Someone pointed me to an article in a West Hollywood publication about the Cavendish West. I was surprised to find that I was quoted in the article as the author never spoke to me. He did, however, paraphrase some things I’ve said on the radio show.
The Cavendish West is the place where I learned many lessons about gambling — from about 1975 – 1991. Although I did play a bit of contract bridge there for money, I was never a winning player at that game. My game of choice was backgammon, where I was successful — for a time.
In the mid-1970s, when backgammon was a sexy game, was played in discos, and was written about in popular magazines, I was sufficiently above average that I did quite well financially. Eventually the game passed out of favor and the Cavendish was left with only the good pros beating up on the not-so-good pros. I fell into the higher end of the lower category — and eventually, around 1980, I had to go out and get a job to support myself. It was awful.
I wrote a “Lessons from the Cavendish West” chapter in my Million Dollar Video Poker autobiography, but today I want to primarily address other things.
At the Cavendish, there were a LOT of good players. You could sit and watch them play, and so long as you were quiet you were generally allowed to look on. As Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” You could take notes and see how the big boys did things.
Sometimes they’d take three or so minutes to make a play and you could see what they finally did, but you had no idea of what their thought process was. For me, just watching was pretty boring. Playing was a lot more fun than watching. Still is. I basically had a free backgammon university education available to me, but instead chose to go and play backgammon against somebody over whom I had little or no edge. That led to a form of gambler’s ruin.
Today I hope I’m smarter than that. Video poker opportunities are less plentiful and less lucrative than they used to be. Studying, scouting, and waiting for the good ones are all part of succeeding these days. It’s easy to predict a day will come that I’ll be playing two hours a week or less. I’m preparing for that day. Perhaps you should too. Those who continue to play even though they are not the favorite will continue to lose.
Other factors that were drummed into me concerned sleep management and substance abuse. During certain periods in the 1980s, I worked 50+ hours a week in IT departments and then tried playing and/or studying 40 hours a week of backgammon. Both careers suffered — as did my social life. Today I can’t stay alert and play more than 6-8 hours at a time, although if I get a good four hours of sleep I can put in another session of that length. However much EV I calculate a play is worth, that calculation presumes an insignificant number of errors. If I play long enough, I make many more errors than I calculated and lose all my edge.
The Cavendish was housed in an office building and one flight up was a small roof that covered a portion of the building. Players frequently smoked marijuana or other substances on the roof and getting an invitation to join them was fairly easy. I didn’t do that very often, but when I did, my results suffered greatly. I am not someone who can smoke a joint and then concentrate on playing the way I need to in order to succeed.
Because of our last election, recreational marijuana is about to be legalized in Nevada. That’s fine for those of you who want that, but for me it’s poison. I’ll stay away. It’s possible that someday I’ll be in sufficient pain that I will take marijuana to help deal with it, but I’ll give up gambling for as long as I’m consuming.
The end of the article tells of the last days of the Cavendish, when voters of the then recently incorporated West Hollywood decided they didn’t want the club in their city. Previously, West Hollywood was a part of the City of Los Angeles. It was said around the club in the 70s and 80s that the mother of the DA (or was it the chief of police?) regularly played gin rummy at the Cavendish, so the club was safe from being raided. That was probably true, but I don’t know which public official, which mother, or even which jurisdiction this applied to. I was just happy that I could play there.
The Cavendish died a couple of years before I moved to Las Vegas. I was sad to see it go, although by that time it was just a time-killer for me. There were relatively few backgammon players at the end and, although I could get into a game where I was a slight favorite (I was a MUCH better player at that time than I was back in 1980 when I had to leave and go get a job), the house rake absorbed most of my edge. Still, it was a pleasant diversion one or two nights a week and I liked that.
When I got to Vegas, there was a backgammon club here. I briefly considered staying active in the backgammon scene, but I already knew I couldn’t support myself playing backgammon in Los Angeles and had heard it was tougher in Las Vegas. No thanks. I decided to stick to games I thought I could beat.
