"If You Get Lost, Ask a Hot Girl"

This is an old session I recently uncovered.  There were no spectacular hands, no huge pots.  Just chipping up and up, and coming out ahead in the end.  Slow and steady wins the race, to quote an old cliché.

This took place on a club night.  I was assigned to a seat in the back of the room, unfortunately.  I never asked for a table change to a better table (viewing wise, of course) because I was doing well enough where I was.  If you’re winning at a table, why move?  Just to get a better view of the walking scenery?  Not on this night.

I limped in with pocket 4’s, then called $7.  Four of us saw a flop that was all clubs, but it did contain a 4. Nervous about the clubs, I just called $20 and $30 on the flop and turn.  I declined to bet on the river when he checked.  My set was good.

I raised to $8 with Ace-8 of clubs. There was a call and then someone raised to $40.  I folded, but the other guy called.  I dunno, $40 just seemed like too much to call with such a marginal hand.  So the flop came Ace-Ace-6, two hearts.  Damn.  I had to console myself thinking that one of them had the case Ace with a better kicker.  The preflop raiser bet $80 (which was more than half his stack).  The other guy shoved and the first guy called.  The turn made me ill—it was an 8. The river was a 7.  The preflop raiser showed pocket Kings.  The other guy just mucked!

Huh…what the hell did he have that couldn’t beat Kings on a paired Aces board for him to shove with on the flop?  A semi-bluff with hearts?  Queens?  It was strange.  I really couldn’t figure out his hand.  But one thing is for sure.  The guy with the Kings would have known why I call them dreadedif I hadn’t folded.  I had both guys covered but still it would have been a very nice pot. 

I raised with Ace-King, had a couple of callers and took it with a c-bet.

Then I had pocket Jacks, raised to $8, only one caller.  The flop was Ace-high but he didn’t call my $12 bet.

In the small blind I put in a buck with 8-6 offsuit in a five or six way pot.  There was an 8 on the flop and I called $6.  Now there were three of us.  The turn was a 6 and I led out for $12; it was now heads up.  A blank turn and I bet $25, he called and showed Ace-9 (just top pair, top kicker).

In late position, I raised to $13 with Ace-King off and had two callers.  The flop was Jack-7-2, two diamonds—I had no diamonds.  I made a $20 continuation bet and had one call.  The turn was an Ace, I bet $30 and she called.  I bet $35 on a King river and she called.  She showed one card when she saw my hand….an Ace.

With pocket 9’s, I raised to $8 and had three callers.  The flop was 9-8-2, two hearts.  My $25 bet was not called.

I raised to $8 with King-Queen offsuit and had two callers.  The flop was Ace-Jack-5, two spades.  I bet $15 and one guy made it $30, the other guy folded, I called.  The turn was a 10.  I bet $60, the guy tanked for a bit.  Finally he said, “I’ll lay it down for you.”  Gee thanks.  I just had the nuts.

I had pocket Jacks and raised, got three callers.  A c-bet on a low flop took it.  A few hands later I had pocket Aces, raised, had only one caller, and took it with a c-bet.

I limped in with King-10 of clubs.  Four of us saw a flop of Ace-Jack-4, one club.  It checked around.  The Queen on the turn gave me Broadway.  A player led out for $5, I made it $15 and she called, it was heads up.  But the board paired on the river and neither of us bet.  She didn’t show when I showed her the nut straight.

At one point one of the players asked if there was a Men’s Room nearby.  And the dealer said, “No.”  You see, this was during a period when the nearest restrooms to the MGM poker room were being remodeled.  So you had to walk past the Sports Book to get to the next closest ones, which were the ones that serviced the poker room before it was re-located to make room for the club.

By this time, the line for the club had already formed.  From the poker room, there are two ways to get to rest rooms. You can walk through the sports book, or you can take a slightly less direct route and walk through where the poker room used to be, which is now part pathway and part line-up area for the club. In other words, if you want to take the scenic route, it’s a few more steps.  You should be able to figure out which route I take when I have to go that restroom.

