Random musings

[Michael]

Is there a wider disparity between fantasy and reality than what is depicted in commercials for local casinos? Young, good looking, well dressed people smiling, laughing, drinking fancy cocktails, high-fiving and hugging each other. Vegas, I get it. But local casinos are filled with old, dirty, out of shape, people gambling their rent money who are so stressed out they can barely look anyone in the eye.

Local casinos are some of the saddest places in America. I play a lot of poker and I love the game, but I hate walking in to these dens of depression. Unlike Vegas local casinos are full of people with serious gambling problems. I find it super depressing is their promos typically don't give away fun stuff, but basic household items like pots and pans.

I'm a winning player, but it bugs me that I feed off some of the degenerates. It's one of the reasons I give some of my winnings to charity every year and still fly out to Vegas to play despite the games not being much better.

Do you play at Rivers Casino? It was their "Humpty Dumpty" commercial I saw this morning that led me to post this. I haven't been there, but I assume the clientele is similar to Elgin or Aurora.

Rivers doesn't have a poker room. I play at Horseshoe Hammond, which is generally regarded as having the best poker room in the midwest. Fortunately the poker room is culturally different from the general casino in a good way. I like many of the people I play with, but I can't deny there's a darker side lurking beneath the fun and games. The more I move up stakes the more I see it. I think problem gamblers like the higher stakes action and I'm almost postive they are more important to my overall winnings now. Basically, skilled players like myself mostly feed off of weekend playing business men and degens with some overlap between the two. Yeesh.

[heyzeus]

In college, once we were 21, we used to drive to Lake Charles, Louisiana to gamble, because it's illegal in Texas. The casinos there were...let's say, not quite the Bellagio. Although one time there was a biker rally, and rather than making you gamble to get your free drink, they just had a gigantic ice tub full of free Coors/Bud/Miller longnecks. That was like the jackpot for broke 21 year olds.

The clientele on a weekday at a Lake Charles, Louisiana casino was breathtakingly depressing. 21 year olds are known for self-centered douchebagery, but even at that age I vaguely understood the privileges I held over these folks - education, future income, health, lack of addiction.

I remember the girlfriend of my buddy was hysterical that the guys were going there without her. She yelled at him that she thought he was going there to cheat on her. We told her, "No, Jessie, where we're going, the women mostly have dentures and a pegleg, don't worry that he's going to find someone else in rural Louisiana."

[JL21]

I remember the girlfriend of my buddy was hysterical that the guys were going there without her. She yelled at him that she thought he was going there to cheat on her. We told her, "No, Jessie, where we're going, the women mostly have dentures and a pegleg, don't worry that he's going to find someone else in rural Louisiana."

When I worked in baseball, I knew a dude who had an expression for that. "More t*ts than teeth"

[IMADreamer]

I've only been to a Casino once in my life. Everything had a thin sticky veneer of despair on it. I love to play poker but I quickly decided the casino wasn't the place for me to do it.

[tlombard]

I don't know why I found two issues of Playboy addressed to me in my mailbox yesterday since I never even considered subscribing but whoever decided to have them sent to me, thanks. I'll have to read some articles a bit later. Still haven't even ripped open the plastic as of yet.

[ghostrunner]

I don't like how counting works in ranked lists when there's a tie, i.e:

1,1,1,4,4,6,7,7,9


Is there a good reason it's not just 1,1,1,2,2,3,4,4,5 ?

[Arthur Dent]

Because if 2&3 had done slightly worse and 4 is unchanged, it shouldn't change 4's rank.

[Arthur Dent]

double post

[lukethedrifter]

Because it makes no sense for 3rd place to have 5 ahead of it.

[ghostrunner]

Because it makes no sense for 3rd place to have 5 ahead of it.

I guess what seems wrong is what if there are only so many possible scores? Or so many ways to score. Then you have someone with the second best possible result, but who ends up being 4th or even 6th.

It seems as if the ranking isn't properly reflecting the quality. Like you have 100 restaurants in a town, scored by some combination of qualities. Taste, menu, whatever. Yes the first 5 restaurants are the best, but now the one that misses a point is ranked 6th. Seems wrong somehow. Anyway, random musing.