Get It Quietly

Football, bollocks and a bit of poker if you're lucky.

Name:
Location: Enfield, London, United Kingdom

Friday, April 15, 2005

Brickbats and Bracelets

Ah, now I'm getting into my stride. I am glad I came out for two weeks, I would be gutted to be flying back today. I'm still considering whether to come out for the Series, but a here is a definite point in favour. Two tournaments a day in the Palms, right across the road, and right at my level. That should keep me going as a default game. I've never done all that well in multi-tables over here, especially the smaller ones, but now I've revamped my game I feel right in the zone. More results here, and for those of you who know Avner Levy, some Avner-related fun too.

. . .

I see that Card Player are now styling themselves as “The Poker Authority”. I always think that a healthy disrespect for authority is a good thing.

. . .

Now that it’s common practice to take 3% of the prize pool as a “tip”, a few bright sparks on the casino side have been coming up with ways to exploit this. What I saw in the Mirage yesterday wins hands down so far. Next week they are having 3 Heads Up tournaments, $2500, $5000 and $7500. Winner also receives an entry into the PPT ! How generous !

Each of these is limited to 16 runners. Let’s have a look at the $7500. It’s $7500 + $200, that’s $3200 to the house straight off. 16 x $7500 x 3% = $3600 more. 8 dealers and 2 floor staff should be able to run this standing on their heads. The whole thing might take 10-12 hours (each match is best of 3). That amounts to around $60 per man-hour. Probably more because you’ll only need 4 dealers after the first round, and so on. $60 an hour ! I wish I could make that at work ! And my job is a lot more taxing than dealing flops and making a few rulings. In conclusion, are they having a laugh ?

But wait - they are adding an entry to the PPT. But no - they could add 100 entries to the PPT and it wouldn’t cost THEM anything ! It’s a free roll with a fixed prize pool. All very clever because the whole set-up is appealing to players’ egos. Be the heads up champion ! Take your place among the PPT elite (like Susie Isaacs and Joe Grech, but anyway). And as we shake your hand, Mirage $7500 Heads Up Champion 2005, I’m sure the dealers would appreciate a little something ? I’d give them a little something alright. It just wouldn’t be money.

. . .

The over/under on Lance Armstrong bracelets when you sit down at poker table is currently around 1.5-2. I can’t help thinking that these people are missing the point. Armstrong came through his problems with tremendous will, discipline, self-sacrifice and incredibly hard training. Most of these nob-ends have as much trouble folding AT pre-flop as they do walking past a Krispy Kreme. Putting a yellow tag on your wrist isn’t going to help much.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great to hear you're having such a good time! I'm very jealous. Hope next week's play continues to be as much fun....

7:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah Andy, great stuff – you’re making me want to jump on a plane. I know you’re not getting many comments but I bet a load of people are reading about your exploits, and just too lazy to say how much they’re enjoying it. So keep the accounts coming, and good luck for the second week.

Kevin

10:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fair point Kevin.

I regularly enjoy your blog Andy and "Most of these nob-ends have as much trouble folding AT pre-flop as they do walking past a Krispy Kreme." was literally a laugh-out-loud moment for me.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and observations, I look forward to many more entries.

Neil

1:32 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home