Anyway, the player was surprised to get that answer.  “No?”  The dealer said, “You’ll find it, just go over by the sports book and then passed it.”  So I chipped in, “Go around the sports book, not through the sports book.  You’ll enjoy the view a lot more.”  The rest of the table laughed at that, knowing exactly what I meant.  The dealer said, “If you get lost, ask a hot girl.”  And I added, “If you don’t get lost, ask a hot girl.’

When he returned—and not particularly promptly, I might add—he said, “Yeah, I see what you mean about the view on the other side.  Thanks.”

And that was that.  No huge pots, but I was never down and kept adding to my stack.  By the time I cashed out, I was up $230.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Was Colossus II a Disappointing Sequel?

The World Series of Poker is well under way.  The first “major” event was the return of Colossus.  As you will recall, I played in the very first Colossus event last year (see here and here).  This year, I’m not in Vegas yet so obviously I didn’t play in it.  Honestly, even if I was able to be in Vegas now, I would have skipped the event.  And apparently, I’m not alone in thinking that I could afford to miss this tournament.  The turnout was less than last year’s.

That is the subject of this post.  Was Colossus II a disappointment—attendance wise, that is?  Was it just another case of the sequel not being as good as the original?  Or would that be the wrong takeaway?

I initially got the idea to do this post on Thursday, the first day of the event.  When I saw the reports of the number of seats sold for the two flights that made up the first day, I was thinking that turnout must have been a huge disappointment.  And I started thinking of all the reasons why this was happening.

I’ll get back to that but now that we know how many people actually turned out for the event, it is obvious that “huge disappointment” is a totally inaccurate assessment.

But was it slightly disappointing, at least?  I’d have to say yes.  Let’s look at the numbers.

This year’s event drew 21,613 making it the second largest tournament field in poker history.  The first was of course last year’s Colossus, which had 22,374 entrants.

OK, that’s not much of a drop off.  But I heard they were expecting to break 30K players this year and if that’s true, then it is a disappointing turnout.

What’s important to note is that they added two more starting flights this year.  So they could have handled 30K players, where as last year they wouldn’t have been able to.

Last year, the Day 1’s  were on Friday and Saturday of the first week of the series (two each day).  This year, they were on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of that first week, again two a day.  I think they were anticipating pretty much maxing out each flight.

That would have been 4400-4800 each flight.  Thus, when I saw they “only” had 3,249 for Flight A on Thursday, followed by a much smaller field of 2,153 for Flight B later that day, it sure looked like a big disappointment.

But to a great extent, adding two more days just spread out almost the same number of players over six flights rather than four.  That was better for the players, and I guess for the staff as well, but probably not what the WSOP was hoping for.

The impact on the entire Vegas poker scene was way down too.  Last year, they had to use every single table in the Rio for Colossus or some other bracelet events.  They even used half of the Poker Kitchen for tables. No cash games at the Rio meant that cash game action was spread out over town and there were 3-4 hour waiting lists at many rooms to get into a cash game.

From what I could tell, nothing like that happened this year and I think the WSOP venue was able to run cash games most of the time (except maybe for part of Saturday). Thus the other rooms were busy, but not swamped. 

The turnout picked up on Friday (3,770 & 3,099) and then a huge turnout on Saturday (4,855 & 4,487). 

So, although not the turnout they hoped for, still an incredible number of players for a single tournament, to say the least.

But if we’re honest, it was on some level disappointing.  So why didn’t they exceed last year’s numbers even with two more starting flights?

I have a few theories. 

First, the novelty from last year was gone.  I’m sure a lot of players who played last year didn’t feel the need to play again (like me), either because it was more of a “one time thing” or because their experience wasn’t so good. 

