David Matthews' Gambling in Space

Why I Likely Won't Play this Year's WSOP

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:31:00 -0800

Sometimes people ask me what I do and I say I play poker. It was hard to say something like that 10 years ago before the poker boom. Most people imagined that saying you were a professional gambler was the same as saying you were a professional money arsonist. In Vegas it's always been somewhat accepted by some, but even many people here think professional gambler means professional broke dick. And they're often correct.

Anyway, I like to say I'm retired, or I'm an investor, or I'm self-employed, what-have-you. It's been suggested that I say I'm an investigations officer for the IRS as that will likely cause the person talking to me to stop asking any further questions.

Having said all that, sometimes I fall for the bait and I say I play poker for a living. The next question often is, "Oh. Do you play tournaments?"

No I don't play tournaments! Not no, but hell no.

Many of you know I won a big blackjack tournament in 2005 for $300,000 and you may have seen me playing in a poker tournament (or craps, baccarat, video poker, slot, roulette, or other tournament). I play them in very particular spots, but I don't play them regularly for a living. There has to be a compelling reason for me to decide to play a poker tournament, and I'm rarely so compelled.

There are a number of reasons I don't play poker tournaments regularly. Here are a few of them:

Firstly, I like winning and I hate losing. Winning boosts me psychologically and motivates me to continue to play. I usually win when I play a cash game. Most of the time when I go to the poker room, I walk out with more money than I started with. I like that.

In tournaments you usually lose. No matter how good you are, you usually lose. You lose, lose, lose, lose, WIN BIG, lose, lose, lose, win small, lose, lose, lose, lose, win small, lose, lose lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, win medium, lose, lose, lose ...

No thanks. I like to win and win regularly.

Another reason is the time commitment. Some of these tournaments are designed to take long periods of time, often over a two-or-more-day span. There is very little that feels worse than starting a tournament at noon and playing all the way until 1:30 in the morning (13.5 hours later) only to bust out and not make any money. I've done that a couple of times.

Related to the time commitment is the hourly return of a tournament.

Let's say you're playing a $2,000 buy in tournament, which is a hefty buy-in for most people, but is still low enough that it won't be dominated by sharks like the $25,000 Bellagio is. In this tournament, we'll assume that you're much better than the field and your expected return is a whopping 40% even after the tournament takes out its sizable vig for the house. By saying a 40% return, I'm giving you credit for being one of the top 10 poker players in the world, by the way.

That would mean your expected profit is $800. Let's say on average you have to play 10 hours in the tournament, then your expected earning is $80 an hour.

For most people $80 an hour sounds pretty good, but it's not like you can make $80 an hour for 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year. You can only play when there is a tournament available and you may have to travel to be able to play these. Travel takes a lot of time and money. Also remember that I assumed a rather large buy-in and assumed you were a phenom at poker.

Now let's take a $500 buy in which to many people sounds like a large number. Divide the $2,000 example by 4 and you get $20 an hour. $20 an hour isn't nearly as interesting is it?

If you start talking about $100 or $200 tournaments, which usually also have a higher house take out, you can see that you'd have to be an expert to make little more than minimum wage.

I don't believe that poker tournaments are worthwhile in terms of an hourly expectation especially when you also factor in the opportunity cost of participating in one.

Another negative to poker tournaments is that you have to play on their schedule. Often tournaments start at noon. Noon is a terrible time of day for me. When I'm regularly playing poker cash games, I tend to go to sleep at around 10 in the morning and wake up around 6 p.m. Adjusting to a noon start time is often challenging. Many times I have to start adjusting my sleep patterns a week ahead of time and that means a week of getting very little accomplished.

On top of that, you have to play for the many hours they tell you to play. That often means playing from noon to 2 in the morning (with a few breaks, including a dinner break).

Poker is not something that I feel you can play when you're not your best. There are a number of times I'm playing in a cash game for about two hours and I realize that my brain is not clicking on all cylinders that day. I'm not analyzing situations properly. I'm not reading the cards and my opponents properly. When I realize I'm not playing my best in a cash game, I can do something that I can't do in a tournament: I can get up and leave.

Once you're in a tournament, if you get physically or mentally fatigued, if you're not playing your best, if you get a stomach ache, if you have a crisis at home ... too bad. You're forced to keep playing.

I don't believe poker is something that you can just turn on and off like a light switch. Some days you got it and some days you don't. If you happen to be in a tournament on a bad day, well you'll be swimming upstream the whole day until you likely bust out.

When it comes to the main event of the World Series of Poker, the $10,000 buy-in event that is the most popular live poker tournament in the world, there are some other considerations as well.

One is taxes. My friend Peter believes that no one, absolutely no one, has an expectation of a positive return in the main event. His reasoning is that the house takes out 10% or so off the top, and then the government takes out 40% of your winnings.

Everyone is always responsible for taxes on gambling winnings, that's for sure, but because of the huge numbers for the top finishers at the main event it changes the dynamic. If someone were to win $25,000 in an event in a year, that person could likely write off a large amount of that from tournament buy-ins and pay taxes only on the gambling profit. If you win $9 million then who is going to be able to write off anything but a tiny fraction of that number? This goes to that USA tax tradition of taxing you on the calendar year when you win but not letting you carry over losses from year to year.

If you could write off all the times that you bought in to tournaments and lost then it wouldn't be quite so bad, but when you're limited to the calendar year in which you win you're in bad shape.

So you didn't really win $9 million. You won about $5 million.

Some of you may say, "Heck. If I win $9 million or $5 million, I wouldn't care. I'd be so happy." That isn't the point. The point is that mathematically the tax issue makes showing a long term profit on the initial buy-in (investment) a near impossibility.

Another factor in the main event is the incredible number of hours and days required to play. The 2008 WSOP main event final table had the lowest average age of any event in history. I think that that the physical and mental stamina required to be successful in the event had a lot to do with that!

When I was in my twenties, my brain was lightning fast and I could have intense concentration for hours. I memorized the Gettysburg Address after spending a couple hours with it. I could think quickly and remain alert for longer periods of time. I'm now 37, which isn't old by any terms, but I don't have the sharp precision and mental acuity that I had when I was 25.

The main event is as much a test of physical and mental endurance as it is of poker skills. Young people are going to have an enormous advantage off the top.

It's certainly possible to train and get physically fit and do mental exercises like meditation to improve cerebral focus but it's still going to be hard when you're required to play 12 to 14 hours of poker a day, under enormous stress, for nearly two weeks straight with a couple days off in between.

Note that also the time you spend in the main event is time you can't be spending making money at other pursuits. There is a significant opportunity cost.

I might play the cash games at the WSOP but that also is doubtful if Harrah's keeps their Vegas rake policy at the event. All Harrah's properties in Las Vegas have the highest rake in town. They all charge $5 rake while most rooms charge $4 and there are a couple that only charge $3. I won't be playing the cash games at the WSOP if they're a $5 rake. Even if the games are good, on principle I just won't do it.

I'm sure there will be plenty of action at the Venetian, Wynn, Bellagio, and Hard Rock poker rooms during the WSOP. If the Rio charges $5 a hand, I'll find a game elsewhere.

Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Pictures

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:08:00 -0800

If you have any interest in aquariums and you're coming to Las Vegas, I highly recommend a trip to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. I recently paid a visit to this attraction when my family was in town including my young niece and nephew who really had fun. Here are some pictures. Put your pointer over the picture for a short description:

$1,000 Online Poker Transfer to Wrong Person

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:42:00 -0800

Many online poker sites will allow player to player transfer of funds. One person found out to the tune of a $1,000 loss that mistakes are possible.

For example, let's say Player A has $800 in his account and his friend Player B is unable to find a deposit method that will work, Player A can then send his friend $200 from his account and have $600 remaining.

Players use this transfer method to loan each other money, settle personal bets, help someone who is unable to fund their online account because of banking or credit card restrictions, or many other reasons.

While there is always a confirmation screen there are relatively few clicks involved in making a transfer. I've long believed that a mistake was possible.

There's a message thread on the 2+2 poker message boards that details email communications between a player who initiated a transfer of $1,000 and Full Tilt Poker's customer support personnel.

The player had meant to send the money to the account "GetPWN3D" but had instead sent to "GetPwned". The person's friend had used a number 3 to represent the letter "e" character in his name. The person making the transfer didn't notice that.

The person who did receive the money isn't giving it back. In fact he's already used the money to buy into poker games.

Full Tilt Poker says that the transfer is irreversible. They claim that because the receiving player has already used some of the funds that the transfer is final.

My question to you is do you think the poker site is handling this properly? Who is at fault the most here? Should the person who received the money accidentally return it?

I think it's a tough question. I lean towards the original person making a big mistake. If you're going to make online poker transfers, you've got to be really careful. He wasn't.

Like Most Professions, Gamblers Must Pay Their Dues

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:47:00 -0800

I know a number of people who've come to Las Vegas to make it as professional gamblers (PGs), primarily as poker players. They're generally in their early twenties to early thirties and they believe that they have the skills to make it in this town gambling. Maybe they've read some poker books or had some success in some private poker games in their hometown and it seemed like an exciting life with limitless wealth potential.

Now some of these people are starting to utter the most horrific three-letter word in the English language. For a gambler in Vegas no four-letter word can come close to the repugnance of this particular utterance. Can you guess the word?

J-O-B

For a gambler that's used to sleeping at will, playing cards and throwing money around, and hitting the shows, restaurants and clubs frequently, the thought of punching a clock, answering to someone, and getting a fixed paycheck for an amount that they're used to betting on a flip of a card, it feels like being sentenced to Alcatraz for the rest of one's life. (Often that frivolous lifestyle is a contributing factor to their lack of success. True professionals don't behave that way.)

How many times have you heard the expression that if it were easy then everyone would do it? Well now you've heard it a again.

Gambling for a living requires a particular blend of discipline, bankroll management, skill in mathematics, and other factors.

Of all factors necessary to be successful it's my belief that the most important of all qualities is the willingness to work hard and swallow one's pride. Perhaps that's two qualities but they're closely related to one another. Pride and sloth are the preeminent enemies of PGs.

One gambler came to me and told me that he's only got about $100 and he needs $6,000 by the end of March to cover his expenses. I handed him a stack of funbooks.

Why a funbook, you may ask? The successful gamblers reading this will know why. Funbooks have coupons for match plays, free aces and other good opportunities like a 125-coin bonus on a 25-cent video poker machine.

It's the Las Vegas version of give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.

I said he could take that $100 and if he played all the coupons I gave him, he'd likely have $300 at the end of the first day. Then he at least has a little more to work with if he wants to sit in a low-stakes poker game. Or he could go get more coupons for more places and build it up to $1,000 after a week or so.

If someone worked 12 to 16 hour days in Las Vegas doing coupons for a whole week, I'm certain that person could turn $100 into $1,000 with a greater-than-90% success rate.

Sign up for the player's clubs all over town. Play the free slot play at Hooters and Casino Royale. The play is on bad slot machines but it's free so you can't lose. Also both Hooters and CR have other gambling coupons worth money. Grab funbooks all over and just go play them.

I'd say the first thing to do would be to sign up for a $37 membership for the Las Vegas Advisor and get that coupon book. You'll be way ahead if you just play the gambling coupons in there. When I say way ahead, I mean a 200% to 300% return on your initial $100 bankroll.

Once you have a few hundred find other promotions such as the $100 refund on slot losses promotions that have been offered in the past at Station Casinos, Harrah's and Stratosphere. I'm not sure what casinos, if any, are doing that right now but they'll refund up to $100 in losses on slots so you can play them, take a shot at winning some money, or get your money back. Sometimes these offers require you to wait a month for the refund. That wouldn't work as well for a quick bankroll boost, but my point is give an example of what promotions are out there and not to pinpoint this exact promo. Find the promos that will work for you and play them.

But here's the rub. My friend looked at me when I handed the funbook and gave me this look like "What good is that?"

I don't loan money (albeit he didn't -- and wouldn't -- ask me for any), so I thought that would be a good start for him. He responded by saying that he didn't want to do any coupons "until he got his bankroll up a bit." He's got it backward. The coupons are the best way to build his bankroll safely.

I think that the two reasons he wouldn't start with the funbooks are what I stated above: sloth and pride. Playing a $5 match play coupon is embarrassing or menial. It's "beneath" him to peel off a piece of paper and bet a coupon for a small expected profit. Also, it's hard work going from casino to casino playing the coupons. After a full day, likely well more than eight hours, one is exhausted.

Unless you can create money from nothing when your back's against the wall then you don't have what it takes to be a professional gambler. This is the most important point of this blog entry.

My friend J is fairly successful at gambling but does like to overbet his bankroll. I've heard stories about him betting everything he owns on a sports bet, which he lost, of course. I talked to him once about that and he said, "I'm not afraid of losing my entire bankroll because I feel like I can bounce off the ground. There's a ton of free money in this town that I can always gather up."

While I don't recommend his bankroll management style, he's right about the free money.

But being able to create money out of nothing and actually doing it are two different things. If you're going to do the coupons, then put on your best pair of walking shoes because you've got a long day ahead. When you're done, I guarantee you'll have more money than when you started but you'll feel like you earned every penny of it.

Another friend of mine, we'll call him Fred, is in his early forties now and by most people's definition very successful -- but he wasn't always that way. He likes to tell me stories of when he came to Las Vegas in his early twenties what he experienced.

Fred had a bicycle and very little money. Using the bicycle he was at least able to tavel from the Strip to Downtown and back without spending money.

Fred played a lot of coupons. He says that he couldn't afford to rent an apartment, so from Sunday through Thursday he'd find casinos with room rates of $10 a night and he'd stay in the hotels. On the weekends, the rates in Vegas were higher so he'd find hotels that didn't check if you were a hotel guest at the pool and he'd sleep at the pool all day. Sunday night was always a good night because he was able to sleep in a bed once again.

He had a friend who would play match play coupons with him. The deal was that the friend got free drinks and Fred got the money. They'd play hundreds of $5 match play coupons over a few days and that's how we was able to grow his personal bankroll.

Fred also tells me about a stretch of two years that he never paid for a meal. He would use coupons and casino promos like a free buffet for a certain number of points and would play on 100% machines to earn the food comps. When your bankroll is that small, this is a great savings. Money not spent is money earned.

Things were not always rosy for myself in my evolution as a gambler. I remember one day in particular that I was rummaging through my eight-year old station wagon that my parents had given me for loose change. I found a total of 58 cents and I said to myself, "Boy, I'm hungry. What can I buy for 58 cents?"

I didn't have the skills, and more importantly the ambition required, to do what Fred did. I had to learn the hard way. I did end up with a J-O-B for several years from January 2000 to December of 2006, and while I still gambled "part-time," I wouldn't have made it without a paycheck.

People sometimes ask me if I've ever been broke and my response is, "Many times."

There are a number of success stories of very successful gamblers, some worth tens of millions of dollars, that were broke and had to do "the grind."

I think that any top-notch gambler has to have that ability even if they never have to use it.

Some gamblers come from successful careers and decide to retire and gamble and they may never experience being broke. Others come from families that have money or they have a trust fund or inheritance to get them going. I don't think you have to have had a time in your life when you had nothing, but you have to be able to succeed if that were the case.

Here's a test that any professional gambler should be able to pass: You're dropped off in Las Vegas with no place to stay and no automobile and a $100 bill. Your goal is to make it a month with never going more than 36 hours without shelter including running water and electricity for a month, and have at least $500 at the end of that month. If you can't pass that test then you likely aren't cut out for this career.

A few other things I've noticed about the best gamblers:

One is that they walk very fast. Time in a casino is money. Fezzik, who is a sports bettor, is like a freight train in a casino. He jokingly claims that the slow people ambling about looking at the sights are casino shills meant to slow him down and cost him money. Another friend, Tom, barrels down the sidewalks and -- when the pedestrian traffic is too thick -- will speed walk against traffic right on Las Vegas Blvd. Most of the good gamblers I know don't saunter: They sprint.

Another trait is that they're frugal with tips in casinos. A dealer tip directly impacts the bottom line.

I see some of these people who claim to be professional poker players playing at 1-2 no-limit and tipping a minimum of $1 every single hand, while giving larger tips on larger hands. Show me a low-stakes poker player who tips every winning hand and I'll show you someone who doesn't have what it takes. Why? The tips cost money for sure, but that isn't the main problem. The underlying problem is that they demonstrably don't understand the disastrous mathematical implications of tipping out of one's profit.

There are a number of "successful" pros who may not have the skill and humility necessary to grind, but they're the exception and not the rule. Perhaps they ran well at poker won a big tournament for a million dollars. Some video poker pros I know had insane luck early in their careers and were dealt many more than their fare share of jackpots, and that money is enough to sustain them going forward for a while. Given a level playing field, unless they're willing to do the gambling equivalent of scrubbing the floor of a gymnasium with a toothbrush, then I don't think they'd be successful.

For most people you have to pay your dues. There is no substitute for hard work.

Poker, the Economy, and Other Musings

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:08:00 -0800

I imagine there are few industries these days that aren't feeling the effects of the economy. The poker rooms of Las Vegas are no exception. I see the effects both on the employees and the players alike. The feeling is tangible and distressing.

I will often check the overall Dow index daily to get an idea of how things are going overall. I'm not a financial type so my understanding is rudimentary, but I know at least that going up is better than going down. Today it fell below 6,800. It feels puny. It's like a heralded champion prize fighter who gets in the ring at an advanced age and gets pummeled embarrassingly and all anyone can do is shake their heads and ask "Why?"

Times are tough. So tough that a friend of mine told me about a blog he reads that includes the Greenspan Body Count. It's a blog that lists suicides that he believes are economy related written by someone with a CFA accreditation.

The overall feel inside poker rooms these days is morose.

For poker players, the number of tourists visiting is down which hurts. Also, the ones who visit either have less expendable income or are being more frugal with their gambling budget and are gambling less.

Most of the public sees the "professionals" (quotation marks are intentional) on TV and assume that pros must play for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars all the time. What many don't realize is that there are a number of pros that play for lower stakes. They play to win couple hundred or so on a daily basis. For them the once plush pasture is an arid desert with a few dandelions protruding from the cracks in the dirt.

I watched a video on TV about global warming and what polar bears are having to deal with now. In the past, they would run over a segment of ice out into the water where they could find the fish they needed to eat to survive and to feed their young. Some of these "ice bridges" now melt in the middle and they're unable to get to the place they need to find food so they die of starvation. For professional poker players the ice is melting.

One might want to play a tiny violin for the poker players saying that their chosen livelihood is ostensibly ignoble and that their career success is not a concern to society. I don't have a good response to that other than to say that not everyone can save the world. It's a career choice that some people make and it's suffering just the same.

For the dealers and other poker room personnel, the outlook appears equally, if not exceedingly, melancholy.

Some dealers are fired or laid off. Others are reduced from full time positions to part-time or extra-board positions that lack a secure anticipated income as well as the all-important benefits. I know some dealers that are single moms that are reduced to working one day a week and left with no medical coverage for themselves or their children. They want to work, but there isn't work for them to do and the casinos have to cut their costs as well. They can't work anywhere else because the other places are cutting back as well.

In the poker rooms I see despondency on a daily basis. It can be heartbreaking.

One other effect I've seen is an increased level of hostility. People are on edge because of the economic downturn and actions or comments formerly seen as innocuous can set off a maelstrom. There is much more anger between players and other players, players and employees, and employees and other employees. Tempers flare spontaneously at times.

There have been some new poker rooms that have opened and I know dealers and supervisors that left their positions (and hence their seniority) at other properties for the prospect of bigger and better things. Anyone opening a new poker room thinks that their mousetrap is the best and often convinces its new hires of same. I've told several dealers, "I hope you didn't quit at the other place." And I've seen a number of them that did, then were disposed of, and left with no outs and a child at home with asthma.

I'm painting a fairly grim portrait I know, but it does seem grim. Who would have ever been concerned about a poker player when there are many others to worry about... and yes I do know some poker players with young children as well.

Larry Flynt made a splash recently saying the porn industry needed bailout money as well. While I don't like equating my industry with a societal pariah like porn, there is an underlying poignant detail in that in a free market society what is it about certain industries that make them more bailout worthy than other industries? But I digress.

There's a bona fide Pokernomic Downturn and that's no bluff.

M Resort First Impressions

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:25:00 -0800

If possible I like to visit casinos on opening night to get a feel for the excitement of a new property and to see what kind of gambling opportunities are offered. The M Resort opened Sunday night at 10 PM and I was one of the first people through the door other than VIPs who received pre-opening invitations.

The casino is located several miles South of the Las Vegas Strip at the St. Rose exit on I-15. From Vegas drive South past the Silverton and past the South Point and take the next exit.

As I departed the ramp, there was a long traffic backup from all the people going to the opening event. The irritating wait in traffic was mitigated somewhat by the impressive fireworks display. There was also blimp floating around with the M Resort logo prominently displayed. They definitely didn't cut corners on this casino launch.

I realized after waiting in a complete standstill in traffic that getting into the parking lots or garage was going to be difficult so I parked on an undeveloped dirt area across the street from the casino and walked across. There were many other cars doing the same thing. It attracted an inordinate number of people.

The casino itself is done in a contemporary style more reminiscent of the Red Rock casino than a European theme like Bellagio or Venetian. One person I talked to said the furnishings and decor reminded him of the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. I've never been to Mohegan Sun unfortunately so I can't comment.

I entered the casino through some doorways and as I looked to my right I saw the "Vig Deli." I gotta admit. I like the name. The fact that it was adjacent to the sports book was kinda cool.

The deli is decorated with painted columns that look very much like chalk on a chalkboard with lines and totals from old games like previous Super Bowls. It also lists baseball MVPs and horses that won the Triple Crown. It's reminiscent of the betting boards in sports books before the electronic boards took over. It gives the space an old-time gambling feel which I really liked.

I walked around and took in the scene. It was a madhouse and difficult to walk far in any direction without bumping into someone. I noticed that they offered double deck blackjack dealt in a pitch fashion as well as some shoe games that I assume are 6 deck games. They also had all the other table games you'd expect like craps, pai gow, Let-It-Ride, Three Card Poker, and so forth. No big surprise there.

Gavin Maloof was enjoying himself sitting at third base at a blackjack table on the main casino floor betting black chips. He also had 3 bleach blondes assisting him with his bets and playing strategy. I've seen the Maloof brothers playing blackjack in various casinos in the past and they always have several skimpily dressed ladies alongside. I'm not sure I understand it. I suppose it's an image thing. There were also two older gentlemen at the table whom I didn't recognize but they looked like they were in the entertainment industry to me (musicians perhaps?).

The video poker looks excellent. In fact, off the top of my head I'd say it's the best assortment of machines for low-level, mid-level, and high-stakes players in Las Vegas. In other words, they have something for everybody.

In quarters they offer full pay deuces wild (100.7%) and 100.6% Joker along with some other 100%+ games. For $1 to $5 they have NSUD (99.7%) and 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe (99.6%). They also have NSUD in 5-play $5 up to nosebleed stakes like 5-play $25. I didn't check the 5-play $100 but that might be NSUD too because it was on the same machine. This is an excellent inventory indeed.

The player's club is also generous in that at it's base level it gives back .33% in comps, cash back, or free play. Combine that with the excellent games they offer and you can see that they're willing to give players a good gamble. This rate is lower on the 100%+ machines at the quarter level but appears to be valid for the NSUD games at lower and higher stakes.

There are also a number of progressive jackpot video poker machines throughout the casino that are likely worth a look when visiting. Of course, last night the jackpots were all near the reset number because no one had been in the casino before.

The poker room was larger than I expected. It had 12 tables and was well spaced so that it didn't feel cramped. They offered 1-2 no-limit, 2-5 no-limit, 3-5 no-limit, 2-4 limit and 4-8 limit. I also saw one game that was a 2-4 limit mixed Omaha hi/lo and 7-card stud hi/lo. I doubt they'll continue to offer that game regularly but it shows that the room is willing to accommodate the players' requests.

In my opinion, the room was spacious and relatively quiet considering it was jammed with people and every table was full. It is smoke free as nearly every room is and was far enough from the casino floor that most tables should be comfortable for non-smokers.

The rake on the 2-5 and higher games is 10% to $4 which is higher than I like. I like 5% to $4 which is approximately what most rooms in town offer. At lower stakes, I understand the need to do 10%. They also have a high-hand jackpot drop which doesn't suit my taste because I'd rather save the dollar but it pays the players $250 for a 4-of-a-kind, $500 for a straight flush or $1,000 for a royal flush. There was at least one person who received a royal flush last night because people were talking about it for a while afterward.

The chairs in the poker room were comfortable for the most part but lacked a feature that I really like which is being height-adjustable. I'm sure chairs can be expensive for a room so I understand why they bought what they did, but I don't like being forced into one sitting position so I'm calling a spade a spade. It isn't a deal breaker for me. The rake is borderline, however. The other, for me at least, will be how many 2-5 and higher stakes games they'll have on a regular basis.

They also don't allow cell phone usage at the table in the poker room which I find annoying. There are two reasons that I can think of to ban cell phone usage and neither one makes a lot of sense to me. One is the casino believes it can be used to cheat, but I don't know how you'd do that. If possible then the high-limit games at Bellagio have a problem. The other is that someone talking can slow down the game or annoy others, but I'd say just deal with it on a case-by-case basis. If someone is slowing down the game or annoying people by talking too loudly then give that person a warning and then take further actions if necessary.

The sports book is next door to the poker room, as it should be. They have plenty of big bright screens and it should be a comfortable place to bet on and watch a game. They have some pimp daddy chairs that are plush leather and large, and have a leather armrest on the left side and a flat plywood armrest on the right side so that you can write things down. They also swivel in a complete 360 so you can sweat games on all the TVs around the room. It's hard to describe in writing. You'll just have to go sit in one to see what I mean.

The M is an impressive property indeed and I'll probably be spending a lot of time there. I want to try some of their restaurants which look great, and I'll review them here of course too.

There's one thing that I really didn't like and I suppose it sounds like an odd thing to complain about. I don't like their logo at all. Here's a picture of it:

I'm sure they spent a pretty penny hiring a company to design this logo... and I suppose I'm not going to win any friends at M or with that design company, but it is really not my thing. There might be some hidden meanings or something that I'm not aware of that would make it cool but I'd rather see something that looks like an "M".

This logo is on the casino chips, on the employee name tags, all over the casino, and most importantly in bright lights outside on the top of the building. As I drove down I-15 to arrive at the casino, I wanted to see a big letter M to guide my way because I wasn't quite sure where to go. This logo was impossible to make out until I was very close. It's more than just a landmark though. It's an image and I think that a more legible M would be more hip as well as more functional. I would have thought that in a board meeting somewhere this logo would have been displayed and some clever marketing person would have nixed it. Ah well... this is a minor thing, but it drives me so crazy I just had to say something.

I did play some 2-5 no-limit for about 2 hours. I was ahead about $1,100 at one point but ended up losing $100 for the night when my 6-high flush ran into a 9-high flush.

