From the Early Days: She Doubled Down on Blackjack

Well, I dunno when I'll be able to post a new entry, especially since I haven't even figured out what I'm gonna write about next.  So I thought I'd do something I haven't done in awhile, repost on of my old stories from the very early days of the blog. And even when i posted this, it was an old, old story from my pre-poker days in Vegas.  This is actually one of my most memorable stories from my very early trips to Vegas.  Hope you enjoy it!

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This one goes back a long, long way.  It happened some 30 years ago, give or take.  This was well before I started taking notes on my Vegas trips so I’m going entirely by aging memory.  But I told this story so often for years that I think I can get most of the details right.  If not, I’ll just make them up.

My friend Norm and I used to visit Vegas regularly at this time, two, three times a year.  We enjoyed gambling of course.  Mostly blackjack and craps, with the occasional foray into Keno if we were losing too much.  We also enjoyed the mass quantities of cheap food that was available then.  The buffets back then were not profit centers, they were loss leaders, and almost every hotel had extremely cheap buffets where you could easily stuff enough food in your face to make you sick for just a few bucks.  And it was good food too.  In those days, we were actually young enough, stupid enough, and gluttonous enough to sometimes have more than one buffet a day!  I sure as hell don’t do that any more.

We also saw a lot of shows back then.  Whatever headliners we liked (almost always comedians, not music stars) and the big production shows too.  Again, they were a lot cheaper in those days.

After a few visits, our favorite casino, and indeed, our favorite hotel, became The Maxim.  As I explained recently here, the Maxim was located on Flamingo, across the street from the Bally’s employee parking lot.  Except that Bally’s was actually the MGM when we first started playing and staying at The Maxim.  The Maxim closed down many years ago and something called the Westin Casuarina now sits in the same corner.

We liked the Maxim for a several reasons.  As a hotel, it had the benefit of being cheap, and so were we.  Being off the Strip, it was lower priced than the rooms on the Strip.  And the room was nice enough, not luxurious but quite pleasant for the price.  Also, it was close enough to the Strip that it was an easy walk to it, right past The Stage Door bar that I talked about in the post I just linked to.  And that corner of the Strip had a ton of casinos we also liked to play at, such as Barbary Coast (now The Cromwell), Flamingo Hilton (now without the “Hilton” attached), Imperial Palace (now The Linq), the Holiday Casino (now Harrah’s), The Sands (where the Venetian now sits), The Dunes (where Bellagio now resides), Caesars (though we could never afford to play there) and the aforementioned MGM.

But we also loved the Maxim casino.  It was smaller than most of those on the Strip, but it was also a lot friendlier.  The dealers on the Strip were robotic and soulless.  The dealers at the Maxim (most of them, anyway) were friendly and often funny.  Hey, if you’re losing your money in a game where the odds are stacked against you, you might as well be entertained.  We even got to be fairly friendly with some of the dealers because we started going there so often.  If I’m not mistaken, Norm actually made a friend of sorts of the very attractive, very exuberant lady dealer who worked the Wheel of Fortune (or Big 6 Wheel, whatever the called it).

More importantly, the Maxim, being off the Strip, had lower limits than a lot of the Strip casinos, and that was important to us.  We could only afford to go to Vegas so often if we could play $2 blackjack and $2 craps.  And yes, it was still possible to find games like that in those days.  But the bigger, nicer casinos had already started to phase them out, so that was what was so appealing about the Maxim.

So if we stayed at the Maxim, we’d end up in that casino for our last session of the day before calling it a night.  So there I was, one night, playing $2 blackjack before retiring.  I don’t recall if Norm was with me at this point or at another game, or whatever.  All I know is that a rather cute, very young girl sat next to me and bought into the game.

OK, so I remember her being cute.  I don’t remember if she was provocatively dressed.  I suspect she was not, because, knowing me, if she had been, I’d remember it.  Actually, this took place so long ago it might have predated the era when women dressed sexily in Las Vegas.  Hell, it might have taken place before cleavage was invented.

And she sat down next to me and started chatting with the dealer.  And ordered a drink.  Yes, she definitely ordered a drink.  Repeatedly.  From the conversation she was having with the first dealer, it was apparent that she used to be a cocktail waitress right there at the Maxim.  I soon learned that she was now working as a blackjack dealer somewhere else. But not in Vegas.  I’m not sure if she was working in one of the (then) two casinos that are located in what is now known as Primm, which is right on the California/Nevada border, or she was working in Laughlin.  Laughlin wasn’t much in those days.  Neither was Primm.  I gathered she was working at a locale like that because she was brand new as a dealer and was attempting to get some experience on her resume so that she could work her way into a position in Vegas.

So she knew all the dealers and the cocktail waitresses who were serving her—they were all her old colleagues.  She was getting tips from the dealers as to how to be a better blackjack dealer.  And she was tipping big herself whenever she won, which wasn’t very often.  She was also tipping the waitresses generously for the drinks they kept bringing her…..and bringing her.

It seems she was depressed about something, but I can’t remember why.  Maybe she didn’t even say.  But it was obvious that she was there to get hammered as much as for any other reason.  She was drinking to forget.  And it worked, because, all these many years later, I’ve totally forgotten what was bothering her.  I’m sure she also wanted to visit her old friends, and tell them she was now a dealer and no longer a waitress, as well. 

She was friendly at the beginning, but mostly with the employees.  As she downed more and more drinks, she started interacting more with the other players as well.  One thing she was upset about, at least at the beginning, was the way the deck was treating her.  She was losing money rather quickly, and had to keep buying in.  I guess I must have doing ok myself, as I stayed there for quite some time.