As I reported in those posts I’ve linked to, it was kind of fustercluck last year.  Although they did an incredible job under the circumstances, there were still a lot of glitches—starting with having to change the number of levels played on Day 1 and having to change the start times of the afternoon flights.  One glitch from last year I unfortunately didn’t have to deal with was that there were incredibly long lines at the payout window for those lucky enough to cash.  I’m sure this left a bad taste in the mouths of some of those who got paid.  I’ll bet that’s one reason people who got paid last year may not have returned.  That and the other glitches I mentioned last year.

And for those who didn’t play but were thinking of it, remembering all the stories of the glitches from a year ago may have dissuaded them from playing this year.

Ironically, by adding the two starting flights and getting a similar number of players, I think they were able to do away with most of the glitches, so that was a bad reason I guess for people to decide not to play.

And they fixed the payout problem by having each starting flight have its own individual pay outs before the flight ended.  If you made it to Day 2 you cashed, but the money bubble hit during Day 1, and thus people who cashed but busted Day 1 could collect their money right then and there, reducing the lines for the pay outs. 

They also made it simpler by not letting people register for more than one flight at a time.  You couldn’t register for a second flight until you busted from the current flight you were playing.  No doubt that made things go smoother. 

I did read some complaints on Twitter that there issues on Day 2 as they kept reaching another pay jump on the pay scale—apparently they were stopping the clock and playing hand for hand for each jump.  Can anyone confirm that?

Anyway, I wonder if a lot of people—whether they played last year or not—figured out that the odds of surviving such a huge tournament were so overwhelming that their tournament dollars were best spent elsewhere?  That’s probably the main reason I wouldn’t have returned this year even if I had been in town.  It is just way too big a crapshoot.  And once I had the experience one time, I didn’t need the thrill again.  Also, I believe there are a few more lower priced bracelet events this year, so there are more options for the low-rollers to play for a bracelet than last year.

And then there was the revised structure.  I mention that in my post here, where I linked to the article here explaining the new, almost turbo-like structure of the event. Can’t be sure how many people read this article—or maybe just figured out on their own that structure was much quicker—and decided that there was not enough value in the tournament to play in it.  But I’m sure the new structure had some effect. 

Now I realize you readers come to my blog expecting detailed posts about long tournament runs, and must be disappointed that I don’t have one for you this time (since, you know, I didn’t play).  So, if you want to read about a nice tournament run in Colossus, I’m giving this link hereto my friend Don’s write up. I’ve mentioned Don numerous times, we’re pals from the days when PokerAtlas was All Vegas Poker. For some reason, Don calls himself “Dave” in his summary. As you can see, Don actually won a free seat to Colossus and it paid off for him.  I think you’ll enjoy his reportage of the event. 

So that’s it.  Do you think the turnout for Colossus II was disappointing?  And if so, why do you think turnout was off?  Please share your thoughts. And if you played, let us know how it was and how you did.  

What's the latest with Spyware online poker-cheat hack-attacks?

Win32/Spy.Odlanor Evil

We have known for sometime about the devastating effects on the online poker world of the Spyware Win32/Spy.Odlanor. This trojan spyware is usaully installed on an online poker victim's computer without his being aware. It happens when the victim downloads and infected app or software onto his computer.

Once in place, the Odlanor malware creates screenshots of the victim's computer when he is on the targeted poker site, which in Odlanor's case has been mainly PokerStars and Full Tilt. These screenshots are immediately relayed to the hacker/online-poker cheat's computer, revealing the victims' hands and player IDs.

Because both Full Tilt and PokerStars allow online players to search for other players through their IDs, the hacker-cheats can easily locate the tables their intended victims are playing on.

The bottom line of this successful cheat implementaiton is that the victim will be destroyed rapidly.

So what's being done to combat the online-poker cheating malware?

According to Robert Lipovsky, a highly respected malware researcher at Eset, an anti-virus online security company, the Eastern European block has been hit hardest by the online poker hackers, although he stresses that anyone anywhere can become a victim to this huge online poker fraud.

