|
In the last week of our holiday in Vegas, we were staying downtown, at the Binions hotel and casino. FYI: This is where the World Series of Poker was originally founded and Doyle Brunson and the likes were playing poker in the old days.
They have a lot of good things at Binions, a nice wall with pictures of members of the poker hall of fame, a very nice large poker room with well more then 20 tables in there, nice dealers and just about everything there is nice for the poker players. But amazingly enough, they don't have a single good deck of cards. All the decks come with the ace of spades the other way around in the deck, so when you take it out and put it next to the other cards it stands out because it is curved the other way. 
The first time I noticed it was when the dealer was spreading out the cards, as they do when they open a new deck. I said: 'Is it just me or does that ace of spades look like its bent ?'. The dealer assures me that there are others bent that way too, and just starts the game. I don't think much of it, until later I see the card dealt to me and I immediately recognize it as being the ace without turning it over. I choose to ignore it again, because I figure it probably impossible to see it for the other players . Then a few hands later, I see this curved up card sitting under the card protector of the guy at the complete other end of the table. Even with his huge thing weighing it down on top of there, I could see it was the 'odd' card in the deck. So the hand is over but he mucks it, so I say : 'Sir, did you have the ace of spades ?'. But he says he doesn't remember because he is drinking ..
I say to myself, ok the next time it's dealt to me, I'm going to point it out before turning it over. And so it happened ... I get dealt the ace of spades (face down) and tell the dealer 'If this is the ace of spades, we REALLY need another deck'. One player goes all-in and because I think I'm the last to act, I flip open my cards and point out the ace of spades. I was a little pre occupied with the ace and didn't notice there was actually another player behind me who still had to act. Now the dealer tells me I can't flip open my cards like that ... and totally ignores my comment about the deck.
At this point I was totally steaming .. How can a card room like Binions possibly hire a dealer like this ? It kept going through my mind and the fact that the floor manager was not called at all bothered me as well. I asked the dealer one more time 'So, no new deck then ?', but he ignores me again. I've got steam shooting out of my ears by now and get dealt KQ and decide it's a good point to push right there (short stacked), of course I bust on that hand. I walk over to the floor manager to steam off a little and explain him the situation. He apologized but of course could not change the fact that I was out of the tournament.
And now the kicker, I'm talking to this manager guy as he is checking out some other decks and then he proceeds to tell me the truth behind it all. THEY HAVE NO GOOD DECKS. All of the decks at Binions come with a bent ace of spades !! It's because of how they are packaged (with the ace the other way around in the deck). They have tried everything but there is nothing they can do. I now suspect this is not only a problem at Binions but other card rooms too as they mostly get their supply of cards from the same area (Mexico is in fact where most of the cards in Vegas come from).
So, from now on I will be paying serious attention to this detail in card rooms and since there is nothing that can be done about it by the casino, i will just use it to my advantage.
|