There are likely a few other unique qualities about this casino property that I missed but one that I've never seen was the refreshment stands on the casino floor. These are soda fountains with Coke, Diet Coke, and other beverages that are self-serve. It's free. There's no employee to tip. Just grab a cup and walk up and get a drink. There was a line when the casino was packed but no line later on. It's an unusual perk but I'd say a nifty one in my opinion.

The biggest positive about the property was the high level of customer service. From the slot attendants to the poker dealers to the poker supervisor to the security to the players club people to the cocktail waitresses there were smiles and politeness to the max. I assume that it goes to extensive training to achieve this level of service but no matter what employee I talked to they were helpful, respectful, and gave the impression that they felt privileged that I would come spend money in their place of employment. There are a number of casinos that could learn a lesson or two from this. It doesn't cost any more to smile and be considerate to your customers. A little goes a long way in this regard.

Overall, I give this property very high marks for its initial impression. As I get to try some restaurants and see how their comp system works and other details I'll report more. I'd say they've set the bar very high for themselves and are not disappointing.

Viva McDonalds Pictures

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:42:00 -0800

I was out on the Strip late night and decided to see the new Viva McDonalds. I'm not a frequent McDonalds eater. But since it's unique to Vegas for now I thought I'd see what it looked like. Same food but a bit different atmosphere i'd say. Here's a few pictures.

Is Gambling a Sin ?

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:48:00 -0800

Poking around on the Internet I found the Christian group Focus on the Family's position statement on gambling. There is a pervasive subset of America's population (and hence it's voting population) that shares a similar ideal with Biblical scripture and the opposition to legalized gambling. You'd have to assume from them that gambling is a sin, something that will lead you to hell for all of eternity... or something like that.

Christian groups oppose casinos. They oppose state lotteries. They oppose Internet poker. They pretty much oppose all forms of gambling. Well, unless it's the kind of gambling they like.

In my opinion, opening a new church is a form of gambling. How many churches have to close their doors due to a lack of revenues? I'm sure there's many.

In fact, other than a CD or money market account with a solvent bank (of which there are fewer and fewer these days) or a few other no brainer, and low return, investments, I'd say pretty much any time anyone uses the term "investment" you could substitute the word "gamble" without changing the meaning significantly.

That includes: taking a new job, buying a house, starting a new restaurant, entering a new relationship, leaving a relationship, buying a truck to carry items for work, buying any kind of insurance (auto, homeowners, life, health, etc.), paying $10 more for running shoes that will last 6 months longer than another cheaper pair... heck, crossing the street is a gamble.

If humans refused to gamble I'd doubt we'd have any innovation. We'd likely not have planes, trains, automobiles, or even flushable toilets. In fact, I doubt we'd even be around at all. The moment we confronted the bison we needed to kill to eat thousands of years ago, we'd have said "Forget it. I could die trying to kill the bison so I guess my family and I will just have to starve instead."

I'd say gambling is as important to the establishment and the continuance of the human species as our opposable thumbs or our upright gait. Gambling is as inherent and critical to human nature as a bird's drive to build a nest or a beaver's need to build a dam. Human beings have to gamble. It's an imperative quality for survival.

Critics may say that I'm speaking euphemistically. They'll say that buying a house and investing in the stock market aren't the same as is betting on a hand of blackjack. Those are admirable gambles while casino gambling is an evil or sinful gamble. Of late, you'd have to think that the hand of blackjack is a safer bet than the other two options but that just distracts from the point. Casino gambling, just like other gambles we take, is part of who we are.

Casino gambling is pure mathematics. Is mathematics sinful? I have 5 people coming over to watch the game and I assume that each one will eat 2 hot dogs but a couple people might eat 3 hot dogs, so I figure I need to buy 2 packs of 6 hot dogs each to feed them. Did I just sin against god by calculating that number?

If I bet on a hand of roulette, the house has a 5.26% edge. If I bet $10 on either red or black then the house's expectation will be to win a little over 50 cents of my $10 bet. If the casino has a $10 match play coupon that I can play when I bet the $10 then I have the advantage. My expectation is to win a little below $5 on my bet with over a 40% edge.

Did I sin when I bet the $10 and the house had the advantage? Did I sin when I bet $10 and I had the advantage? Did I sin just by betting anything at all?

People use coupons to save 50 cents on cat food that are worth less than the $10 match play I mentioned. Did the person using the 50 cent coupon sin?

But let's take away the people playing at an advantage and just talk about the recreational gamblers. People who come to town and lose $2,000 gambling. TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!!

Well, there's a good chance those people who lost the $2,000 got a free room and a number of free meals and maybe a show or two. Have you been to Disney World lately? Do you know how far $2,000 will go at Disney?

Some people would rather bet on a hard 8 than ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Are those evil craps players hell bound?

In many ways, a Vegas vacation, even with gambling losses, can be a lot less expensive than a cruise to Alaska, a week in New York City, or a wine tasting in Napa... and for some people, a lot more enjoyable.

Here's an example of how ridiculous the moral right's gambling influence is in America. The state of Mississippi has been one of the poorest states in the nation for many years. They believed that allowing casino gambling in their state would help with tax revenues and allow them to provide better schools and public services like police and firefighters. One concession the state legislators had to make was that the casinos were on water. This was simply to provide some kind of restriction on gambling that pleased the religious masses.

So, first of all, you single out certain areas of the state to benefit. If you don't have water, then tough luck. You gotta have water you know. But also, it implicitly connotes that God approves of gambling on water but not on land. As if a riverboat on a river with blackjack that never goes anywhere is more righteous than a casino on land. I suppose god thinks that a riverboat casino is less sinful than one with its foundations on land. Then hurricane Katrina comes through and blows Biloxi to bits with casinos ending up a long way from their starting points. God punishing sinners or simply bureaucrats with more constituent pandering than common sense?

Where the rubber meets the road, I believe the Christian groups have two main reasons for their gambling opposition. One is that they see casinos giving a false hope and they don't like anyone other than themselves giving anyone a false hope. The other is that they want your money instead.

With apologies to Billy Joel (who I recently saw free of charge because I was comped) ... If gambling is a sin then I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints ... the sinners are much more fun.

Casino Cocktail Waitress Complaint

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:34:00 -0800

There appear to be a number of cocktail waitresses in the casinos who feel that their particular existence in the casino trumps the importance of anyone or anything else. They like to lean down into your ear and yell "Cocktails! Beverages!"

When I'm in the casino for an extended period of time it's likely for one of two purposes and that is either playing live poker or playing video poker. I personally choose to order drinks very infrequently because I despise the tipping culture prevalent in Vegas.

Some cocktail waitresses think I must not hear them, or perhaps they are just freaking annoying, or maybe they think that the whole planet revolves around them so I'm required to order a drink and give her money every twenty minutes. I have no idea which, but some will yell their mantra: "COCKTAILS!!" The worst ones make it clear they're talking to you and when you say "No thanks" they give you a look like you just spit on their shoes or something.

In the poker room it's even worse. It's like if I want a drink I'll order one, otherwise let me have my peaceful quiet away from your incessant and boisterous hustle. This might surprise you but not everyone cares that there's a cocktail server around.

Of course there's one time when they really want to serve you a drink and that's when you hit a jackpot on a machine. I play $5 and higher video poker and on many of the games I play I will hit a "jackpot" (a hand paying $1,200 or more) several times an hour. This isn't because I'm winning necessarily but it's because I'm playing a large amount of money per hand.

When that light on top goes off and the music starts playing, the cocktail waitresses appear out of nowhere. "Wow! What a great jackpot! Boy you're so lucky. That's so great. I'm so happy for you. ... Would you like a drink??" I've even had this accompanied with one of those obvious winks like Sarah Palin gave on the televised debate.

I find many cocktail waitresses to be noise pollution. Please let me gamble in peace. Allow me to zone out in my gambling zen free of your screechy annoying hustle. When I want a drink, I'll let you know.

Academy Awards Odds

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:09:00 -0800

Here are the current betting odds on the Oscars care of PinnacleSports.com.

Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke are in a virtual dead heat to win the Best Actor award. In the other categories, the favorites have a bit of separation from the contenders. If the odds bear themselves out to be accurate then the winners will be:

Best Actor: Sean Penn (Milk) or Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Best Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader)

Best Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Here are the current odds on January 31, 2009:

81st Annual Academy Awards: Best Actor
Sun 2/22 Odds to Win Best Actor
01:00 PM 1001 Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) +106
1002 Sean Penn (Milk) +135
1003 Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) +754
1004 Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) +7500
1005 Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) +2994

81st Annual Academy Awards: Best Actress
Sun 2/22 Odds to Win Best Actress
01:00 PM 1051 Kate Winslet (The Reader) -135
1052 Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) +414
1053 Meryl Streep (Doubt) +316
1054 Angelina Jolie (Changeling) +2703
1055 Melissa Leo (Frozen River) +4045

81st Annual Academy Awards: Best Director
Sun 2/22 Odds to Win Best Director
01:00 PM 1101 Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) -332
1102 David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) +519
1103 Gus Van Sant (Milk) +1619
1104 Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon) +1853
1105 Stephen Daldry (The Reader) +4772

81st Annual Academy Awards: Best Picture
Sun 2/22 Odds to Win Best Picture
01:00 PM 1151 Slumdog Millionaire -420
1152 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button +559
1153 Milk +1321
1154 Frost/Nixon +3377
1155 The Reader +5886

81st Annual Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress
Sun 2/22 Odds to Win Best Supporting Actress
01:00 PM 1251 Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) -168
1252 Viola Davis (Doubt) +413
1253 Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) +526
1254 Taraji P. Henson(The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) +2630
1255 Amy Adams (Doubt) +1520

Super Bowl Prop Bets

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:39:00 -0800

Here's a list of bets I currently have on Sunday's game. My bets range from a minimum of $100 to around $1,500 on a couple of them. I'm not going to say which ones I bet heavier here but I'll list the bets one by one.

Super Bowl Bets

Cardinals +7.5 -125

Total points over 56.5 +280

Cardinals +14.5 -275

Will there be 3 unanswered scores?: NO +180

Under 5 Sacks +110

Over 5 Sacks -105

Total FGs successful under 3 +130

Longest TD under 44.5 yrds +115

Total TDs under 5.5 -120

1st TD is not a passing TD (defensive, special teams, or rushing TD is a winner) +165

Total field goal attempts (including misses) over 4 +170

Total accepted penalties under 11.5 +120

Total 1st downs by both teams over 38.5 +145

Big Ben pass yrds under 230.5 +120

Kurt Warner pass yrds over 255.5 EV

Willie Parker rush attempts under 19.5 +145

Willie Parker longest reception vs. Edgerrin James receptions +220

Reed # of FGs made +0.5 vs. Lebron James FTs missed +115

A Ovechkin shots on goal -1.5 over number of QB sacks -110

1st Q total points -2.5 over total goals in MTL/BOS NHL game -125

Willie Parker +9.5 to have more receiving yards than Edgerrin James -120

Edgerrin James -7.5 more rushing yards than Lebron James Pts and Rbds combined -120

Hightower -2.5 more rushing yards than Moore -120

Moore -0.5 more receiving yards than Hightower -110

Caesars Poker Jacks Up the Rake and Other Poker News

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:03:00 -0800

Caesars Palace's poker room now has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive poker room in Las Vegas in which to play poker. Well, they're actually tied for worst... with all the other Harrah's properties.

Caesars is now a $5 rake plus a $1 jackpot drop. This is now the standard at Harrah's properties in Las Vegas but is higher than any other non-Harrah's room.

I spoke to a couple dealers off the record and from what they said there was a meeting of the executives and they wondered why the Caesars poker room made less money than the other Harrah's rooms. They figured the rake was the reason so they've pumped it up now.

Sad. Very sad.

The Orleans is still the best in town with a $3 rake (plus a $1 jackpot) on their 1-2 and 2-5 no limit games.

The Hard Rock just now made their $2-$5 game a $3+$1 which is great. Their low stakes games are still $4+$1.

The Hard Rock also has a freeroll right now where if you get 20 hours of play in from Sunday through Thursday you can play for $5,000 on Saturday at 4:00 PM. They range between 15 to 20 people each week so there's a lot of value in qualifying ($250 to $300 per person).

I have a bone to pick with the HR freeroll though because it's taken out of the jackpot money so if you play on Friday or Saturday you pay into the pot but you don't get the value of the freeroll. There is also a bad beat jackpot that you're eligible for but a lot of your jackpot money is wasted for those Friday and Saturday players. I think that's very unfair. Having said that, it's still a decent deal for those who want to get some hours in during the week.

The Wynn is running a promo that for every hour of logged poker play on your card you get an electronic drawing ticket in February on certain days at certain hours. The drawings are all done on computer and if you're selected you could win a seat in their tournament series. They're giving away several $1,000 buy ins, several $2,000 buy ins, and one $10,000 buy in.

The best poker rooms on the Strip now are likely Venetian, Wynn, and Bellagio. In that order.

The best off-strip rooms are likely Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch. I haven't been to a lot of the other ones like South Point, Alliante, Cannery, etc. so can't comment.

Guacamole Recipe and Encore Pictures

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:58:00 -0800

There's been some interest in my guacamole recipe so I'm posting it here. I'm throwing in some Encore pictures after that so that I can keep this a Vegas theme and not make people angry. I do, however, reserve the right to post anything and everything but this time I'll behave. If you want to see Encore and already have your own guac recipe, feel free to jump down the page.

Dave's Guacamole:

3 to 4 ripe (but not too ripe) small to medium size Haas avocados
2 small vine ripened or Roma tomatoes
1 medium sized onion (red, yellow, or white is fine)
1 to 2 limes
Half a navel orange
1/4 bushel cilantro
tsp. sea salt
tsp. ground black pepper

Slice open avocados, remove pit and skin and put in a mixing bowl. Dice onion and place in bowl. Chop up cilantro finely (including the stems) and place in bowl. Squeeze limes and half the orange into mixing bowl to add the juice. Add sea salt and pepper.

Mash everything up until there are no large pieces of avocado left. After you're done then dice the tomato and add that. Do not add tomato prior to mashing because then you'll lose the large pieces.

Place in an airtight container or a bowl covered with plastic wrap in refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Then serve.

Notes:

Avocados should have a little give to them but not be mushy. An avocado with a firm exterior will make a terrible guacamole. It will taste bad and likely be unusable. Too mushy and it'll be brown inside.

If you like spicy you can add jalapeños, serranos, or even habaneros. Include the ribs and seeds for max spice. You can also add crushed res pepper like you put on pizza. When serving for a larger group I don't add spice because there's always someone who doesn't like it. I like spicy foods but I don't feel that guacamole has to be spicy.

The bowl in the picture is my special guacamole serving bowl. It's available from www.kostaboda.com.

Ok... now for the Encore pictures... I'll have a short summary below a few of them.

The entrance to the Encore night club.

This hallway runs through the casino floor. There are gambling tables and machines on either side.

Tons and tons of red things... including these lighting fixtures hanging above the gambling tables.

The biggest video poker game I've ever seen. This one'll cost $1,500 per pull. Dealt royal would be a cool $1.2 million.

Area leading to an entrance/exit.

My friend and I were trying to determine if this is a real tree or not. We think it is.

Palazzo Parking Picture Confusion

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:38:00 -0800

Some astute people commented that the Palazzo parking picture actually had the mammoth SUV parked in another row other than the one marked by the sign. There is some truth to that.

The other side of the sign says that the spots are reserved for carpools or vanpools; so yes, the large SUV could be a carpool vehicle. It is by no means a low emission vehicle.

On the other hand, in the row where it said the low emission side, there was an equally gigantic Range Rover clearly in the low emission row. I couldn't get a good picture because of lighting concerns with my cell phone camera so I used the backup photo of the GMC.

So yes... those private eyes out there caught on to it... still I think my humor is not unmerited.

A Few Venetian/Palazzo Notes

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:03:00 -0800

Poker:

I've been spending a bit of time at Venetian lately because I'm starting to believe that their poker room is the best in town for all except the highest stakes games. They have good comps, good rake, good service, good food, daily tournaments, and many 1-2 no-limit and 2-5 no-limit games as well as usually 1 or 2 tables of 5-10 no-limit.

If you regularly buy in to poker games with $5,000 or more then you'll have to go to Bellagio when you're in Vegas. If not, then Venetian is probably the best place for you to play. (The MGM poker room is also an excellent choice for 1-2 no-limit or low buy-in 2-5 NL.)

Video Poker:

Venetian and Palazzo seem to play a game of hide & seek with their 9/6 JoB games. Now they're here; now they're gone. Well Palazzo had some in the high limit slot salon this morning. They had 10-play $2 and 3-play/5-play $5. The Ven/Pal does send out offers to locals and out-of-towners based on play so you may want to stop in there soon.

Parking:

Part of Palazzo's green certification is their parking garage with spots designated for low emission vehicles as well as carpool vehicles. I found this humorous:

The Mother of All Online Poker Workstations

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:22:00 -0800

I found this link to a new computer workstation that will be available for purchase in a few months. The link that sent me to the article estimates that the cost will be around $40,000 for one of these for your home or office although the article itself doesn't say what the price will be.

While for most of us $40,000 is way too much for a workstation this does look perfectly suited to online poker because of the multiple screens and the comfort factor. Some guys wager hundreds of thousands daily on Poker Stars or Full Tilt Poker. I wouldn't be surprised if a few guys get these. Heck, $40k is only a fraction of one buy in. Click on the picture to read more about the equipment.

Miami Trip and Hard Rock Seminole Casino Visit

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:01:00 -0800

For the last week of 2008 our family decided on a trip to South Florida, specifically Coral Gables where my sister-in-law's parents live. Going to 80 degree weather in the middle of winter seemed like a heckuva idea to me so off we went.

The place where we were staying on Le Jeunne was very close to the Miami airport but I found a lower rate by flying Southwest to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Since we were going to rent a car either way, it seemed like the way to go. I'm glad we did for reasons that'll become clear later on in this posting.

Firstly, let me say that Southwest is a remarkable airline. I know they don't have a first class and the lack of assigned seating drives some people crazy but they do an excellent job at what they aim to do and that is get you from point A to point B efficiently, on-time, and at a law fare.

Funny I should add on-time to the list because our flights were delayed and/or canceled going either direction on this trip but Southwest did the best they could given the weather in Chicago and Ohio and other places.

Southwest had decent snacks for the trip; free drinks except alcohol, no checked bags fees; no curbside check in fees; no window or aisle seat fees, and more. The check in system actually benefits the savvy because you can check in 24 hours ahead of time and get a good seat. I like Southwest.

Anyway, we got to Miami and spent several great days with the family. I was able to see my 5-year old nephew and 2-year old niece and that was a great time for me. Also, spending time with the whole family was great too, but I'm not sure that you blog readers will have a lot of interest in the family Christmas. It isn't like I can put a spin on it like Dave Barry or something.

On Christmas evening, after a nice dinner with the family, Bethany and I headed out to South Beach. We figured we couldn't spend our only visit in Miami ever without seeing the beach, so off we went.

We stopped at a couple places for a glass of wine or a margarita and it was quite pleasant. I particularly enjoyed an area we found called Espanola Way where there were a number of Spanish (you know like "Spain" the country) places with fantastic looking food and delicious Spanish wines. I'm a big fan of gazpacho and had we not eaten so soon prior I would have had to get a bowl. Another place offered live eels (I assume they kill them prior to serving) as an appetizer for $85. We didn't try that.

I didn't know that South Beach was known for its art deco architecture but I did my best to get a couple shots of some buildings. Nighttime pictures really need a tripod and I didn't have one so there you go. Also, I included a picture of a South Beach bar doing it's own imitation of Vegas... 75 cent beers!

Also, there were a group of people playing music on the street corner and a large audience had developed. I'm assuming the kid here is the one that really makes the tips!

On another day, we decided we wanted to find some Asian food since our meals in Miami with family had been mostly American fare. We found a Japanese restaurant in Coral Gables called Sakura and stopped in for lunch.

Here's the outside:

The menu was delicious and lunch was very enjoyable. They had sushi and Japanese food as well as a little bit of Korean and Chinese. The lunch specials brought a tray with several open spots for side dishes and each was tasty and filling.

There was one soup on the menu that I decided not to try though. See if you can spot which one it was:

Another sign inside the restaurant that I found humorous was in an alcove that the restaurant had for couples to dine in a romantic area. During the day, the sunlight came in the windows of these alcoves and there were curtains that could be closed to shield the people dining. Here's the sign in the alcove:

It reads, "Please use the String [sic] to open/close the curtain. If you must."

I chuckled at the sign because why is the "If you must" part necessary. If you simply told people to use the string to open and close the curtain that would seem sufficient. The "If you must" part shows a little bit of the author's predisposition. It's as if to say, "If you're such a scumbag that you really have to close the dang curtain, then at least use the string you putz." Or something like that... it's kind of a passive-aggressive thing I think. No?

I had stopped in briefly on the first day of our trip and noticed that new player sign ups get $50 in free play. It's actually $25 in free play plus another $25 on the next Sunday. I told my parents about it and on our way back to the airport on the 26th we went to the casino and all got player's cards. I then walked up to a 25-cent single line Jacks or Better machine and instructed each person how to play.

My father cashed out $22.50; my mother cashed out $15; Bethany cashed out $25; and I was the big winner cashing out $42.50. In total our $100 in free play paid out $105. We exceeded expectation! My parents were grinning from ear to ear. They just thought it was the neatest thing to get money from a casino risk-free. It was a fun experience. Unfortunately, none of us would be there Sunday to pick up the rest.

We also received $7.50 each in free food which we then used at the diner to get $30 off our $42 bill. Again, mom and dad got a kick out of that also.

On the 26th of December it was time to come home. We went to the Ft. Lauderdale airport only to find that our original flight through Tampa to Vegas was canceled and we were on another flight through Austin instead. Also, our precious A boarding passes had now been replaced with C passes. Ugh.

Everyone waiting for the flight was in a bad mood and there were some irate customers at the counter saying they had to get to Vegas today. One woman in particular was yelling in Spanish at the ticket lady that she had to get back.

I know a little Spanish and so offered in Spanish to get bumped if we received some decent compensation. They said they only needed one seat so I told them I was in a party of two so forget it. They then changed their minds and said they'd bump both of us and give us $200 plus the face value of our tickets in Southwest travel certificates. That worked out to $420 for each of us. An $840 score!

I then asked them for transportation to the casino which is about 8 to 10 miles from the airport and they acquiesced. I figured I'd find a host at the casino and try to get a room and food comp.

I spoke to a host at the Hard Rock Seminole casino and told him that I was from Vegas and I gamble a lot and I know the deal. I know if I play a certain amount he can comp the room and food for me. I tried to get a feel for how much I'd have to play. He gave me one of those, "We'll give you a casino rate on the room and then evaluate your play at check out to see what we can comp" deals. I hate that!

I hate when they won't tell you anything. It's a scummy way to do things because I'm willing to play but I want to make sure that things will be taken care of. That was the best I could get from him though so I played some $5 single line 9/6 Jacks or Better. After about 25 minutes of play, I came across this hand:

Yes, folks. I hit a royal flush for $20,000. That was pretty exciting. If you notice I only held Queen-Ten of diamonds. It seems like that hold never produces much of anything so to get a royal from it was quite a surprise.

I ended up giving them a lot less play than I had planned on because they didn't tell me how much I needed to play. I had planned on playing about 25,000 points ($2 in is a point) but only played about 12,000 points. Had they told me specifically what I could get based on my play, I would have likely played a lot more.

We had an excellent dinner at the Tatu restaurant in the casino's outdoor shopping area. We had the long beans, the bok choy, cashew chicken, and a sushi sampler. All the dishes were well done and had a good spice to them. We like spicy. If you don't, you may want to tell them because I'm not sure if they do mild dishes. The sushi was a very high grade and quality and the bok choy was addictive.

Anyway, they did comp one meal and they comped the room at checkout so I can't complain too much. And of course, I had a pretty lucky night too so that kept my mood positive of course.

The casino even thanked me for playing in true Elvis fashion:

On the 27th after checking out we headed to the airport once again. Our new flight to Vegas went through Nashville. We had A boarding passes. We got good seats. Left on time, and headed home with our $840 in travel vouchers and $20,000 in winnings.

Fun trip!

Here are a few more casinos from the Hard Rock Seminole:

Pretty high rake! Those minimums are killers and they even have another $1 jackpot drop in addition to this! Ouch... that's what the lack of local competition will do to you. On the other hand, the games looked very soft. I think a pro could do well here over time. One funny thing is that the highest buy in is $100, even on the $5-$10 NL game! I didn't play but I'd think people would be going all in hand-after-hand for a while until they built up a stack to play with. $100 buy-in in a $5-$10 doesn't go very far.

The Hard Rock Seminole (I think) is the only casino in Florida that allows blackjack and other card games in the casino. They only allow card games. In other words, no craps or roulette, but they do offer blackjack, Pai Gow, 3 Card Poker and more. Their limits are a healthy $5,000 a hand so they're not rinky dink. The fact that they've been the only ones to get these table games gives them a big advantage over other casinos in the state and is probably why this is a big beautiful casino while the Seminole casino next door is a grungy, dilapidated smokehouse.

Above are a couple pictures from the outdoor shopping area called Paradise at Hard Rock Seminole.

A bathroom sign at Hard Rock Seminole in typical Hard Rock fashion, the male icon is standing with his legs crossed rather than the traditional symbol you'd expect.

A leopard print ironing board in the hotel room.

An extra roll of toilet paper in the bathroom of the hotel room. I wonder if Steve Winwood receives a royalty payment every time someone... errr... well you know...

Salon.com Berates Vegas

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:45:00 -0800

Poking around on Salon.com I came across an article by David Sirota that is an ambitious piece. Ambitious in that not only does it say that Las Vegas is a hedonistic society destroying our environment and morality, but that it's also a microcosm of all that's wrong with America right now. The "Vegas mentality" of Americans leads to global warming, water depletion, excessive use of fossil fuels and more... oh boy.

Here's a link to the article by the way:

We All Live in Vegas Now.

Let me start by saying that I assume this particular writer was having a serious case of writer's block and had a deadline and had to output some kind of article to continue to receive his paycheck from Salon. The entire piece seems so contrived as to appear to be a painting by an artist given an ultimatum to produce by midnight or be hanged.

Nevertheless, forced as the article appears, there are points I'll give the courtesy of a response.

Like most flights into Vegas, mine last week soared over a shrinking Lake Mead. Visually, the white strip around the man-made reservoir is beautiful -- the bright chalk line separating the blue water from the red-brown desert evokes memories of a Bob Ross pastel painting minus "happy trees." But it is a menacing harbinger of depletion. This water source for 22 million people is at its lowest level since the 1960s.

An initial point he makes is that Lake Mead is depleted. It sure is. When I went to the Grand Canyon via helicopter I saw the white line of which he speaks where the water used to be and where it is now. Water is a concern. A big one.