The best defense for poker players online is to be vigilant and note and report any suspicious activity by their poker-playing opponents, especially when it seems as though their decisions are right such a high percentage of the time that they might be looking at your hole cards.

As with the vast majority of highly effective online poker cheat scams, this particular scam will be defeated to some degree by the online poker-playing community as a whole, who against well armed and sophisticated cheating must take the attitude "one for all and all for one."

Face Off in Ventura

It was a titanic battle of two Asians at PC Ventura yesterday.  The first one had joined our table after I’d been there for a good hour.  He was both a bit of an aggro and a bit of a luckbox, at least when he started out.  His stack had risen and fallen, and I’m sad to report his stack had doubled (from under $100) when he beat me boat over boat.  By the time this hand occurred, he had nearly $600.

The second Asian had joined the table more recently.  He was even more aggro, and he was only at our game for a few hands when they asked him if he wanted to move to a bigger game, but he said no, he would stay at this table. So I figured he’s probably used to bigger stakes. The two of them got into a few hands together, and seemed to be playing against each other a bit.  As far as I could tell, they didn’t know each other previously, but it’s possible that I’m wrong about that.  He had just won a big pot right before this hand and had around $500.

We’ll call the first player I mentioned Kenny and the second guy Artie.  Kenny had been away from the table for awhile and didn’t see Artie win that big hand I mentioned.  On Kenny’s first hand back from his little break, he raised to $21 after a couple of limpers.  Artie immediately said something like, “Whoa…first hand back and you make it $21?”  I don’t believe he had looked at his cards when he said that.

Meanwhile, an older gentleman, one of the tightest players at the table, had called the $21 immediately behind Kenny.  Artie looked at his cards and then said, “The bet is $21?  What’s four times $21?”  The dealer said, “No math please.”  I’m not sure if he was joking or not. Maybe it appeared another player, one not in the hand, was going to tell him, and I guess that would not have been ok.  But the guy managed to figure it out without any help and called out his raise to $85 (close enough).  It folded back to Kenny.

He complained a bit to Artie.  “What, you were giving me a hard time over $21 and you make it $85?  What’s that all about?”  Artie said something like, “Hey I’m not kidding here. I mean it.”

Kenny tanked for some time, then counted out chips and looked at his stack and looked at Artie’s stack.  And reading his body language, I thought he was going to re-raise.  But finally he said, “I’ll just call,” and counted out the $85.  The gentleman who had called the $21 folded instantly.  Apparently he only had a $21 hand, not an $85 hand.

It was heads up and the flop was Queen-high on an unconnected board.  Kenny took very little time in checking, but Artie didn’t notice that he checked.  “Is it on me?”  Assured that it was, he announced, “all-in.”

Kenny was surprised by the bet.  “What does he have, “$300?”  No, he had more than that.  He had two $100 chips which were kind of hidden (by the way, in this casino, the $100 chips are white, not black).  The dealer said it was more so he asked for a complete count. It was something like $425-$435, in that range.  So Kenny counted his own stack, and separated the amount he needed to call.  It would have left him with less than $100 if he called and lost.

Kenny was in a bit of agony.  He mentioned something about really not wanting to lay his hand down.  Or maybe he said, “I can’t lay this down.”  Artie said, “I showed that one hand.”  It was a reference to a really big bet he had made in a previous hand, and after getting the fold, he showed his hand to be exactly what he was representing with his big bet—not a bluff.

So Kenny asked, “Will you show if I fold?”  But Artie said, “Will I show if you fold?  No…I don’t do that.  I never show.  That one time was it.”

Kenny stared and stared.  He kept quizzing Artie and Artie just softly indicated he “had it” and that he wasn’t kidding.  I can assure you that everyone at the table was totally engrossed in this battle of wills.  So I was kind of surprised when someone called for the clock.  I wasn’t sure who it was.  I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Artie.  Frankly, I was enjoying the drama.  I wouldn’t have minded watching for another five minutes if not more.  It was highly entertaining.  Of course, I would have been more in favor of calling the clock if it had been a tournament setting.