At first, she was playing totally normal, totally by-the-book blackjack.  And losing steadily.  After awhile, though, she started veering off the basic blackjack strategy, and started playing based on “feelings” and “hunches” and guesses about what the next card would be.  I’m sure some this was due to the fact that she was losing with the basic strategy, but most of it was due to the alcohol.

Now, as she was getting more inebriated and thus more outgoing, she started taking it upon herself to help me with my game.  This wasn’t really necessary, but she couldn’t help herself.  Interestingly, as she kept playing crazier and crazier, she never gave me the wrong play.  So for example, she would stick on a 16 when the dealers up card was a face card, because of a hunch, but she would tell me to take a card in the same situation.  Again, to be clear, I didn’t need her help, she was just being “helpful.”  Have I mentioned she was drinking a lot?

She also started doing weird things whenever she got a double down, or a split situation, or a soft hand.  She would split cards you shouldn’t split and vice versa, double down when she shouldn’t, and even not take a card when she had a soft hand that she couldn’t bust.  But again, whenever she offered me advice, it was always dead on the correct play.

The combination of being drunk and playing crazy had an amazing affect.  She started winning.  The crazier she played—and the more she drank—the better she did.  She started winning almost every time she did something dumb—like splitting face cards, or hitting hard 12’s, weird things like that.  She frequently told me before she did something stupid that she was going to do it.  I would of course say that it was a bad play and suggest she not do it.  She ignored me and made the bad play and usually won the hand.

As she started winning, she started getting very excited.  The dour demeanor of a drunk woman disappeared, to be replace by a bubbly drunk.  And she started interacting with me more and more.  For one thing, every time she won one of her crazy bets, she would actually grab my arm in delight.  Sometimes, she would put her arms around me and hug me.  When I won a decent sized bet, she also grabbed my arm.  I’m not a touchy feely type, but I didn’t object. 

As I said, she started giving me advice, making suggestions as to how to play my hands. Again, I didn’t really need this, nor did I ask for this, she just couldn’t help herself.  But she never once suggested that I do anything but play by-the-book blackjack.  She always gave me the correct advice.  And when it worked, she would squeal with delight and grab my arm. 

I knew the basic strategy, and almost always played it, but I have to admit, that some of the double downs on soft hands, and some of the splits, were a bit problematic for me.  They came so rarely that I didn’t always know them cold.  Then too, it seemed that anytime I did make the right play doubling down on a soft hand, it didn’t work out, so a lot of times I didn’t make that play, and just took a card instead.  A couple of times she caught me doing this and suggested—more like begged me—to double down (the right play).  As long as she suggested it, it worked.

I suppose you might be wondering if, with all the arm grabbing she did, and all the hugging, this is going to veer off into something tawdry.  But then, as now, I would never take advantage of a drunk female.  Now, I might offer them a ride, but I would never take advantage. 

As she started winning, she started betting more and more.  This too paid off, as she was still having her run of luck and was therefore winning more and more money.

This went on for awhile and then after a couple of nice wins, she put out the biggest bet she had all night.  I don’t remember what it was.  But since it was $2 table it was likely around $40, $50, I doubt it was more than that.  Still, it was a big bet for her, having sat there because she wanted to play for two bucks a hand (and consume a lot of liquor).

And thus, with that big bet out, she was dealt a blackjack.  It was the first one she had been dealt in quite some time, probably since before she started betting more than just a few bucks.  She squealed and jumped up in her chair and grabbed my arm.  I noticed that the dealer’s upcard was a 6.

I really don’t know what possessed me to do what I did then.  It’s possible that, back in those days, I might have had an adult beverage or two myself at that point.  Or maybe it was because she had been ignoring all my good advice, and she had been only too willing to offer me her advice.  But I got a little devilish right then.  As she was celebrating, I suddenly found myself saying to her, “You should double down on it.”

Now she had done some stupid plays before, but nothing that stupid.  But she stopped celebrating to consider it.  “What?  Really?”

I continued, although I knew I shouldn’t.  “Yeah.  I mean, it’s just an ‘eleven’ right?  You could double your win.  You’ll probably get a face card, and the dealer’s gonna bust anyway.  You should definitely go for it.”

I’m sure I felt at the time that there was no way she would do anything quite that stupid.  Giving up a guaranteed $150% payback while risking 100% of her bet—with only 50% more reward if she won?  She wasn’t that drunk, was she?

But she started thinking about it, and stopped the dealer from paying her off for the blackjack.  “I don’t know.  Should I really do it?  Should I?”

It was that at that point that I meant to say, “No, no, I was just kidding.  You don’t double down on blackjack.  Take the money.”

But somehow, it came out, “Sure, go ahead.  Do it.  It’s practically money in the bank.”

And she pondered it a few seconds longer and then—just as I was about to say, “No, no, I’m kidding, don’t do it,” she grabbed some more chips and said, “Double down.”

I think I kinda prayed there for her to win the hand.  I would have felt like shit if she had lost.  I don’t recall the details, I don’t remember if she drew a face card or what.  But she definitely won the hand.  She squealed and yelled like she had just won a million dollars.  She leaned over and gave me a really big hug.

Of course now, I was only too willing to take credit.  “See, I told you.”

She thanked me and kept squealing.  And then…..

