miscellaneous vegas stuff
I saw 2 young teen boys sitting outside the RIO tournament area, one is holding up a sign “Fund for future players”, the other is holding out a hat. They said they would play poker against each other with any contributions. I gave them each $5 saying they could only do that or play it at an arcade. One of them replies, “Screw the arcade, you can’t make any money doing that!"
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I saw 3 motorized rascals parked next to a craps table in the wee hours. The three players were standing there drinking heavily. I didn't see a designated driver.
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I'm sitting five handed at 30-60 holdem in the bellagio. A player mentions we should get a free pass on the rake for the next half hour, or maybe just pay half time. (In this game, the house takes $6 per half hour.) The player asks the dealer to call the floor. The dealer is resistant.
She says, “But I only took half time. See, $30.”
Then she quickly drops the chips in the casino‘s box.
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I came out of the backside of the RIO pretty late one night. Sometimes there were cabs there, sometimes not. I waited for a few minutes, then a short limo drives up. Two people get out, give the driver some money. He looks at me and asks where I am going, I tell him the Bellagio, north side entrance. He says, "Hop in.".
We get to the Bellagio, he hops out and opens my door. Now, this trip was normally a $7 or $8 cab ride, with tip. I have $10 ready to give the guy.
He takes a look at the proffered bill and says, "We usually charge $31 for that trip."
I laughed. "I don't care what you usually charge, that's an $8 cab ride."
So he gives me an ugly glare and says, "Well, what do you want to pay?"
I hand him the $10.
He looks like I am giving him some disease-ridden used tissue paper.
But he took it anyway.
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I saw some poker ugliness too, even more prevalent than in the past.
I saw a few teams working tables as low as 30-60 in the bellagio.
I saw a number of instances of marked cards. The floor people seem to react to damaged cards very casually.
I heard that RIO dealers in cash games were skimming from pots, heard that from a few different sources.
Don't get me started talking about concerns about ethical play in tournaments, unless you want to hear more than you care to.
Poker feels darker now, and it was pretty dark before.
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I saw 3 motorized rascals parked next to a craps table in the wee hours. The three players were standing there drinking heavily. I didn't see a designated driver.
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I'm sitting five handed at 30-60 holdem in the bellagio. A player mentions we should get a free pass on the rake for the next half hour, or maybe just pay half time. (In this game, the house takes $6 per half hour.) The player asks the dealer to call the floor. The dealer is resistant.
She says, “But I only took half time. See, $30.”
Then she quickly drops the chips in the casino‘s box.
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I came out of the backside of the RIO pretty late one night. Sometimes there were cabs there, sometimes not. I waited for a few minutes, then a short limo drives up. Two people get out, give the driver some money. He looks at me and asks where I am going, I tell him the Bellagio, north side entrance. He says, "Hop in.".
We get to the Bellagio, he hops out and opens my door. Now, this trip was normally a $7 or $8 cab ride, with tip. I have $10 ready to give the guy.
He takes a look at the proffered bill and says, "We usually charge $31 for that trip."
I laughed. "I don't care what you usually charge, that's an $8 cab ride."
So he gives me an ugly glare and says, "Well, what do you want to pay?"
I hand him the $10.
He looks like I am giving him some disease-ridden used tissue paper.
But he took it anyway.
------------------------------------------
I saw some poker ugliness too, even more prevalent than in the past.
I saw a few teams working tables as low as 30-60 in the bellagio.
I saw a number of instances of marked cards. The floor people seem to react to damaged cards very casually.
I heard that RIO dealers in cash games were skimming from pots, heard that from a few different sources.
Don't get me started talking about concerns about ethical play in tournaments, unless you want to hear more than you care to.
Poker feels darker now, and it was pretty dark before.