It took awhile for the floor to come over for the clock, but finally he did and the countdown began.  The staring continued, Kenny kept talking, saying anything to try to get a better read on Artie.  By this time Artie had stop saying anything in response, and was looking away.

The floor said, “30 seconds,” and a few seconds later Kenny just flipped over his hand.  It was two Kings.  Artie jumped a little…..not sure if it was from the hand itself or if he was just surprised to see the hand exposed.  Needless to say, Kenny wasn’t taking his eyes off Artie the entire time. 

But he still wasn’t acting on his hand.  The floor man spoke again. “Ten, nine, eight, seven…”  I knew that if he got past “one” his hand would be dead.  Kenny was motionless and I wondered if a last second “call” announcement would escape his lips at the last possible moment.

But……no, it did not.  The floor man said “one” followed by, “this hand is dead,” And he himself put his hand on the two Kings and swept them into the muck for the dealer.  The dealer started pushing the pot to Artie.  Everyone was kind of gasping that he could lay down his Kings on a Queen-high, non-threatening board like that.    Especially since, from our observations, Kenny certainly seemed to have more than a little gamble in him.

Artie started to just slide his cards back face down, but at the last second, he flipped them over.

Of course, it was two Aces. 

Artie said, “Wow….how could you lay that down?  I would have called.”

He repeated similar comments for a quite a while and now Kenny was strangely silent.  I think at one point he said, “I saved myself a lot of money there.”  He did indeed.

Artie even pointed out that he could have still won.  He had outs, after all.  Yeah…two of them.  But he used that to justify his statement that he would have called had the shoe been on the other foot.  Another player said, “I thought he had a set of Queens,” (meaning Artie).  Kenny said, “No way, I knew he didn’t have a set of Queens.”  I agree, I don’t think he would have played it that way.

OTOH, I’m not sure I like how he played the Aces. It was a dramatic hand, but not necessarily a well played one, at least not by Artie.  You can’t argue with Kenny’s play, unless you just want to say, “Kenny was supposed to lose his stack there.”  But Artie?  His shove into a pot of a bit less than $200 was not necessary.  He probably could have gotten called with a bet of say, $150.  And been an 90/10 favorite if the hand continued.  Based on his comment though, it appears he really was concerned with losing as a huge favorite, that’s why he bet so much.

If that was his concern though, did he consider the possibility that Kenny might have played pocket Queens the exact same way?  In which case Artie was shoving into a set?  Just asking.

What do you think of Artie’s play there?

Anyway, the table was buzzing about this for the rest of the time I was there.  I enjoyed being a spectator to it.

Oh, and by the way….my original title for this post was going to be, “Aces vs. Kings—Asian edition.”  As you likely know, I’ve done “Aces vs. Kings” posts a few times (see here, here and here).  But I realized I’d be giving away the punch line of my post in the title, so I had to up with something more innocuous. 

Anyway, the pic below was taken by my pal Norm in Vegas at the grand opening of the new Wynn poker room.  It seems an appropriate pic for a post about Aces.  As far as I know, there were no guys there dressed as Kings.  Sorry.  Thanks, Norm!

Russian Poker Cheat gets Jail Time in London

Poker-Cheat Heavy

Fifty-seven year old Russian national Valeriy Mikhaylets works for a Moscow construction firm. But that's just his day job. At night, or during trips to the UK, he was both a poker hold-out and card-marking artist.

By holding onto key cards he played during previous hands and then reinserting them into play when he needed them on subsequnet hands, Mr. Mikhaylets poker-cheated his way to more than $80,000 profit at a lively poker game at London's Palm Beach Casino in November, 2014.

He was also using sandpaper to mark cards at the same table.