Well, that’s all I remember.  I don’t even remember for sure if she left the table before I did or if it was the other way around.  I can’t recall if she ended up keeping all those chips or not.  I seem to have a vague recollection of her asking one of her cocktail waitresses buddies to drive her home at one point, which was a very good thing.

But for years and years, I had a story about the girl who doubled down on blackjack, and how I was the one who talked her into it.

(May 2019 addendum:  I should have noted that since this took place years and years ago, of course the blackjack paid 3:2.  This was in the good ol' days when nobody would even dream of offering 6:5 blackjack.  So, I suppose if this story had taken place in 2019, at a 6:5 table, her play wouldn't have been quite so horrible.  Still a dumb play, but the math would be a little better.)

Bad Beat Stories Aren't Always Sad

On Saturday I ventured over to Ventura for some poker.  I almost didn't go.  You've no doubt heard about the fires here in Southern California.  Well, the fires were conveniently located between the poker room and me.  Before I even thought about going, I confirmed with Google that all possible roads to get me there were indeed open.  But with the 101 closed near the area where I would catch up with it, I knew there'd likely be more traffic for me getting there.  And I'd get to see plenty of smoke on the way there and back. But the winds were calm that day and I didn't think it would get any worse while I was out there.  In other words, I figured I'd be able to drive back.

I knew I wouldn't play long.  I woke up later than usual, left later than usual and of course did indeed have more traffic than usual.  And I also wanted to leave fairly early, because of increased traffic and just in case things did worsen.  Really, I shouldn't have bothered going out there.  But I really needed to get out of the house and do something somewhat social.

So I arrived late but caught a break when they started a new 1/2 game within a few minutes of my arrival.  The very first hand, I was the big blind and looked down at pocket Jacks. But it folded to the small blind and he asked if I wanted to chop.  They say there are three ways to play Jacks and they're all wrong.  Well this was a fourth way….chop the blinds with them.  I think that way's the winner.

I had seemingly gone a long time without winning a pot—and rarely playing one—when I got Ace-4 of diamonds in the big blind.  Someone had raised to $6 and with a suited Ace I called, even though it was just heads up.  Hey, that was the best hand I'd seen since the Jacks.  The flop was Ace-Jack-X and so I led out for $8.  He folded.  Monster pot there for my first one of the day.

Then I got the dreaded hand a few orbits later.  There were some limpers so I raised to $8.  I know that's small but it seemed like the right bet for how the table was playing at this point.  I guess it was too much. No one called.  But for me to take down a pot with Kings uncontested is a big win.

It wasn't my day.  That was pretty much it and it looked like I'd be going home in the red for the day.  I guess I was down to about $55-$65 and wasn't about to rebuy as I wanted to get on the road.  I wasn't getting cards, and when I did get something playable, I wasn't connecting with the flop.

As I was thinking about whether this was my last orbit or not, I looked down at pocket Queens.  I raised to $6 and got four callers.  The flop was 10-9-3, rainbow.  I c-bet $10 with my overpair.  Only the guy on my immediate left called.  The turn was an Ace.  I checked, and he bet $15.  I considered folding.  But I also thought there was a good chance he didn't have the Ace and that he bet because I had shown weakness by checking.  Maybe he only had a 10, or a 9?  I figured if I called, he might check the river and get me to a cheap showdown.  So I went ahead and called.

Well the river was rather nice—a Queen. I glanced over and he had his hand near his chips and I thought he might be eager to bet.  So I took a chance and checked.  He put out a bet, I'm not sure what it was and I didn't ask, but I guess it was around half my remaining stack.  I looked at my chips and realized I really couldn't raise without jamming so I moved all-in.  Yeah, I knew that King-Jack or Jack-8 was possible, but I really didn't think either was very likely.  Ace-10 or Ace-9 seemed more likely.  Anyway, he snapped called and as I showed my set of Queens, he flipped over pocket 10's!  Oh man, did I suck out on him!

I mean two-outers are fun, when you hit them, right?  I kind of half-heartedly apologized while I dragged in the pot.  Set-over-set is bad enough (if you're on the losing end) but for me to get it on the river when he was crushing me on the flop and the turn—ugh.  I mean "ugh": for him.  For me it's great.

Of course been on the wrong end of that situation has happened to me plenty of times.  Hell, if you play poker, it's happened to you plenty of times.  That's poker, right?  A bad beat in your favor is really a good beat, right?  Of course, it's just human nature to forget all about hands like these next time you run into a few bad beats in a row.  And the worse thing would be for someone to tell me, next time I whine about a bad beat,  "Well, it evens out.  Remember that time you rivered the set of Queens against a guy's set of 10"s?"  I might be tempted to tell someone who did that precisely where to go.  In the meantime, I'll just enjoy this "good beat",  thank you very much.

I stayed another orbit and a half and was actually able to book a fifty buck profit based on that lucky hand.

Since this post is relatively short, let me close it with a little note I received from my buddy Don—a slice of Vegas life and a "woman said."  Here goes:  "Riding down the escalator towards Cromwell and I hear the woman behind me say to her friends about someone else, 'Well that's classy. You can't buy class.' Said woman is about 50 pounds overweight, wearing yoga pants and a crop top, drinking some cheap iced alcoholic beverage from a straw out of a plastic cup, and has a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. I think 'yeah toots, but if they tried to buy class, then it's a hell of a lot more effort than you made.'"

I responded that she's got class she hasn't even used yet.

Now, you may wonder what the pic below has to do with anything.  Well, the young lady below is exposing her tummy much like the woman in Don's story was.  Of course, this woman doesn't look (to me, at least), to be quite as overweight as the one Don described.