If you read the article, you’ll see a picture of a backgammon board at the top. This is a folding board, sold at toy stores with toy store dice. This is NOT what we used at the Cavendish. In a reply that I sent in response to the article, I explained what the differences are.
The picture is also missing the most important part of the game — i.e. the doubling cube. Without a doubling cube, backgammon is just a game. With a doubling cube, backgammon is a great gambling game.
I suspect my many thousands of hours at the Cavendish helped make me a better gambler today. After you’ve been through many many dozens of winning streaks and losing streaks, it’s easier to keep your balance when you’re in another one.
At the time, especially when I was losing and had to go and get a job, I thought I had “wasted” several years of my life. Today I believe I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without going through that first. Among other things, the Cavendish introduced me to Richard Munchkin and for that I’m very grateful.
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When you went through your losing streaks at backgammon did it ever occur to you that you were cheated? I’m not saying you were, I don’t know but you were a good player. In Los Anderson there was a lot of cheating in poker at that time. I’m certain you found something more profitable and safer.
Interesting question.
There was definitely cheating at backgammon, but you learned who the practitioners were and avoided them or were extra vigilant when they were around.. There was one guy named Steve who was a pretty average player, but he’d invite you to his nearby home (so you wouldn’t have to pay the fee for using the tables at the Cavendish) where the board and dice were magnetized. He’d make the same average plays at home, but would regularly get big doubles near the end of the game where it mattered most.
There was another guy named George who moved checkers back and forth so many times that you’d tend to forget exactly where they started. Somehow they always ended up in a position favorable to him.
Another guy named Gaby specialized in making checkers disappear. In backgammon you want to end up taking off all of your checkers before the other guy. You started with 15 checkers. In the process of bearing off 13 checkers, Gaby would manage to pull off another couple using sleight of hand. Sometimes it was enough to make a difference. There were a LOT of other cheating techniques he employed.
I suspect there was collusion. There were chouettes where one player (the box) would play with stakes against everybody else — but the team checkers would be moved by one guy — the team captain. If the team captain made some mistakes, who’s to say if they were intentional or not?
Occasionally you’d be stiffed. At the Cavendish, 95% of the time you’d be paid — eventually. But sometimes it took awhile and sometimes you never collected. When somebody was delinquent, they couldn’t play there until it was cleared up. Sometimes it never was. While club rules prevented other players from getting stiffed, the first guy was still out of pocket.
There was certainly hustling, where people pretended they were clueless until you agreed to play them for big stakes — and then they became very proficient.
I actually learned more about cheating maneuvers in gambling after I quit my backgammon career. Overall, though, I think the games at the Cavendish were fair.
” . . . I had to go out and get a job to support myself. It was awful.” Really? What was awful, not being top dog, or having to work for a living? I can dig it, having to support my self and a family really is a drag!
Question for Bob D. about his DDB strategy card. Does it offer the best strategy for the 99.96 pay table?
Thanks, Gary
The card covers the 10-6-50 game (where the 50 refers to the straight flush) — among others — and you’re asking about the 10-6-40 game, which is NOT specifically covered.
If you’re trying to learn the game at the beginner, recreational, or basic strategy level, the strategies for the two games are identical.
At the advanced level there are a few minor differences. One that comes to mind is comparing “A84” ‘JT’ with “A85” ‘JT’ — where the different sorts of quote marks indicate the cards are suited with each other. In the 10-6-50 version you hold the ‘JT’ in both hands. In the 10-6-40 version, you hold the A by itself in the first hand and “JT” in the second. This is a hand that occurs every 216,540 hands and playing it wrong costs the 5-coin dollar 10-6-40 player four-fifths of a penny when he uses the 10-6-50 strategy.
The vast majority of players do not attempt to learn a strategy at this level. You’re going to have to decide for yourself whether this is a show-stopper for you or not.
Thanks for the speedy reply Bob. Will be ordering your DDB card.
Gary