So the deadline for bids on the Atlantic City Tropicana has come and gone, and there are only three bids on the table. Or maybe two.

Though I may have a dollar figure on the Cordish Cos. offer later today, even if it doesn't match the shrouded-in-mystery Joseph Palladino bid ($1.1 billion, including capital improvements), Cordish can be safely described as the company to beat. It built Atlantic City's The Walk retail mall and former Trop exec Dennis Gomes -- on whose watch the Trop's generally admired The Quarter was built -- is Cordish's point man. Gomes enjoys long familiarity with both the Trop and the overall Atlantic City market, dating back to his Trump Taj Mahal years, and he's a former regulator, to boot. (He helped bust the Vegas skimming operation that became the subject of Nicholas Pileggi's Casino.)

Even if the Palladino offer doesn't turn out to be smoke and mirrors, his arrogance may be his undoing. Saying you won't disclose your investors unless your bid is accepted wouldn't fly in Nevada, so what is Palladino smoking to think that New Jersey's even-stricter regulators will swoon at his feet?

As for the third offer, Colony Capital's $850 million, it may turn out to have been pure rhetoric. It's 50/50 that Colony didn't follow up with a formal bid (just as occurred the last time the Trop was on the market). I'm guessing Colony didn't follow up and -- if so -- it's looking like a company that talks big but doesn't put its money where its mouth is.

In Colony's defense, the double-whammy of sleepy Aztar Corp. and cheapskate Columbia Sussex is said to have left a plethora of deferred-maintenance issues at the Trop. (Based on my experience of its Vegas counterpart, I can believe it.) Also, did Colony expect the bottom of the credit markets to fall out when it first threw that $850 million figure out there? 

Unless Palladino is just fronting for those blushing violets (not!) Steve Wynn or Sheldon Adelson, I'm saying this is a slam dunk for Cordish, regardless of the dollar amount. Besides, you've got to love the guy who gave Atlantic City the tic-tac-toe-playing chicken.

'Gaters rule! You can't beat a tic-tac-toe playing chicken, but it pleases me no end to report that Stargate: The Ark of Truth is still #1 on Amazon's DVD list, a week after hitting stores. Unfortunately, this also means that thousands of Americans will be seeing my cameo appearance in the DVD 'extras' and wondering, "Who the f@#& is that dweeb?"