 

So I am really running this pic because it was obviously taken at a recent Lakers game, and you all know how much I love the Lakers.  Yeah, let's go with that.

 

Scenes From a Poker Tournament

This post will consist of a few random stories from a tournament I played in Vegas back in June.  I busted out of this one fairly quickly due to a total lack of decent hands.  Because of some of the things I will tell you about, I prefer not to identify which tournament this was or what poker room it took place in.  Really, it wouldn't be a big deal to reveal it, but I prefer not to.  To be honest, this could have happened at any tournament I played during the summer poker season.

You see all the rooms that run series are quite desperate for dealers.  There just aren't enough to go around.  A lot of "retired" dealers come out of retirement to deal at the WSOP or one of the other series around time—or both.  Many dealers double up and do two full shifts during this time.  Rooms hire brand new dealers, with predictable results.  The ones that can handle it get better as the summer rolls on.  Some don't make it.  Last summer I was dealt to by a high school math teacher who was dealing to make money during summer vacation—he was excellent.  You never know who you'll run into.

In this room, after I busted, went over to say hello to the poker room manager, who I've been working with thru PokerAtlas and Ante Up for six years.  He was impressed and a bit overwhelmed with how busy they were.  He pointed out that another room in town was offering virtually the exact same tournament as he was and they were getting like 300 people a day for theirs—just about the same as he was getting for his.  And he talked about how difficult it is to keep properly staffed for it.

He kept losing dealers.  They needed the temp dealers to work long shifts—but the dealers couldn't work longer than their assigned shifts because they had their other job—their real job—to go to.  And they couldn't be late for their real job or they'd get fired.  This job was only temporary.  It was a real challenge.

Anyway, there was one male dealer who was bantering with one of the players.  And the player had a bad result in the hand so of course he said something disparaging about the dealer, like it was the dealer's fault he lost the hand (not exactly a rare complaint).  And so the dealer said, "If that comment had come from a good player, I'd be offended."  I dunno why, but that line really tickled me.  I started laughing. 

Now, as it happened, I had been spending a rather inordinate amount of time looking at my phone. It seems someone was complaining to me that there was some key information missing from PokerAtlas and I was researching it.  I couldn't find anything missing, but this person was insisting.  So I was distracted. It turned out that the person was of course wrong and it was just human error on this person's part –nothing was missing.  But it caused me to bury my face in the phone for awhile.  Which was where it was when the dealer made that crack.  So when I laughed, the dealer was a bit surprised and he gave me a look.  So I said to him, "You didn't think I was paying attention, did you?"  He said, "Actually, I didn't."

Now, there was one dealer at this tournament I want to tell you about. She was super, super friendly.  Perhaps too friendly.  It wasn't long before I found out that her regular gig is as a table games dealer at a locals casino, one that used to have a poker room but no longer does. But she only started working there after they stopped offering poker.  So I dunno where she learned how to deal poker.  I suspect she played poker even though her gig is table games.

Early on, she told us this joke.  "Why are men like a deck of cards?  Because you need  a heart to love them, a diamond to marry them, a club to beat them and a spade to bury them."  Ok, then.

Then later a player was trying to remember how the last hand had played out and asked another player about it. But this dealer voluntarily told him who had raised, how much, how much the flop bet was…etc.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  Is a dealer to suppose to help out players that way?  I mean if the player couldn't recall how the hand went down, that's his problem right?  Unless another player wants to help him out, I kind of don't think the dealer should. 

But the weirdest, and worst thing I saw her do was when the a player announced "all-in" for the first time at our table (since she had been there).  As she grabbed the "all-in" button and threw it towards the player, she immediately said, cheerfully, "Good luck, all-in."

Grrrr.

Now I've made it clear in this space I really think saying that is beyond stupid (see here).  But I get that people like to say it or perhaps just can't help themselves.  But for a dealer to say it?  That is so wrong.

Of course, since it's such a meaningless phrase, it's not like the dealer is actually affecting anything or even favoring the player who first went all-in. I didn't think the dealer was really wishing that player better luck than anyone who might call. But still, the dealer is supposed to be impartial, and here she was wishing one of the players good luck, presumably at everyone else's expense.

You know, sometimes you hear a dealer at the beginning of a tournament, or opening a new cash game—or even just pushing in or out of a table—saying something like "good luck, everyone,"  which is ok, because that's aimed at everyone.  Although I often wonder how everyone can have good luck.  OMG….if everyone has good luck, that means skill will actually be a factor!  Damn.

In this dealer's case, this is one of the reasons I assume she is a poker player.  She must have gotten into that dumb habit as a player, so it just sort of reflexively comes out of her mouth when she hears that "all-in" while dealing too.

It wasn't a big deal.  I certainly wasn't going to say anything, just struck me as a little odd.

And that's really all of note from this particular tournament.

I Was Planning to Write a Post on Sunday, Honest

Yes that was the plan.  But things seldom go as planned when I'm in Vegas, and I've been here for a bit more than two weeks.  I didn't drag my ass out of bed until 10:30AM on Sunday, and that pretty much prevented me from writing up any of the stories I've collected this trip so far.  Sorry.

Will I get around to doing any serious blogging before I return home?  You're guess is as good as mine, but the local sports books are heavily favoring the "No."

But I didn't want it to appear that I've abandoned the blog.  So I'm posting this little nothing of a blog post so you won't think I drove my car off the roof the Golden Nugget parking garage yet (tempting as that sounds).