He then goes on to mention the 22 million people reliant on Lake Mead. Guess what. There aren't 22 million people in Las Vegas. About 1.5 million I think if you include the metropolitan area. Arizona and California and maybe Colorado and Utah (not sure) get water from Lake Mead. How is it then the hedonism of the Las Vegans that are depleting that supply? It's a group effort.

Vegas does have a lot of fountains and man made lakes, but a large effort is made to recycle water. Would it be as good as not using any water at all? Likely no, but I don't think Vegas has any particular monopoly on fountains. Visit Little Rock, Manhattan, or Seattle and you'll likely find a decorative water display in numerous places.

One respondent to the article mentions the government subsidy of farm land that grow low-demand crops. I don't know a lot about that subject, but my guess is that if we scour the country for abuse of water supplies that Vegas would not be near the top of the list.

Sans urban planning in the libertarian West, that unbridled growth encourages more roads, cars and smog.

This is another leap of logic. It's true that Vegas residents as a whole have a greater libertarian outlook than possibly any other part of the country. Vegans believe (and this is a huge generality) that you should have the freedom to do what you want with your body, your mind, and your money.

To extend that mentality to say that it encourages more roads, smog, etc. is a non sequitur.

It is as if to say many scientists are nerds, and many nerds wear bow ties, so many scientists must wear bow ties.

It's a random combination of conclusions that are not related, and the conjugation of them is only to make the writer's job easier as most people will read it and accept it as fact.

I don't know about the "non-libertarian East" but are there traffic problems in Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington D.C.? Hmmm...

He then talks about all the lights on the Strip. All the signs, the neon, and the flashing colors. We do have some lights in this town. Heck, the Luxor has a bright beam going up in the sky in what seems like a pointless expenditure of energy, but again, I don't see Vegas as being uniquely culpable in its energy usage. Ever been to Times Square or Broadway? Heck every city's tourist centers use lighting to attract visitors or enhance the "experience" of visiting.

Casinos in many ways look for ways to be energy efficient despite their seemingly gratuitous use of electricity. For one, it's more politically correct but there's an even more powerful motive: capitalism. The casinos have bean counters who meticulously calculate profits based on revenues and expenditures. Spend less on energy and make more money. There's a built in monetary incentive for casinos to be environmentally responsible.

But that's always been the American way, hasn't it? We don't stop driving Hummers around a warming planet just like we don't stop building population centers in deserts, just like we don't stop gambling when wages drop, just like we don't stop wasting energy on casino signs.

Sirota then goes on to mumble something about Hummers and light usage. Huh? How did Vegas equate with Hummers and what does that really have to do with anything? Again, he conjoins unrelated topics in a way he feels is inconspicuous and that many people will just nod their heads in agreement thinking, "That sure makes sense" when it absolutely doesn't.

Whether hanging Christmas lights in Toledo, buying SUVs in Boulder, taking long showers in Atlanta, residing in sprawly suburbs near Chicago, or overspending anywhere, we are all Las Vegans now. And because we have become so environmentally and economically interconnected, what happens in our own Vegas no longer stays in our own Vegas -- it affects everyone.

Knowing that, are we ready to turn off some lights in our homes? Is it possible for Americans to forfeit McMansion dreams, drive smaller cars, take public transit, embrace water restrictions, or live in more sustainable geographies? Can we resist materialism, halt the bone-crushing stampedes to Wal-Mart, and stop needlessly spending beyond our means?

Oh boy. This is over the top. Now Vegas, or at least the "Vegas mindset," is responsible for all the transgressions of people in Chicago or Boulder or Toledo. Heck, why not just say that any evil anywhere on planet earth is born in Las Vegas? I'd say one big problem in America is people not taking responsibility for their own wrongdoings. It's always someone else's fault. For Sirota, it's Vegas that's guilty.

The article is a contrived patchwork of illogical "conclusions" simply to fill editorial space and elicit a response. The writer shows a level of knowledge of Las Vegas akin to a pre-teen's understanding of sex. He's heard of it but lacks anything more than a surface understanding. It's as if he's a freshman in college and given an essay question of, "Vegas is a sin city. The world is a mess. Write 1000-1500 words on how Las Vegas relates to the overall failure of society."

In other words, start with a conclusion and then make up the facts to support it.

A Few Pictures: Snow in Vegas, CityCenter, and MGM Sports Book

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:39:00 -0800

Just a few pictures taken with my camera phone. My real camera is broken so I'll have to get a new one. In the mean time, the quality is lacking a bit.

Captions underneath photos:

My Courtyard and Fountain with Snow

Snow in the Backyard

Right outside my neighborhood I see these mountains all the time. It was a pretty sight to see them covered in white this morning.

CityCenter. This is one monstrous project. Picture taken from a terrace at the 19th floor of the MGM Grand.

This was the line to bet football on Sunday morning at 9:20 am (40 minutes prior to the first NFL games of the day). Why isn't there more staff? I can't believe that people would wait that long to bet. In fact, I'd say you'd need to get there at least a half hour ahead of time just to make sure you get your bets in before kickoff.

Staking Players and Loaning Money in a Poker Room

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:13:00 -0800

Neither a borrower nor lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

and it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

--- William Shakespeare, "Hamlet" Act 1 Scene 3

This blog entry was inspired by a thread on the 2+2 poker forum discussing a well known pro who was playing in a poker game in Las Vegas and lost his original buy in and requested to borrow money from another player to continue playing. According to the thread, the player did loan several thousand dollars to the player at the table and he continued to play poorly and lost that money as well.

I won't name names for a few reasons. For one, it could be a completely false or at least partially false story. For another, I don't want any enemies especially when I don't know the specific facts of the situation.

Having said that, I see poker players, and gamblers in general either loaning each other what most people would consider significant amounts of money, from a couple hundred dollars to several tens of thousands of dollars, with no legal documents, no collateral, and not even a specific timeline for reimbursement.

I also have been approached several times from people in poker rooms to either borrow money or be staked in a tournament or cash game. I've always said no.

There's a Catch 22 with loaning money to a poker player or other gambler and that is if the player was a proficient and competent player then he or she wouldn't need the loan. A gambler who is proficient and competent does however need money to ply his (or her) trade so if that person is destitute then he cannot generate income.

So in other words, gamblers need money to gamble but if they're good at gambling they shouldn't need money.

It's the same argument with banks that loan money to people for houses or cars. Financing institutions (prior to and subsequent to this subprime mess) believe in loaning money only to those people that don't need it.

This isn't true about gamblers though. It's odd but there are a number of poker "pros", some TV pros and some not, who walk around with $60,000 in their pockets but they're broke. How is that possible?

I'm not really sure. I think some people achieve a certain status or quality of life and determine that is where they belong so staying at that level is more important than paying off personal loans. They have money because they won a tourney or had a good night in a cash game, but in reality they owe 3 or 4 times as much to individuals.

It's always awkward for me when in a poker room and a person who I may have shared a dinner with or a good conversation over a couple beers approaches me and says, "Hey Dave. That's a really juicy $1-$2 no-limit game. Want to give me $500 and we'll split whatever I win?"

Not no but hell no. Heck, I like you, or at least I like the person that I thought I was friends with, but that's off limits.

For one thing, I work very hard for every dollar I have and continue to earn. I put my money at risk and use my brain to try to optimize its return. How do I know that you will do the same?

Secondly, lets say I went and sat in that $1-$2 game myself and attempted to play. Would I be satisfied with losing 100% of my money when I lost and winning only 50% of the money I win when I won? No way. In fact, the game would almost certainly become unprofitable for me with those kinds of restrictions. In other words, there'd be a tax on winnings of 50% which would be impossible to beat. If I wouldn't put myself in the game, why would I put someone else in it?

Thirdly, there's the ever present Catch-22 mentioned above. If you're really that good at poker and choosing good games to play, why do you need me to finance you?

This comes along in staking tournaments for people as well. I've known many people, some of them likely household names because of poker on television who work out deals where someone "backs" them and pays their entry fee and then gets 50% of the player's winnings if that player does end up in the money (normally the top 10% of players... top 50 out of 500 or top 200 out of 2,000 for example).

Well let's see if I had the same arrangement with myself... I'm going to buy myself into a World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour event and I'm going to cut the prize pool in half. If the prize pool is $1 million, the new prize pool for me is $500,000. If the prize pool is $200,000 then for me it's now $100,000. If the entire prize pool is $10 million then for me I am only competing for $5 million.

I wouldn't play any tournament in the world that took out 50% of the prize pool on top of the already hefty fees for the casino and the dealers. Why would I do that for someone else then? (And, it may sound arrogant but I feel like I'm just about as good as anyone at poker tournaments and cash games so it isn't a skill level concern.)

I doubt that anyone could get a long term positive return on investment buying anyone into poker tournaments with a 50/50 split of winnings. If it was a large field, with many bad players, and you were backing the absolute number 1 poker player in the world then it might possibly be a break even proposition. But of course, the question remains, why would the absolute best poker player in the world need you to buy him in to the event in the first place?

Billy Baxter is likely one of the most famous backers of players as he backed Stu Ungar in the 1997 World Series of Poker main event for a 50/50 split. Stu Ungar was one of the best card players who ever lived. He already had two WSOP championships to his credit and could never get a game of gin rummy with anyone without giving a handicap. He was the equivalent of Superman with his ability of recollection, memory, nuance, probabilities, personal nuances, and just about anything a card player would want in his arsenal. I'd say Billy Baxter likely had a slight edge on his stake, but it was in the single digit percentages in my opinion. Ungar won the event that year, but a lot of that was variance. If Baxter staked Ungar year after year for many years, I doubt he'd realize more than 5% to 8% ROI. By the way, that's a phenomenal number considering he's giving up half the prize pool from the get go.

For me to stake someone in a poker tournament, even the best player in the world (who shouldn't need me in the first place) I'd have to get an 80/20 split and even then I can only think of one person I would do that for. Would I buy myself into a tournament that only returned 80% of the already juiced out (meaning casino profit taken out) prize pool? No. I probably wouldn't. The one person I would stake would have to be the perfect combination of strong poker skills, of the utmost trustworthiness, and who just had a couple bad deals hit his bankroll that were out of his control. Even then, I doubt with an 80/20 split I'd be making much of a profit. Many of these pros would laugh at you if you only offered them 20% when you're putting up all the money.

That isn't to say I wouldn't take a smaller percentage over a number of tournaments. When you're winning 80% but losing 100% on a tournament by tournament event then you really have to have a superstar to make money. If you're staking someone over 100 events and then dividing winnings at the end you need a smaller percentage, but you need a whole lot of trust.

There are several scams that tournament "pros" run. For one, they sell 200% of themselves. Lets say the buy in to a tournament is $10,000. They'll actually get $20,000 in investments. Say for example that they'll get $2,000 from 10 people but tell each one they have 20% instead of 10%. They collect $20,000 for a $10,000 tournament. They're guaranteed to make $10,000 unless they actually win money in which case they'll have to pay out twice as much as they win.

But they don't have to win because they control their hands!

Lets say one of these people gets close to "the bubble" where they go from winning nothing to winning something... they can intentionally lose. Go all in, and then muck their hand when they see their opponent's cards.

In fact, it gets even more nefarious than that! They can work out a deal with someone else at their table and say, "Hey. If you give me $10,000 then I'll lose all my chips to you on purpose." This way, they make $10,000 on the investments originally, and they make another $10,000 on "the back end" and they never cash in the tournament so they don't owe anyone anything.

So as you can see, trust is an important issue.

It's odd because I'm in a community of gamblers that loan back and forth. In fact, I've been the beneficiary of such a loan. Once I saw a progressive jackpot at a casino that was very high and I wanted to play for it but only had $2,000 in cash readily available. I called a friend and he came by and gave me some more money to play at the machine. I paid him back within 2 days (and never hit the jackpot BTW).

Sometimes gamblers just loan thousands of dollars to each other without even a handshake (the old cliché). You get to know who to trust and who not to trust. Poker players are near the bottom of my list.

Catherine Hanaway Says Gambling on the Net is Legal

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:53:00 -0800

Interesting video of Catherine Hanaway who is an Attorney for the US Justice Department in Missouri's Eastern District saying that online gambling is not prohibited by law. The video is only 35 seconds long.

Note that she was instrumental in the arrest of David Carruthers, the BetOnSports.com executive who was arrested at an airport on violating the Wire Act.

Link to video.

60 Minutes To Air Online Poker Piece on Nov. 30

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:32:00 -0800

The CBS news program 60 Minutes will air a segment about online poker this Sunday. I expect topics to be covered ot be the cheating at Absolute Poker and UltimateBet as well as the overall argument pro and against allowing Internet poker in the USA.

Here's an article and short video with a preview.

Set your Tivos and DVRs to record. Should be a doozy of a program.

Nevada Blue Law? Car Dealerships Closed on Sundays?

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:17:00 -0800

I moved to Las Vegas in August of 2002 and found a city that in many ways was, in a social sense, more liberal and less conservative than any other place I'd lived. You are allowed to carry an open container of alcohol, like a beer, down the street. There are numerous topless and all-nude clubs in Vegas. Heck, there's a proliferation of legalized gambling which you don't see in most parts of the country.

Why is it then that new car dealerships have to close on Sunday?

I first noticed this several years ago when a friend wanted to buy a car and he asked me to go with him to look at cars and the dealership was closed. I had really never heard of a car dealership being closed before. Sure, Christmas day maybe, but other than that, open for business.

I did some Google searches and can't quite seem to find out if it's a local or state governmental law, or if it's just a consensus among the dealerships to do business that way.

One link I found claims that it's simply that all the new car dealerships agree among themselves to close on Sunday and that it's not a state mandated activity. On the other hand, the same article states that if someone applies to open a new car dealership they must agree to the Sunday ban, so it sounds as though the government is involved.

More Google searches lead me to believe it's an idea that is related to blue laws. I've dealt with blue laws in the past having lived in South Carolina and in Georgia. For one thing you could not purchase any alcohol on Sunday, or there were strict restrictions such as the time of day or that you could go to a bar but not a grocery store.

So is the closure of new car dealerships on Sunday in Las Vegas a blue law issue?

How ironic is it then that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year I can go to a club like the Palomar in North Las Vegas (which I've never been to... I swear) and see 100% completely nude women and drink whiskey or beer or whatever I want, yet I can't go buy a new car on Sunday?

We had a saying in the Navy and that was Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? The military voice letters for WTF... or "What the f---?"

Sure, Vegas has a different work week than nearly any other city in the United States, but still the majority of people work Monday through Friday. Wouldn't it make sense to be open on both weekend days so that people may shop and buy cars on their days off?

If it's a government law, then it's kind of ridiculous since we're certainly not passionate about blue laws in other areas.

If it's a consensus agreement among the car dealership companies and not specifically state or local law then would this not possibly be some kind of anti-trust situation? Doesn't it hinder free market capitalism for competing businesses to uniformly adopt a rule that results in an inconvenience for the consumer?

In the articles I read it appears as though the car dealerships prefer to have this policy, as long as every single new car dealer follows it. In this way, the dealerships sell just as many cars because the same number of people would buy them on the 6 days that are open for business while also giving the entire dealerships' staff a day off work. (If a place opened on Sunday while all the others closed however, then that one dealership would probably do quite well that day you'd think.)

As an analogy, my mail at my house comes 6 days a week but my primary mailman only works 5 days a week. Why? There's another mailman who works the 6th day for 5 different other mail carrier's routes. Why can't the car dealerships stagger their employees' days of work?

I understand that it's not like you buy a new car that often, but when I worked a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 job and I was looking for a new car, I found the Sunday closure to be burdensome. Today I also wanted to look at some new cars, and was also reminded of the policy, because I couldn't. The lots sat there barren of employees and customers.

Whatever reason it is that all the new car dealerships are closed on Sunday I imagine it's a bad one. If it's the law, then it's hypocritical given our local Las Vegas society. If it's a consensus agreement among the dealerships to burden the consumer to make their work place more attractive for their employees, then it's an OPEC-style arrangement that in my mind violates the spirit of America's free market.

I say lift the Las Vegas ban on Sunday new car sales! Can I get an A-men?!

Flu Shots are Positive EV

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:16:00 -0800

Unless you have an allergy or other medical condition that prevents you from getting flu shots, I highly recommend doing it. I went to a Walgreen 1.5 miles from my house, walked in and paid $25, got the shot and was out the door within 10 minutes. Very quick and easy.

Last year I was confined to my bed for about 10 days with the flu and in addition to that, since my work requires a lot of brainpower and focus, I wasn't able to be very productive for a month afterward. It was terrible.

The flu shots are a mixture of three viruses that scientists consider to be the most prevalent for the year. Even if it's not an exact match, it will alleviate symptoms of other flus if you get them.

I have a selfish reason for this too. The more people that get flu shots, the less chance I'll get the flu since fewer people will spread it.

Quick, easy, and a good idea.

Pro Poker Player QoD: My Response

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:02:00 -0800

Blair Rodman recently answered a Question of the Day for the LasVegasAdvisor.com Web site. It was a response to someone who inquired whether it would be wise for him or her to move to Vegas to be a professional poker player.

The entry is dated November 18 and is in the archives, although you will need an LVA membership to read it.

I also wanted to respond to the same question her on the blog so here I go.

Firstly, here was the question:

"If I move to Las Vegas to make a living playing poker, am I better off playing 10-20 limit, 20-40 limit, or no-limit games? Or tournaments? What other advice can you offer about turning pro?"

My response:

The easiest and quickest way to respond is that if you have to ask the question then you're not ready to do it.

You should already know with certainty that you've got a special ability that's not only good enough to beat your opponents and to beat the house rake and tip requirements but also to pay for your entire lifestyle while growing your bankroll.

If you're asking the question then you don't have what it takes yet.

Another clue in the question as to the naiveté of the submitter is asking whether that person should focus on limit games or no-limit. No-limit is far more profitable on a risk/reward/time basis than limit poker. It isn't even close.

Blair and others might disagree with me, but you'd have to be an expert 40-80 player, risking significantly more money, to make the same kind of return as you would on a 2-5 no-limit game. Limit Hold 'em doesn't allow your poor-playing opponents the opportunity to make such large mistakes as they can in no-limit.

There are some limit games that can be worthwhile, in particular Omaha 8 or Better, but if you're talking strictly Hold 'em cash games then you absolutely have to play no-limit, and you have to reach an expert-level playing status.

That the submitter asked whether he or she should play limit or no-limit indicates to me that he or she doesn't have that much experience with either game, and certainly not enough to be a professional.

As far as tournaments, It's my belief that you need to have a bankroll of at least $100,000 if you want to be a tournament pro, and that might number might be a little small.

Why do I say that when there are plenty of tournaments in town that are $60 buy ins or $100 buy ins? The reason is because you can't play those for a living! There isn't a sufficient hourly expectation.

For example, let's say that you're an expert tournament poker player and you play a $100 tournament and you have a 20% edge after the house takes out its amount and the dealers get their share and whatever tips you spend. In other words, after all the takeout, you're still at a 20% edge over the field because of your superior skills. This would be a great percentage and quite impressive.

What that means is your expected profit is $20. Yes. That's right. 20 smackaroos. A tournament like this may take a few hours, so let's say your average time spent in the tournament is 2 hours. That means you're making a whopping $10 an hour. Remember that I was very generous in giving you a 20% edge after all the takeouts. A 5% to 10% edge is probably more realistic.

So the reason that I think you need $100,000 to be a tournament pro is you really have to be an expert and playing tournaments that are at least $500 buy in or higher. That is the only way that the hourly return can be justified.

Another thing I tell people who think they're great at tournaments and want to do them professionally is that they should look at the first place prize and if it's a number that will significantly affect their lives then they shouldn't play it. That's usually a downer that people don't want to hear.

In other words, if you're entering a tournament where the first place prize is $20,000 and that's a number that would significantly impact your life, then the tournament is probably too big for you to play in. If $20,000 is a nice day to you but won't significantly affect your life than you're OK to play in that tournament.

The reason is because the amount that you have to invest in the tournament over time to get the prize is more than your bankroll can withstand.

People tell me, "Tournaments are great! You can win big money." and I say, "Sure. If you win it." While someone has to win it, YOU WON'T.

Pessimistic? Perhaps. I like to think realistic instead. Sure you have a chance to win it, but you have to look at it as all the times you pull the handle on a slot machine. You're going to lose most of the time.

This isn't to say that if you want to play the $10,000 event once a year with recreational money that you need to have a million dollars. It's to say that if you're going to be a tournament pro playing day after day you have to play buy ins that are within your bankroll but at the same time give you an expected hourly rate that's able to be your primary income.

If you're going to try the professional poker life with a 4-figure or small 5-figure bankroll then forget tournaments. Absolutely forget them. Focus on the small stakes no-limit games where making $100 to $200 a day is not unheard of, if you're a badass player that is.

I've got a lot more to say about this subject but we'll stop here for now... we'll call this installment 1 of my Becoming a Pro series. Tune in soon for installment 2.

Another Unconstitutional Law: The PASPA

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:09:00 -0800

There's a Federal law passed in 1992 which in my opinion would never stand up Constitutionally if it were ever challenged in Federal courts. That law is the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).

This was a law that prohibited states from allowing sports betting within their borders. The link above gives a good technical description. One note from the passage is that the Department of Justice was against passing the law because it felt it infringed upon states rights... well, duh!

Individual states are allowed to regulate gambling within their borders when it comes to blackjack, slots, lotteries, and other games of chance, but this Federal law overrules any state's ability to regulate sports betting.

You may say, "But wait! There's sports betting in Nevada." and you'd be right. Here's the kicker of the PASPA: Nevada is exempted.

Yes, that's right. PASPA specifically exempts Nevada from it's authority as well as 3 other states, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware, that had some form of sports betting previously. They were "grandfathered in."

So take a look at this objectively... neither you nor I likely have a degree in Constitutional Law, but how is it possibly Constitutional to pass a Federal law which tells 46 states they're not allowed to do something and tells 4 other states that they can?

Iowa. Nope. Florida. Nope. Alaska. Nope. Nevada. Yep.

I don't think you'd need a doctorate from Harvard to figure this one out. Any high school graduate should be able to see the Unconstitutionality of this law. It should either be permitted in all 50 states or prohibited in all 50 states (and that's not even mentioning the fact that the Federal government shouldn't Constitutionally be involved in gambling legislation in the first place).

I've heard talk about New Jersey trying to overturn this law. It would be an uphill battle. I think firstly they'd have to legalize sports betting in the casinos there, and then they'd have to take the battle to the courts. I think they'd win. How could they not? But it might be an expensive, long, and arduous process.

This law needs to be overturned. There is no way that 4 states should have rights that the other 46 states don't have.

Interestingly, the most powerful man in the Senate, Sen. Harry Reid is from Nevada. My guess is he'd fight to try to keep it in place because we do have a monopoly on legal sports betting in the United States giving us a competitive edge, but that is short-sighted.

For one thing, many of the companies that would benefit are indeed Nevada companies. Boyd, MGM/Mirage, and Harrah's all have casinos throughout the U.S. and would increase their customer base and revenues as a result.

In addition, the vast majority of sports betting happens illegally with locals throughout the country as well as quasi-legally (or quasi-illegally depending on your perspective) with online sports books. In other words, I don't feel that allowing more legal sports betting in the USA would have any appreciable effect on the overall volume of sports betting. I think the same amount of bets would take place, only more of them would be legal ones generating tax revenues and being recorded rather than happening "on the black market" so to speak.

The major professional sports leagues and the NCAA and other sports organizations are opposed to any sports betting of course, but they are camels with their heads in the sand. It has always happened. Happens now, and will always happen. It also leads to much fatter TV and radio contracts because people stayed glued to the screen. The supporting argument for sports betting is one I could also write a large blog about, and likely will, but suffice it to say that my view is that more legal sports betting only benefits the profit mongers at the league offices.

It might be easy to read my article and summarize that my goal is to allow sports betting. Not really. My goal is to encourage one Unconstitutional law to be deemed thus and overruled or significantly modified. You can't tell 46 states one thing and 4 others something else. I hope a state decides to fight PASPA... come on Jersey!

What'll You Have? Pabst Blue Ribbon!

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:47:00 -0800

A lot of you might not be aware of one of the finest experiences in life and that is drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and you can get it in Vegas! Sure, if you're one of those haut monde types perhaps you'll go get Chimay on tap at Rosemary's on West Sahara. Don't get me wrong, that's a fine ale. But Pabst Blue Ribbon blows the doors off any other "working man's" beer.

Don't get me started on Heineken. That was so 90s. And of course, the beer of the 80s was MGD... or a wine cooler for the ladies.

But a real beer for a man with hair on his chest, or a woman with hair in her armpits, is Pabst Blue Ribbon. It's a special experience to toss one down while watching people share tattoo stories.

In Vegas, I know of two places you can get a PBR. Those would be the Double Down Saloon near the airport and Hogs and Heifers downtown. Anyone who visits Vegas absolutely has to go to the Double Down and check out the ass juice and buy puke insurance. Hogs and Heifers is another fantastic place to visit, complete with the Harley's parked outside. Look out for when Cash'd Out is in town too.

PBR is a beer drinker's beer. Highly recommended. I give it 98 points on a 100 point rating scale. Don't ask me to break that down in particulars.

In honor of PBR, here's a couple ads. Look for Jackie Gleason to say how good it is. It's so good, "It practically speaks to you."

PBR Ad #1.

PBR Ad #2 (with Jackie Gleason)

Verbal Expressions that I Loathe

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:27:00 -0800

This is by no means an exhaustive or comprehensive list, but these are just a few verbal expressions which send shivers down my spine the way fingernails on a chalkboard do.

"Basically..." -- most of the time this term is used it's unnecessary. It's a predecessor to a sentence explaining the modus operandi of some object or task. In verbal speech it's used to give the speaker a little extra time to formulate his or her explanation as well as maintain a certain cadence or rhythm of speech. To me, it not only sounds extraneous, but also condescending. It's as if the speaker is saying to you, "You won't understand this subject if I speak eloquently so let me dumb it down for you." I don't think we'd be the worse for wear if the word "basically" was stricken from the English language.

"It is what it is..." -- what in the world does this mean? What isn't what it is? Again, it's a speech pattern meant to fill space often used by talking heads on news or sports programs who want to be able to reply quickly to a question without appearing at a loss for a response.

"The fact of the matter is..." -- another space filler and time-buying device to make the speaker sound more verbose when a simple, "the facts are" or "the fact is" would suffice. If we're discussing a subject and someone tells me "the facts are" such and such, I realize that it's the matter at hand that's being referenced. I don't need the additional qualifier of "the matter" to distinguish the speaker's subject. I see this as another condescending form of speech. Am I too dumb to realize what subject is being addressed?

