their service was reasonable in terms of reliability. It is only within the last 6 months that I started to notice their anti US sentiments. They fuck with the US stations anytime there is anything significant to be watched. Election results, Award shows, sporting events, whenever they feel that something may have a large US viewing audience they "lose service" or replace it either with a non stop advertisement for Dish Network or a channel that shows non stop infomercials. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be a program of significance. They will just put a Dominican league baseball game on instead of showing a US sporting event on one of the ESPN outlets that they carry. Of course, most of these problems occur either on the weekend or at night. In either case, the office is closed so their is no one to complain to. And if by some chance they do something like this during working hours, they just tell you that there is a problem and that their technicians are working to resolve it. Amazingly when the ball game is over the problem mysteriously disappears. Yesterday was the last straw. They fucked with the Super Bowl. I went absolutely bullshit because in years past they at least showed it on one of the ESPN spanish stations. This time,nothing. Just about 10 minutes after the game supposedly started, as I was dragging my ass out to look for someplace to watch the game, it magically came on. That however, was the last straw. FUCK STAR CABLE.
Played in the PokerStars Sunday Million and had plenty of time to get ready to see the game.