Anomalies

Two odd poker-related visuals have caught my eye this week.

First, I got an email from Bovada (formerly Bodog), saying how much they've missed me since I haven't played there in a few months. It includes a nice tournament ticket, which I will definitely use, so I kept this in my email in-box to remind myself to check the schedule for when I can use the ticket. But the longer it sat there, the more I thought something didn't look right. I finally looked closely and realized the problem:

It's the geography. Paris is indeed just across the street from the Bellagio, but that establishes that we're looking south on Las Vegas Boulevard from Flamingo Road. But then we see Caesars Palace further south, and facing us. This is wrong, because CP would be behind us, and facing east, the same orientation as Bellagio.

Then there's this weird cover photo from the March issue of Ante up magazine. Pay particular attention to the cards:

This is what has become pretty much the industry standard tournament winner's photo, with all the chips, the winner's trophy, and the hole cards the winner had on the last hand. (The only thing missing is the traditional cash.)

But did he really win the final hand of the tournament holding a nine of spades and ANOTHER NINE OF SPADES? Let's all say it together: "Fouled deck. Take your bets back."

Weirdness abounds.