"You need to..." -- I heard this a lot when I was in the Navy. "You need to go wipe up the oil in the bilge" or "You need to wash the dishes" were examples of such. In the civilian world I hear it often such as at the grocery store and I'm looking for eggs and they say, "You need to go down aisle 12, turn right and you'll see them." Or when I call the cable company about my bill and they say, "You need to sign up for online bill pay." Usually, whatever the "you need to" is that I'm told to do is something I am more than willing to do, but to make it sound as though it's no longer my prerogative but an order from a superior is disrespectful at best and downright rude at worst.

Any more expressions you abhor?

Nevada Gambling Age Should be 18 not 21

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:19:00 -0800

There's currently a debate in Nevada about whether we should allow 18-year-olds to gamble in the casinos. Supporters say that it will help our economy to expand our potential customer base. I'm a big proponent of this idea but not because of the economics. I see it as a Constitutional issue.

Here's a link to an article about this debate.

The United States Constitution only has a couple of age definitions. For one thing, you have to be at least 35 years old to be President. I could look it up but it seems like you have to be 28 or so to be in Congress. To vote, you have to be 18.

The 18-year-old voting age which was ratified by Congress in 1971 has come to define the age of adulthood. At 18 you are tried as an adult if you commit a crime. You can get a patent, own a business, own real estate, get married, get drafted or enlist in the service, pay income taxes, and vote for your public representatives in local, state and federal elections. If you're 18, 19 or 20 years old, you have all the responsibilities of an adult U.S. citizen. You don't, however, have all the rights of a citizen.

You can't gamble in many casinos, you can't drink just about anywhere, and in some places you can't own a gun until you're 21.

What our society has created is a class of pseudo-citizen. It's age discrimination.

Imagine if a class of people based on their skin color, religion, or sexual preference was told that they couldn't participate in certain activities the uproar and indignation that would ensue. Why is it that discriminating against full-fledged American citizens based on their age is so socially accepted?

A few reasons, I think.

For one, the majority of people voting on laws and passing laws are older than 21. They think to themselves that it isn't a big deal to wait three year,s because when you get past 35 or so the years just seem to run together. I'm 36 and left the Navy in December of 1997, and it boggles my mind that it was 11 years ago. Eleven years! So I think once you get past a certain age it doesn't seem like a big deal to wait three years.

Another is that 18-to-20-year-olds are unable to form a strong political action committee or other lobbying group. By the time they get organized, they're old enough so why bother? If an ethnic race was being discriminated against then they'd fight tooth and nail for their rights, but it's difficult for people caught in the pseudo-citizen age group to become passionate about their cause.

I think another reason is that adults think to themselves that maybe it is discriminatory, but dang it if they weren't total idiots when they were 19 so, for the good of society, we just have to ostracize that group. In other words, technically it's not the right thing but realistically it is.

In my opinion, it's the wrong thing. If you're going to tell people that they are complete adult U.S. citizens and have to have all the responsibilities that come with that, then you have to also give them all the privileges that come with that as well.

Eighteen-to-20-year-olds should be able to drink, own guns, and gamble in casinos. Period. I believe it's unconstitutional to legislate otherwise.

Do I know some idiot 19-year-olds that will get drunk and drive their car into a telephone pole? Well, possibly. But I also know 55-year-olds that might do the same thing. There are plenty of 19-year-olds that are more responsible than some 60-year-olds.

That isn't really the argument though. So what if people are immature at 19? They are citizens now. You've said that they can be drafted. They can vote. They can marry and own businesses, and have to pay income taxes and Social Security, etc. They are not and should not be considered a second-class citizen, which is what our age laws implicitly connote.

If 19-year-olds are not old enough to drink a beer responsibly then they should also not be trusted to vote for our leaders, nor should they be able to fight wars for our country. They are apparently too young to make those kinds of important decisions.

We've decided that 18 is the age of adulthood. We've written that into the law of our land! Let them be adults then. If they drink and drive, punish them. But they shouldn't be castigated simply due to their age.

Prediction: Bush Pardons Clemens, Bonds

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:41:00 -0800

Gonna lay myself out on the line with this one. In fact, I got a $100 bet with a friend on it...

Before Bush leaves office he will pardon Clemens and Bonds and those two players won't have to worry about perjury charges.

I watched the interview with Clemens in the Congress and it was striking in how partisan it was. The Democrats were anti-Clemens and the Republicans were in full support of him.

I understand why taxes, military spending, Medicare spending, abortion, gun control, and other issues can be partisan but I never thought that whether a professional baseball player making $18 million a year taking steroids was a Republican/Democrat issue. It was, however. Watch the debate.

Bush has a baseball past. He was president of the Texas Rangers baseball team and has a demonstrated long time love of baseball. Clemens is loved by the Republicans it seems.

I think Bush will pardon Clemens, and will also likely pardon Bonds so as not to seem partial or racist or something else. He'll pardon both of them to avoid the controversy of "pardoning the white guy."

My bet with Charlie McDanger, the poker pro, is for $100 and I win if Bush pardons either player. In other words, if Bush pardons Clemens but not Bonds I win. I he pardons Bonds but not Clemens I win. If he pardons both I also win. I only lose if he doesn't pardon either one.

In my opinion it's the easiest $100 I ever made.

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the News Once Again

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:12:00 -0800

It's been two years since the UIGEA was passed. This was a law that significantly impacted my life because I used to sell advertising to Internet gambling sites through LasVegasAdvisor.com and affiliated Web sites.

While the law was not implemented immediately upon President Bush's signature, certain online sites, such as the mothers of all online sites PartyPoker.com and 888.com (also called CasinoOnNet), stopped taking USA clients and therefore stopped advertising in the USA market. Also, NeTeller, a major money transfer option, froze its USA-facing business cutting off a major artery of cashflow between US residents and the online sites.

Some businesses, such as Bodog (now BodogLife), Poker Stars, and Full Tilt Poker, decided to continue to do business in the USA and flourished as a result of the major competition going away. These companies were private companies and not public like Party and 888 and so had more flexibility in continuing their business.

When I say above that the law was not implemented immediately, what I mean is that the original statute provided for a 270 day period for the Treasury Department, Justice Department, and Federal Reserve to come up with firm regulations, restrictions, and ways to implement the law. The passage of the law initially was enough to deter the public online gambling operators, but there was to be no actual change for up to 270 days.

Instead of 270 days, it actually took over 600 days but now we see how our government is going to enforce this law. Well, sort of. They're passing the buck to the banks. The banks are supposed to monitor every transaction (meaning every single transaction; meaning the billions of transactions that happen all the time, of which perhaps one-ten-thousandth of 1% are Internet gambling related) to determine if it is a financial transfer between a USA resident and an "illegal" gambling site.

The banks don't want the burden. They've lobbied against this bill and some say that it will cost billions of dollars in creating the technology to enforce this while also costing a million hours of work.

Interesting that we're now embroiled in an enormous bank bailout in which banks are suffering everywhere and we're piling more on their plate. ( and in the name of what? morality?)

At the bottom of this article, I'm going to link to an article by I. Nelson Rose who's a gambling-expert attorney who's written his take on the new implementation of the UIGEA. I believe that Professor Rose is certainly of the libertarian viewpoint when it comes to gambling, and it shows in some of his derision for what he sees as the ridiculousness of the law. Having said that, he's an expert and can break down a lot of the legalese for people like you and me.

Some people think Obama could reverse it. Rose says in his article that maybe he can and maybe he can't. I'm a legal nobody but I don't think he can. It was a law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. It wasn't an Executive Order. I think it would take Congress to overturn this as well as Obama to sign the new law. I also am not sure that Obama would want to permit Internet gambling or whether it will even be an issue he'd want to tackle.

In other words, I don't see any changes for a while.

Professor Rose's take is that with the new implementation, very little changes. The banks get hit with more hassles to deal with, but it won't affect those Americans playing poker online. (There aren't REALLY Americans playing poker online are there? )

Let me just pass along his article to you and let you be the judge. I'd welcome your comments here to the blog. A little more interaction with the readers could help it grow.

The New UIGEA: Nothing Changes by I. Nelson Rose

Hard Rock Poker Lounge Rocks

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:55:00 -0800

If I were Roger Ebert, it'd be a thumbs up.

I really like the Hard Rock's poker room (check that... poker lounge) a great deal. They've made a spacious and comfortable room and hired a friendly and knowledgeable staff.

If you're really wondering why you should play here, I think the most obvious one would be the skill level of your competition. I like games that have a high alcoholic beverage per capita and you can bet on it at the Hard Rock. There are a few crafty pros, but you figure who they are quickly. There's plenty of loose money to go around it seems.

Another great thing about the Hard Rock room is the buy in on the 2-5 game. It has a $2,000 max buy in which is really enough to make some serious money. Caesars Palace has a no cap buy in, but $2,000 on a $2-$5 game is otherwise the largest in town that of which I'm aware. This gives the bad players the opportunity to make BIG mistakes. It also makes for a more exciting game. On a $500 cap game, you rarely have more strategy than just to go all in on the flop or turn.

The game does have a $200 minimum buy in if you want to test the water or if you're one of those infernal short-stack strategists that make my life difficult.

The chairs are very comfortable and have adjustments for both lumbar support and for height. You can lock the back of the chair so that it won't tilt backward or leave it free to tilt. The seats are covered with a soft velvet surface and have plenty of cushion for your buttocks. Me likey.

The noise level and music is a pleasant surprise. I really thought that it would be too loud in there. At night when they crank up the music in the casino, I've played in the high limit slot area, which is off the casino floor a bit, and it was painfully loud when the door to the room was open. I thought the poker room would also be loud at night but it's a very reasonable volume. They have their own volume control and unless you're on one of the two tables closest to the exit, then the sound level is fine.

One other thing that I like is that I actually like the music. Now that won't be for everyone, but I happen to like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Metalllica, Disturbed, Journey, Pink Floyd, Godsmack, Nirvana, Van Morrison, and most of the music they play. It makes the experience a lot better for me being able to hear good music for the duration of a poker session.

The food options are quite good and they are fairly liberal with comping it for you. If they see you in there for a few hours, it seems like they'll get you something to eat. I think the comp earn rate is $1.50 an hour on the raked games and $2 an hour on the collection games ($5-$10 NL and higher) which is very good but they'll take care of you even if you're a little short on the comps as long as you're playing. Food is available from the Lucky's café coffee shop and from the Pink Taco, both of which have good quality food.

The poker room also is very unusual from other rooms in the way that it's integrated into the other aspects of the casino. For example, if you want to go into the Wasted Space bar/lounge or into Body English and you were playing poker for a few hours, the poker supervisor can escort you and your friends into those places free of charge. It was suggested that you tip the club attendant that seats you but to avoid the line and get in free to those places for playing poker is quite a perk if you want to do those things. I'm too old for clubs, at least I feel that way, but for someone else this could be a great benefit.

The room also has a few innovations which I've heard about but have not experienced so can't report on.

One is that they will text message you when you join a waiting list and you will then have 10 minutes to take your seat. Although I haven't tried it myself it seems pretty cool.

Another innovation is poker leagues where you and people from your office or your frat or your church group (that'd be funny) can have a team of 4 people and compete in a weekly poker league kinda similar to a bowling league I think. Could be a fun way for people to let loose but I haven't seen it or tried it.

I feel an obligation to report on a few of the drawbacks of the room as well, even though my overall opinion is very positive.

For one, Red Bull is $3. I realize it's expensive for the casinos to serve it so I can understand this. A couple other poker rooms in town either won't serve it at all or charge $5 or $6 so the $3 rate is more fair. Venetian, Bellagio, Wynn, and MGM are free though so there is a difference.

Also, parking can be a challenge, especially right now with all the construction they're doing. Valet rarely will take your car on the weekends (unless you have a VIP card) and other than valet there is only one way in and out. The parking garage is, in my opinion, one of the more dangerous ones in town. People drive very fast and the ramps are fairly narrow and have parked cars on either side.

Another negative currently is that there aren't a lot of games to choose from. They're really getting started from the ground up and that's a hard thing to do. At the level I play which is $2-$5 NL and higher, there is often only one game or two when it's busy. For the lower games there's often 3 to 5 tables which is enough.

The rake on the $2-$5 game is slightly higher than a number of places in town because it's 10% up to $4 plus a separate $1 jackpot drop. Many of the $2-$5 games in town are either 5% rake up to $4 or have a graduated system where the 4th dollar is take at a pot of $80 or higher (as opposed to $40 at HR). The HR's rake is tolerable but among the higher options in town currently.

One last negative, but it's also a positive in a way, is that the game is more relaxed from some of the rigid rules I see at every other poker room in town. I see more people talking about hands when not in a hand, folding out of turn, exposing cards, and other rules and etiquette violations that can affect the game.

I have to say, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, that I in many ways I like the fact that people can use a little more casual language and some "home poker" type behavior is tolerated, but I have seen this casual-rather-than-strict environment create some unfair situations for the players.

Overall, I think the room is great and I hope it grows in popularity. I'm sure I'll be spending a number of hours there each month, if not each week.

A few more pictures and then my ratings chart at the end:

Billy Bob Thornton picture on the wall above a HR poker table.

Bar that's attached to the poker room.

One of the dealers on Halloween night. You should have seen his miniskirt and his shaved legs. Terrifying.

**Hard Rock Poker Lounge**
Rake	2 stars
Parking / Access	2 stars
10-hand vs. 9-hand	9-hand
Max buy in	5 stars
Shuffle Machines	Yes
Cell phone usage permitted	Yes
Comfortable chairs	5 stars
Good food	5 stars
Food comps	4.5 stars
Red Bull and premium liquor	$3 RB
Number of games available	2 stars
Noise level	4 stars
Skill level of competition	5 stars
Overall rating	4.5 stars

Luxor New Player Offers

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:32:00 -0800

The Luxor is currently offering the following for new MGM/Mirage player card sign ups at its property:

200 Points = a T-Shirt

1,500 Points = $15 in Free Play

4,000 Points = $40 Food Credit

8,000 Points = $250 Flight Certificate

The awards are cumulative so if you achieve the 8,000 point level you also receive the other awards leading up to that level.

I'm not sure how the flight certificate works, but if it's worth $250 then it makes this a pretty good deal.

At Luxor (and all MGM/Mirage properties), one point is earned for every $4.5 coin in on video poker (and $1.5 coin in on slots) which means to earn 8,000 points you'd need to play $36,000 coin in.

$250 is 0.7% of $36,000 and the casino offers 9/6 Jacks or Better which pays 99.54%. There is also a .22% free play to go with your points earned so on the first 8,000 points you'd be playing a game at 100.46% not counting the dining credit or the $15 free play.

If there are severe restrictions on the flight certificate it could make this offer less attractive so make sure to ask some questions before doing this promotion if it interests you.

Astounding Poker Move I Saw Tonight

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:43:00 -0800

I witnessed this hand at a casino poker room tonight. I was not involved in the hand personally. As a spectator, however, my jaw dropped and my eyes just about popped out of my head.

The game was 2/5 No-Limit Hold 'Em and there was a straddle to $10 which acts like a 3rd blind making the game 2/5/10 with the person straddling getting to act last before the flop.

One person in middle position raised to $50. The button called and the small blind called. The big blind and the straddle folded so there are 3 people that saw the flop.

The pot now has $150 in it.

The flop: As 3s 6c

There was a potential spade flush draw readily obvious to the people involved in the hand.

On the flop the small blind checked. The original raiser in middle position then bet $100. The button called the $100 bet. The small blind then check raised to $250. The original bettor thought about it and then called. The button said something like, "I'm way behind here. I need a lot of help. Help me dealer." Then called the $150 raise.

The pot now has $900 in it ($150 from preflop and $750 more from the action on the flop).

The turn card was the 9 of diamonds which didn't appear to be a card that would help anyone but you never know for sure. All 3 players checked.

The river was the 10 of spades completing the flush if anyone had been drawing to it which you would assume at least one person was.

The small blind checks the river. The original raiser in middle position checks also. The button who had the shortest stack of the 3 people then went all in for his last $450.

The small blind thinks a lot. Looks visibly concerned. It doesn't appear to be an act at all. He very reluctantly decides to call the $450 after some time thinking. The original raiser shows AK of diamonds and folds.

The pot now has $1,800 in it.

As the two players remaining are about to reveal their cards to decide the winner, the person on the button who went all in offers the small blind a deal. He says, without batting an eye or a creak in his voice, "Would you like to split the pot right now?"

The small blind says, "Really? Split the pot? Yeah, sure I'll split it with you." Apparently the small blind (who we find out shortly had an 8-high flush) was very concerned that his flush wasn't high enough and was relieved to split.

The dealer then does split the pot and gives $900 to each player but does require them to expose their cards. The small blind had the 87 of spades for a flush. The button had a 45 offsuit which gave him absolutely nothing!

The button player had flopped an open-ended straight draw and never got there.

I am 100% convinced that they weren't working together. I don't think they knew each other before the game and I don't think they were taking a shot at the third person in the hand who had folded. After all, how obvious would that be? They could just split it up later if they were partnered.

No. The small blind made the mistake of mistakes and lost $900 by making a horrible deal out of fear.

The kid on the button who offered the deal immediately became someone I would fear at the table. He seemed as comfortable asking the small blind if he wanted to split the pot as he would have been asking him what time it was or who he liked in the Monday Night Football game. He must have ice running through his veins.

There are so many things about this hand that I find unusual. One was how casual and relaxed the button was in offering the split possibility. Another part is how quick-thinking of a move that was. Another aspect was that the person who had the flush would actually accept the offer. Another was that the dealer allowed it.

The sequence of events that made this happen seem so incredibly unlikely.

Another part that confused me was that the third person with the AK never objected. Once he saw that someone had the flush he didn't mind at all, but when the proposition was first asked by the button, how did that third person not verbally complain?

So the question is, is this an acceptable way to play poker?

Isn't poker about decision making and getting your opponents to make incorrect decisions? If you give this offer of a split pot when you have nothing to lose and your opponent accepts, isn't that just another form of poker? Poker is full of deception.

Or does it go over the line? What line? Is it dirty poker? Maybe. But is playing dirty wrong?

Say what you will about it, the young man on the button has $900 more money to his name than he would have.

I seriously doubt as to whether I've ever seen that before or will ever see it again.

Professional Poker Players -- a $2,000 (or more) a Month Casino Customer

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:12:00 -0800

In the past, I've played poker games that have a rake where the house takes out a few dollars from each pot. The effect it has on the players is that you effectively pay when you win because the house's take comes out of your winnings.

As one moves up to higher limits in Vegas and in California, the house will often charge a time fee rather than a rake. For many places in Vegas this is $6 or $7 per half hour. I'm told that in Los Angeles the time collection can be as high as $10 per half hour.

I always found it hard to quantify the expense of the rake. Sure I could count how many pots I won per hour on average and multiply that by the amount the house took out but I've never really felt like doing that. When I look at the time collection fee, however, the math becomes easy.

Let's say that I take the lowest hourly collection that Vegas offers at $6 a half hour making the cost $12 per hour. If you were to play poker at that rate for 40 hours a week, you're paying $480 to the casino every week. Multiply that by a little over 4 and you get $2,000 a month. A professional poker play playing this game is paying the casino $2,000 a month for a seat at the table!

$2,000 a month is enough for a mortgage on a nice house. $2,000 a month is enough to lease a Bentley. How many casino customers do they have that give them a steady $2,000 a month in revenue?

This doesn't include tips to the dealer, which the house doesn't receive but it does help pay their employees. Also, it doesn't include other charges such as if the player purchases food items or sticks a $20 bill in a slot machine on the way out.

Having professional poker players play at your casino also is a benefit in that it helps fill games which attracts even more customers. Casinos used to pay proposition players to keep games active. A small number of places still do. A pro poker player in your casino, among the other benefits, is also an unpaid prop.

Professional poker players who are loyal to one house should be teated with a high regard. Not only are they paying their "rent" but they're benefiting the house in a number of other ways.

Now let's look at a couple other aspects. If the game is raked, I can only assume that the amount of money generated for the house is nearly equivalent to the $6 per half hour rate. Rake is a bit more subjective because it depends on a player's style (a loose style will end up winning more hands, and losing more hands, and paying more rake), how fast or slow the game is being dealt and played, and a number of other factors. My guess is that a professional poker player playing 40 hours a week on a raked game in Vegas is at least paying $10 an hour up to $14 an hour in rake which would be about the same as my time collection example above.

Also, at $7 per half hour, which is the even higher limit games (or the $5-$10 at Red Rock), you're looking at $14 an hour or $560 a week. This works out to about $2,300 a month not including tips and ancillary expenses. At $10 a half hour like they have in California, you're looking at over $3,000 a month to be a professional poker player!

I've heard in California that, while you are paying more for your seat, the casinos do offer some perks like unlimited food including steaks and lobster and high quality fare. You're definitely paying for it but it's nice that they take care of you to a certain extent.

I felt it was important to write this because I'm not sure how many casinos realize what a valuable customer they have in a professional poker player. Casinos have concerns about card counters and other professional gamblers, but a professional poker player is a $2,000+ per month customer for the house. That's a good customer, I would think.

Government Bailout Concerns

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:24:00 -0800

Since our Congress and our President have recently signed the $700 billion bailout into law, banks have been applying for the government funds to come their direction and I have some real concerns about what our money is going toward. I realize that I'm no expert on the this topic. I'm more of a Joe the Plumber type with a lot of curiosity and concern. Perhaps some experts out there can comment and help me out here.

One problem I have is an ABC News article that reports that $108 billion has been set aside for bonuses for executives of these banks. From the ABCNews.com article:

Those banks have spent or set aside $108 billion to pay out bonuses to top executives, [House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman] Waxman said, referencing the firms' public filings.

The bonuses would reportedly range from around $100,000 for a lower-level employee to over $1 million for senior employees. Experts have said the payouts will be plumper than they would have been in such a disastrous year because of the taxpayer money flowing into the institutions.

Financial personnel experts have said the bonuses were necessary to retain top talent.

In our capitalist society, money is what motivates people and I can see the argument for needing to pay highly skilled people to do highly skilled jobs. If you don't pay them, then they will look elsewhere. Bonuses are as American as apple pie.

On the other hand, many businesses right now are cutting bonuses significantly or not giving any bonuses at all. MGM/Mirage is an example of a Las Vegas company that has announced no bonuses for executives this year, from CEO Terry Lanni on down to the executive hosts at their individual properties.

The argument for bonuses to keep top talent appears to be a valid argument but in today's economic environment I don't believe that many people in many sectors of business are getting anywhere near the bonuses that they're accustomed to. In other words, would top talent really look elsewhere? Where would they look?

The ABCNews.com article states that House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank called for a moratorium on executive bonuses at these banks. While I disagree that the government should generally be telling businesses how to run themselves, when we're the ones footing the bill should we not have some input? $108 billion out of $700 billion seems like a sizable chunk.

Two more concerns I have about the bailout come from a New York Times editorial about how the money is being used.

The editorial states that one primary goal of the bailout was to influence banks to start lending again. The problem though is they aren't. If you speak to many people applying for loans, it's very difficult and banks are really trying to hold on to their money. The auto industry for one is in a quagmire because customers are not able to secure auto loans. Home loans are very difficult and even credit card companies are pulling back credit.

The New York Times article implies that the banks receiving the bailout funds may be more inclined to hold the money in case the economy gets worse so that they'll be protected themselves.

Another point the NYTimes makes is that the money was also to be used to buy weaker banks that might fail. This would save taxpayers money by preventing the emergency recovery assistance needed when they do completely fail.

According to the editorial, banks aren't buying the weaker banks because buying a stronger bank looks more inviting. A weak bank might incur costs and work, while a financially sound bank could be a great business acquisition that will provide immediate returns.

We have to have faith that our government will use our $700 billion wisely but the initial reports I see about it are not confidence-building.

Can someone give me the good news?

More Phillies Bettors Confusion

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:57:00 -0800

According to an article on ESPN.com the MGM/Mirage properties in town didn't follow the standard routine of paying Phillie's bettors on game 5 of the World Series.

If you read my previous blog entry you'll see that when there's a rainout it's been a standard in the industry to pay bets based on the last completed inning as long as the game has gone at least 5 innings. Most books in town did just that and paid off Phillies tickets because they lead 2-1 at the end of the 5th.

MGM/Mirage, according to the ESPN.com article, will wait until the game is concluded tonight to pay winning and losing tickets.

I find this unusual because there isn't a precedent, nor a written regulation for them to do this, at least not that I'm aware of.

I don't consider it wrong on their part to do it this way necessarily, only dangerous. It's dangerous when you can't point to something written down as your justification. Maybe they can. I don't know every regulation, so we'll see.

One more cynical contributor to the LVA Sports message board suggests that MGM/Mirage probably had more bets on Philadelphia than on Tampa Bay and would rather the Tampa side win.

Things that make you go hmmm.

One of the latest posts on the forum suggests that MGM/Mirage had made this policy in writing prior to the game starting. I'll let you know what I find out.

UPDATE: MGM/MIRAGE wrote "All bets are action regardless of when game is played and/or completed." So their policy is consistent. No problems there.

Phillies Won Last Night -- According to Vegas

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:23:00 -0800

According to Las Vegas rules, bettors who placed moneyline bets on the Phillies in Game 5 won their bets and were able to cash their tickets. Bettors who had placed moneyline wagers on the Tampa Bay Rays conversely lost their bets and have worthless tickets.

The reason for this is a common rule in baseball betting that if a game doesn't go the full 8.5 or 9 innings (but does complete at least 5 innings) due to weather then the bets revert back to the last completed inning.

Since last night's game was called in the middle of the 6th immediately after Tampa had tied the game in the top of the 6th, the bets reverted back to the completed 5th inning where Philadelphia was leading 2-1.

Interestingly, this game will be continued and Tampa Bay could still win the game, so a Tampa bettor could have the unusual distinction of having a losing piece of paper on a winning side. A bad beat indeed.

Here's the Review-Journal's piece about it:

Sports Books Pay as if Phillies Won.

Becker Gaming Las Vegas Double Royals During MNF

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:23:00 -0800

There are 6 bars in Las Vegas that are on the Becker Gaming player's card system and all 6 are offering double royal flushes during Monday Night Football from kick off until the end of the game, even if it goes to overtime.

Currently the best game offered is 7/5 Bonus Poker which yields a 100.3% edge. The players card system also gives you 0.25% cash back so you get a little bit better than 100.5% in total. Games go from single line quarters to 5-play $5.

DelSol Sunglasses -- Lifetime Replacement Guarantee

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:59:00 -0800

I'm someone that has a really tough time holding on to a pair of sunglasses. Either I lose them, sit on them, drop them repeatedly, or otherwise require a replacement pair.

I did some searching on the Internet today to research my latest replacement and came across a bow hunting Web site with a message forum. The question was asked about good sunglasses and one person mentioned the DelSol brand which I'd never heard of. The post said that the sunglasses are under $50 and have a lifetime replacement guarantee even against theft or loss.

I decided to go to the DelSol site and look at what they had as well as see if this too-good-to-be-true guarantee actually was true.

