Given the popularity of reality TV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the recent opening of Drink & Drag in downtown Las Vegas and the ongoing success of “Frank Marino’s Diva’s Las Vegas” at Imperial Palace, this just may end up “The Year of the Drag Queen.”
How cool is it to be a female impersonator at the moment? Frank Marino’s divas even have their own big wheel at Imperial Palace.
Win, and your friends will "condragulate" you. Yes, this blog is up on its drag queen jargon.
When drag queens are involved, fun is pretty much guaranteed, even with the knowledge casino big wheel games have some hefty house edges. Seriously, though, are you in Vegas to do math or have a blast? We thought so.
Each of the divas is highlighted on the table, too.
The IP felt it was time to put the divas in the spotlight. Felt. See what we did there?
No Las Vegas casino would be complete without playing cards. They’re used in blackjack and poker and a variety of other games, including Pai Gow poker, which in Chinese translates as “that card game this blog doesn’t understand because it may involve math.”
So, here’s a question about playing cards: Why are there 52 cards in a deck?
It's good to be the king.
Come to find out, many believe our modern decks of cards can be tied to astrology. The four suits, for example, are said to represent the four seasons. Not The Jersey Boys, the other four seasons. Please try and stay focused.
The 13 cards of each suit represent 13 months of the lunar new year. A lunar month (“sidereal lunar month” to be precise) has 28 days, so if you multiply 13 months by 28 days, you get 364, which is the number of days in a year in something called the positivist calendar. (It’s actually 364 plus a festival day commemorating the dead, for a total of 365.)
You may have already figured out that our 52-card decks are related to the fact a year has 52 weeks.
For the record, this blog still hates math.
The weight of an average playing card is 0.063 of an ounce. You'll win a bar bet with that one some day.
Here’s a bonus trivia item about playing cards.
Ever wonder why the ace of spades gets special treatment in terms of its design?
The ace of spades is also known as the "spadille."
The fancy design got its start under the reign of James I of England.
He created a law requiring that an insignia (usually hand-stamped) appear on the ace of spades to prove payment of a tax by card manufacturers. That special tax existed in the U.K. until 1960, and the practice of putting an ornate spade symbol on the ace of spades stuck around.
Now you know!
Posted on April 25th, 2012 by sroeben | No Comments »
Bucking the odds, a lucky player at Paris Las Vegas hit the 6-Card Bonus jackpot at Three Poker and is a million bucks richer for it.
Johnita Ejercito, an attorney and nurse from Woodland Hills, California hit the 6-Card Bonus jackpot on Feb. 19, 2012.
Johnita Ejercito, along with Paris casino manager Albert Jiannotti, and one huge-ass check.
The million-dollar 6-Card Bonus side bet for Three Card Poker is available exclusively at Caesars Entertainment casinos, and gives players the chance to win the million bucks with a total wager as small as $15 if they hit a super royal flush (9,10,J,Q,K,A) in diamonds.
Our friends at Shuffle Master, Inc. (the company that licenses the Three Card Poker game) tell us the odds of hitting the big bonus are 1-in-20.4 million. Hey, if it were easy, how much fun would that be?
This is the first time the million-dollar bonus has hit at a Las Vegas hotel, although it’s hit twice already at Caesars Entertainment resorts in Atlantic City.
The dream's alive in Vegas, baby!
Ejercito, who was staying at Paris Las Vegas at the time of her big windfall, says she plans to use the money to send her two daughters to London to get their Master’s in economics, and to get a few flights to visit them, too.
The dream lives! A lucky Three Card Poker player recently hit the game’s relatively-new $1 million jackpot.
We introduced the million-dollar twist for this popular casino card game back in May, as it was rolled out exclusively in Caesars Entertainment casinos in Vegas. So, even though the $1 million win in question was scooped up at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, you have a shot at the cabbage right here in Sin City, too.
We said it could happen, and it did. So, there.
The $1 million hand was a “6 Card Bonus,” or a “super royal” (9, 10, J, Q, K, A), all in diamonds. The player in Atlantic City had wagered a whopping $19 before getting his super royal, at which time he was crushed beneath a giant bag containing a million dollars in pennies. Oh, please. Don’t believe everything you read in a blog.
But the million dollar jackpot part is true! That’s nearly $241 after taxes!
Here’s one of those fancy promotional videos about the game. You’ll enjoy it more if you just ignore the annoying music.
We started calculating the odds of getting this particular hand in Three Card Poker, but we stopped after we realized our head might implode. “Odds, scmodds!” we say. Then again, we are the blog of a major casino-entertainment corporation. Ahem.
Please let us know if you hit the million-dollar jackpot during your next foray to the Strip. Because, technically, you owe this blog a finder’s fee.
Posted on November 2nd, 2011 by sroeben | 4 Comments »
If you’ve been to a casino, pretty much anywhere in the known universe, chances are you’ve seen a Shuffle Master automatic card shuffler.
