{"id":13281,"date":"2014-04-14T10:03:50","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T18:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13281"},"modified":"2014-04-14T10:03:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T18:03:50","slug":"kill-phil-and-other-pleasantries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/kill-phil-and-other-pleasantries\/","title":{"rendered":"Kill Phil and other pleasantries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cards<\/a>That’s what Borgata<\/strong> would like to do to poker pro Phil Ivey<\/strong>. It is suing him after he cleaned them out of nearly $10 million at the baccarat tables<\/a>. The suit contends that Ivey and a co-conspirator discovered a flaw in cards made by Gemaco<\/strong> and resorted to a cheating tactic known as “edge sorting.” Gemaco may be familiar to you because it’s already being sued by the Golden Nugget Atlantic City<\/strong> for providing packs of unshuffled cards. In Ivey’s case, quirks the printing on the back of the cards made some of them identifiable. (Borgata has been a pretty easy ‘mark’ for cheats lately.) Ivey’s Mandarin-speaking spokesman, Cheng Yin Sun<\/strong>, allegedly gave “special instructions” to the dealer on how to layout the cards, on grounds of “superstition<\/a>.” Both Gemaco and an anonymous Borgata employee are also listed in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

As The Associated Press<\/strong> reports, “The cards have rows of small white circles designed to look like the tops of cut diamonds, but the Borgata claims some of them were only a half diamond or a quarter of one …\u00a0Bad cards would be flipped in different directions, so that after several hands of cards, the good ones were arranged in a certain manner \u2014 with the irregular side of the card facing in a specific direction \u2014 that Ivey could spot when they came out of the dealer chute.” Some of the blame, however, could be laid at Borgata’s feet for its craven submission<\/a> to Ivey’s every demand, however whimsical. To complain now about the outcome of what was an easy layup for Ivey — or for letting the frequently 86’d Sun on the premises — looks a mite hypocritical.<\/p>\n

Ivey’s going to be spending a lot of time in court, from the looks of things. Genting Group<\/strong> is suing him in the United Kingdom<\/strong> for allegedly cheating in baccarat (again) to the tune of $12 million.<\/p>\n

No sale<\/strong>. That’s the message coming from Bethlehem<\/strong> Mayor Robert Donchez<\/strong>, who was trotted out to quash rumors<\/a> of a Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>\/Tropicana Entertainment<\/strong> transaction. Interim property president Doug Niethold<\/strong> offered Donchez the meaningless avowal that Sands Bethlehem<\/strong> is “still open for business.” (Like, duh.) Neither Sands nor Tropicana is talking to the media at present, however.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Hiring proceeds<\/strong> apace for Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City<\/strong>, although opening is at least four months away and construction remains in progress. Rival Argosy Sioux City<\/strong> could find itself denuded of as much as half its workforce, judging by anecdotal metrics of job seekers — 1,500 to date. HRH General Manager Todd Moyer<\/strong> described his dilemma thusly, “We don’t want to identify people too early. On the other hand, we’re afraid if we wait too long, we can’t hire 500 people.” Argosy owner Penn National Gaming<\/strong> is responding with retention bonuses, hoping to keep its workforce together. However, what message does it say when\u00a0Argosy Operations Manager Zach Rosenbaum<\/strong> is himself looking for an exit ramp?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what Borgata would like to do to poker pro Phil Ivey. It is suing him after he cleaned them out of nearly $10 million at the baccarat tables. The suit contends that Ivey and a co-conspirator discovered a flaw … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,60,120,86,69,95,12,129,21,146],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13282,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13281\/revisions\/13282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}