Even though his big win that night generated a lot of suspicion at the Palm Beach poker table, Mikhaylets was not arrested until he returned to the casino in early 2015. He posted bail, then fled the UK only to be arrested when returning to his native Russia from Finland in April, 2015.

For all his efforts, the Russian poker cheat was sentenced to four months in prison and fines, court costs and restitution totalling a quarter of a million dollars.

My take: Well, Mr. Mikhaylets had a good night that November at the Palm Beach, but he's gonna have to figure out another poker strategy to get back all the money he's lost to the UK court system--and hopefully for him it will be an honest one!

Take note that although holding out cards at the poker table is a rare cheat-scam, card-marking seems to be as popular as ever, even more so than the old Wild-West Days when poker cheats cheated cowboys by sun-drying cards before they were put into play. More and more of these modern card-marking poker-cheat scams involve invisible or disappearing ink and infrared lenses to see the marks on the cards.

"Where Are You From?"

This took place quite a few months ago. There was some drama that was quite a bit more interesting than the poker was for me.  In fact, I will spare you all the “boring hand histories.”  Early in the session I flopped a set of 4’s, didn’t get paid for it, and it was downhill from there.

The drama reminded of an incident that I had been involved in personally over a year earlier.  You can read about it here.  In short, I was in bad mood from an incident at another table, and then, at the new table, ran into an absolute maniac who raised big every single time. He was also a non-stop talker and he just infuriated me.  So when I checked a flop, and he didn’t see me check, he decided to ask me, totally out of the blue, with the action on him, “What’s your nationality?”  I was beyond infuriated (read the old post to get the full flavor).

On this night, I originally was seated in the perfect seat at the perfect table to enjoy the Slut Parade.  But before the provocatively dressed young ladies showed up, our table broke and I was stuck at a table in the back of the room, a seat with no view.  It’s amazing I didn’t blow up just for that, but in fact, the drama this night didn’t involve me.

When I got to the table, I had just won a small pot at the previous table (the last hand before they broke it) and the seat I took was between the blinds, so I had to wait a couple of hands to play.  Thus I had my face buried in my phone making notes on the previous hand and also putting down an accurate count of the chips I took to the new table.  Again, as it turned out, this information is not worth relating to you now.   

There was a dealer change so the old dealer had put a “reserved” button in front of me, so I wouldn’t be charged for a missed blind when I was able to take a hand.

Meanwhile, there was a guy at the other side of table who “welcomed” me to the table.  “You don’t know what you’re in for.  I talk a lot.  One guy already left because I talk too much.”  Thanks for the warning, bub.  But I was busy with my notes and ignored him. That annoyed him.  “What, you’re not going to participate?  You’re just going to bury you face in the phone and ignore us?”

I didn’t respond immediately, but in a moment or two, I received my first hand at the table.  I still had the “reserved” button, which I picked up and returned to the dealer..  But not before I waived it in front of me and said to the loudmouth guy, “You see, I had to be quiet because I had the ‘reserved’ button. I had to act reserved.”  That got a good laugh, even from Loudmouth.

The loudmouth was from Chicago, a fact he repeated at least three dozen times.  By the time his night was over, I think he had repeated everything at least three dozen times.  He was one of those guys.

The player he got into it with was a guy who looked like he might have been Asian, but I wasn’t sure.  He never spoke a word at the table to any of us, but every once in awhile his buddy came over and they would talk to each other in a foreign language.  But just as I couldn’t be sure of the guy’s national origin, I couldn’t be sure what language they were speaking.  He never gave any indication that he didn’t understand English, but I never heard him speak a word of it.  I was pretty sure he didn’t live in the U.S. and was visiting from another country.

The loudmouth couldn’t tell where the guy was from either.  And it drove him crazy.  He kept asking the guy where he was from and the guy just shrugged, or stared off into space.  This happened between hands or even during hands.  I assume the guy understood the question and chose not to answer, for whatever reason. If he figured out that it was putting the loudmouth on tilt, he was pretty dead on.