DelSol offers 9 different styles for men and each one is $45. I then read the guarantee and they will indeed replace the sunglasses whether you break them or lose them for a $10 shipping and handling fee.

The description makes the sunglasses sound like they're good quality as it says they have 100% UVA/UVB protection as well as are polarized to prevent glare.

I can't give you a review of them because I just ordered the Bahama pair today ($52 with shipping) but if it's as good as it sounds, this might be a way to keep me from pouring money down the sunglass money pit.

Here's a link to the men's sunglasses. They also have ladies sunglasses as well as other items including watches with a full replacement guarantee as well.

PT's Half-Price Wednesdays

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:01:00 -0800

PT's in Vegas started a promotion in September where all drinks and all menu items were half price on Wednesday nights. It proved to be so successful that they continued it through October. I was at one location tonight and inquired if it would continue through November and they said it will.

This is a great deal. All appetizers, burgers, pizza, sandwiches, salads, soups, wine, beer, mixed drinks and everything else is half price. Interestingly the only items that aren't half price are their monthly specials.

Two of us can go in there and have a couple drinks and a couple meals and the bill will be under $20. Since there are over 30 locations in Vegas, this is definitely a good play for locals and potentially worth a trip out if you're visiting town.

Online Gambling in the News

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:39:00 -0800

Note: If you like what I read, please sign up for my subscriber list so that you can be informed of new postings to the blog.

Some recent articles related to online gambling:

O.J. Simpson Trial

"According to Clark County Circuit Court Judge Jackie Glass, the reason she withheld information from the press regarding juror questionnaires was due to online gambling sites. Glass told the Nevada State Supreme Court that at least three offshore Internet gaming venues were accepting bets on the trial's outcome."

Click here for full article.

Kentucky Governor Still At It

"On Thursday, Judge Thomas Wingate from the Franklin Circuit Court ruled that the state has the right to pursue its civil case against online gambling sites including AbsolutePoker.com, BodogLife.com, CakePoker.com, DoylesRoom.com, FullTiltPoker.com and PokerStars.com. If successful at a subsequent trial that is due to begin on November 17, the southern American state could seize the domain names and effectively close the sites."

Click here for full article.

WSOP Leader Dennis Phillips is Auctioning Ad Space on His Shirt

The chip leader of the November 9 that are going to compete for this year's poker world champion is Dennis Phillips. Phillips has been a supporter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society since his brother was diagnosed with the disease 10 years ago. He is auctioning ad space on his shirt through the eBay online auction site. All proceeds from the auction with be donated to the Society. The current bid is $16,200. Bidding closes on Oct. 26. That's spiffy!

Click Here for eBay Auction.

60 Minutes Online Poker Segment

The 60 Minutes piece about online poker should be coming up soon. I originally reported it as being for October 26. It appears that it will not be featured on this Sunday's show so stay tuned to their episode page to find out when it will air.

60 Minutes Episode Guide.

Google Allows Gambling Ads in Britain

Google has opened up Internet advertising for online gambling sites for UK Web visitors. This is a turnaround from their complete ban from a few years ago. I'd say this shows the environment is softening and moving toward regulation in the USA, although it's clearly still a long way off.

Click Here for Full Article.

Vietnamese Pho Soup -- A Delicious and Healing Experience

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:39:00 -0800

Those of you who've read my friend Anthony Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor newsletter or Web site for a while are familiar with his fondness for Vietnamese Pho Tai soup. A few years ago we had lunch together at his favorite Viet restaurant called Pho Vietnam in the Chinatown Plaza on Spring Mountain road and he introduced me to the soup and I've been hooked ever since.

I was wary at first because I was unfamiliar with the soup and when I thought of Asian soups I thought of eyeballs floating around in them or fish still swimming around in the bowl. I wasn't terribly adventurous dietarily.

The fact is, as far as unique Asian dishes go, Pho is rather innocuous even for those of us meat and potato Americans. It's simply a noodle soup like your grandmother's chicken noodle soup. You can order Pho Tai which is what Anthony and I generally order or you can get Pho Ga which has chicken (yep... chicken noodle soup). There are other variations of Pho that you can order with tripe and other more adventurous cuts from the animal but I stick with the simple Pho Tai.

Note that Pho Tai is a rare steak soup. The beef isn't cooked prior to be being placed in the broth. For those of you who get your steaks medium well or well done you might prefer the chicken soup or you could probably ask them to cook the steak first. That will mean a lot tougher beef but might be more to your liking. Anthony and I will often ask for the beef on the side and we put it in the soup to let it cook. This keeps the meat much more tender. I enjoy carpaccios and steak tartare so rare steak doesn't deter me.

When the server brings the soup to the table, he or she also brings a side plate with chili peppers, often jalapeños, sliced lime wedges, bean sprouts, and fresh basil along with an assortment of hot sauces. Here's a picture of the presentation initially.

Once you receive the side items, rip up the chili peppers and the basil and throw it into the broth. Grab a handful of bean sprouts. Lastly squeeze in some lime juice from the sliced wedges. Also, I like to squeeze in a lot of the Sriracha hot sauce (it has a picture of a rooster on the bottle) to really heat up the soup.

Note that Pho soup is NOT spicy! There are some onions in the broth but other than that it is a very mild soup. If you don't like spicy foods then don't put any chili peppers or any hot sauce and it will be fine. If you can handle French onion soup then you can handle Pho. If you like to sweat and inflict intentional pain upon yourself like I do then load it up with some serious heat.

Be careful after handling the peppers not to touch your eyes. They will sting for a long time. For those men in the audience, after touching the peppers I also recommend washing your hands before going to the bathroom. I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out why.

After I'm done preparing my soup it looks like this:

Mix it all together and break out the chopsticks or a fork if you're not used to chopsticks and dig in. I like to save the broth until I get plenty of the veggies, noodles, and beef down first. Once you've cleaned out some of the solid items, grab a spoon and start sipping the broth.

I've heard the term "hangover soup" for Pho. It is definitely a restorative meal when you're a bit under the weather for whatever reason. I like to have it just about anytime. Pho Kim Long, my particular favorite in Vegas, opens at 8 am and I'll have it for breakfast sometimes. Very frequently for lunch. Not as often for dinner.

There are a few casinos in town that offer this soup. Caesars has it in the food court. TI has it in the coffee shop. Mandalay has it in their Noodle shop restaurant. In my opinion, none of the casino locations compare to the places on Spring Mountain. The casino locations are a reasonable substitute. When I have a comp, the price is right, but when I want the good stuff I head to Spring Mountain road.

Pho is also a very inexpensive meal. I usually just get water to drink (lots of water!) and the bill comes to $6.50. I leave $8.00 which is probably more than enough and am out the door. Make sure to order the small size unless you're a big eater. The large bowls are cavernous.

A couple places like Pho Kim Long at Spring Mountain and Valley View or Pho So 1 at Spring Mountain and Decatur are open until 3 am so you can even go there after a night out on the town.

Here are three good spots:

If you don't live in Vegas, you can still try Pho soup in your area. Hopefully you have a Vietnamese restaurant within driving distance and can taste it for yourselves. If not, when you come to Vegas, I'd say it's worth the trip to Spring Mountain road!

Post Debate Election Odds

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:55:00 -0800

Now that the final debate is over and we're getting closer and closer to election day the betting sites are strongly favoring an Obama win. The current line at BetFair.com is +700 on McCain which translates to an estimated win probability of 12.5% or slightly better than 1 in 10. Here's a look at their graph of the odds on the election from months ago to the present time.

Betfair Politics

Sports Betting References in Mainstream Culture -- Can You Name the Movie?

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:49:00 -0800

Here are three pictures I took recently of sports betting references that I saw in mainstream culture.

The first picture I took in September when I was traveling in Acapulco Mexico. The sign was at a market where you could go to buy anything from food to clothes to music to appliances. It appears you can also go to buy sports betting advice. The sign says "Pronosticos Deportivos" which translated means "sports forecasters." I guess here in America we're not the only ones looking for touts like Matthew McConaughey's character in Two For the Money.

............................

The next picture is a screenshot I took two days ago when I was reading the LA Times online site. I had clicked through from a link to read the Sarah Palin article and saw a sports betting ad at the top of the page. At first I assumed it would be an online sports betting site, but it wasn't. It was Station casinos! I found it quite interesting that Station casinos would buy an online ad at an LATimes.com blog for their phone/Internet betting system.

......................................

The last picture is from a major motion picture of the last few years. I was watching it at home and I saw this briefly on the screen. I said, "Wait a minute. Those girls are wearing Sportsbook.com shirts!" Sportsbook.com is a major online betting site based in England. (On a side note, they also happen to be one of the domain names that the Kentucky governor is trying to take over.) I wonder if Sportsbook.com found a way of sneaking their way into a major movie or if they just got lucky. Heck, maybe they even paid the producers for it but I think that's a stretch.

Anyway, can you name this movie and tell me what scene this picture is from?

Breaking News in UltimateBet Scandal

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:53:00 -0800

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) has published a press release with further details into their investigation into the hole card cheating scandal on UltimateBet's online poker client that appears to have netted over $6 million. The press release specifically names Russell Hamilton as being the primary perpetrator.

Hamilton is a former WSOP main event champion and founder of the UBT blackjack tour of which I was the first champion. I have met and interacted with Russ a number of times. I don't have any personal comments to make with regard to Russ, but there usually are multiple sides to any story so I try to keep my opinions open. The fact that the KGC would publicly name Hamilton in a press release published to the World Wide Web without fear of a libel suit is not favorable for Hamilton's reputation, however.

The history behind how this cheating scandal became uncovered is an interesting one in that it wasn't the administrators of the Web site nor the KGC investigators who first found the possibility of cheating. Like an episode of Scooby Doo it was "the meddling kids." It was young people playing on the site using a poker program called PokerTracker which logs everyone's hands and results. The results for some of the user accounts were astronomical in terms of their immense winnings over significant sample sizes.

I don't have specific numbers in front of me, but let's assume that the world's best poker player playing in a $100/$200 no-limit hold 'em (NLHE) game could win $800 per 100 hands played. In PokerTracker abbreviations that would be 4 BB/100 (4 big blinds per 100 hands). That would be a phenomenal win rate especially at those stakes. These players were winning at 80 BB/100 to over 100 BB/100.

A few of these young people posted their concerns on the online poker forum at twoplustwo.com which is owned by a friend of mine, Mason Malmuth, as well as his business partner David Sklansky. The site is administrated by Conjelco's Chuck Weinstock. It's likely the busiest online poker forum on the Internet.

Once a few people read each other's messages and did their own number crunching they came to the conclusion that the odds of someone being able to consistently win at that rate was about the same as winning the state lottery 4 days in a row. In other words, impossible.

The scandal took on a life of its own as it grew. Threads over 1,000 messages long were growing daily on 2+2's news forum. I would refresh the page every 10 minutes simply to not get too far behind on the new information.

There were stories of extorting employees releasing information (false or truthful) simply because they didn't get paid off. There were stories of disgruntled employees who just wanted to make their brass look bad. Many felt that the young Internet posters were seeing monsters under the bed and were full of false conspiracy theories.

As information was leaked, more and more information pointed to Hamilton. There were multiple money transfers between his account and other accounts. Also, one of the identified cheating accounts was registered to a Las Vegas address owned by Hamilton. Prior to today's press release I think most people felt that Hamilton at least knew the cheating players if he was not directly culpable.

Now that Hamilton's name has been specifically identified publicly, I think that more and more names will surface quickly. This will likely snowball from here as we find out more and more details. I also imagine that UB and its sister site Absolute Poker (AP) are on their way to closing up shop. That's just a guess on my part.

While the cheating players are ultimately (no pun intended) responsible for their actions, I find major fault with the KGC who is supposed to be the governing regulatory body overseeing the online gambling sites under its umbrella. The way they've handled the scandal from the start would be worthy of a Bill Clinton, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" or a George W. Bush Attorney General under oath.

When the scandal first broke with Absolute Poker, the poker site swore up and down, left and right, sideways, and every which way possible that there was no cheating whatsoever. It was simply a few players who were very very bad at poker and got extremely lucky. In fact they got something like 1-in-12,000,000,000,000 lucky, but they were lucky and that was it. The KGC concurred with that statement.

Soon thereafter an employee made the "mistake" of sending out the complete hand history for a sit-n-go tournament that was suspected of having a cheating player. Employees often will send you a hand history but it won't include the unseen cards of the other players. This hand history had all unseen cards. A study of this hand history showed how the cheating was undeniable. (If you notice my quotes around the word "mistake" early in this paragraph, they are to indicate that it's likely that the information release was intentional.)

The AP site and the KGC then went on to name several cheating accounts and then supposedly made restitution to players and paid a fine, and that was it.

On comes the UB scandal and the whole charade started over again. First they deny that there was any cheating at all; only very bad and very lucky players. After some conclusive evidence is shown and they can no longer deny the charges they admit to a number of cheating accounts, I think there were 9 of them, and they say that they fully investigated and found that it was these 9 accounts and these 9 accounts only that were guilty. There were no other cheating accounts absolutely, positively, undeniably. Only 9 accounts.

A couple days later a player on the 2+2 forum shows 3 or 4 other accounts which looked like cheating accounts. The discussion about these other accounts grew and then a few days later the KGC announces that these other accounts were involved.

The whole thing is hokey as can be. When the supposedly independent regulatory body charged with enforcing the fairness and security of your Web site is seemingly complicit in the cover-up then there's a problem. A big problem.

I refuse to play at any online gambling site affiliated with the KGC because I've seen how they handled this UB scandal and I don't trust them to maintain any fairness on the sites they "regulate." Also, who is to say that the online cheating at poker isn't still going on? Now the ones doing it will be on high alert to not make unusual plays. An expert could likely make $1 million a year, year after year, and completely stay under the radar.

Full Tilt Poker is regulated by the KGC. Most of my friends think I'm crazy but I won't play at Full Tilt because of that connection. Full Tilt should make a statement that says they won't be affiliated with any seemingly crooked agency like the KGC and are moving elsewhere. As long as they are with the KGC, I won't play there.

People say to me when I mention Full Tilt that Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, and many of the FT pros are very trustworthy people and they feel safe playing there. They may be very trustworthy people. In fact, I imagine they are, but the governing commission isn't, so I don't want to play there.

Word on the poker blog universe is that 60 Minutes, the weekly news segment on Sundays on CBS, will be doing an investigative report into the UB scandal. I have heard that it may air on October 26. That will be must-watch TV for me, and likely for you too if you're reading this article. Keep your Tivos ready.

For the KGC's press release with more information, click this link.

For the 150+ message thread on 2+2 started yesterday about the latest press release, click this link.

Kentucky Governor Fighting Internet Gambling

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:26:00 -0800

Governor Beshear of Kentucky is taking a stand against Internet gambling in a new way that hasn't been tried before. He is stating that Internet gambling sites like Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker are illegally operating gambling devices in Kentucky where there is a law against any illegal gambling devices.

Beshear is trying to get the courts to order the site domain names such as pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com considered to be instruments (devices) that are being used in Internet gambling. He hopes to be able to have the state take over the domain names and then shut them down, or perhaps even use them for his own marketing purposes.

There will be a hearing on Sept. 25 to rule on this matter. It would be quite a coup if he succeeded.

What's hypocritical about Beshear is that he campaigned heavily on increased gambling in the state and is a big fan of the tax revenues that gambling infuses to the state coffers. I'm pretty sure he's not on a moral crusade by any means, but instead is on a political crusade to court the evangelicals as well as the racetrack operators, state lottery, and other legalized gambling beneficiaries in the state on his side. You have to chuckle at the irony of racetrack operators and evangelicals wanting the same thing... then again... they're all about money anyway, and that's all that motivates Beshear as well.

For more on this, check out this article.

Current Election Odds at Online Betting Sites

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:50:00 -0800

I read political blogs and news sites every day. A few sites that I read through every day are:

NYTimes.com -- great election and world news coverage. The NY Times also has an excellent set up for mobile web (on your phone). Whenever you click to view an online article on your phone it recognizes that and gives you a phone-friendly version.

CNN.com -- good news site. Some fluff. Light liberal bias.

FoxNews.com -- good news with a heavy conservative bias.

Slate.com -- very well written articles about the political race, the environment, and other important issues. Liberal bias. Mobile phone friendly.

Fark.com -- oddball news, links to blogs, hilarious but at times poignant intros to the links.

One popular phrase in the election coverage is that it is neck-and-neck, too-close-to-tell, or some other phrase describing how Obama and McCain are very close.

I'll agree that the race is close but it isn't 50/50. McCain might win, but I'd say his odds of winning are about 40% right now to Obama's 60%.

Why do I say that? Because I look at what the smart money is betting on. It's more reliable than any polls you may find. The more money bet on something, the more I think there's value in the odds.

Two sites that I will often check out for election odds are Betfair.com, and Matchbook.com. These are actually betting exchanges rather than sports books.

The philosophy from a bettor's standpoint is about the same, however. The only difference between an exchange and a book is that in an exchange the house matches up bettors and takes a % fee for arranging the bet. A sports book, on the other hand, actually wins and loses money directly from and to the players. An exchange can't lose while a sports book can.

Their are other places that accept bets on the election. A few others I know of are thegreek.com, bookmaker.com, and intrade.com. I feel more confident in the value of looking at matchbook and Betfair because they also show how much money is being offered at particular odds and because the lines are closer since they don't have to have as large of a difference as an sports book would. (A sports book's edge comes from the difference in the offer amounts on each side of a bet. Since an exchange simply charges a fee on whatever people want to bet each other, the lines are often tighter and therefore more indicative of the true odds.)

So let's get to the numbers...

Right now Matchbook.com has $2,000 being offered by someone at 140 on McCain while there is $3,866 at -174 on Obama. That means that there are other people out there willing to accept a bet from me at those odds. They are also willing to wager a sum of money large enough that I believe they feel it's a good bet for them and not simply for entertainment purposes.

While not a perfect system, if you figure out a "no-vig" line between those bets, you can get a good idea of the current odds of winning for each candidate. Since there's a 34 point difference, take half of that and add or subtract it to each person.

If we add 17 to McCain, we get 157 and if we subtract 17 from Obama we get -157. According to the current numbers at matchbook, the fair line right now is 157/-157. This means any bet of $100 on McCain will pay $157, while you must lay $157 simply to win $100 on Obama. In other words, McCain is the underdog and Obama is the favorite.

This 157/-157 line translates to odds of 38.9% / 61.1%. In other words, according to Matchbook's bettors McCain is about 40% to Obama's 60% to win.

Online there is an excellent calculator for converting the moneyline to a percentage if you want to follow the race odds daily as I do. It's located at this link at SmartCapper.com.

BetFair uses a different style of pricing than we're accustomed to in the USA. They do decimal pricing rather than moneyline. It is relatively simple to convert to a probability. You simply take the reciprocal of the "Back" number (the number 1 divided by the number listed on BetFair for "Back").

For example, right now there is $5,955 being offered on McCain at 2.7. If you divide 1 by 2.7 you get 0.37 probability which means 37%. Obama currently has $1,486 offered at 1.61. If you divide 1 by 1.61 you get 0.62 probability which is 62%.

We can see that 62% + 37% doesn't equal 100% but it's close enough. What it tells us is that the smart money on Betfair, like the ones at Matchbook, also give McCain about a 40% to Obama's 60% chance of winning.

These numbers can fluctuate wildly. Obama's favorite status increased immediately after the Democratic convention and his acceptance speech. The following day, McCain's announcement of Palin as the VP candidate plummeted Obama's favorite status, and increased McCain's odds to where they were nearly even money for a day or two. The numbers have now gone back up to about what they were before the Palin announcement.

While this may be an exciting way for many of us to watch the election, some people I know find these opportunities to be ripe ones for making money on the political betting markets. Some spikes and drops in the odds are highly predictable such as immediately after a major party's convention or after a major announcement such as the VP candidate. Some people can make money on this using a buy low / sell high strategy. Sometimes you can bet on McCain one day and then Obama the next day and it won't matter who wins, you'll have a locked in profit.

One other interesting thing that Betfair provides is a visual graph of the changing odds on the race. For example, in this graph, you can see how the odds were largely in favor of the Democrats months ago and then the race and extremely tight. You can see the Palin announcement and how it squeezed the Dem and Repub lines nearly together. Now they've expanded out a bit.

Betfair Politics

My guess is the lines will once again get tighter as November draws close. And my other guess is that I really have no idea who'll win. I just figure Obama's odds are about 3 in 5 right now.

Vegas Football Contests -- Heaven for Some, Hell for Me

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:28:00 -0800

As the NFL season fast approaches, the casinos are advertising their various football contest promotions. Some are free. Some are small stakes like $25 per entry. Some are higher stakes such as $1,000 or higher buy ins. Some focus on college football, but most of them are for the NFL.

Which contests are worth playing? For some people many of them are suitable. For me, just about none of them.

The Station casinos $1.4 million Great Giveaway contest is a small-money contest that charges $25 per entry (or $50 for 3 entries) and gives away prizes for weekly winners along with overall season most wins, most losses, and even closest to 50-50. At the end of the contest, if you won no prizes at all, you get your buy in returned to you in the form of free slot play.

The Station contest has to be a positive expectation return. I suppose it's possible you could win a share of a weekly prize that's less than you paid to enter but that would be unlikely I would think.

So it's a free shot at making a few bucks and it gives you a chance to root for some teams throughout the season and have some fun. So what's the catch?

The catch for me is that these contests are a royal pain in the ass.

If it were only one entry, I might like it because I could make what I felt were my best selections for each week and if it wins great. If not, that's OK.

The fact that I have to fill out 3 entries drives me bonkers. After a couple weeks it begins to get really old, really fast. I start making patterns with my dots or I just go ABBAABBAABBA, AABBAABBAABB, and AAAABBBBAAAABBBB and the like.

Some places like the Palms have 6 entries. 6 entries! You have enough entries to do zig zag starting from right to left, zig zag starting from left to right, all home teams, all away teams, all favorites, etc.

I believe that the Coast casinos have a totally free contest this year. Obviously that is an overlay since you're paying nothing to play but I won't be participating.

I would rather have someone drop golf balls on my head for 4 months than I would like to participate in one of those contests for 4 months.

The bigger money contests are more enticing to me, but I probably won't be in any. For one thing, I may be traveling a couple times this fall and not be available. Most of the larger contests do allow you to have a proxy to submit picks for you but I don't know if I want to go to the trouble.

The most prestigious contest is the Hilton's Superconcept which costs $1,500 for the season and you make 5 selections against the spread each week. I stopped by there 2 days ago to inquire about the contest and potentially sign up.

I found out that I could have a proxy to submit picks for me and so that sounded good. Then I tried to hit them up for a race & sports parking pass and they said they couldn't give me one just for joining the contest. I decided not to sign up.

I guess you can call me a lot of things for that, but I try to get extra value out of things that I do and for me, I had decided beforehand that if they gave me a parking pass, I'd play in the contest and if not, I wouldn't.

I don't know how many of you have tried the parking behind the Hilton which has immediate access to the sports and race book but it's very convenient and a nice perk. Prior to Jay Kornegay running the Hilton book (and he is an excellent operator, perhaps the best in town) they had a few parking spots designated for sports and race bettors. When Jay came in he at least doubled and perhaps tripled the number of reserved spots. If you don't have a sticker, it can be really hard to park out there. The other option is the garage which is so distant that it makes the Planet Hollywood garage look like it's attached to the casino.

Anyway, I don't fault them for telling me no, but I just figured if I was going to be there every week for 17 weeks, I didn't want to have trouble parking.

Sorry to get sidetracked on that...

I'd say, if you're not really into gambling and you can get a free shot (or inexpensive shot) at some money and a little bit of a rooting interest each week then the low-roller contests could be good for you. For me, I think I'd have to be institutionalized if I played them one more year.

If you're interested in the higher stakes contests, I'd say that they can be worth it, but you don't need me to tell you that. If you're ready to pay $1,000 or more to play a contest then you likely already have an idea what you're getting yourself into.

One side note for sports book operators!

I read on an online forum how the loss of the betting hold of people who are trying to make legitimate bets having to wait behind people playing these free and cheap contests may very well be higher than the ancillary money they make off the gamblers in the contests.

In other words, someone wants to bet his 3-team parlay but he's got to wait in line behind 3 people playing a cheap contest all who have 6 tickets to process.

It's a casino's job to know the numbers as to where they make their money and I'd assume that they think they make more by running these loss leaders, but I have to wonder. If you turn away enough legitimate bettors then you really could start hurting your bottom line.

Hard Rock Poker Pictures

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:18:00 -0800

The Hard Rock Poker Lounge is now rockin'. I've stopped by a couple times now but have yet to sit in a game. I'll try one out soon enough.

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, it looks like they'll have some innovative features such as text messaging you when your seat becomes open and some rules differentiations such as allowing you to straddle on the button. They also have a private room with a slightly elongated table for bachelor or divorce parties. I hear they will also allow poker leagues similar to a bowling league where you and several people from your office can have a poker team and compete against other teams

Don't hold me to this, but I believe the comp rate is $1.50 an hour on the raked games and $2 an hour on the time collection games. This would be equal to or greater than any other place in town that I know. Supposedly you can even use your comps for concert tickets or cabanas at the pool, but it'd seem to me that it would take a LONG time to earn those. Maybe they plan on giving those types of things out in drawings or some other random selection-type promotion.

Here are a few pics so you have an idea what the room and the tables look like.

Brain Teaser Answer

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:16:00 -0800

A number of people sent me their answers by email. No one appears to have used the comments to reply which is what I had hoped for. Ah well... anyway, I wanted to follow up and not leave all of you hanging. I'll repeat the question and then give the answer.

The question:

There's an actuary and a lifetime professional expert gambler who are presented with a coin by a third person.

The third person says, "This is a fair coin with an equal chance of either heads or tails being face up after I flip it. The last 29 times I flipped this coin it landed on heads."

After that, the third person then asks each person what he says the probability of the next flip is going to be another heads.

What do you think is the answer, and do you think both the actuary and the gambler would agree with you? Why or why not?

.....

Here's the answer as we discussed it in our gambler's meeting.

The actuary would say that the past trials have no bearing at all on future results and say that the chance of a heads on the next flip is still 50/50.

The gambler would say that the chance of a perfectly fair coin landing heads 29 out of 29 times is so astronomically low, that he would conclude that the coin isn't fair and that heads is more likely than tails. In other words, he would question the premise of the coin being fair in the first place.

Many of you had close to the right answer, but I wouldn't say that anyone had it exactly right. Many of you thought the gambler would think that the heads was some kind of streak which meant it would be more likely to be heads again or that tails would be "due."

A professional gambler doesn't see a streak as affecting the mathematical odds of a particular result going forward. A streak might lead a gambler to question what he sees, however.

Is either answer correct? I'd say no, but I'd go with the gambler in this one. That's just my gut feel.

