Hello World

Date: Sat, May 19, 2012 Internet

Hello World

Read Full Poker Blog Post

John Nouanesing card table a dealer's nightmare

Date: Tue, Sep 21, 2010 Internet

I think we can safely assume that French designer John Nouanesing hasn't met an item of furniture he felt couldn't be improved upon.

His portfolio hints at an almighty aesthetic fidget, no more so than this literal interpretation of the term 'card table'. Made from wood, it measures 1400 x 900 x 1960mm and is topped with two huge King and Queen cards, while four more 'cards' make up the legs.

Nice idea but as is often the case when the design industry journeys into the farthest corners of its imagination, practicality gets trampled in the rush.

Setting aside the question of how you decide when cards are mucked or still in play on a table like this, how easy would it be to lose track of them altogether, regardless of where they lie?
...............................................................................

Pic of the Day

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Is this the world's most understated casino?

Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2010 Internet

I know there's a casino somewhere at Curacao's Hotel Kura Hulanda Spa & Casino but you have to look awfully hard to find in in this report at Luxist.

Which may not be a bad thing. Understated gambling: I can live with that.
..............................................................................

Pic of the Day

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Lay the Favorite - a gambling memoir

Date: Mon, Sep 13, 2010 Internet

David G Schwartz reviews Beth Raymer's book over at The Die is Cast:

"There are plenty of books out there that suggest the best ways to pick winners, but few in-depth, from-the-inside, looks at what it’s like to be a big-money sports bettor. With LAY THE FAVORITE, Beth Raymer gives a peek inside that world, through the eyes of someone who doesn’t bet herself, but “just gets the doughnuts.”

............................................

Pic of the Day - simply entitled The New Gambling Room, Monte Carlo, I suspect no-one wore his baseball cap backwards here.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Gaming rooms by Pharaoh - with cribs like these, the Israelites would never have left...

Date: Fri, Sep 10, 2010 Internet

Not quite sure I spot the immediate link between ancient Egypt and gambling but I'll gladly suspend belief for the sleek lines of Pharaoh Manufacturing's Cleopatra range.
The Los Angeles firm can deck out an entire games room for you in this style, leaving you with a mini-casino-cum-man-cave alongside which Tutankhamun's tomb looks positively chintzy.
You can even plan your own layout, although I'm slightly less enthusiastic about the idea of speaking with "a Pharaoh representative" for more information...
...............................................................................


Pic of the Day

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Answer to a casino query that had me floored

Date: Wed, Sep 8, 2010 Internet

Image via Wikipedia
It's bugged me at a subliminal level for some time, given the amount of casino photography that crosses my screen but it's taken an article from Gizmodo to bring it to the surface.
Just why are casino carpets so awful?
Not in a messy way but an artistic way. We all know the Vegas cityscape will never be mistaken for a monument to good taste but, man, the place goes into naff overdrive when it comes to choosing carpet.
Well, turns out there's a reason for that, although you may have to take your pick as to what that reason is. One suggestion...

"According to her, the carpets are deliberately designed to obscure and camouflage gambling chips that have fallen onto the floor. The casinos sweep up a huge number of these every night. So the carpets are just another source of revenue..."

.............................................................................

Pic of the Day

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Leave Vegas looking like a winner, at least

Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 Internet

.

"Take a stand against monotonous travel with Suitcase Stickers. Designed to stick to anything, they will draw attention to your bag making it easily identifiable and sure to make you some new friends.
Caution: Some of these stickers may cause offense to airport and immigration staff. But you would have figured that out whilst enjoying those cavity searches..." - from The Cheeky

Read Full Poker Blog Post

I'm no fan of a Mafia-run Vegas, but...

Date: Wed, Aug 25, 2010 Internet

Image via Wikipedia...I somehow think they'd have handled the issue of a patron dancing on a baccarat table in a rather more proportionate manner than Nevada's Gaming Control Board.

What would we have been looking at here in 'the good old days', do you reckon? Mr Boogie Wonderland hauled onto his seat, given a quick slap and told to respect the furniture's job description if he had any aspirations to walk out of the casino with both feet pointing in the same direction?

You find that excessive? Then don't do it.

But no, we're now in the age of bureacracy, procedure and just about anything else that can possibly impede the simplistic march of common sense. So the whole issue goes to the GCB and the Las Vegas Sun tries to keep a straight face while reporting the pompous machinations of due process...