They’re the machines that keep the cards shuffled so your dealer can concentrate on 1) banter, 2) paying your wins correctly and 3) making that completely sincere sad face when your blackjack hand comes up short. Which never happens, of course. It’s Las Vegas!
We stopped by the corporate headquarters of Shuffle Master here in Vegas not too long ago, and loved speaking with company representatives about various innovations coming down the pike. But we just couldn’t take our eye off something on display in the Shuffle Master lobby.
Specifically, a prototype of the very first Shuffle Master shuffler.
When we saw this, we were in gambling nerd heaven.
The original Shufflemaster shuffler was invented by John Breeding, a truck driver from Minneapolis, back in the early 1980s. What sparked his invention? Reading a story in the Wall Street Journal about card counters in Atlantic City casinos.
Prior to his foray into gaming equipment, Breeding had also sold cemetery plots, check writing machines and encyclopedias.
It took 10 years, and an investment of $1.3 million clams, before the first Shuffle Master machines were leased out. In 1991, Bally’s Las Vegas was the site of a field trial for the Nevada Gaming Commission to get the machines approved for use in casinos. Once approved, Bally’s was also Breeding’s first customer for the machines.
Every day they're shufflin'. Yes, we went to the LMFAO concert at Planet Hollywood, recently. So sue us.
Interesting John Breeding fact: He invented the popular Let It Ride, the poker-style casino card game.
Breeding retired in 1997, but his invention lives on.
Las Vegas casinos in the Caesars Entertainment family have upped the ante with a new $1 million jackpot in its popular Three Card Poker table games.
Players can win $1 million in just one hand with the “6 Card Bonus” side bet (with a total wager of as little as $15). The winning hand is a “Super Royal” in diamonds, or the 9, 10, J, Q, K and A cards.
Check out this video that shares the low-down. Or the skinny, whichever you prefer.
As usual, we do not have the time or energy to calculate what the odds are of hitting the “Super Royal in Diamonds” hand, but we will certainly “borrow” that information for this blog should an actual journalist or mathematician care to bust out an abacus.
What we do know is that analysts estimate there could a $1 million winner about three times a year.
There are other ways to win big at Three Card Poker, of course, including $100,000 payouts for the “Super Royal” in hearts, clubs or spades.
With more than 1,500 Three Card Poker tables worldwide, the game (licensed by Shuffle Master, Inc.) is the most popular specialty game of all time.
Somewhat unrelated fact: Shuffle Master, Inc. gets bonus points because it’s a supporter of one of our favorite Vegas charities, Spread the Word Nevada, a literacy nonprofit for at-risk youth.
Caesars Entertainment has exclusive rights to the $1 million payout for the Three Card Poker “6 Card Bonus,” and Las Vegas is the only city currently offering the jackpot. Translation: Only in Vegas, baby.
Sorry, stock photography agencies, you just got schooled by this blog. And a guy named Eric's hand.
Some small print, of course: To be eligible to make the “6 Card Bonus” $1 million wager, a player must place an ante wager and a “Pair Plus” wager based on the posted table minimums. The “6 Card Bonus” wager is offered at $5-$100 with odds paid on all hands of three-of-a kind or better, except for the $100,000 and $1 million “Super Royal” hands, which are fixed payouts.
We’ll see you at the Three Card Poker tables! We’ll be the ones rolling around in our million, naked. Actual results may vary. Thank heavens.
Posted on May 27th, 2011 by sroeben | 5 Comments »
There’s always something new to see or do, or play, in Las Vegas. Example: Flamingo Las Vegas is the official “testing ground” of Sin City’s newest poker-based casino table game, Wild 52.
Note: Getting "Jokered in Vegas" does not require a physician's permission or any protective headgear.
Since Flamingo Las Vegas is the only casino in the world with Wild 52, we thought we’d stop by to check out the game for ourselves.
Useless fact: "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of "Juker," the German name for the card game Euchre.
David Dolan, a patient (trust us, very) dealer at Flamingo volunteered to help us learn the game.
David is definitely in line for sainthood. This blog asks a lot of questions.
So, here’s the skinny. (If you want to skip the specifics, just jump down to the video below, and you’ll get the gist of it.)
Wild 52 is based on making the best poker hand with five cards out of seven available (there are two “Community” cards, shared with the dealer). A variation of draw poker and hold’ em, Wild 52 uses a standard, 52-card deck, with one Joker. Wild 52 gives the player a number of betting options.
The basic, and only mandatory, bet is the Ante bet. There are two fun bonus bets, the Joker and aptly-named Bonus bets. The Joker is all-powerful in Wild 52, and when it turns up, pays players for any Joker bet, but can also be used as any card in the deck. (Translation: Comes in handy when you want to get paid on a hand with five of a kind!)
If the Joker shows up in a player’s hand, it pays 4-to-1 if a Joker bonus bet was made. If it shows up as one of the game’s two Community cards, it pays 10-to-1. Following all this? There will be a quiz.