In the meantime, you can get a taste of my trip so far by checking out my pal Lightning's latest blog post here. Since we got together numerous times during his visit last week, you'll be able to see some of the stuff I've been up to before I am able to tell you the whole story.

As for the pictures below, they have nothing to do with this post or anything else, but I figure if I can't give you some of my brilliant prose, at least I can give you what you all really come for.  

Enjoy and stay tuned!

Poker Season is Almost Here!

That's right boys and girls, poker season is just around the corner.  Soon it will be time for every poker player in the universe to descend on Las Vegas as that game of skill known as poker takes over Sin City.

I know this because I am currently working my fingers to the bone entering all the special summer series tournaments into the PokerAtlas database. And also because the last two columns I wrote for Ante Up consisted almost entirely of previews of all the summer series. Note: Forget about what you learned in school.  Every poker player knows that summer is from end of May to early July.

So since my days are consumed with all the poker series about to commence in Vegas shortly, I thought I'd take some time during my free time to share some thoughts with you.  Hopefully you've already seen part 1 of my summer preview (here).  The second part should be appearing in a couple of weeks, covering Planet Hollywood, Wynn, Binion's and Orleans.

So with all those tournaments to look at as I enter them in the system, I thought I'd talk a bit what events I'm thinking about playing.  Yes, after a long hiatus, I am planning to return to Vegas in June.  But with less enthusiasm than in the past.  As I've explained in multiple posts, I really don't like what they've done to Vegas.  They are doing their best to drive people like me away with skyrocketing room rates, ever increasing resort fees and parking fees and the virtual disappearance of quality (or even decent) low-cost food options.  It's getting to be too damn expensive to go to Vegas, and that's not even considering the possibility of a few bad sessions.  Even the increasing cost of gas makes it pricier for me.  You see, the incompetent morons who run California recently increased our gas taxes 12¢ a gallon.  True, once I get to Vegas I can buy cheaper gas….but it's a bit impractical to drive to Vegas just for a fill up.

Still, I'm not quite ready to completely write off Vegas, and if you're a poker player and you're ever going to go to Vegas, the poker season is when to go.  Even if you didn't ever play a tournament, the cash game action is insane this time of year.

And it sure feels like the poker season this year is the biggest ever—or at least since I've been working in the poker biz.  The WSOP has more bracelet events than ever, and I believe more side events too.  And then there's the Venetian.  Oh, the Venetian.  I hope you read my column just for the section on the Venetian summer series.  Getting that listed on PokerAtlas almost killed me.  They actually have 150 tournaments between mid-May and end of July.  And I had to enter every single one of them into the database.  I just finished on Thursday.  I don't want to say how long it took me but when I started they still had free parking on the Vegas strip. 

Seriously, I'm really looking forward to seeing the set up they have over there.  For most of the series, the events will be held not in the Venetian poker room, but in the Sands Convention Center.  I hear it is going to be a really nice venue, very roomy, a separate food court and who knows what else.  I'd make a point to check it out just to see it even if I wasn’t planning on playing any events.  But I think they have a tournament that has caught my eye and I will take a shot at.  It's the Nightstack, a $400 tourney with a bunch of flights spread out over June on various evenings starting at 6pm. I wrote a bit about it in my column.  It has a $1MM guarantee and each flight is in the money.  The top 10% get paid and the top 5% advance to day 2.  It's actually similar to WSOP's Giant tournament that they debuted last year.  The Nightstack has 30 minute levels all the way through, the Giant has 20-minute levels on day 1.  But the starting stack is bigger for the Giant (25K vs 15k).  Even though it doesn't have a guarantee, the Giant figures to have a lot bigger prize pool (last year's was over $3MM).  And the buy-in is close but the Giant is a bit cheaper at $365.  Giant's payouts probably start sooner although it depends on how many players each flight gets. Giant has a Day 2 and a Day 3, the Nightstack finishes on Day 2.

When I was analyzing the Nightstack and realizing it was similar to the Giant, I checked the dates of each to see if they were competing directly.  Well, none of the Day 1 flights are head-to-head (but even if they were, since there are so many flights, it wouldn't be an issue).  But, it turns out that Nightstack's Day 2 (it's last day) and Giant's Day 3 (it's last day) are on the same day.

When I first saw that, I thought that was too bad that they were competing like that, players would have choose one or the other. But then I thought about it some more and realized it likely wouldn't prevent anyone from entering both events. The Giant starts it's Day 3 (which will very likely just be a final table) at 2pm on 7/1.  Nightstack's Day 2 starts the same day at 5pm.

But there will only be a conflict if you make it to Day 3 of the Giant and Day 2 of the Nightstack.  Otherwise you're fine.  And making it to the final day of both of these tournaments would be a pretty nice problem to have.  I might suggest if you're good enough to make it to the final days of both of these tournaments, you're probably wasting your time playing in events that cost $400 or less!

But think of it.  Players who are in Vegas for most of the summer will be able to play both.  A lot of the Nightstack's dates are the Thursday before a Giant flight (which are all on Friday).  So you play Venetian Thursday and if you don’t survive, you can try the Giant the next night.  A lot of players are probably planning on firing multiple bullets anyway. 

The question is, if you make it to Day 2 in either one of them, do you give up on the idea of playing the other or do you give it a shot anyway?  You are going to be among a very few players to make it to Day 3 of the Giant, and will have survived a huge field.  It will be easier to make it to Day 2 of the Nightstack of course.