The mysterious man had an interesting playing style.  He played generally very nitty, but every now and then he’d make a really big bet, or a three-bet.  He kept us off-balance.

Loudmouth was already frustrated with the guy when the two of them were in a hand together and the mysterious man put out a huge bet.  I didn’t note the details but it was a big bet and Loudmouth clearly had a good hand. He went in the tank forever.  He was in agony.  So he asked the guy, “Will you show if I fold?”  The guy said nothing.  The loudmouth was infuriated that he wouldn’t commit to showing.  Finally the loudmouth folded.  As the pot was pushed to him, the mysterious man hesitated and then showed his cards.  It was a total bluff.  He had nothing, he never even had a decent draw.  It was garbage the whole way.  I wasn’t sure, but I kind of think that the loudmouth threw up a little in his mouth.  He was really pissed.

On the very next hand, I raised, the mysterious man three-bet, and the loudmouth said, “My fault, I just gave him the confidence to do that.”  I don’t believe that, but whatever.

Loudmouth would only shut up long enough to text on his phone.  Sometimes, when he was blabbering, he was making comments about the other players.  Just mild stuff, I don’t think it was too bad.  I didn’t hear anything about me.  He was saying some things about the mysterious man.  I didn’t write any of it down so I obviously didn’t think any of it was beyond the pale.

Finally he got into another big hand with the mysterious guy.  And they got it all in, and it turned out that loudmouth had two pair but the mysterious guy had flopped a set of Queens.  Loudmouth was now out of chips. 

He was of course really unhappy.  And so he shouted over to the guy, “Now will you tell me where you’re from, you god-damn mother-f***er?”  Again the guy said nothing, just kept stacking his chips.  But the dealer said, “That’s it, you have to leave.  You’re done.”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dealer kick a player out before.  As it happened, the shift manager was coming over to the table anyway for another reason, and the dealer explained what happened.  But it didn’t matter.  Loudmouth didn’t argue.  He was already on his way out.  The shift boss just kept on her eye on him to make sure he left the poker room, which he did.

I guess it was only a matter of time before his big, loud mouth would get him in trouble.  Moral of the story:  If someone doesn’t want to tell you where they’re from, don’t press it.

I’ll close this post out with some big boobs.  Because, why the hell not?

What, you say those boobs aren’t big enough for you?

Well, here’s a bigger boob.

Of course, I’m referring to the guy wearing the shirt.  Who would wear a shirt like that? 

Hmm…..maybe there is actually a market for a shirt like this?  Perhaps I should look into marketing them?

Casino Game Protection Post: The Importance of Blackjack Shuffle Maintenance

Are your dealers boxing?

The shuffling procedure of brick and mortar casino blackjack is extremely important. When it is done correctly, many forms of cheating and advantage-play are wiped out before a player even has the chance to implement his attack.

What I have noticed lately during my worldwide casino travels is that many casinos are letting their regular brick and mortar blackjack shuffle procedure be affected by the shuffle procedure they use on their online live blackjack games.

Of course there are valid reasons why live blackjack shuffles differ from those used in the brick and mortar casino, but this must not influence how shuffles are done when real human players are at the table.

A good example of this problem is the stacking of packs of cards after the riffles into several small stacks across the entire perimeter of the insurance line. This is real dangerous on brick and mortar games as it opens up cheating opportunities, especially the thievery of cards at the end positions of the table.

One player could distract the dealer from first base during the shuffle and another can then pilfer a card or two from the stack so close to him at third base. Then of course these cards can be switched into play at key moments for the cheats.

So it is imperative that the stacking of cards after the riffles be done into no more than two stacks directly in front of the dealer. And equally important is that all brick and mortar blackjack shuffles contain strips which prevent ace and key-card tracking, and "boxes," which is the 180 degree turn of packs of cards within the stack to offset the possibility of edge-sorting scams.

Here is a good video on proper blackjack shuffling and dealing procedures.