LOL! Yeah, it would have been the Argosy, or up the road at the Grand Victoria in Rising Sun. If you played in the poker room, the Argosy was on the bottom deck at one end of the boat with non-smoking slots outside. Grand Vic had a nice top deck poker room with doors and everything and the whole deck was non-smoking. Alas, Grand Vic closed their poker room about 2 years ago when Hollywood came on so strong with their gorgeous room and put them out of the poker business. I used to drive the extra 20 miles each way because it was such a nice room.

Grand Vic is changing their name as they were bought. I hope the new owners reopen the poker room.

Almost positive from those descriptions that it was the Grand Victoria. It's a shame to think of it closed, it was a nice room.

Guys when you play poker at the casino how do you know that 2, 3 or 4 of the players are not in collusion to split the winnings after the game? Maybe they would only go with the best hand between them, for example? It wouldn't take a lot to set up such a scam, would it?

Small, friendly, good dealers, good bosses. It was just a great place to play. And it looks like the Rising Star (GV's new name) doesn't have and won't have poker either. Bummer.

My worst bad beat ever came there, but it was the most fun I ever had playing a hand. I flopped a Q high flush with an openended straight flush draw. Checked it. Let it work around the table looking for someone else to bet it. They did and two more called so I repopped all-in. One of the two callers called my all-in (the original better folded). We flipped and he had the A but was drawing for the flush. He didn't like that two of his outs were gone. Turn came and didn't hit him, but he hit the flush on the river with the deuce. Cost me $600. I had $1400 in front of me at the time from a $300 buyin, so I was still up $500.

What was great, though, is it was the very front table and we drew a crowd. It was like playing at a feature table in a major tournament.

But, Hollywood is great. It has a high stakes area for 2-5 and 5-10 No Limit, and 1-3-5 PLO. And when the big torunies are in town, you can sit at the same table taking money from famous tourney players. I've played (and taken money from) Greg Raymer and seen Phil Helmuth at another table (he was playing 5-10 NL while I was playing 2-5 NL).

Casinos know money and know this is a good deal for the supremely disciplined, but they are either going to use you to keep them popular, or they think you'll break down in a game where you ALMOST win and put extra into it to try to catch a major break.

Basically, they are tempting you to become a gambling addict.

If someone did that and the casino found out, they'd prosecute them. You have to get permission to play with a spouse at the same table and if the dealer suspects something fishy, they will break friends up. But I've never experienced anything not kosher excepting one time when a guy sat down, won a big pot, then wanted to transfer to another table with just the minimum buy-in. They let him (nothing against the rules) but we at the table made it clear he better not come back and management told him if he came back to this table, he had to bring at least as much as he left with so we could get out money back.

Usually, anything iffy is a matter of someone being drunk and screwing up or someone trying to string bet to get a reaction or pull back what crossed the line when they don't like the reaction they got.

@ Maniac

What you should do is go for it, telling perhaps one close friend of a similar mind, and then inform the casino. Lets face it, casinos make their money because some people are fundamentally greedy. If you come across as too honest a man and lacking in the base desires they look for, they are going to treat you with a great deal of suspicion and mistrust.

And where do you find this double zero nonsense? How you could convince anyone to play roulette with two greens is beyond me!

It exists, in Vegas even.

@ful - I've started playing a bit of poker again at my local casino and there are husband and wifes and brothers who play there. I have no doubt that they wouldn't be so stupid as to knock one another out close to the money and they may even collude but I doubt that. Even if the game were rigged, all I really care about is winning the money and as long as I continue to do that, i'll continue to play. I never play blackjack, roulette or any other game offered in the breaks, but I always watch to see which poker players are dumb enough to gamble :)

I notived the other day that my casino has single 0 and double 00 tables - te double 00 table is never played on. I did wonder why the casino put it in - it can only ever waste space surely?

I;ve decided to inform casino that there could be a flaw in there promotion and asked for clarification if my understanding of the rules is correct - watch this space!

My nephew got into a lot of trouble in a local ''club'', where just such a pot splitting arrangement was in action. TBH it wasn't a formal casino, but just the same, be careful out there guys, there are some nasty people out there.

@Maniac - your experience indicates you play torunament or sit-n-go games. The "in the money" statement indicated that. I don't. I play cash games only where I can get up and walk away with my winnings at any time.

Maniac, there's a better solution:

Sell the information you have to friends and fellow diplomacy players for $100 each. You'll make more money that way :)

I wouldn't do it.
If you don't enjoy Roulette, your time is probably worth more than $5.60/hr. If you do enjoy Roulette, playing it for 25 out of 30 days would probably cause you to cease enjoying it.

I'm surprised nobody asked this question: Where can the loyalty rewards of $1250 be spent? Is it cash that can walk out the door or is it playing credit that has to be spent in the casino?

@mdritc - he said earlier that it was 'cold hard cash'

@FA, thanks, I missed that.

I can tell you all from talking in PMs, it isn't roulette either.It's a game the house has no stake in (*cough* poker *cough*) but collects it's fee from each player at the start (*cough* tournaments *cough*). So long as they don't give out more than they collect in fees or rakes (assuming some of the players play *other* games), then they aren't gonna lose money.

I've already pointed out this particular game isn't a pure game of chance, but involves skill in reading your opponents and psyching them out/mentally manipulating them.

"I've already pointed out this particular game isn't a pure game of chance, but involves skill in reading your opponents and psyching them out/mentally manipulating them."

As a hardcore (amateur) holdem player, this is the truth. This is why I don't play online. There's too much you can say with your body language that you miss out on online.

Once I get moved back to Fairfield, I'll get a regular game going so we can play more, FL. Do you have a regular game you play in?

FK, not FL. Stupid autocorrect.

Sorry, but why nobody noticed $5.60 par hour is not a very decend pay? Certainly not enough to make al those 5*25 hours a month enjoyable. Not to mention the fact it would be a good way to create gambling addicts.

I mentioned it.

sorry, i stopped reading after the first page :) but your totaly right. The only persons who would think it a decent pay are not legaly old enough to enter a casino :)

I wouldn't say that is necessarily true. Gambling is often volunteer work :)
That is, there are certain people who would be at the casino of their own volition (I am occasionally one of them), so they might as well get a few bucks for it if they can.

And if you'll note, the game in question isn't roulette after all. It's a game where, if you have some skill and play a bunch of fish and whales, you can come out ahead by hundres an hour (done so myself many a night). So it's just frosting. And considering you can go through 15 or more hands an hour, it would only take 10 or 15 nights to get your bonus (maybe 25 hours) to get your bonus which means you could make more like $30 an hour.