I've only played in Northern Nevada and Vegas, so you get to set both hands. Harrah's/Harvey's in South Lake Tahoe sucks, though, because even though the table limit is $15, for some reason if you want to play 2 spots, the limit becomes $50, and if you want to play 3 spots, you MUST bet the max.

I asked why it was like that, and the floor said that it used to be double the min and sometimes there would be 2 locals hogging the whole table (um, I don't know, open another table?)

This may be a small sample size issue, but recently folks seem to really be betting the bonus aggressively, like green chip action.

I'm a table games dealer, and I wish my casino had a similar policy. We will let someone betting table min play two spots while the guy who wants to bet $500 has to stand around and wait. Opening another table may not be possible if they don't have extra dealers available.

Everyone's mileage varies, but personally, if I'm playing 2 spots and someone is waiting, I'll pull back to one and give them the option of sitting down to play. I'm sure I'm in the minority of PGP degens in that regard, though.

You are definitely in the minority. I don't think I've ever seen any person playing 2 spots at PGP even look up at someone approaching the table, much less offer to let them sit down.

Where I play, multiple people can bet on one spot. Whoever is betting more gets to look/set the hand. You can also combine bets. Collection on $10-$25 is 50¢. So if I'm betting $10-$15 on a spot, someone can bet $15-$10 on it. Usually person betting more pays the collection.

Also, you can bet the min on every spot if you want to.

Help on color buys and action buys though guys. Understand what it is when someone banks (they're assuming the role of the banker and collect on losing hands and pay out winning hands).

Think I should be banking more often (have never banked).

how deep should you be to effectively bank and what happens if you go busto and still have players to pay?

You have to put up enough money to cover all player bets before the hand is dealt, so this isn't possible. If a player bets more than you can cover, then you can't bank. It's not a situation like in Baccarat where you could go busto and still have outstanding commissions.

Where I play, you CAN bank even if you can't cover all bets in play. Whatever you can't pay is paid out by the corporation. There can also be multiple people banking at one time.

That's only in CA. Everywhere else you have to be able to cover all bets to bank.

If any of you care, I just played with myself *snicker* for a little over 2hrs. I was up 8 units and pushed about 85% of the time. Knowing what the bank had only gave me a winning edge twice. Mostly it allowed me to not lose.

On my second read of this, I am wondering if you were playing the fortune bonus since you do have a straight flush with using the Joker as the 6c, correct?

Most casinos will still pay the higher fortune bonus even if you split it up (ie full house, but do trips on the bottom and pair up top).

I was, so I did get $250, but was 1 card off from a 7-card SF w/ joker ($5000).

just got back from vegas - I had a hand that I've never seen before:

I had an ok hand - but the dealer had a hand where she could've had aces as low and the second highest sf (a2345) as high, but didn't set it that way

I'm trying to remember the hand - she did have a joker, but I could also have been really wrong

is this even possible? am I still drunk? I was legitimately shocked and asked the dealer (and my friend, who was clueless) how that could happen? she just said that's how we set it. I seem to recall her having a5 as the low somehow and me getting a push

Ah yes, I deal pai-gow poker quite a bit and I see a hand like this once every couple weeks. As far as I know, casino house ways universally say that whenever the dealer has three aces, they keep a pair of aces in the high hand and put one ace and the next highest card in the low hand. On the other hand, they always play a straight or flush if they only have one pair. It gets confusing when the joker is involved and a straight or flush is also possible. Let's say the dealer has A-A-Joker-Q-J-T-2. Should the dealer play the ace high straight and the A-2 in the low hand? Or should he apply the three aces rule and put the A-Q in the low hand? The house way where I work does not specifically address this situation.

It appears that the dealer in your story had something like A-A-Joker-2-3-4-5. Obviously anybody with half a brain would play the straight with the pair of aces in the low hand. I would guess that the dealer blindly applied the three aces rule and put one ace on top with the next highest card (the 5). If this ever happens to you again, just consider yourself lucky and keep your mouth shut. However, if the situation I previously described occurs and the dealer sets it in a way that is not to your benefit, ask to see a written copy of the casino's house way and argue the hell out of it. If the supervisor doesn't give you a break, demand to speak to the pit manager. Chances are that the casino's house way does not explicitly address this type of situation.

Another similar scenario is when the dealer has something like A-Joker-K-K-K-J-T. Should the dealer play three kings in the high hand and the pair of aces in the low hand? Or the straight in the high hand and pair of kings in the low hand? Again, it's very likely that the casino house way doesn't provide a specific way to set this hand. These types of hands don't occur very often, but if you have a lot of money in the betting circle when they do happen, I would suggest doing whatever you can to get the most beneficial result for yourself.