frank and his family are off to the season's opener at keeneland. it rained all day. mitch "bfb" firestone has forwarded my accumulated mail by fed ex, and i spent several hours taking care of (ugh) business. i did some shopping for sundries, and snatched a bottle of good ol' elijah craig kentucky bourbon off the shelf of the local liquor store. dewar's scotch may be my everyday brand, but i can't get elijah craig in new york.....
10/10 sunday
once again at caesar's glory of rome. a few closing thoughts: it's a nice room. and considering the fact that they haven't done any advertising, it's a pretty busy room. the caliber of play? well, as i've told some of you by e-mail, to call the average player in this room "terrible" would be to compliment them!
late in the session, i ordered a can of miller genuine draft beer. i was charged $2.50 for the drink. dunno if they charge for other alcoholic beverages.
there are a couple problems in the room. with the exception of new rgp'er jimmy allen, there aren't any good dealers. many of them are okay. but more than a few dealers need more instruction in dealing procedures and basic rules of poker. although the local house rule provides that dealers announce possible straights and flushes on 6th street in 7-card stud, several dealers didn't know this. and one dealer actually told me that, although possible straights must be announced, **dealers didn't have to announce a possible inside straight**!!! several dealers didn't bother to scramble the deck after each deal. i watched this occur: a player bet on the river, and wasn't called. the dealer carefully collected the other player's hand, and carefully placed it on the bottom of the deck. she awarded the pot to the bettor, and carefully collected the bettor's hand, face down. she then carefully placed the bettor's hand on the bottom of the deck, and placed the cut card at the very bottom. she then rotated the deck 90 degrees towards her, removed the cut card, and squared the deck to begin her shuffle. she never realized that, after she removed the cut card, and before the deck was squared, any player sitting in the #4 or #5 seat was able to see the cards from the bettor's hand!!!
however, i must note that poker supervisor holly (screenname: hollysdew) is very much aware of such things, and has instituted an intensive program of dealer retraining. the problems described above will soon be solved.
i dunno how they're gonna solve the smoke problem, though. cigars are allowed in the room, and when the place is full, there's the usual smoky haze that exists in so many other cardrooms.
i look forward to see how this room progresses. holly clearly intends to do what she can to make caesar's indiana glory of rome poker room glorious!
10/11 monday - columbus day
casino azstar is located in the historic district of evansville, indiana. there's several museums and historic homes open to the public in the area. i've taken a motel room a few miles north of town, just south of the airport. i get on the boat at 1:20 pm, well in time for the 1:00 pm cruise. except this boat doesn't cruise very often - apparently they've got lots of mechanical difficulties to handle! and there'll be no cruise today.
the poker room is on the first level. you enter on the third level. i go down one flight of stairs to the second level, and see a sign that says "first level closed." uh oh. did i just get screwed out of the $4 admission fee? nope! local security guard tells me that the poker room on the first floor is open. i hit the stairs, and find the poker room. there are six tables in the room, four of which are set up for stud. there are two 1-5 stud games in progress, and i'm seated immediately. there are four good ol' boys, one good ol' gal, two good young boys, and your doughty reporter. the rake is 10% to a maximum of $3 (a considerable improvement over the last two riverboats). however, the quality of play (bad) is the same! :)
the room has been open since february, and the room manager has just submitted a request to the appropriate authorities to run tournaments. i see that dealers in the room announce possible straights and flushes on 6th street in 7-card stud **even when there are only three-to-a-straight and three-to- a-flush onboard!** there's a table set up by the side of the room with coffee pots, cups, glasses and a pitcher of ice water. since the rest of the first level is closed, the shift supervisor takes drink orders, phones them up to the second level, and they are delivered by a cocktail waitress. i noted that the waitress charged players for cans of budweiser and miller light beer. there weren't enough smokers in the room for me to tell if the air quality was affected or not, but smokers are allowed to sit in the two seats next to the dealer.
the riverboat docks next to a hotel. rooms are available for between $75 and $90. that's more than twice what i'm paying at the local motel 6. the casino aztar riverboat is owned by the same corporation that owns the trop- icana hotels in las vegas and atlantic city. the atlantic city tropicana prides iself on its friendly atmosphere, and it appeared to me that the same quality is the goal of this riverboat.
they cranked up a $2-10 7-card stud game, but the only players who sat down at that table were the very few who have any idea how to play. i stayed where i was, and booked a small win ($145) after three hours. i was told that player's island riverboat, in metropolis, illinois, has closed their poker room, so i'll stay around here for another day before i head for st. louis!
stay tuned!
tiger