Excalibur Poker Pics and One NYNY

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:02:00 -0800

Just a couple notes, it appears that the Excalibur will reopen their room within a day or two with the new electronic tables. I'll make sure to play them and let you know what I think very soon.

Also, this Thursday is the Hard Rock's poker room (they call it a lounge) opening. Tune in Friday or Saturday for my Hard Rock impressions.

Here are a few pictures from the Excalibur yesterday as hey were installing the new tables.

And here's one shot from the NYNY advertising their new night club Rok:

The NYNY hotel always seems to take good pictures. It's very photogenic.

CNN on NYC on a Budget

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:32:00 -0800

Just thought this might interest some of you even though it's New York City instead of Vegas. CNN has some recommendations for a NYC visit on a budget. Looks like a decent article:

Big Apple Fun on a Budget.

Helicopter Tour to the Grand Canyon

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:38:00 -0800

Over the weekend we decided to try one of the day excursions via helicopter from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon. I did some searching online and found a "special" (might be their price all the time) for $299 a person which included a trip out, a champagne picnic lunch, and a trip back (that should go without saying, no?). There was also a $40 per person fuel surcharge.

The company we chose was Sundance, not for any particular reason other than the price was in line with what I was looking to spend and it sounded like enough tour for us.

The tour includes being picked up in a limo at your Strip hotel. They won't pick up far from the Strip. We could have driven straight to the Sundance office, but chose to park at the Palazzo to take the limo.

I had thought that it would be a private limo for the two of us along with some champagne. It wasn't. There wasn't even a bottle of water inside and we had to share the limo with 5 other people. Next time, I think I'll just drive to the departure area. If you're a tourist staying in a hotel, this would be convenient but don't expect it to be romantic or glamorous.

When we arrived at the departure area, they weighed us and gave us some safety instructions. Don't you love the "in case of a water landing" speech on an airplane? Imagine getting that speech when going on a helicopter. Yippee.

One of the first views I had from the office was this:

I leaned against the glass and just looked at the helicopters for a bit. I was clearly fascinated and a fit and energetic older man in his uniform said to me, "Ain't they beautiful? I could just look at them all day." He was one of the helicopter pilots and said, "Anything a bird can do, I can do in one of those babies." He exuded confidence which was helpful to ease my tension. In fact, he told us that he'd been flying them for 42 years. This also was reassuring. We'd hoped that he'd be our pilot.

He wasn't our pilot, but we got a great one named Nate. Here's Nate as we're preparing for departure.

Nate was very professional while at the same time being comfortably informal and humorous. When we first got in the heli, he said, "Ok. Let me see if I can figure out what all these buttons and switches do." Thanks a lot Nate. ... although it was pretty funny.

After the doors were latched shut, we were buckled in, and then we left the ground I did immediately think to myself, "Get me off of this thing!" The first 10 minutes I had to calm my nerves a lot. You can say to yourself, "Well there's nothing I can do about it now" or whatever it takes to calm down but it can still be a bit nerve-racking if you're like me and don't like flying, don't like heights, or don't like closed in spaces.

Here's me settled into the cockpit:

After the first 10 minutes or so I relaxed a lot and found it really enjoyable. As we lifted off the ground, I took some pictures of the airport and some planes on the ground:

As we began to fly East, it was really interesting seeing the city from 1,000 feet. Sure, I'd seen it from an airplane before, but a helicopter gives you a much larger field of vision. Seeing the city from that height, with a golf course in one area, and a school in another, and neighborhood after neighborhood, I was reminded of one of those computer games where you build a city.

In the video games you grab a school with your mouse for example, and then move it to an open area on the computer grid map. You then have to provide facilities utilities, police, fire departments and such and then the game plays out your city for you. The city looked like an amalgamation of many different small grids of various purposes. It almost felt like it wasn't real and that you were observing the city below the same as a child would observe the ants inside an ant farm.

As we flew past Lake Mead I realized that Lake Mead is one of big freaking lake. It's a man made lake, I guess the biggest in the world, and it's absolutely enormous. The lake actually has two major sections that are connected by the Narrows. Here's the Narrows as well as a shot from inside the heli.

One of the first major areas that we passed on our way out of town was Lake Las Vegas. Lake Las Vegas is also a man made lake but it looks like a pond compared to Lake Mead. You could also see the casinos and residential areas around Lake Las Vegas. I didn't get any good photos though.

The next major feature on our trip was the Hoover Dam. As we approached we were traveling parallel to the Dam, and then the pilot did a quick hard left and we zoomed right toward it. It was a remarkable sight and a queasy moment for me.

I took several pictures of the Dam but this one is probably the best. One thing you can see is the bridge that they're building for traffic to bypass having to drive over the Dam. That should make road travel between Arizona and Las Vegas a whole lot easier. How they're going to have support in between the sides I don't know.

Here's another shot of Lake Mead. This is the far opposite end from where most Las Vegas residents would go to recreate. The pilot told us the name of this area, but I can't remember. Feel free to post a comment if you know the answer. I just thought it was a really pretty sight. The water was a greenish blue and the land had many colors.

When we flew over one ridge and first saw the Canyon it was jaw-dropping. What a sight. Enormous expanses of depth that had been carved away over hundreds of millions of years by the water of the Colorado River. Every group of rock was a different color and it all looked so darned big.

Here's a couple shots:

When we landed inside the Canyon, we were in a section called the West End. This land is actually Hualapai Indian land which is why we could visit. The tour company pays the Hualapais a fee to have this landing area available. Other sections of the Canyon are owned by the Federal government which does not allow flying in most areas and landing in any area.

Here are couple pics taken from the ground inside the canyon:

While we looked around at the exotic vegetation, and tried not to find any scorpions, rattlesnakes, or tarantulas (we were told they're around sometimes), the pilot set out a picnic lunch for us. It was really basic. It included a ham and cheese wrap, some apple slices, sodas, bottled water, and champagne.

We then sat down to eat. Here's a picture of our picnic in the Canyon.

We were on the ground for about 30 minutes and then back on our way. If you're ever planning on taking this trip, note that there aren't any bathroom facilities here. Fortunately, I didn't need any but I'm not sure what you could do if you really needed one. Make sure to plan ahead.

When we departed we took a slightly different route going home. Also, in the final leg of the trip we fly to downtown Las Vegas briefly before coming back along the Strip on the West side back to the executive airport.

One sight I enjoyed was seeing the large groupings of Joshua trees. These aren't really trees; they're cacti. They look a lot more like trees than your average every day cactus though. I didn't get any great pictures. This one was probably the easiest to see.

I would really enjoy being on the ground to see some of these. There were some areas that had hundreds of them. I don't know if it's possible to hike out there but these would be great to see up close.

We also flew by where the Colorado River dumps into Lake Mead. You can see the change in color from the muddy river to the blue lake.

The river is still carrying sediment from the Canyon. In fact, it's still carving the Canyon deeper.

The last few shots are just a few aerial shots of Downtown and the Strip that I took as we neared the end of our trip.

Downtown Las Vegas and the Fremont Street Canopy

The Strip Looking North to South from Behind the Stratosphere

Trump and Other Vegas Buildings

The Mirage

Project CityCenter

Monte Carlo and New York New York

MGM Grand

The Strip From Just Above the Helicopter Landing Pad

This was a wonderful trip and we both had a great time. The pilot also does a film of inside the cockpit and outside while we're traveling which also includes his narration. It's $65 which I think is a bit high but I'll likely buy it anyway.

We're both big fans of the helicopter trips now and hope to do some more in the future. If you're looking for a way to add to your Vegas vacation, this is an excellent choice.

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Excalibur Poker Room Tables to go 100% Electronic

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:27:00 -0800

All the poker dealers at the Excalibur have been given 2 weeks notice. They're being replaced by computers.

On August 21, the Excalibur is scheduled to open their poker room with 12 electronic PokerPro poker tables which will replace their existing 12 traditional tables. There will be no dealers and the room will be staffed only by 1 or 2 poker "hosts."

I spoke today with Neil who is currently a floor person and is slated to be one of the hosts for the room. He will seat players, move players from table to table during tournaments, assist with purchasing and cashing out, enforce poker room rules regarding behavior, and do other tasks.

Neil had a list of questions for management such as whether the rake would be the same, will they still have a jackpot drop, will they still spin their bonus wheel and other such questions. He didn't know at this time. One potential profitable opportunity for us could be the wheel money in reserve. They may to give it back to the players which they'd likely do in a promotion that could be good.

As far as those questions, he didn't know the answer.

What he did know is that when you play you sign up for an ATM card and then you deposit money in that account. You then swipe your card at the table when you sit down and it registers your balance on the screen. When you're done playing you remove the card and you can cash out your money from the card.

The tables look like this:

Another person I spoke with at the Excalibur implied that this was a test from the MGM/Mirage corporation and not an Excalibur decision. If the tables show themselves to be more profitable than having a fully staffed room then they will start to convert other poker rooms in the corporation to these.

From the casino's perspective this could greatly increase profitability of the poker room. The first savings that comes to mind is the dealer wages (and benefits), but there is also the savings of not having to buy new cards, not having to rent the automatic shuffling machines, not having the admin of chip handling and surveillance, and more. Also, since it's expected games will be played faster, the casino believes each table will generate a greater amount of rake per hour.

For players, I'd say that it's a mixed bag. One benefit is that the games will go faster and that there will be more hands per hour. Another is that dealer tips will be unnecessary.

I do wonder about certain aspects of the game. I wonder if there are 3 deuces on the screen if a player might be more apt to say he folded a deuce since there won't be a dealer sitting at the table moderating. I wonder if people will be more likely to say they folded the ace of hearts when they see 4 hearts on the board. I also wonder if when someone is contemplating a big all in call on the river if there'll be more people urging to caller to call when they should absolutely keep their mouths shut.

I wonder if the bad poker players will be as excited about jumping in a game when they can't riffle chips in their hand and get cards to play with. I think the physical aspect of poker contributes to the enjoyment for some people.

I'll go on record to say I'm skeptical that these tables can be popular... but I've been wrong before and I could be wrong again.

Strip Pics at Night

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:24:00 -0800

These aren't beautiful pics by any means, but a couple interesting things I saw a couple nights ago walking the Strip.

This is a picture from between the Venetian and the Casino Royale. Can you identify what's missing from this picture? You'd have to be someone that's made this walk a few times to know. The answer will be under the picture so don't look unless you're ready for it.

If your answer is....

....

Porn slappers... you win.

This particular place seems like the most popular spot for porn slappers that I know of. The way the building creeps up on the Strip it creates very little room to get past the porn slappers. I always dislike walking here because they get so close to you with their ad papers.

Two nights in a row I walked this part of the sidewalk and saw no porn slappers. I wonder if Adelson was able to do something about them or if they just were taking the night off. I did see them at other parts of the Strip that night so I'm not sure. I hope they stay away from here and in places where they're a little easier to avoid.

My second picture is the overpass between Caesars and Bellagio:

This was a really annoying thing because they blocked off all the accesses on the Caesars/Bellagio overpass. They said they were working on the overpass and so no pedestrians were allowed. Also they said it'd be another 10 days (now 8 days) before they'd open it back up.

The way you'd have to go is to take the overpass to Bill's Gambling Hall (formerly the Barbary Coast), then go down to the street level, then walk around to the Bally's overpass, and then over the Bellagio overpass. I don't mind walking but when it's 100 degrees outside and you're not expecting it this is a real pain in the arse.

I opted to walk West on Flamingo and cross at the light to the Bellagio North-side valet. Once I got there, however, I noticed that there is no crosswalk! Sure there's a light but that still didn't make me feel too good crossing that many lanes of traffic with cabs flying around everywhere.

I really don't think they should be able to block off the whole overpass. There should be a way they can work on the overpass without doing that.

Ruth's Chris $89 Dinner for Two

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:02:00 -0800

Ruth's Chris, which has two locations in Las Vegas, is running a promotion with a special menu for 2 people for $89. This includes a soup or salad for each person, a main course for each person and a dessert to share. This doesn't include drinks, but it still looks like a pretty good deal. Here's the information:

Ruth's Chris $89 Dinner for Two.

Excalibur Walkway

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:56:00 -0800

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. I only had my phone with me for these.

This is a sign as you walk from the New York New York over to the Excalibur casino prior to getting to the walkways into the Excalibur.

This is a picture of the walkways with the moving walkway in the middle.

Anyone confused?

The Book "The Black Swan" and a Brain Teaser

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:08:00 -0800

There's a monthly meeting I attend with other gamblers in town where we discuss certain opportunities in casinos as well as discuss our own experiences gambling and even theoretical problems which may not be so useful in casinos but they're exercise for the brain.

One person at the meeting mentioned he's reading a book called The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I haven't started reading it yet, but it sounds like a good book for people interested in probability, of which gamblers would be included.

One question posed at our meeting was inspired by the book. I'll give you the question now, and then in a couple days give you what the book's suggested answer would be.

The question:

There's an actuary and a lifetime professional expert gambler who are presented with a coin by a third person.

The third person says, "This is a fair coin with an equal chance of either heads or tails being face up after I flip it. The last 29 times I flipped this coin it landed on heads."

After that, the third person then asks each person what he says the probability of the next flip is going to be another heads.

What do you think is the answer, and do you think both the actuary and the gambler would agree with you? Why or why not?

Poker Updates - Station Bad Beat and Hard Rock Info

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:22:00 -0800

Station Casinos

The Station poker room bad beat jackpot is now up to $290,000 which is higher than I usually see it. It's normally between $150,000 (its reset point) and $200,000.

Right now you have to have quad 5s or better beaten. Every Tuesday that the jackpot is not hit, they make it a little bit easier to hit it. If not hit by this coming Tuesday it'll go down to quad 4s beaten.

I've played many hours in the Station poker rooms and have never had a bad beat nor even a table share. It's tough to hit. At the same time, everyone sitting at any table at any Station casino when it hits will get a share. Since the progressive is so high I'd guess that the table share should be anywhere from $500 during the busy times of day to over $1,000 per person in the middle of the night. If you're deciding where to play poker today, this might be enough motivation to go to a Station casino. (For those of you who have read my past columns you know I hate bad beat jackpots so I begrudgingly recommend this.)

Today they're also offering a bonus for quad 8s. If you get quad 8s in a live cash game you receive $8,888 in cash. I believe that's only for today (8/8/08). I did see someone win this today. He had pocket 8s and two 8s flopped.

One other promotion that Station poker rooms are currently offering is triple comps on graveyard. I believe it starts at 3 am and I don't know what time it goes to. This is a nice benefit because you're now earning $3 an hour in comps instead of $1. I believe that the points can be used casino-wide in not only the restaurants but the gift shops, spa, and other places.

Hard Rock Poker Room

The Hard Rock is planning to enter the poker room competition in Las Vegas with the opening of their poker "lounge" which is currently scheduled for August 11.

I have been given a few interesting details from a couple inside sources, but don't hold me to this info being perfect.

One feature is that when you go on a poker list, you can leave the poker room and when your seat opens they'll send a text message to your cell phone. While a few rooms in town have pagers which are somewhat nice, most rooms require that you stay in the room or very close by to hear your name called. The flexibility of being able to go anywhere your cell phone has reception is nice. I'm told that once they text you, you'll have 10 minutes to get to the room which should be enough time even if you're at a blackjack table or sitting at the bar at the Pink Taco.

Another aspect of the Hard Rock room is that they'll have a few heads up electronic tables. As far as I know these will be the first electronic poker tables in Las Vegas. The theory is that this will give people waiting for full games the chance to play while they wait. My guess is that some people will want to play these exclusively. I'm ambivalent about how successful full 9 or 10-player electronic tables will be, but I think the heads up ones could be popular from the get-go.

The Hard Rock will have 18 tables so it's no just a small afterthought room. They're trying to make poker at the Hard Rock more than just a novelty for current customers and guests. I think they want it to be a feature that attracts new customers that would not already be there.

Word is that a big game ($100/$200 no limit) with many known TV players and other high rollers will be played there at least once a week. While I won't be playing that game and I doubt that most of you will either, it should be a draw to bring in others wanting to see the stars.

The HR is terming their poker room a poker "lounge". There will be a full bar and they're planning on having bottle service like in the night clubs. I have not had the access to see the room so I'm not quite sure how this will be implemented.

I've seen a lot of poker rooms try to attract players and it's not an easy thing to do. I'm guessing that for the first few weeks the HR's room will be busy and the games should be very good. After the first month, I'll be curious to see whether they can keep the seats full. I'm rooting for them.

If the games have people coming in from a night in the Joint or a day out at Rehab, you'd have to think that these could be very profitable poker games. You'd expect there to be inebriated players as well as inexperienced players with more money than brains.

It's always a double edged sword though because if the games are good then the pros migrate to them. One thing that's true about any poker game is that you don't have to play it so if the games aren't soft then I'll look elsewhere. I'm more than willing to give these games benefit-of-the-doubt status though simply based on the clientèle I've seen patronizing the HR.

One concern I have about the Hard Rock poker room is that it will have loud noise and/or music. The casino is extremely loud. When I spend my time there, I'm usually in the high limit slots which is separated by a closed door.

If the poker room doesn't have a good seal from the main casino floor or if they have speakers and play loud music in the room itself then I'll have trouble playing there for more than a couple hours. I'm not capable of the amount of concentration and focus required for playing poker for 6, 8 or 10 hours if there is very loud music or noise. When I play in noisy rooms I do take ear plugs. Ear plugs help, but sometimes you'll miss a verbal clue which can be costly.

If my vote matters Hard Rock, please try to keep the room noise level to a minimum.

My other concern about the Hard Rock room is what I expressed above that I wonder if they can keep a critical mass of players past the grand opening. I've seen rooms in Vegas try, and fail. Poker competition is stiff. I wish them the absolute best and hope it's a raging success.

I'm not just pandering by saying that. I want it for selfish reasons. I think it'd be a great place to play for my own purposes.

One random note... When I was at the Hard Rock 2 nights ago I passed Richie Sambora going through the hallway from the parking garage to the casino. That was kinda cool.

StripBurger a Disappointment

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:07:00 -0800

My friend, while on her 1 hour lunch break, and I decided to try StripBurger. It's close to her office and I figured a burger joint would be somewhere that would be quick and she could be back to work within an hour. I'm not sure if my assumption was correct or not, but StripBurger was anything but speedy.

We each ordered burgers of course and I wanted to try one of heir milkshakes. We also ordered some fries and onion rings. We also told our waitress that we were on a 1 hour lunch break and she said she would speed up the order.

How long do you think is an acceptable time to wait for your milkshake? 5 minutes? 12 minutes? How about 25 minutes? Yes. 25 minutes after ordering she brought the shake to the table.

How long do you think it's proper to wait for a cheeseburger? 15 minutes? 25 minutes? Try 45 minutes. Yes folks we sat there for 45 minutes waiting for the burgers.

My friend had to get her fries and burger in a bag and take them to the office with her. I ate mine at the table.

There might be an excuse for this slow delivery time if the place was packed to capacity, but I'd say only about 20% of the tables had customers. There appeared to me to be plenty of waitstaff. I don't know. Maybe the kitchen was short-staffed.

The burger was also a disappointment. The menu says that they make all their burgers medium unless you order otherwise. When ordering I confirmed that medium was what I wanted. (I get steaks rare, but burgers medium or medium well.)

This burger was well done. It was a solid grey all the way through. Not a hint of pink or red. I wonder if they left the burger on the grill the whole 45 minutes.

The milkshake was one bright spot in this disappointing lunch. I ordered vanilla and you could see the vanilla beans in the shake. The flavor was outstanding. If you like vanilla, this is vanilla to the max.

We might have caught StripBurger on a bad day. I won't say my one visit is definitive. Some friends I know whose food opinions I value really like this place so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and probably try it again sometime.

Osteria del Circo

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:32:00 -0800

I've passed by this restaurant many times while visiting the Bellagio and always was stunned by the decor from the outside looking in. It really was strikingly different and beautiful. I decided to use some of my MGM Mirage comps to try it out.

We made a reservation for two at 8 PM and arrived on time. We did have a short wait in the waiting area while they prepared our table for us. The waiting area includes a bar, and while we didn't have drinks this time, it's always a nice way to pass the time waiting. Here's a view of the lobby and bar area:

We were seated within 10 minutes at a lovely table overlooking the Bellagio lake and water feature. Our two chairs were situated so that we would both be viewing the fountain throughout our meal. That was a nice touch. Here's the view from our table and another one where I stood up and went to the window:

Needless to say, we were already enjoying our meal before even seeing the menu.

Our first course consisted of an order of oysters and the Golden Oscetra caviar, along with a glass of champagne. A sommelier at StripSteak once suggested champagne with oysters and so that's what we always do at fine dining establishments. It's a perfect compliment to the oceany-tasting seafood.

Here's a picture of the oysters and caviar. The caviar was authentic from the Caspian Sea and was priced at $205 an ounce. Thank goodness for comps!

The caviar was among one of the most delicious foods I've ever tasted. Ironically, I wish it hadn't been quite that good because I doubt I'd ever actually pay that much money for it. The fish eggs were a little salty, a bit sea-tasting, but also had a crunchiness that was just about perfect. Along with a blini, some onion, chopped egg, and Crème fraîche, we're talking fantastic.

The oysters were as good as you'd expect at a fine restaurant like this and included a tasty cocktail sauce along with a vinegary mignonette sauce.

On this particular evening we decided to fore-go the salad options and we both chose soups. My date ordered the creamy cannellini bean soup with lobster meat, while I had the Tuscan vegetable and bean soup with fettunta.

These were both excellent soups with the right balance of flavors and spices without losing the bean or vegetable flavor that was intended. The bean soup was creamy and flavorful while the lobster meat gave it some substance and weight. The vegetable soup had a blend of spices and salt where it was not too salty as many vegetable soups can be. It tasted like a homemade vegetable soup. Homemade if you live in Tuscany that is.

Here are soup pictures:

For our main courses we ordered the lamb chops, which the menu describes as "Rack of Lamb Crusted in Pecorino and Thyme with Mamma Egi's Peperonata." This was also the item that our waiter informed us was Circo's signature dish. I like lamb. My date loves lamb. So this was an easy choice.

For the second choice I ordered what I would normally call a cioppino. Here's the Circo menu description: "Tuscan Octopus and Calamari Stew with Clams, Mussels, Shrimp & Monkfish."

Since these were both very heavy and flavorful dishes we also went with a heavy red wine. We've had very good luck with Chateauneuf Du Pape reds and the sommelier advised us to try the 2005 Vieux Telegraphe.

Here are pictures:

We ordered the lamb medium rare and it came out perfect. This was among the best racks of lamb I've ever had. It's rare that I would choose lamb off a menu when dining by myself because I tend to prefer seafood but in this case I could make an exception. The meat was potent with meaty flavor. It was so rich that it was similar to eating butter. A little of this goes a long way and they weren't bashful with the servings. These were so large that I think this is one lamb I wouldn't have wanted to tangle with.

The seafood stew was another winner. The broth had a tomato base but it did not overtake the flavors of the various food items as you might expect. More than be a tomato soup with seafood, it was a seafood soup with a tomato theme. Each item, from the shrimp to the mussels to the octopus, retained its unique flavor while at the same time exhibiting the spices and broth. The broth acted to both moderate the fishiness while providing a setting to retain the spices within the seafood.

The big stars of the soup for me were the octopus and calamari. My experience with those two items is that they can be very chewy. You take a bite and chew and chew and chew and chew and you still haven't finished it yet. This was not the case with this stew. I'm not sure if it's a matter of the kitchen starting with the finest ingredients or if it's a matter of their preparation but these pieces were extremely tender. Just a few chews was all it took. I think it was the first time in my life I've had octopus or calamari that wasn't tough or chewy. It made the dish very enjoyable.

The wine was also a perfect choice. It was a chewy, bloody, red with serious legs. This is just the type of wine we like to get when we can get away with it (in other words when the main courses we order can stand up to it). This is a good choice for those who like the heavy duty reds.

For dessert we opted to try the strawberry soufflé as well as the assorted cheese plate. While I didn't take a picture of the cheese plate before we'd already started devouring it, it did include a selection of cheeses including ones made from goat's milk and sheep's milk along with the more traditional cow's milk varieties. The soufflé looked like this:

What can I say about the soufflé? It was berry, berry good. (don't groan). It was my first time trying a soufflé which I now know is very eggy. By the time I got to dessert I was a little dizzy but I believe the waiter said that 6 or more eggs went into this one soufflé. It was delicious indeed and if you're a fan of strawberries, it might just be your perfect dessert.

The bill came to $570 which was comped of course. I left an $85 cash tip which is lower than I might have done in the past. This isn't because the service wasn't 1st-rate, because it was. In fact, the service was better than many other fine restaurants I've visited. It's simply because I'm not sure that tipping 18% on the caviar or wine was correct. The work involved in serving them is not greater than other items, but of course, their cost is significantly higher than other menu items. Feel free to comment about that. I'm trying to figure out the best way to tip. For a long time, it was always 20% of the total bill, but I'm starting to think that's excessive.

One other thing...

In these difficult economic times I'm a little embarrassed to write about these opulent meals because I know times are tough for many people. I've also made sacrifices in my budget and tried to cut down on unnecessary expenses.

I've probably had 20 meals over the last 2 years that cost $500 or more and they have all been comped. I gamble in casinos as a part of what I do and this generates comps so I use them. The tips (which can't be comped) can be expensive, but getting a $600 meal for $85 is, in my opinion, a good deal.

Also, since I write reviews of them for the blog I consider them business expenses although I must say, they're some of my favorite business expenses!

Michael Jackson in Vegas

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:28:00 -0800

There was a recent article and accompanying photos of Michael Jackson and his children in Las Vegas. I hear that he's living here most of the time now and trying to get a show deal as well.

The article is pure showbiz gossip which I try to avoid, but my question to all of you is where in Las Vegas is he? I've tried to figure out what store or street this is but can't do it. Any guesses?

To read the entire article, click here.

Golden Nugget for $21 a Night Edit:(Actually $42)

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:57:00 -0800

I received an email offer from Continental airlines that looks like anyone can book. It's a $21 a night room rate at the Golden Nugget. I'm sure there are some restrictions, but it'd be worth looking into for some of you.

Here's the info:

$21 a night rooms at GN.

**Edit: argh... as is usual with things like this, it's not as good as it sounds. Read the comments.

DMatthews Dad on PokerStars

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:20:00 -0800

There are three daily tournaments on Poker Stars at 12:40, 7:40 and 10:40 Eastern time that cost 10 FPP points to play and give away a $500 prize pool. Dad's a bit of a low roller. Here's an email I received from him this morning (a guest blog of sorts):

David,

This game will drive one crazy.

I went broke on my $1.60 run and played another tournament. I won $0.60.

So, I played the real money again and lost down to $0.20. I quit when I was at 20 cents because that is the buy in minimum for the $0.02 - $0.04 game.

I relaxed a couple of days and then started with my 20 cents.

I lost the first hand and was down to $0.12. But, after I bet my entire bankroll - he he $0.12 - I won.