"Allowing a player to climb up, walk and dance on the top of a baccarat table at Caesars Palace isn't a suitable method of operation, the state Gaming Control Board says"

No ****, Sherlock.

"On the second occasion, the player performed a dance on the table before returning to his chair...The three incidents took place over a 45-minute period, according to the complaint."

Please. Like the time span actually means something. Only a lawyer would nitpick to this level.

"The complaint, drafted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael Somps..."

Ah.

"...said no one at Caesars did anything to stop the behavior.
'Caesars failed to immediately recognize a potential compromise to game protection and patron safety and failed to immediately take any remedial action,” Somps said in the complaint..."

Something tells me Dancing on the Ceiling just left Caesars' in-house playlist.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

That'll be all bets void, then - spot the discerning greyhound

Date: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 Internet

Story here.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Bottle-opening shirt increases table time

Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2010 Internet

Because we can always use one less thing that drags us away from the poker table, I see ThinkGeek's T-shirt with built-in bottle opener going down really well with the home game crowd...

"When life is hilariously cruel and hands you a beer without a means to open it, you can laugh as you throw wide your jacket and hand the bottle to your BeerBot. POP! Open. You'll be the life of the party thanks to BeerBot, and who doesn't want to be the life of the party? Who doesn't want to have the one thing that everyone needs?"

Of course, biting the top off with your teeth probably does more for your table image but what good's building a bankroll only to blow it all on dental fees?

Read Full Poker Blog Post

JAQK - wine you can bet on

Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010 Internet

Booze and betting is supposed to be the combo from hell but clearly no-one told the people at JAQK Cellars, a San Francisco company whose idea of something for the table goes a little further than dice and cards.

Their gambling-themed wine collection is out this autumn and features:

• Higher Roller (2006 Cabernet; $70)
• Black Clover (2006 Merlot; $48)
• Soldiers of Fortune (2006 Shiraz; $50)
• Pearl Handle (2007 Chardonnay; $42)
• 22 Black (2006 Cabernet; $31)
• Bone Dance (2006 Merlot; $29)
• Her Majesty (2007 Chardonnay; $27)
• Charmed (2007 Sauvignon Blanc; $23)

Worst case scenario: someone gets stoned on a caseful, gets $10 and $100 chips horribly confused at the casino and then sues. But let's hope it never comes to that.
...............................................................................

Pic of the Day - "Here I lay to rest / My name is Dumitru / My friends call me Ferentoc / I really liked gambling and dancing with my friends/ I got married and I had a full life / I laughed and I told jokes / Until I left this world / Well I won't keep you reading any longer / And I'll be off on my way / Pray for me and don't forget me / 1930-2003 (73 years)"

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Idiot Gambler of the Week

Date: Mon, Jul 19, 2010 Internet

"An Indian man who entered into a bet with friends ended up gambling with his life.

The man swallowed a poisonous snake in a wager...

Zaver Rathod narrowly escaped death when he gulped down the reptile, after killing it for biting one of his friends..." - IOL

And the bet? One hundred rupees.

That's £1.37 ($2.10) to you and me.

Have this one on me, Mr Rathod.
...............................................................................

Pic of the Day

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Gambling ban not working - now there's a thing

Date: Tue, Jul 13, 2010 Internet

"A year on since the ban on gambling came into effect in Russia, there is a growing disappointment that the business is still prospering.

When Vladimir Putin described the practice as worse than alcoholism and passed a law banning it, many thought it was game over.


A year on and already there are calls for the law to be revised, with many people feeling there are loopholes which are being exploited and that the ban has simply driven gambling underground" - RT

.........................................................................................................

Pic of the Day

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Comic book gamblers tally quite a marvel

Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010 Internet

I'll leave to others the question of why anyone would want to log the religious affiliations of comic book characters (Batman was a lapsed Catholic?). Sufficient for the purposes of Wagering War is that no fewer than 18 gamblers of varying intensity crop up in children's tales from what we like to call 'the good old days'...

"Gambling is not generally regarded as a religion and can rarely be classifed as one by most definitions. But for some individuals, gambling literally becomes the most important thing in their life, which is one of the definitions of 'religion'"

...............................................................................

Pic of the Day - Cairo's Omar Khayyam Casino. While we're on a religious theme, I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to square this with current Islamic theology.

Read Full Poker Blog Post