What I'm saying is, even if you're Doug Polk (and I'm pretty sure you're not Doug Polk), and you fired every bullet possible in both tournaments, it's still extremely unlikely you'd have your dance card filled with both final days on July 1.

But if somehow you did make it through both?  Well again, a very nice problem to have.  And actually, you'd have three of hours of play at the Giant before the restart over at the Venetian.  I guess your strategy would be based on how deep stacked you were for each event, right?  If you're the short stack at the final table of the Giant (but were deep stacked at the Nightstack), you just keep shoving until you bust the Giant or you get on a roll and can legitimately compete for a bracelet.  Even if you busted the first minute of day 3, you'd be getting a very nice payout.

OTOH, if it was the reverse, and you were the chip leader at the Giant but a shortie at the Nightstack, you play the Giant for as long as you can, and if that short stack at the Nightstack gets blinded off, you can pick up whatever money is coming to you from there at your convenience if you don't make it over there in time to play at all.  Meanwhile, your payout at the Giant would be huge.

The dilemma would be if you were deep stacked at both (and again, a great problem to have).  I suppose at that point you would get out the ICM calculator to help you decide which of the two tournaments you should prioritize.

But of course, it's a real, real long shot that anyone would make it to the final days of both of these tournaments.

Bottom line:  I may just be crazy to fire a bullet in both, and see if I can be that guy with the final day dilemma.  I'm not counting on it, but cashing in both would sure be nice and not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Despite the added bracelet events at the WSOP, nothing new appeals to me, so if I do play the Giant it will be my only bracelet event.  And again, I will keep away from the Daily Deepstacks as I have for the past few years.  The 3pm Deepstack became the 2pm Deepstack a few years back, and now has become the 1pm Deepstack (at a new, slightly higher buy-in, $250).  A few years back they removed the dinner break, which made it quite unappealing to me.  This year they put the dinner break back….but it's not until 9:15pm, too late for me to take advantage of it.  I could work around it I suppose, but when there are other tournaments around town competing with it that are lot more friendly to eating/meds schedule, I see no reason to.

Just last time I wrote about last year's WPT 500 at the Aria (here), and yes, I hope to play it again this year, assuming I still have money left by the time it rolls around in late June.  The $5 increase in the buy-in (to $570) won't keep me away. 

Golden Nugget will once again be running those $150 NLH tourneys most days at 1PM, with a $20K guarantee.  That's the tourney that really appeals to me for a variety of reasons.  I expect to try my luck there a few times.  The Nugget also has a couple of weekends reserved for its $200 Ultimate Re-entry events, with a $250K guarantee. They have 9 starting flights and I can see myself playing in that. All players who make it to Day 2 are in the money.

Planet Hollywood is running some $100 NLH tourneys with $10K guarantees.  I have to consider giving one of those a try, no?  Then they have some $250 "Low Roller" tourneys….multiple starting flights, payouts begin on Day 1, $200K guarantee.  Can I pass that up?   Oh and Orleans has a bunch of $150 NLH tournies with $25K guarantees.  Have to consider those as definitely playable.

Wynn has great tournaments as well, but I think they are a little out of my wheelhouse, buy-in wise.  And Binion's is mostly non-hold'em stuff, as I indicated in my column.

One thing I will point out is that almost all of these venues are using the Big Blind Ante at least to some degree, as I predicted (see here). The exceptions, as far as I can tell, are the Orleans and sorta/kinda Binion's.  I say that about Binion's because for their NLH events, they are going with Button Ante instead of the BB Ante, as I posted on Twitter a few weeks back. Some folks prefer the button ante because then the burden of that inflated ante and the big blind doesn't fall on the same player, it spreads it out better. The issue with that though is that there are sometimes hands where there is no player on the button, whereas there is always a big blind.  Binion's will handle this by having no ante when there is a dead button.  Players interested in that version of the single ante format can try that out and see for themselves if they like it.

But everyone else has at least a few tournaments with the Big Blind Ante, and both Aria and Wynn are exclusively BB Ante for their NLH events.  I think Golden Nugget is only using it for their championship event.  The others are using it for some portion of their events.  Oh and yes, even the WSOP is using it for a few of the bracelet events and some of the daily deepstacks.  By next year I bet it will be close to the standard.

Well that's about it.  I probably won't have the bankroll to play all the events that appeal to me unless I get a few early cashes.  I can dream can't I?  So what events appeal to you?

Note:  My last post was missing my signature gratuitous cheesecake pic.  So to make up for it, I've enhanced this post with a multiple pics of young ladies enjoying the summer.  Happy poker season!  

"What Part of Boston Are You From?"

This was from a poker session in Vegas last year during football season.  The poker was pretty dull but I met a couple of guys at the table who had somewhat interesting stories to tell.

These two guys had just met at the table, they were sitting one seat apart, one of them was directly across from me.  They bonded talking about sports.  One guy was from Boston.  He was a huge Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins fan.  So of course, you would expect him to be a huge Patriots fan as well.  But the other guy and I were shocked when he said he doesn't like the Patriots.  Who does he like?  Well, the Denver Broncos, of course.

That demanded an explanation so we insisted on hearing it.  Well, it seems that back when this guy was in grade school, the 1990 Super Bowl was approaching and there was a kid who was a few years older than this guy going around telling everyone that the 49'ers were going to kill the Broncos.  He was saying that Joe Montana was the greatest quarterback in the league and that Denver didn't have a chance against him (sounds like a smart kid).  Well, this guy at our table hated this older kid.  Apparently he was a bad kid and a bit of a bully. So for no other reason than this jerk older kid just had to be wrong, the guy at our table started saying that the Broncos would beat the 49'ers easily.  And of course they had to make a bet on it.  He didn't say how much the bet was, but it was more money than he could get his hands on, naturally.

