Guess the casino, #487

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Answer: Circus Circus

Guess the casino, #486

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Answer: Bill's

The cruelest game

Warning: Contains spoilers.

On this week's "Poker After Dark," four qualifiers (two of whom are actually professional players, but not well known) are taking on Phil Hellmuth and Chris Ferguson, the latter of which was the first one to be eliminated.

In a hand last night, the two shortest remaining stacks belong to Craig Ivey and Steve Bartlett. Each of them has a suited ace and ships it in. Hellmuth looks at 8c-3c and folds:




The first cruelty is that they both flop two pair:



Bartlett is reduced to one out. Only the 8 of hearts can save him now.

So what comes?



His 8s full of aces can now only be topped if Ivey catches one of the two remaining queens, or the sole remaining ace.

So what happens?




If the producers were to stack the deck so as to produce maximum drama and maximum pain for both players, that's how they'd do it.

Guess the casino, #485

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Answer: Venetian

Guess the casino, #484

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Answer: Stratosphere

Poker gems, #353

Phil Laak, in ESPN broadcast of the Venetian stop of the North American Poker Tour, summarizing poker:


I have to expose myself to ruin in order to just, like, crawl forward and breathe in the desert of pain.

Why Norman Chad is bad at poker

In Norman Chad's commentary on poker shows for ESPN, he likes to joke about how bad he is at poker. I think there is reason to believe that he is not merely being self-deprecating for the sake of humor.

I was just watching the first installment of the show they put together of the North American Poker Tour event held last month at the Venetian. The screen shot above is from Annie Duke's last hand. At this point, Chad says in his voiceover, "Annie needs a jack, nine, eight, or any diamond."

Pray tell, Mr. Chad, how will a non-diamond eight help her situation? She will be left with a jack-high straight. She will be playing the board, and her hole cards will be irrelevant. Her opponent, however, will still have the king-high straight that he just made on the turn. Last I knew, a straight to the king beats a straight to the jack.

These guys have a staff of people working on these shows. They do the commentary two or three times before they put it to bed. They have plenty of time to get it right. And yet they still get it wrong. Inexcusable.



Completely unrelated to the above, and just for fun, I give you the following screen shot:



Most of my readers will think that this is a picture of Annie Duke and Faraz Jaka. A few, however, will recognize that that is not what this is a picture of, at least not most importantly. But that's all I'm sayin'!

(If you don't get it, don't worry, and don't ask. It's an inside joke meant for just a few people.)

Guess the casino, #483

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Answer: Riviera

Guess the casino, #482

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Answer: Sam's Town

Guess the casino, #481

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Answer: Plaza