When the other optional bet, the Bonus bet, is a winner (any five-card straight or better), it pays based on the chart below which we so thoughtfully ripped off from the game’s official site.
The Joker and Bonus are the bets that kick Wild 52 into high gear.
If it sounds a little confusing at first, that’s completely because we are not an especially-talented casino game explainer. Let’s let David do his thing, shall we?
David rocks. Got a question? Just ask David.
So, some things we’re liking about Wild 52? There are multiple ways to win. We tend to play our games in long stretches, so we like some variety and lots of ways to reap some winnings. Also, we like playing against the dealer, rather than other players.
Yes, those are fake chips for the purpose of our tutorial. You have a keen eye, Grasshopper.
The one thing we didn’t love was that a dealer must have something called a “qualifying hand” of a pair of 5s or better for us to win our basic (Ante) bet. If not, the Ante bet is a push (we get the bet back, without winning or losing). Naturally, we’d like it more if a completely horrible dealer hand meant we won automatically. (The qualifying hands requirement is pretty common in this type of table game, so we can’t whine too much.) The upside is that the Joker and Bonus bets are paid if they win even if the dealer does not “qualify.”
So, what do you think? If you’ve played Wild 52, let us know your thoughts in the Comments section.
The things we do to bring you the finest in useless Las Vegas insidery (not a real word).
This time, we made some calls, squeezed our insider casino contacts, washed a few backs and got an exclusive photo of the largest casino gaming chip we could find: A $100,000 chip at Paris Las Vegas.
Behold the largest denomination gaming chip you're ever likely to see.
This chip rarely sees the light of day, and usually only comes out for players with a million dollar credit limit or more. It was our distinct pleasure to fondle it for a full three seconds before we were tackled by a Paris Las Vegas security guard. (We probably shouldn’t have shared that we did slight-of-hand magic in a former life.)
As we got a closer look at this majestic $100,000 chip, we noticed a little speck on it, and were ready to Photoshop it away, but then realized it wasn’t a speck after all. It’s a computer chip, adhered to the baccarat chip for top secret security reasons. See it? Here’s a close-up.
A chip within the chip!
Bonus factoid: From what we hear, next door to Paris at Planet Hollywood, all the chips have these security devices, called radio-frequency identification tags (or “RFID tags”). RFID tags, used for years to track livestock, are useful in detecting fake chips.
The $100,000 chip is usually reserved for baccarat or mini-baccarat in a high limit salon.
We love asking dopey questions of casino executives! During our quest for for the biggest chip, we also asked what the maximum bet would be at blackjack at, say, Caesars Palace. The answer: A guest could bet $25,000 a hand, three hands at a time. So, that’s a maximum of $75,000 a pop. (A guest can also bet $50,000 on one hand. That’s said to be the highest, one blackjack hand bet accepted in Las Vegas.) The mind reels.
For what it’s worth, the maximum bet at Planet Hollywood’s baccarat tables is a whopping $200,000.
Posted on September 21st, 2010 by sroeben | 5 Comments »
Think you know Vegas? Here’s today’s puzzler. Check out this super close-up of a gaming chip from one of Sin City’s most talked-about resorts. It could be a vintage chip or one currently in circulation. Think you know which resort it’s from? Post your guess in the Comments section. We’ll even give you a hint.
One of the things that makes craps such a colorful game to play is that just about everything in the game has a nickname. In fact, nearly every number rolled has its own name. Got a favorite?
Loading ...
Did we miss one you like? Let us know in the Comments section.
Posted on October 9th, 2009 by sroeben | 8 Comments »
This particular King is a floorperson we encountered at Flamingo Las Vegas a day or two ago. When he said his name was The King, we thought it was cute, but then whispered, “No, but really, what’s your name?”
The King proceeded to show us his nametag. It read, in bold letters, The King.
So, when you’re at Flamingo, you can find The King in the blackjack area (follow the sounds of a party happening, day or night), just inside the door that faces Las Vegas Boulevard.
Only in Vegas!
Posted on October 9th, 2009 by sroeben | No Comments »
Roulette was invented by French mathematician Blaise Pascal, a byproduct of his experiments with perpetual motion.
Around and around she goes. At least we think it's a she.
The French version of roulette has a single zero, while the American style has a double zero. (Although you can still find wheels with one zero in some American casinos, even on the Strip!)
In some forms of early American roulette, an American eagle was used instead of the double-zero.
Roulette has been called the “King of Casino Games.”
In 2004, Ashley Revell of London sold all his possessions and brought $135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Vegas and put it all on “red.” Revell walked away with his net-worth doubled.
The cloth covering with the betting areas on a roulette table is known as a “layout.”
Roulette has been featured in a number of successful feature films, including “Diamonds are Forever” and “Casablanca.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, “roulette” is French for “little wheel.”
A bet on an individual number in roulette is called a “straight-up” bet.
The plastic marker a roulette dealer uses to signify the winning number is called a “dolly.”
Posted on September 21st, 2009 by sroeben | 8 Comments »
Loading ...