Of course, we know that San Francisco kicked the crap out of Denver that year, 55 – 10.  And Joe Montana, as he was wont to do, had a great game was the game's MVP.  So this kid from Boston told us that he spent the rest of the school year hiding from this older kid and didn't pay off the bet, until somehow his mother got involved and paid the bet for him.  His mother was not pleased.

Anyway, he said his feelings for the Broncos stuck with him and he's been a Broncos fan ever since.

I wasn't quite getting that.  I said to him, "If anything, that should have made you hate the Broncos, not root for them!  They cost you money, they got you in trouble with your mom, and you're lucky the older kid didn't beat you up for welching on the bet." Note:  He didn't tell us that the guy beat him up, so I just assumed he hadn't.  He replied, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Now his story sounded fishy to me but I do have to say that of all the sports, I think pro football is the one where I see the most fans having favorite teams that are not their home teams.  I think maybe it's because it's such a national sport, and you can see pretty much every team almost as much as your own home team.  I have to confess that over the years my favorite team has changed many times—usually because of who my favorite QB was at any given time.  So I guess it's not that shocking that a guy from Boston would root for a different team.  But I still say he should hate the Broncos for costing him that bet.  I guess at that age his football crush was strong.

Anyway, as they kept talking, moving on to other topics, the other guy I mentioned asked him, "What part of Boston are you from?"  And I immediately interjected, "The Broncos part."  They both thought that was quite funny, and who was I to argue?

Well we couldn't talk about the Broncos of that era without mentioning John Elway now could we?.  And the other guy (the one not from Boston) mentioned that he actually remembers seeing Elway when he was in High School.  I happened to know that Elway is from Southern California and went to Granada Hills High.  Granada Hills is a well known community to Southern Californians.  So when he said that he'd seen Elway play in High School I said, "Granada Hills, right?"  And the guy was impressed.  That got us talking about where he was from.  He mentioned the community and it is the same community I live in.  So I asked him to be more specific and he gave an intersection.  He mentioned the major intersection that is closest to my house.  Now it turned out that he no longer lives here, he moved to El Paso a few years ago.  But he and I were neighbors for quite some time.

Just one of those small world stories.  Now it's certainly not surprising to run into someone from Southern California in Vegas, more visitors to Vegas are from my neck of the woods than anywhere else. But to find someone who lived so close to me that we shared the same common major intersection?  Well that's a bit of a coincidence.

As for poker, I managed to survive the dreaded pocket Kings twice without disaster.  The first time I opened to $10 and had two callers.  The flop was Jack-Jack-x and I c-bet $20, both called.  The turn was a blank and it checked around.  The river was another Jack and again it checked around.  I know that it was almost certain I had the best hand and I should have bet there, but it was Kings and so I was a bit gun-shy.  I showed my boat and the other two mucked.

The other time was much later.  The guy from my neighborhood limped, the guy from Boston made it $10, the guy on my right called.  I made it $40.  Only the Broncos fan from Boston called.  The flop was Jack-Jack-X.  WTF?  Kings are supposed to be Ace magnets.  This night they were paired Jacks magnets.  So strange to see almost the identical flop the two times I had Kings.  After the Boston guy checked, I bet $50.  He tanked for a long time.  He said, "I think you got one better than me." Finally he folded. He was in some agony over it and he said, "You don't have to tell me now, but before you leave, please tell me what you had."  I agreed.

When I left. I told him I had Kings.  He was happy to hear that.  He had Queens.

I booked a small win thanks to guy from Boston who likes the Broncos because they cost him a bet when he was in grade school.

Vegas Hooker Attack—"Trick Roll"

Special Guest Post

By "Anonymous"

Introduction:  The guest post was submitted to me by a long-time reader of this blog after his recent visit to Vegas with his buddy.  I am only posting this with the understanding that his identity, and the identity of his friend, be withheld.  However, I totally trust my source and am quite confident that that the narrative you are about to read did indeed happen.

Every year, millions of men visit Vegas, and more than a few of them seek female companionship of the "by the hour" type.  This is a reminder that such activity is illegal in Clark County, where Vegas is located.  I thus present this as a cautionary tale.  And  I'd like to thank Anonymous for this "word to the wise."

Take it away, Anonymous…..

=================================

Warning!!! 

This accurate account of a Vegas Hooker Attack—"Trick Roll"—is NSFW.

During a recent trip to Vegas for poker and other activities with my good friend, he had what turned out to be a wildly violent encounter with a local "working girl."

Please keep in mind that the buddy I'm describing is not a young man, and is one of the kindest and most non-violent people I have met, yet he really likes the ladies and is a bit of a "horn dog."  On our second day in town, we had both played poker tourneys and cash games most of the day and I had a dinner date that nite with my caddy. So we split up about 7pm, and he continued to play cash games.  I have never seen this man drink any alcohol away from the table, but he does consume mass quantities of beer while playing his favorite game.  His drinking never seems to affect his play, even though his speech sometimes becomes a bit slurred after about 20 or more beers.  I knew he was heavy into the beers this night, and when he phoned me in a bit of a panic at 3am, I became very concerned for his welfare.

