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“You’ve Already Hit the Royal”

When I wrote recently about hitting a $120,000 royal flush at Dotty’s and explained when I planned to return to playing there (after a four-month hiatus, which I explained in the earlier articles), I received the following comment from a reader who calls himself/herself Hop Hoofer:

You have a very small edge. And playing with an edge is mainly for preparing for the worst. Since the best, the $120K royal, already happened to you, why would you still want to risk your money? Your score will be balanced out eventually and most likely your profit will be evened out if you continue to play. If you are already ahead a lot, I don’t see a point of chasing for the tiny edge and losing your profit back.

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And now for some fun

Is the second time the charm for James Cameron?

Back on Dec. 21, we reported on nascent Oscar odds. What a difference 10 days makes. Babylon, “an early favorite to take home hardware at the 95th Academy Awards” according to one betting site, is spiraling from contention, thanks to its total implosion at the box office. Award-mooching Empire of Light also collapsed, meaning that both its star (adorable Academy fave Olivia Colman) and Babylon termagant Margot Robbie can kiss their Best Actress chances goodbye. Honors momentum continues to fill the sails of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Irish dramaThe Banshees of Inisherin and—I dread to say it—the pompous Women Talking. The first and third should receive last-minute Oscar tailwinds from the March 4 Independent Spirit Awards, and Banshees will likely get a Golden Globes lift on January 10.

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No ‘M’ in ‘Penn’; A Royal mystery; See Vegas and die

Scarcely had the hot air cooled on Penn Entertainment‘s announcement that it was doubling the capacity of M Resort than word trickled out—via Vital Vegas—that Penn is in talks too sell the locals-oriented property to MGM Resorts Entertainment. It would be a radical shift in direction for Leo the Lion, who specializes in category-killer destination properties. But it’s more interesting in what it says about Penn, a company that has apparently lost its stomach for Sin City. It flailed and failed at the Tropicana Las Vegas and is now set to quit town altogether, it would appear. The sale proceeds would undoubtedly be channeled into Penn property upgrades in Illinois and Ohio. And M Resort is a relatively minor contributor to Penn’s overall coffers. But to quit Las Vegas at this juncture in order to double down on Joliet and Aurora seems like a questionable business decision indeed.

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Strip’s good times waning

A big touché to the uncredited wag at the Las Vegas Review-Journal who came up with today’s banner headline: CARR PARKED. Yes, the Las Vegas Raiders have had enough of underachieving QB Derek Carr and are benching him for long-shot games against the playoff-bound Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. As for the gambling sphere, you’d need a microscope to find relevant news, except for …

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A Not-Too-Disturbing Farewell

In Las Vegas blackjack circles, the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas is well-known for having a decent single-deck game — aside from the fact that they are extremely quick to pull the trigger on kicking players out. Several blackjack teams send their new players to play there, knowing they’ll be kicked out fairly quickly, just to get the first barring out of the way.

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Video Poker versus Live Poker

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

A.C. says: Poker has been the basis for many new games, with video poker being, by far, the most successful of them. This article provides a good comparison of live and video poker, which boils down to the differences between playing against a human or a machine. I’d add as an illustrative example that in live-game draw poker, it can be strategic to hold a kicker to set up a bluff. You don’t hold kickers in video poker … you can’t bluff a machine. As pointed out in the article, becoming a winning player at live poker requires developing multiple skills and infusing judgment, while video poker is black and white — there’s always one best play. Players can calculate video poker returns and proper playing strategies, but they don’t have to. That’s already been done for them in the work of Bob Dancer, Jean Scott, and others. Study with the good video poker learning tools out there and you can achieve a near-computer-perfect return.

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A Boardwalk Christmas; Mega-Jottings

Most people wouldn’t spend Christmas Day in a casino or two but our East Coast correspondent did. He reports, “At the Golden Nugget on Christmas, Chart House, Lillie’s Asian, the Grotto (Italian), Michael Patrick’s coffee shop, Bean & Bread for breakfast sandwiches and light bites, and the Chairman’s Club lounge were open. At Bally’s, the valet parking closed to the intake of vehicles at noon, rather than the usual 5 p.m. Sunday. Their (alleged) VIP lounge was closed all of the weekend. The three restaurants on their sixth floor were closed. The pizza place was closed. If you want Dunkin Donuts or a simple sandwich, you’re in luck, otherwise go somewhere else for food.

“We had our ‘strange’ Christmas this year,” our reporter explains. “For the first time, we stayed in Atlantic City for Xmas, starting Friday for three nights. Friday started off with rain and strong wind, then our first snow of the season, followed by a ‘flash freeze’ in the afternoon (good reasons to not live in New Jersey). When we got to Golden Nugget, the valet intake was like a wind tunnel. A visit to Hard Rock included early dinner at their lounge. We went back to Golden Nugget and went to their Chairman’s Lounge at 10 p.m. as it was open until 11 p.m. on Friday. It was almost completely empty, as the photo shows, and it was so very cold due to to all of the windows.

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Christmas on the Boardwalk; Miller smacks Gray Lady

We begin today with kudos to a non-casino entrepreneur, Bart Blatstein, who has erected a 150-foot Christmas tree in front of the Showboat. It’s said to be the first large-scale tree in Boardwalk history. Thank you, sir. And to get the comedy relief out of the way, our Atlantic City correspondent paid a visit to Bally’s Atlantic City and discovered another reason why it’s mired in last place. His visit began well: “We asked for a room close to the elevator with a shower (not a bathtub). We got the first room close to the elevator, with excellent ocean-front views.”

Things started to unravel from thereon. “On Sunday, I went up to their sixth floor restaurant level. Longo’s had hours posted, Sunday opens at 5 p.m. Their (alleged) VIP lounge closes at 5 p.m. but my wife refuses to go there after our last experience, so we missed the choice of ham & cheese or a hamburger. We went up at 5:30 and Longo’s never opened. Guy Fieri’s was closed. Their other restaurant closes at 2 p.m. So, the only choices for food on Sunday at 5:30 are Dunkin Donuts, their pizza place or their sandwich shop. Is Bally’s supposed to be a ‘major casino’? Not to us it’s not.” Chicagoans, be afraid. Be very afraid.

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