But I really hit a bad beat last night. I was dealt TT. The flop was T22. I flopped a full house. Well, sneaky me, I slow played it built up the pot and finally began betting and raising. The player to my right called every time. When we finally showed our cards, he had a 22.

I flopped a full house and he flopped 4 of a kind. I was glad this was a limit game!!!

Last night when I went to bed, I had grown my bankroll up to $40.08. Maybe it's been lucky cards. Maybe it's a better system. Maybe a little of both but anyway, I'm winning.

That's all for now. I hope you're doing well.

Dad

A Couple Weekends at Mandalay Bay

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:59:00 -0800

I've spent the last couple weekends doing activities at the Mandalay Bay casino. Last weekend, I was invited up to a skybox private party to see the boxing matches including the main event of Pacquiao vs. Diaz. The skybox is a distance from the action but that disadvantage is quickly made up for by the ability to move around, get a drink at the open bar, and eat the finger foods.

Here's what it looks like from the skybox:

We arrived in time to watch the three final fights all of which were very exciting. In the third-to-last event an enormous guy from Vegas got knocked out in the ST round. His opponent connected solidly to the guys left jaw and this Goliath went down.

The second to last match pitted Humberto Soto against Francisco Lorenzo. Soto was beating Lorenzo to a pulp. At one point in the Th round however, while Lorenzo was down on one knee in the corner and the referee was standing in front of him to see how fit he was to continue, Soto runs around the referee and hits Lorenzo on the top of the head. Lorenzo goes down on the mat flat on his back with his arms spread wide. It appears that if he's not actually dead, he's not really much better off.

We watched for at least 10 minutes as he lay motionless. Eventually he did stand up and everyone applauded. Then something odd happened. The referee lifted Lorenzo's arm up in the air. Even though he had gotten his clock cleaned and was on the ground about as often as he was on his feet, the referee gave him a win by disqualification. The ref disqualified Soto because of the head shot while Lorenzo was on one knee.

It was mind-boggling and perhaps the soap opera that is boxing at its finest but for us newbies to boxing it was pretty cool.

I've now read in the aftermath that the referee got in trouble for his ruling and the boxing commission as now ruled it a no-contest. They are saying that Lorenzo did an acting job and was not hurt nearly as much as he pretended to be. More fun. For more on that here's a news article.

The final bout was Pacquiao and Diaz. Here's a pic:

Pacquiao beat the snot out of Diaz. He just ran circles around him and landed some doozies while Diaz just spun around in circles. You have to imagine that from Diaz's perspective it was like one of those weird shots in a movie where the screen is blurry and the camera does a 360. He did last until the 8th or 9th round. I can't remember, but he also went down by knockout.

So in the three matches we saw three knockouts although one was reversed due to disqualification. Fun stuff.

Now this past weekend, the Mandalay Bay invited me to a poker tournament for their casino guests. I have to admit that I like these types of events because I generally have a lot more poker experience that the other players. There were three recognized pros in the event: Johnny Chan, Richard Brodie, and Minh Ly. Other than those, the majority of players were slot gamblers and table games players. Not poker players.

This was by the far the fastest structure of any live poker tournament I've ever played and it was even faster than most online tournaments! For the first four levels we did 15-minute rounds and after that we went to 10-minute rounds! This was some serious speed poker because the blinds increased so rapidly that before long the only things you could do was to go all in and hope to get lucky.

I did get lucky.

I placed 6th, which paid $10,000 which was nice. 1st place was $100,000 -- which was what I really had my sights set on, of course, but 10K ain't bad for a day's work. Richard Brodie is a friend and witnessed the final table. I went all in with Q7 suited and was called by AK. He disagrees with my play. I don't kno. I had $500,000 in chips and the blinds were 75K/150K. In hindsight though, I sure wish I had folded and waited for a better hand. Still I got a nice prize out of it.

After I busted out of the tournament we went to the Burger Bar to eat. (Once I bust out I don't like staying around to see who won. I want to get away from there fast.)

The Burger Bar is a fantastic place for lunch and has delicious burgers. They also have five different types of buns like plain, onion, sesame, wheat, and ciabatta. Also, they have many toppings ranging from various cheeses to three different types of mushrooms, to a friend egg or jalapeños.

Five of us had lunch. Richard had a buffalo burger. I had a black angus burger. We also had the sweet potato fries and the zucchini fries. It was one of the best lunches I've had in a while. Delish!

p.s. For those of you who don't know, Richard Brodie was employee #77 at Microsoft and worked directly for Bill Gates for a while. He also was integral in the creation of Microsoft Word. He likely has a few bucks I'd say. Nice guy.

2X Points at Poker Stars

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:28:00 -0800

PokerStars is currrently offering double points on their cash games and SnG tournaments. This is a good promo as their cash back program is quite good for frequent players. Also, this allows you to move up their tier levels faster. The promo lasts until midnight Eastern on July 6.

They intimate some other good promotion will be offered the following week, but they haven't disclosed the details yet.

For more information, click the image:

Venetian First Casino in Vegas with Mobile Gaming

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:55:00 -0800

I was recently in the high limit slot salon at the Venetian. I went to play the $5 JoB machines that they have to qualify for a couple promotions. Unfortunately, the machines are gone. If you want to play full-pay Jacks or Better you have to play $25 machines now. They've priced me out. Those machines are too high for me.

One pleasant surprise, however, was that they've now added a mobile gambling device to their offerings. Right now, the device only works in the high limit salon, and the gold/platinum card lounge attached to it. I spoke with the head of the system and he informed me that they're trying to add the pool and eventually the entire casino floor to the area of operation.

I decided to put $50 on the device and play a few games to check it out. Here's what the login screen looks like:

To play, I had to set up an account with one of the slot attendants in high limit. This took a few minutes longer than I expected, but it was probably more a factor of the system being so new to everyone than anything else. I gave the lady $50 in cash and signed a couple pieces of paper. I then logged into the game with my player's card number and a PIN number that I chose while activating my account.

The machine had a few table games such as blackjack and baccarat as well as some video poker.

Here's a picture of the blackjack and of the video poker:

The video poker schedules were very low return. I only played a few hands. I don't know percentages of return on short-pay machines very well, but these were probably in the 96% to 97% range.

The blackjack is surprisingly good because it does pay 3:2 on naturals. I don't recall if surrender is offered or not, but the house edge is probably about 0.5%. Not too bad really. The minimum bet allowed was $5.

People will argue that the house is always going to have the edge on these games. That's usually true, but you may find that they'll offer some type of promotion on these. Perhaps they'll give you a matching bonus of $50 for a $50 play. In that case it would be great. There are no such offers right now, but I'd say it's in the future, especially as more casinos get the technology and competition develops.

Also, if your form of entertainment is playing $10 blackjack and you want to sit by the pool and play, I think this could be fun. Some people do gamble for entertainment. I choose not to, but that's not to say that it's wrong.

By the way, I cashed out $71 for a $21 profit and it was very quick and easy.

On a separate note, as I was leaving the Palazzo next door where I parked, I noticed that a number of prime parking spots are reserved for carpool vehicles or low-emission vehicles. I'm aware that the Palazzo has received an award for environmental responsibility. Specifically, the U.S. Green Building Council has given it the Silver LEED Certificate for it's significant efforts to reduce it's environmental impact.

Among some of the innovations are sensors in the suites that monitor if a person is inside and adjust the temperature up a few degrees in the summer when no people are present. Also, the pools are heated by an extensive solar system which also is used to heat the hotel's hot water in the summer when less energy is needed to heat the pool.

I laud the Palazzo's efforts. They've made some great efforts and improvements in the way these megacasinos respect their world. It's great news.

On the other hand, the parking spots idea may need some rethinking. Here are the signs over the reserved spots:

I believe it's a great idea to give carpoolers and drivers of fuel-efficient vehicles preferential parking. We have to make some real efforts to reduce our consumption of oil. These spots, however, did not appear to me to be monitored. Even if they were, I'm not sure how they would enforce it. If a husband and wife park in a carpool spot, who's to say they didn't carpool?

If they can enforce these spots somehow, then I'm all for it. If they're getting the benefits of environmental recognition from them, yet they're not being used properly, then it's not-so-good.

Having said that, their efforts in other areas of their construction and operation are the absolute best in Las Vegas for any casino property. I think they deserve a lot of credit for that.

For more excellent information about Palazzo's efforts to be Green, click this link.

Free $100 Slot Play at Station Casinos

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:11:00 -0800

I've noticed that the Station Casinos are also offering a $100 slot rebate for new player signups for its player's club card. The ads say that you're able to retrieve the $100 the very next day which makes it even more attractive than the Harrah's offer where you're sent a voucher to redeem on your next trip.

I'm really not sure what the optimal way to play this deal would be, but I think I'd find a full-pay 25-cent video poker machine and either quit at a $100 or more profit or quit when losing $100 exactly. If you lose the $100, then go back the next day and get your $100 back. Who knows, you could hit a royal for $1,000 when playing. Either way, unless you play past the original $100 you put in, you can't lose. (Note that the $100 rebate is in free play, so I suppose you could lose. It's still an excellent deal.)

Click Here for More Information.

Free $100 in Slot Play at Harrah's

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:57:00 -0800

I noticed a sign at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas that currently offers a free hour of slots up to a $100 loss for new players. When you sign up for the player's card, you then go gamble on a machine. For any losses up to $100, Harrah's will send you a voucher that you can redeem on your next visit. I'm not sure if there's anyone on Planet Earth that doesn't already have a Total Rewards card but if you know anyone, now's definitely the best time to sign up.

First WSOP Prop Bet of 2008

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:05:00 -0800

I'm writing this to you now because I am no longer in the $1,500 buy-in NLHE event which I entered today. I made it to level 6, about 40 minutes before dinner, but could not continue. My final hand was 55 all in preflop against AK and the board came 77AA3. No good for me.

Two well known poker players were at my table: Rafe Furst, a Full Tilt Poker pro, and Mori Eskandani who is the executive producer of Poker After Dark.

Mori related to the table that his program is getting the best ratings ever in that time slot "by far" and is getting between 880,000 to 1.2 million viewers per episode. He also said that there will be some new episodes including a $100,000 minimum buy in cash game with $200-$400 blinds and a $100 ante. I believe he said those episodes begin on July 14. You can read more about Mori on his Web site here.

Rafe proposed a prop bet to Mori and one other person at the table. He suggested that the three people each choose 8 poker players and write them down. After those names are written, the three sheets are opened up and any duplicates are crossed off. After that, whoever's group gets the most bracelets in this year's WSOP wins $1,000 from the other two. I decided to accept the bet. Sounded like fun and a good way to interact with a couple pros.

Before I list the picks, here's a pick of me and Rafe.

So we picked our names. The ones in bold and italics were duplicates:

Rafe picked:

David Singer, Chris Ferguson, Robert Mizrachi, Michael Mizrachi, Chad Brown, Eric Lynch, Michael Binger, and Jeff Lisandro

Mori picked:

Thor Hansen, David Singer, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Todd Brunson, Gus Hansen, Barry Greenstein, and Doyle Brunson

I picked:

Eric Seidel, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Robert WIlliamson III, Phil Hellmuth, Dan Harrington, Chris Ferguson, and Alan Cunningham

So the way this works is that if a person in one of the groups gets a bracelet then the person who picked him gets a point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the WSOP wins $1,000 from the other two. If all three players tie then it's a push. If 2 players tie for a win then the losing player will pay $500 each to the other two.

I felt that each of us is a huge dog to even get one bracelet winner from our list so Rafe made a side bet with me on just my list. I have a side bet with Rafe for $1,000 that I will be shutout of bracelets. In other words, I'm betting my group will get 0 bracelets. Seems odd to bet against myself, right?

When I bet, I want to bet at a positive EV. I felt that the original bet was a neutral EV with no big edge for anyone. I think the main thing is pick people who are going to play every event they possibly can. The second bet, I think I have a big edge on.

If I win outright, then I win $2,000 but lose $1,000 for a $1k profit.

If I get shutout and one of the other guys wins then I break even.

If everyone gets 0 bracelets then I win $1,000 because of a push on the main bet and a win on the shutout bet.

I can lose $2,000 if I end up having someone in my group get a bracelet while at the same time losing to another person's group who gets more bracelets than my group. That would be worst case scenario. Hopefully that won't happen.

Incidentally, we agreed not to count the first event.

World Series of Poker is Here!

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:42:00 -0800

My favorite time of the year is now upon us. The World Series of Poker begins today and people from all over the country and the world will come to compete in the events and play the side games too. I am playing in the $1,500 buy-in NL Hold 'Em event starting tomorrow which is likely to have over 3,000 players so I'll have lots to write about over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

NY Times Discusses Online Sports Betting

Tue, 27 May 2008 11:24:00 -0800

The NY Times ran an article two days ago about the British betting exchange Betfair.com. It's the same site I wrote about a couple months ago when discussing betting on the Presidential primaries and election. The article mentions the scandals that have happened in the world of tennis betting, as well as other sports.

While the article itself does not take an editorial stance, it does provide several solid arguments in favor of sports betting. Among other points, they quote a Wharton professor saying that there is a greater chance of corruption when sports gambling is unregulated rather than when it is regulated.

In other words, or at least in my words, the college and professional sports leagues and associations should get their heads unburied from the sand and see that the bookies can be their biggest allies in protecting the integrity of their sporting events.

Here's the NY Times article.

Border Grill at Mandalay Bay

Wed, 21 May 2008 16:42:00 -0800

I spent the weekend at the Mandalay Bay competing in a craps tournament for their invited guests. I didn't have any success in the tournament, but I did make some money doing my requisite gambling (more on that below).

One tasty meal I had was at the Border Grill, located down the long hallway that leads ultimately to the Shark Reef exhibit. The BG is doing some renovations right now, so the main entrance is closed. To get there you have to take a stairway down to the area where the exhibit halls are and then make a right. There are signs. You'll figure it out.

When you first sit down they ask you what type of water you'd like and if you'd like guacamole. I'd suggest ask for the regular tap water, but do get the guac. It's excellent. I make guac at home twice a week. It's one of my favorite dishes so I'm easy to please that way though.

We also ordered the Queso Fundido appetizer. This was very good, although not quite as good as the goat cheese version we consumed at the Mesa Grill a couple weeks prior. (See my Mesa Grill review.)

The highlight of the meal for us were the two entrées. We had the Lamb Barbacoa Tacos and the Grilled Skirt Steak.

These are two excellent dishes which I highly recommend. I don't like bland food and these are anything but bland. The tacos had a great combination of flavors and seasonings. The steak is marinated in garlic, cumin, cilantro, and lime and is very tender and delicious.

If you're into ice cream, they make homemade ice cream daily and they have a dessert tray that has four ice creams and three sorbets on it ... or is it three ice creams and four sorbets? Not quite sure, but they were great. The freshly made strawberry ice cream was my favorite.

The restaurant itself is quite large, with four distinct indoor seating areas (including upstairs and downstairs) as well as outdoor dining by the Lazy River. The decor is modern and cozy.

After lunch it was time to play some video poker to qualify for the weekend tournament. I went to play a little bit of video poker and was playing 26 lines at $1 each. The frequent video poker players out there will know why I was playing 26 lines. Anyway, here was a pretty nice hand I received:

Made for an all around pleasant day!

Easy Way to Get 20,000 Continental Miles

Sun, 18 May 2008 18:03:00 -0800

Chase Bank is running a promotion through May 31, 2008 where you can earn 20,000 miles for opening a checking account with $100 or more. 20,000 miles has an equivalent airline ticket purchasing value of $400 I'm told.

You open the account with $100 or more. When you make your first direct deposit to the account of $100 or more you get 10,000 miles and when you make your first purchase with the debit card you get an additional 10,000 miles. There is a requirement to pay a certain dollar amount for a debit card, which may cost up to $65, but for $400 in airline value, I'd sat that it's worth it.

As I understand it, you must open the account prior to May 31 but you have up to 60 days to make the direct deposit and also the first debit card purchase. These types of deals are frequently found for credit cards, but this is an especially good deal because it's a debit card, meaning no credit inquiries on your statement and a lot of other rigmarole that comes with credit cards.

I'm also told that a Paypal deposit will qualify as the direct deposit so I plan on putting some money into my Paypal account and then funding the new Chase account with that. The closest to Vegas is Bullhead City, AZ so my girlfriend and I are going to spend a couple days in Laughlin for free courtesy of Harrah's and also open bank accounts at Chase and receive 20,000 miles each.

For more information, visit the Chase.com information page.

Canceling a Gym Membership

Thu, 15 May 2008 16:03:00 -0800

A new athletic club is opening near my house, and it'll have better facilities and be less expensive than my previous one, so I decided to cancel it. I had been paying $41 a month for the membership. This is how the call went:

Rep: "Good afternoon Mr. Matthews. How may I help you today?"

Me: "Doing well. Thank you. I'd like to cancel my membership."

Rep: "Mr. Matthews, I would like you to be aware that we have a special program if you won't be using the gym for several months. You can put your membership on a hold status for only $7 a month for up to 6 months. Would you like me to make that change for you?"

Me: "No thank you. I would just like to cancel it."

Rep: "Because you're a valued customer I will waive the $7 fee for 6 months."

Me: "No thank you. Please just cancel my membership."

Rep: "OK, Mr. Matthews. I will cancel your membership. Your final charge will be on June 14 and your membership will end on August 14."

Me: "Is it possible for me to cancel immediately, so that I'm not charged on June 14?"

Rep: "OK, Mr. Matthews, I have canceled your membership and you will not have any further charges."

Me: "Thanks."

I will say that the person was friendly and was not trying to hustle me in a sales pitch or abusive way. He did, however, make me go through step after step after step in terminating the contract. The last one is particularly insidious because I'd imagine most people think that they have to allow that one last transaction. The gym company probably makes a bit of money off that one.

Any ugly cancellation stories of your own to share?

How to Make $120 in a Few Minutes

Sun, 11 May 2008 19:19:00 -0800

The Kroger company family of grocery stores is offering a 10% bonus when you buy grocery store gift cards. In many places the stores are called Kroger but they have numerous different names. In Las Vegas, they're called Smith's. For a complete list of their brands visit their site at http://www.thekrogerco.com/.

I decided to try this today at a Smith's store near my house. I asked the person at the cash register about it and he confirmed that an individual is eligible to do it once for an amount of up to $1,200 (hence a $120 bonus.) These gift cards are good at any Kroger company grocery store throughout the country.

They decided to ring up the transaction as 4 cards each with $330 on them, and then charged me $1,200 for them. I also used my credit card that gives me a 2% rebate on grocery store purchases for another $24 in value.

Since I know that I'll always be buying groceries, I figure I just made $144 in a few minutes buying the gift cards. A husband and wife could each do it together and double the benefit.

Smoking: How Times Have Changed

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:44:00 -0800

I found this interesting blog page that contains old smoking television ads. The page includes an I Love Lucy ad for Phillip Morris containing the requisite 12-year-old boy singing a Phillip Morris ditty. (Isn't that sweet?) Also, on the page you get to see Fred and Barney light up a Winston along with Wilma catching a smoke at the end.

These two ads had me laughing out loud because they would seem so out of place today and would stir up a world of controversy if they were broadcast on TV. Times were so very different.

The last video is Yul Brynner saying not to smoke, from the grave. An effective ad as well, I'd say.

Here's the link: Cigarette Television Ads.

Nevada Governor Gibbons Living in a Budget Suites

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:10:00 -0800

Actually, I don't know where he's living, but he's not living in the Nevada governor's mansion ... at least, according to this article he's not.

With the governor of the state not being able to live in the state mansion, this has to be one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction scenarios.

The article suggests that "Entire sitcoms have been built on less" and I'd have to agree. Imagine a show that's a combination of Seinfeld and the Cosby show where the premise is the governor is living in a weekly hotel, while his wife lives in the state mansion. Could make for some good TV. (If anyone uses that idea, I want 10% royalties.)

Bizarre Chance to Make Some Money if You're Unemployed

Thu, 08 May 2008 11:54:00 -0800

If you can somehow afford to not work for 3 months straight and feel like being a NASA guinea pig, they are offering $17,000 to people to spend 90 days in bed. All you have to do is spend 90 days straight in bed as part of their study and they'll give you a cool $17,000. I had considered this at first because I thought it was $17,000 a month which I thought was pretty decent, but at slightly above $5k a month, I'd have to pass.

What's the gambling tie-in? Well, this offer reminded me of the Brian Zembic live-in-a-bathroom-for-a-month bet and other wacky gambler bets I hear about at the poker table. Only thing, in this case, it's sanctioned by a respected government agency. This could even be an opportunity for someone to make a side bet over and above the $17k from NASA to make it worthwhile.

For more information on this excellent opportunity for a broke and lazy guy or gal, visit this link: NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in Bed.

Updates on Previous Blogs: Payard and Sedona

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:25:00 -0800

In the all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end category, the Payard breakfast that I reviewed in April has raised its price from $16 to $22. It's still a great breakfast, but now it's not as great of a value. Rising food prices are probably forcing this upward shift at restaurants everywhere.

Also, my review of Sedona, Kennedy, and Al's Garage mentioned a free players menu with great entrées for anyone playing VP even at the 25-cent level. I received feedback from someone who said he went to Al's Garage and they had no such menu. Kennedy is immediately next door, however, so if you want the free food, go there.

A Couple Vegas Pics

Sun, 04 May 2008 09:41:00 -0800

Here's an ad for the Cafe Martorano. I took this picture at the walkway from the Strip to the Caesars sports book. I originally saw this same ad in a Rio hotel elevator.

My question is this... would you be more likely or less likely to visit this restaurant after seeing this ad? According to some reviews I read, this is his normal kitchen attire:

You gotta read these reviews though! (Trust me.. read all of them if you have a few minutes.)

Cafe Martorano Reviews at TripAdvisor.

Cafe Martorano Reviews at Yelp.com.

And a couple positive reviews at:

Cafe Martorano Review at VegasPopular.com.

Cafe Martorano Review at LasVegas.net.

And onto the next picture....

I have never seen them changing the enormous letters on the sign at the Palms before. I happened to be there at 3:30 am this morning and had to catch a picture:

Any idea what he's spelling out? I think the next letter was a "C".

MGM Mirage Tightens Up on VP Play

Sat, 03 May 2008 15:21:00 -0800

MGM Mirage just made a significant change to their point system, They now give you one point for $4.50 coin in on video poker where they had previously given you a point for $3.00 coin in. This changes the free play from .33% back to .22%. Slot play is a point per $1.50 coin-in.

The MGM Mirage casinos in Vegas offer a lot of full-pay games, and are likely still a good choice if you're looking for a good gamble and good comps, but tighter is tighter.

On a positive note, they are offering double holiday gift shoppe points for all play from June 1 to August 31. These points can be redeemed for gifts or free play at the end of the year. Last year this offer was only during the month of August so they've added two full months to the promo. This would be a good time to plan your trip since you'll get the added benefit of double holiday points.

Tipping at Poker Tourneys

Fri, 02 May 2008 08:48:00 -0800

Caesars' poker room just completed a WSOP circuit event that was a sizable $5,000 + $150 buy-in, with the $150 going to the house to pay for dealers, overhead, and yes, go to Harrah's profit as well.

Larger-than-life tournament pro Allen Cunningham won the event. I say larger-than-life because with his boyish looks and his subdued personality, he's had as much NLHE tournament success as just about anyone. He's either a machine, or a luckbox, or a combination of both. After all his successes, I'd have to go with the "machine" label.

Anyway, I know most of the dealers at Caesars. Some of them don't like me I'm sure. Most of them do, I hope. One came up to me in a bitter mood saying that Cunningham tipped nothing. He won a half-million dollars but left nothing for the dealers. This dealer was not all-too-pleased with it.

This is a difficult argument from all sides. The house charges a fee to play. Should the players still tip on top of the house take out? It's not the players' fault if the house decides to keep the majority and pay the dealers the minority, is it?

I'd say that the biggest detriments to being a professional gambler are three-fold. One is discipline. Two is taxes. Three is tips. Tips come right out of the bottom line, but in many cases, they're absolutely required. A professional gambler who never tips will have a much harder time in many instances.

So who's right? Should Cunningham have left $10,000? Think about that. That's enough to buy a small new car. And would that have been enough? Do the dealers expect 10% or $50,000? Some dealers may think that way.

What I find in gambling and tipping is that there is very rarely a number that is within reason for the gambler to tip that the dealers will also be happy with. In other words, if you tip what they expect, you'll never make any money. If you tip less than they expect, they'll hate you.

Some may say, "Let them hate me." But there are intangibles that come along. Let's say there's a dispute at the poker table that you're involved in and you're a known stiff. They might rule against you. Sure they gotta play by the book, but there are always subjective situations that come along. And while it may not apply to tournaments, if you play cash games, you may want to get in a juicy game that has a long waiting list, but if you're a known tipper, you might get in the game ahead of others.

I think the battle between professional gamblers and dealers concerning tips will be never-ending as long as they're allowed. I've heard in other countries, such as Australia, you are not allowed to tip the dealers and the dealers are paid a higher wage. This is probably the best way to keep your customers happy since there's no pressure on either side.

Question to you, if you had played this tournament and won $500,000, would you have left a tip? And if so, how much would you have left?

Little Play at the Lodge at Haulapai

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:29:00 -0800

This isn't going to be helpful to most people because it's at a small bar far West from the Strip (about 10 miles) and also because it's at very odd hours, but it's a good offer nonetheless of you can make it. The Lodge at Haulapai gives you $20 free when you put $20 in one of their video poker machines between 11 PM and 7 AM Sunday night to Monday morning.

I didn't go there Sunday night to get the $20. I went there because I was hungry and they have a pretty good menu. I put $20 in the machine so I could get free drinks and the bartender walked over and put another $20 in for me. I did have to fill out a little form with my name and address.

I ended up losing about 10 hands in a row, but I was still up and had $25 left when I was done. Always nice when you're losing on the game, but you still cash out a winner.

Another nice thing about this bar was that that they offer 7/5 Bonus Poker. While I would likely not play that game in a casino because casinos offer better paytables, it's a 98% game and one of the highest returning video poker games I've seen in a bar in Vegas. Most bars offer 97% and lower games.

So if you happen to be on the far west end of Vegas late on a Sunday night, and especially if you've got a small group where you can maximize the $20 bonus (get 4 or more people to each get $20 free), this is a nice stop for a nice edge over the house and a couple free drinks. The food is good here and the bartender was very friendly as well.

This is also a non-smoking establishment. Smokers have to go outside. So if you'd like some smoke-free air, this is probably a good choice as well.

Mesa Grill at Caesars

Thu, 01 May 2008 08:54:00 -0800

I must have walked by this restaurant 100 times in going to the Caesars sports book and the poker room. I had never eaten there as I just figured it was another Mexican restaurant in Vegas and the prices seemed pretty high. I didn't know what I was missing!