We both have been visiting Vegas on and off for the past 25 years, and the following is by far, the wildest true story I have ever heard.  It begins with him walking from one strip property to his hotel—an undisclosed property, which cannot be identified for obvious reasons. He had a winning session and was feeling no pain as he strolled to his hotel. As he passed a few shops and bars, a tall, attractive young female, with short skirt, and massive boobs, smiled and motioned to him as he passed by. He stopped and she approached, asking him what he was up to.  He related that he was just making his way back to his hotel, and she became very friendly, asking him if he wanted any company on his way back. Even though he was a bit apprehensive, he said she was so hot that he couldn't turn her away. 

When they got close to the hotel entrance, she suggested that he walk ahead and they should go in a side entrance to avoid security.  She followed him into the elevator and began groping his crotch on the way up to his floor, as they were alone in the elevator.  As they walked to his room she was telling him she was about to rock his world. He had no idea who would get really rocked a bit later.  When they entered his room, he told her she could not use her phone in the room at any time, and she agreed.  He told me he had heard stories of hookers going into the bathroom, calling their pimps or partners to set up robberies of their victims.   So, that's why he had her turn her phone off and leave it in her purse.

They discussed her fee and he said he would pay 50% now, the rest later. She said no way, so he laughed and gave her the full amount. She immediately pulled up her mini skirt to expose her shaved monkey and fine ass, then pulled up her tight top to expose those massive hooters, and sat on the bed beside him, saying, "take it off baby."  He disrobed, leaving on his socks and a baseball hat only, and laid back on the bed.  She began rubbing his leg, then asked for more money. He told her she had agreed to the original price and that he couldn't pay any more.  She told him she would need more money to get busy.. He refused and that's when things went crazy wild.  

After a short argument, he asked for a refund and she immediately pulled her clothes together and attempted to make her way to the door. He said he jumped up and said she had to give his money back, and she began reaching for the door.  He caught her at the door as she was opening it, and grabbed her purse to retrieve his money.  At this point she began screaming and scratching and swinging wildly at him.  She caught him under the eye with a sharp finger nail, and he said at that point he lost his cool and began to defend himself.  He put a foot to her torso and slammed her away from him, while holding onto the purse, still trying to retrieve his money. He later told me he wasn't going to let this bitch roll him.  Her body hit the opposite wall outside his room, but she didn't go down and charged at him again, swinging wildly.  This time he pulled a "Ray Rice" and decked her with a single punch; she hit the floor with blood coming out off her nose and mouth, clearly stunned. He recovered his money, dropped her purse beside her, and turned to re-enter his room, only to discover that his door had closed and was locked, and he was standing in the hallway, totally nude except for his socks and a baseball hat, with a bloody hooker lying on the floor in the hallway.

The hooker wasn't out cold for long and began to stir around on the floor. He kicked her phone down the hallway as she was attempting to get up. She had discovered that she wasn't going to be able to "trick roll" this man and had paid a heavy price for the attempt, so she fled.  He immediately took off his socks, covered his junk with them, and went down the back stairwell looking for security.  He exited the back stairwell onto an empty loading dock, ran down the dock and entered an unlocked door into a receiving area, and yelled for security. Someone way down the hallway saw him and called for security. They showed up a few minutes later and he told him he had been locked out of his room after an attempted robbery.  He was now surrounded by about 4 or 5 security guards and someone brought him a towel to wrap up with, and later, a robe.  After about 15 minutes of questioning, they escorted him back to his room, and let him in so he could dress.  He had told security that he wanted to move out of that room, because he thought the girl may have her pimp return to kill him.  They stood in his room as he packed up and told him he would have to come down to the security office and be interviewed by their staff and the LVPD. 

My buddy said he overheard the guards on the radio, saying that the female had called the LVPD and wanted to press charges against him.  She must have been new to the area. Hotel security had him fill out a long detailed written statement, beginning when he first encountered the hooker, and describing everything in detail.  He said he wrote so much, that he had to request a second page from them. After about 15 minutes, the LVPD showed up and entered the office. They checked him out, noticing the scratch under his eye that had bled a little, and asked if he wanted medical attention. He told them no and that hotel security had asked him as well.

The officer was a female, so my buddy thought he may be in deep shit, depending on what the hooker said to them. After a brief questioning, they asked him if he wanted to press charges against the female. They said the hooker wanted to press charges for assault and kidnapping, and if he was charged, he would have to bail out and come back to Vegas at a later date for court, and that the minimum charge would be solicitation for prostitution, a misdemeanor.  They warned him that this happens all the time in Vegas, and hookers always try to trick roll their marks,  My buddy told the police officer he just wanted it to end tonight and not press charges.  He said they interviewed the hooker in a separate room and she decided not to press charges either.  So the female officer told him she would give him a break this time since he did not even have a speeding ticket on his record, and they would let him go.  She warned him again, that if a young female smiled at him again, to look the other way and keep walking to avoid trouble in the future.  My buddy thanked the female officer profusely and left the office.  Hotel security told him he was being evicted from the property that night, and would have to find another hotel.  They wouldn't let him catch a taxi on property and escorted him off property. They also told him the hooker was being trespassed, meaning that she would be arrested if she ever set foot back on the property.

My buddy walked down the strip dragging his bag and procured a room at another location at 3am, and called me with the bad news.  He said he was still a bit shaky, but felt lucky that he avoided being locked up for the night, or longer.  He said the hooker was surely out of commission for a while, and she probably wouldn't be attempting to roll anyone in the near future, due to receiving that beat down in the hallway.

Moral of the story—if you are ever in Vegas and looking to rent a girlfriend, head out to Pahrump, about 45 minutes away, where its, LEGAL and SAFE!