The first thing I did was get a $50 comp from the poker room. It turns out this only covered the drinks, but it was still a nice savings on the overall bill. Let me explain why it's so pricey.

For one, it's owned by a celebrity chef Bobby Flay. According to his Wikipedia page, Flay dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and started working making salads at a restaurant in New York that his father co-owned. The other owner was so impressed with Flay's natural ability that he paid for his tuition at the French Culinary Institute. Since then Flay has opened several critically acclaimed restaurants and has penned numerous top-selling cookbooks.

An even better reason for the higher prices is the extreme flavor of the dishes. In general, most Mexican restaurants I visit in Las Vegas have a menu that consists of many tasty but bland dishes. Mesa Grill is anything but bland. The dishes are individually potent with flavor.

To begin we tried two appetizers: the Yucatan Chicken Tacos with grilled red onion and a peanut-smoked chile-barbecue sauce, and the Goat Cheese "Queso Fundido" with rajas and blue corn tortillas. Here are a couple pics:

The chicken tacos were served with fresh mint and cilantro, roasted red onion, and a peanut sauce. These were bursting with flavor. The chicken is marinated and grilled, cut in strips, and is served on skewers. This is really nice because it makes it easy to make a taco. You don't have to fiddle with little pieces. Spread a little peanut sauce on the tortilla, add a little of the mint, cilantro, and onion, and then slide the chicken onto the tortilla and pull out the skewer. Quick, easy, and delicious.

The queso fundido was very cheesy and dense with flavor. At first, just try a little bit on a chip. Taste it and then wait a minute. You'll continue to taste it for the full 60 seconds. It's such a rich dish that this one tray could probably satisfy 4 or more people, but since there was only 2 of us, we went ahead and ate it all.

We then ordered only one entrée. Partly to keep the cost of dinner down a little and partly because neither of us is a big eater. We ordered the Green Chile Cioppino with lobster, scallops, snapper, and mussels served with a blue corn stick and scallion butter. Here's a pic:

This dish was $40 so when we received our plate we expected to see a bit more food on it. It was, however, very filling and delicious. The scallop was large and meaty. The lobster tail and the crab claw were meaty and easy to pull the meat from. The mussels were delicious. We wish there had been more green chile sauce because we both fought over spooning up the last bits of it. By the way, this dish is heavy on the garlic. I mean HEAVY.

Mesa Grill seems to take a special interest and pride in serving delicious and gorgeous drinks. We had the house margaritas which were among some of the best margaritas we've had anywhere in Las Vegas. They are $12 each, and since we each had 2, (for a total of 4) there went the $50 comp.

Here's the margarita, along with a house mai tai, a martini, and bartender Steve opening up a couple bottles of wine.

Note Steve's exuberance as well as the Chimay beer for those of you who are beer connoisseurs. They have a specialty beer list of 7 or 8 or so beers, of which the only I had ever heard of was Chimay.

We're not normally dessert eaters but in this case I had to order dessert for the sake of a complete review. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, they had a tantalizing dessert menu along with a dessert sampler where we could try 3 desserts for a fixed price. We went for the Warm Chocolate Cake with Dulce de leche and toasted pecan ice cream, the Burnt Orange Cheesecake with gingersnap crust and tangerine-tequila granita, and the Warm Caramel Pineapple Empanada with orange-pineapple ice cream and caramel-tequila sauce. Here's a pic:

Again, each morsel of each dessert was rich and flavorful. I'm running out of adjectives, but believe me, these were out-of-this-world. The chocolate was sweet but not too sweet, with a tasty bitter aftertaste. The citrusy cheescake had a crunchy crust and a creamy middle and was melt-in-your-mouth. The pineapple empanada was pineapple perfection.

It is important to note that this is not a Mexican restaurant in the traditional sense. This is Southwestern cuisine, which has some similarities to Mexican but is really quite unique in its own sense. For the complete menu, visit the Mesa Grill Web Site.

The total bill was $150 which is quite high I admit. Since I had the $50 comp, I left $125 total including tip. I don't think that it's possible to get out of this restaurant cheaply, but I do think you can leave here happy and satisfied. If you're into rich, bursting, unique flavors, you'd do well to make this a stop on your Vegas vacation.

Free Ice Cream Day & The GG 99-cent Shrimp

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:49:00 -0800

No... I don't expect you to want to eat a Golden Gate shrimp cocktail and a scoop of ice cream at the same time. That doesn't sound particularly appetizing. If you wanted to though, you could do both for a total of 99 cents.

I was reading one of my favorite news article aggregation sites, Fark.com, and it listed a link to a blog article about the recent price increase of the 99-cent shrimp cocktail at the Golden Gate. I was aware of the price increase but wanted to get that blogger's take on the matter. The link went to a site called NewsFromMe.com.

The blogger on that site gives his take on the price increase from 99-cents to $1.99. He does mention it's still 99 cents if you have a GG player's card, but then goes on to lament the increase and say that it's another indication of our recession economy. Well, that might be a little bit of a stretch.

He does go on to mention an interesting history of the Golden Gate of which I was not previously aware. According to him, the Golden Gate was originally the Hotel Nevada in 1903 and had the first phone number in Nevada. The phone number was 1. Also, the hotel was called the Sal Sagev for a while (Las Vegas backward). There are some other interesting facts as well.

Free Ice Cream

On a mostly unrelated note, the NewsFromMe.com site mentions another deal for today, April 29. You can get a free scoop of ice cream at participating Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops throughout the US and Canada. To find participating shops in your area, visit the Ben & Jerry's Web site.

Unfortunately, while the first scoop is free, you'd have to pay for the other 7 scoops.

Bellagio Conservatory

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:14:00 -0800

One of my favorite places in Vegas is the conservatory at the Bellagio. It's really amazing what they do season after season with the different displays. I took a few pics to share with you of the current exhibit.

I was pleased to see that they had brought back the greenhouse with the live butterflies. Here's a few looks:

$20k Royal. Yahoo.

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:24:00 -0800

I hit a $20k royal two nights ago... I thought you all might like a pic.

Wynn Buffet Excels, but Is Pricey

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:53:00 -0800

Another day, another comped meal. This time it was the elaborate Wynn buffet for an early 5:30 PM dinner.

We stopped by the player's club booth to get our comps activated. They reviewed our slot play and determined we were eligible for two free buffets as well as a line pass to avoid a long wait. This was not my first time eating the buffet at the Wynn, but this was my first time with a camera, my new must-have for anywhere I go now that I am a card-carrying blogger.

We entered through the private reserved line using our pass and were able to bypass about 2 people. I think it was just very early for dinner and we were in between the lunch and dinner crowds. Had we waited until 7 PM to 9 PM to eat, the line pass would likely have been a huge plus. As it was, I kinda felt silly skipping in front of Bob and Thelma from Des Moines as they were busy searching their fanny packs for exact change.

The total was $81.25 including tax and not including gratuity. DAAAAAMMMNNN that's aggressive pricing. When you see the spread, it seems more reasonable, but I'm sure happy we were comped. If you want alcohol, that's extra.

Here's what you see when you first walk in:

I started off with a sampling of a few different salads including a delicious Caesar complete with a couple whole anchovies. Yum. Also, I had a few cheeses from the salad bar including Havarti, Gouda, cheddar, and blue cheese. A few loose pistachios and a bowl of tomato bisque completed my first course (or "trip" as I call it at a buffet). Sorry no pictures of these.

For trip 2, my date and I decided to divide and conquer. She went to the seafood; I went to the meat. We normally share all our courses so we can try various items. As she waited in the shrimp and crab leg line, I hit the prime rib, lamb chop, and grilled veggies section. Here's how my plate looked before I dug in:

I have a picture of my date's seafood plate, but it was half eaten and doesn't look quite so appetizing in high-def so you'll just have to take my word that it was delectably delightful. Each item on my plate was very tasty. The prime rib was of a very high quality and the lamb chops were tender and flavorful. The grilled veggies, asparagus, and corn also were seasoned well with garlic and spices.

The rest of the story is likely best told in pictures. What you see in my little gallery here is only a fraction of what's available in the whole buffet. I focused on some items that are of particular interest to me, but there are many that you may like. One example was the dim sum offered. I'm not a dim sum fan, but if you are, they offer a small selection.

On to the photos:

At breakfast they have an omelet station. At dinner they have a pasta station as well as this noodle station. Get a bowl of Asian soup and pick your ingredients and broth.

I traveled to Spain when I was 18 years old and one of my favorite memories was how they served gazpacho soup along with diced veggies to add on your own. I've been unable to find gazpacho like that in America but the Wynn buffet has it. Cold tomato soup, and add your chilled, crisp, cut-up, vegetables.

Here are little glasses of random gourmet items. I don't know what you would call them. Salads perhaps. If you can't read the signs, here are what they say left-to-right: 1) Marinated Mushroom (Balsamic Reduction), 2) Grilled Red Onion and Orange Segments, 3) White Anchovies and Roasted Peppers, 4) Oven Dried Tomatoes (Shaved Ricotta, Roasted Garlic), 5) Currant Tomatoes and Micro Mozzarella (Lemon Oil).

A little sushi selection including a salmon hand roll, a veggie roll, and a California roll. (Can you label them as to which is which?)

Shrimp gumbo, shrimp sandwich, shrimp stew, shrimp kabob, shrimp ... sorry just was thinking of Bubba for a moment. Anyway, all the shrimp you wanna eat, and they're already peeled. At other buffets when I hear "peel-and-eat shrimp," I think to myself, "No shrimp for me." Ya, I guess I'm spoiled, but I sure like being able to dip them, and chomp them, without the hassle.

Ah, the crab legs. The line is always the longest to get here. I have never seen people stack a plate so high. Sometimes people are doing balancing acts, carrying two plates loaded with crab legs so high that they look like they're walking on a tight rope getting back to their tables. I want to tell these people, "You know, you can always go back for more."

Remember when I told you about the price? Well how much would a nice restaurant charge for unlimited crab legs, prime rib, lamb chops, and other gourmet items? I'd think more than $40 a person. In other words, I think the price is well-justified, just a little eye-popping at first glance.

And to finish, I chose my 3 favorite Wynn buffet desserts from their selection of candied apples, pastries, ice creams, cakes, pies, cookies, puddings, and other confections. Here's the picture:

A final trio of creme brulee, key lime pie, and green tea mousse. The key lime pie is very tart to the point where you pucker up from the extreme flavor. The green tea mousse had a softer finish and was not as sweet as other desserts. The creme brulee, ah, decadence. It's like liquid sugar... only better.

The Wynn buffet gives a large variety of different food experiences and is a great choice for a group visiting town if you're up for the price tag. While it's high, it gives you the opportunity to eat gourmet foods that would cost you more in a traditional sit-down restaurant. The Wynn has always had a good promo for new player club sign ups where if you earn a minimal amount of points, they'll give you two free buffets. This is probably the best route to get in the door. Check with the player's club for details.

I. Nelson Rose Speaks Out on the Candidates

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:31:00 -0800

I. Nelson Rose is likely the foremost authority on the legal aspects of gambling legislation. He has numerous books on gambling including Blackjack and the Law, Gambling and the Law, and Internet Gaming Law. He's a Harvard Law School graduate as well as a professor at the Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California.

I'm on his email list and when he has new articles for release, I get an email notification. His latest article will likely be very controversial for many of those who read it. I asked his permission to publish it here, and he said that would be fine as long as I included his copyright and trademark information. If you want to visit his site for more information it's located at www.gamblingandthelaw.com.

Here's his take on the 3 remaining candidates and how he feels the choice of whom will influence our ability to gamble online in the future:

________________________

Gambling and the Law®:
Internet Gambling And The Presidential Race
For far more than 200 years, the federal government has let the states decide what their public policy toward gambling will be. Neighboring states, like Utah and Nevada, can adopt prohibition or casinos, and the federal government’s role has been to either step aside, or, if asked, to help a state enforce its laws.

That relationship changed on October 13, 2006, when Pres. George W. Bush signed the SAFE Port Act. As part of a futile presidential bid, Bill Frist (R.-TN.), then Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, had tacked on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

The impact of the UIGEA is well known. Now the question is, when will it be changed?

The answer depends in part on presidential politics.

The Republicans have little interest in liberalizing Internet gambling, especially in an election year, when they are pandering to the religious far right. Even if the Democrats could squeeze a legalization bill through Congress, Pres. Bush would veto it.

When Democrats took control of the Senate, Harry Reid, senator from Nevada, became Majority Leader. The American Gaming Association, the lobbying group for land-based casinos, wants a study that will conclude that online gaming can be conducted safely, and should be limited to operators who are already licensed. For example, land-based casinos.

Sen. Reid could make that happen, if the President is also a Democrat.

But, if John McCain wins, Republicans will take over the Senate, so nothing will change.

Insiders know that if Hillary Clinton is the nominee, Democrats will lose the Senate, even if she wins the presidency by carrying large, industrial states. Although she is admired by many, Hillary is the most hated woman in America. She is so despised, that it is hard to think of any woman who would be in second place.

As John A. Millin, chair of the Wyoming state Democratic Party put it: “It has become the dirty little secret in the Democratic Party. For reasons I don’t agree with and don’t completely understand, most voters in Wyoming seem to hate Hillary Clinton.”

It has been said that she is the only person who can unify the Republican Party. Many conservatives will sit out the election if it is Barack Obama versus McCain. But they will be energized, if they can vote against Hillary. In the process they will also vote against Democratic candidates for Congress. It will be massive numbers of Democrats who won’t vote, if the Clintons are seen as stealing the nomination from Obama, or sending him to the back of the bus as Vice President. There will then be four years of deadlock.

Assuming Obama is nominated and wins, the Democrats will keep control of Congress and there will be a change in federal law. It might come as early as 2009. More likely, it won’t be until 2010, or even later. The federal law will go back to allowing the states to decide. If a state wants to allow its residents to bet online, it can opt-in, exactly the system that exists for horseracing today.

But that change won’t happen for many years, unless Obama is elected President and the Democrats keep control of Congress.

END

© Copyright 2008. Professor I Nelson Rose is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on gambling law. His latest books, INTERNET GAMING LAW and GAMING LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS, are available through his Web site, www.GAMBLINGANDTHELAW.com.

Primm Valley Golf Club Excursion

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:31:00 -0800

I'm not a good person to write a review of a golf course. In fact, there are probably few worse than I. The reason for that is I recently played golf for the first time in 13 years since playing with a $3 rented set of clubs on a $5 18-hole course on a Navy base in Washington state... and I wasn't any good then either.

The Wizard of Odds, Mike Shackleford, invited me out for a day on the links at the Primm Valley Golf Club along with a couple of his gambling friends. I tried to clearly tell Mike how incredibly bad at golf I was, but he said not to worry about it and just come out and have fun.

As I recalled from my days in the Navy playing on military base golf courses, when I would swing at the ball there was a reasonable chance that the ball would actually go the opposite direction of my swing. Other times I would hit full strength off the tee and the ball wouldn't make it to the ladies tee.

Ah well... I couldn't weasel my way out of it; Mike wouldn't let me. He just said to make sure to wear a collared shirt and no blue jeans and I'd be fine.

After a 30 to 40 minute drive to Primm we crossed the state line into California and arrived at the course. I wasn't aware that the course was actually in California. We were humorously reminded when commencing the round that the course was not in Nevada so no wagering while playing. Uh huh.

Here's me and Mike starting off the day...

After making a 14 and picking up without finishing my putting on the first hole, I then realized that somehow I hadn't magically improved at golf in the 13 years of complete absence from the game. Funny how that works. I had Mike write me down for a 16 but who knows what I would have actually gotten.

On the second hole I got a solid 14, meaning I actually putted the ball into the hole in 14 strokes. That was gratifying.

I know you may be asking what the par for the holes was, but with a 16 and a 14 does it really matter?

I did settle down a little making 7s, 8s, and 9s on a few holes, and on one par 3 hole I had about a 5-footer for par, but I just lipped the corner of the cup. That would have made my day. Of course, I then 2-putted from there for a 6 on the hole.

At one point I was admonished by a staff member of the course because you're supposed to use the cart path only on all the par 3 holes, and holes 1, 4, and 16. Well, I drove the cart on the grass of a par 3 hole and I got a talking to. Live and learn.

So as you can see, I can't tell you a whole lot about the quality of the course since I'm not knowledgeable about that. I can tell you that I got a sandwich and a beer, and when I went to hit a ball from the fairway, a crow started eating my sandwich. I can tell you that the scenery was beautiful and the staff was pleasant, courteous and helpful. Any more questions?

Here are a couple more pics:

Here's a look at the course and mountains from the clubhouse. Not a very exciting picture I know, but I think that crow flying is the one that ate my sandwich.

Here's Mike Shackleford juggling 4 golf balls at the same time. Many might not know this, but he is an avid juggler and unicycler, and also the guy that came up with the Most Popular Baby Names list put out each year by the Social Security Administration.

If you really want the scoop on Las Vegas golf courses, pick up a copy of Golf Las Vegas which is available in both a printed and e-book format.

WSOP to Change Main Event Final Table Format?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:24:00 -0800

According to the blog Pokerati.com, the WSOP is either considering, or has already made, a change to the way the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event will be played.

Their idea is to play down to 9 players and then stop for 3 months. After 90 days, Harrah's will comp their return trips to play the final table.

The goal of this idea, I believe, is to have a live event on ESPN (with likely a half-hour or hour delay to prevent cheating). This way they will be able to successfully promote it as the poker championship event similar to the Super Bowl or another final event scheduled for a particular day.

It's an interesting idea. I can't quite get my head around whether I think it's a positive or a negative but it sure is thought-provoking.

Incidentally, I met the PokerAti.com author on Sunday at the Hogs & Heifers event. He's from Texas but has lived in Vegas for a few months now. He likes to write about the poker scene in Texas along with the robberies and police busts that go along with them. For more on the WSOP issue and other poker news, check it out at Pokerati.com.

Jeff Haney Gets Jobbed at Harrah's Sports Book

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:26:00 -0800

Since the good information is in the article, I'll just provide a link and you can read it on your own.

The practice of taking tickets out of someone's hand and then canceling the tickets when the bets were placed at the current posted line and within the preset monetary limits, is an abomination (not to mention chickenshit).

The main reason it's so awful is because they will accept bets on the other side. In other words, if you bet a line that's 2 points worse than everywhere else, they'll gladly let you bet it. But if you happen to bet the side that's 2 points better, then cancel the tickets. That's nasty.

On top of that, you don't get bookmaking. They just cancel tickets that are made at player-favorable numbers. Why even bother putting up an accurate line? There's no need if you'll take the bad bets and cancel the good bets.

I do give the Harrah's employee credit for allowing his name to be published. At least he's willing to stand behind his actions. Now if he'd only stand behind his lines.

Jeff Haney Gets the Unroyal Treatment at Harrah's

Hogs and Heifers Saloon Las Vegas

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:50:00 -0800

A poker player friend of mine received an invitation to a Doyle Brunson event at the Hogs & Heifers Saloon in downtown Las Vegas and I decided to tag along. Glad I did!

This is a biker bar that I accidentally wandered into one night months ago in a Brioni suit. Let's just say I didn't fit in, but the clientèle sure loved my date!

It turns out that on every other Sunday they run a barbecue and band party. Here's a picture of the front of the place:

We had a great afternoon and I saw Jennifer Harman, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Hoyt Corkins, Phil Hellmuth, and a number of other poker pros eating and drinking (mostly drinking) at the bar.

The highlight of the afternoon was without a doubt the band. It was a band called Cash'd Out. They're based out of San Diego and they're a Johnny Cash cover band. The lead singer was fantastic. He had a terrific voice that was as Johnny Cash as any singer could be. After doing a Google search on them when I got home I found out they have many YouTube videos on the Internet that you can watch. Here's a very amateur video I took at the event itself. It's also a YouTube link:

You gotta check out this band!

Somehow I got talked into playing beer pong. I have never played this game before. My only qualification was that my partner Dave had to do the drinking. I just couldn't see drinking a beer after a ping pong ball rolling around on a dirty floor had landed in it. I said if it was vodka, I'd probably go ahead and drink it since it would kill the germs, but then again, 7 shots or more of vodka might be a little too much.

If you're into Harley motorcycles, you should definitely stop by this bar on your Vegas visit. I can't say that I'm the biker type, but I enjoyed the bar a lot, and if you're a Harley person, I think you'll love it.

If you like Johnny Cash then you've got to see this band. Their Web site is at www.cashdout.com and you can see their play schedule there. They have a lot of dates in Southern California. I wish they had more in Vegas!

Here are a few more pics of the event along with a short explanation after a few of them.

Downtown Vegas from 3rd street in front of Hogs & Heifers.

Parking in front including lots of Harley bikes and the requisite roadster.

They had a ton of $1 bills on the ceiling but some high rollers tossed a Franklin up there. Wow.

At any given time there were more bartenders dancing on the bar than there were serving drinks behind it. Having said that, I never had to wait long for my refill of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Best ... beer ... ever.

The band Cash'd Out. Awesome!

My friend Dave and his all-too-cozy stance with Doyle, along with a shy Jennifer Harman.

Doyle Brunson and Hort Corkins. Doyle is getting ready to throw the ping pong ball.

Doyle and Hoyt after their opponents landed a ball in their cups. They had to suck down the brew... per the rules. (Also note Todd Brunson on the right side of the picture.)

Me shooting in beer pong. For my first time I did pretty well and hit about 40% of my shots, but our opponents were too good and bounced us out in round one.

Adopt a Rescue Pet Las Vegas

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:41:00 -0800

Back in October of last year we adopted Flocki from a group in Las Vegas called Adopt a Rescue Pet. They're a super organization that finds dogs that are on the kill list at the local shelters and adopts them before they can be euthanized. They then find foster homes or pay for a kennel to keep the dogs until they can find a permanent home for the pups.

Adopt a Rescue Pet lives solely on donations and volunteer workers. If you care to give a home to a dog or make a donation, I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Here's a couple pictures of Flocki:

Every Saturday and Sunday, the PetSmart store at Rainbow and Lake Mead allows the Adopt a Rescue Pet group to display the dogs outside for everyone to see.

If you find one you may be interested in, they'll take the dog out of the cage for you. I chose Flocki for a few reasons, but one was that he ran to the nearest bush to pee when he was let out so I figured he was house trained. We've had no problems with that at all.

We stopped by today to see how things were going and here's a few pics and a video from the day.

Here's a link to a video:

Video of dog howling looking for a home

For further information, visit their Web site:

Adopt a Rescue Pet.

Sweet Breakfast at Caesars

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:09:00 -0800

Since I spend many graveyard shifts at the Caesars poker room, someone suggested to me that I try the continental breakfast at Payard Patisserie. What a fantastic breakfast this was!

It opens at 6:30 in the morning. The continental breakfast costs $16 which is an excellent value not only because of the fact that it's all-you-can-eat, but also the first-rate quality of the food and beverage offerings, the service, and the setting. (I even used a $16 poker room comp to pay for breakfast.)

What you get is unlimited smoked salmon and bagels, cereal, yogurt & granola parfaits, fruit cups, milk, juice, and coffee, and their famous pastries.

I tried one of just about everything and each item was delicious. The coffee was very good, as was the grapefruit juice.

I started with a bagel with cream cheese, capers, onions and smoked salmon. When I picked up the bagel a server asked me if I wanted it toasted. "Yes. Thank you." This was a nice start and good to have a "meaty" option considering it's a continental breakfast.

Next I had a fruit cup with blueberries, raspberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberry, and other fruit.

After that, I had a plain yogurt and granola parfait.

I was so full at this point that the rack of pastries looked intimidating, but I had to go for at least one. They suggested the almond croissant as being their "signature" pastry so I tried that one. Holy cow! Yum times 100. It was flaky so that when you take just one bite your lap and the table are covered with crumbs. It's buttery, sweet, crunchy, and flaky all at once.

In addition to the almond croissant, they offered a plain croissant, chocolate croissant, apricot danish, cheese danish, cinnamon honey bun, and a couple other pastries.

Pastry fans may want to forego the other courses and just try the 8 or so different pastries they have prepared daily. An L.A. Times reviewer (link below) claimed that it would be difficult to find pastries of this high quality even in Paris, France.

Breakfast is from 6:30 AM to 11:30 AM. Then there is the lunch/dinner menu until 7:30 PM. After 9:30 PM they offer a prix fixe dessert menu. Try any three of their desserts for $45.

Here are a couple pictures I took on my phone (hence the poor quality), and a few links to the afternoon and late-night dessert menus as well as the Los Angeles Times review.

The spread of choices at Payard's continental breakfast.

The famous pastry selection.

The smoked salmon.

Fruit, yogurt, granola.

More pictures here:

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_BF_1.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_Pastries_2.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_Pastries_1.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_Lunch2.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_BF_2.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_BF_3.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_Desserts_1.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_Desserts_2.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/lvadavid/Payard_Lunch.jpg

https://www.harrahs.com/casinos/caesars-palace/restaurants-dining/payard-patisserie-detail.html

And for those of you who want to read the L.A. Times review you can view it here:

www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-payard2apr02,1,7287274.story

Free Eats for 25-Cent Video Poker Players

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:08:00 -0800

There's a group of restaurants in Las Vegas that offers an excellent value for 25-cent video poker play. It's a trio of restaurants called Kennedy, Al's Garage, and Sedona. Al's and Kennedy are located in the District at Green Valley Ranch while Sedona is on West Flamingo, very close to the 215 exit.

What makes these restaurants special is what they offer their quarter VP players. Not only will they comp your drinks for you, but they have a separate menu for VP players that offers very good food. I have scanned copies below for you to see what's on the menu.

Most bars in town will not comp food for quarter players. Most of them will only comp food for significant (a couple of hours of) dollar action or higher. Since most bar games (including these) are set at a high house edge, you've more than paid for your meal by playing these higher denomination games.

Kennedy and Sedona have a menu that includes excellent salads, calamari, and even an 8 oz Angus burger, and it's free as long as you're playing max coins on a 25-cent machine ($1.25 a hand), and no, you don't have to play lightning fast. You can play, sip your drink, talk to your neighbor or date, play another hand, and relax. I do recommend a healthy tip for the bartenders, but that's just how I roll (ain't I cool ... ?).

These places also offer a wheel spin for certain 4-of-a-kinds which gives you a little more back and makes it more fun.

I am not aware of any bar in town (heck ... any casino in town) that treats its quarter VP players as well as this group does.

All you gotta do is put $20 in, grab a cocktail, and play $1.25 a hand at your pace, and you can order one menu item and all the drinks you want. It's one of the best values in Las Vegas for quarter players.

See what you can get for free for a little quarter machine play...

More Entries Coming

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:32:00 -0800

I participated in a blackjack tournament over the weekend and have been working on taxes, being the last-minute guy that I am. Will be back shortly with blackjack tournament info, along with a review of Payard Patisserie at Caesars, Primm Valley Golf Course, and Joel Robuchon (yes I had the 16-course tasting menu over the weekend).