You'd think. I've played blackjack with Sammy many times and he is terrible. I mean, he is better than 95% of players but if you are a professional gambler -- i.e., you make your living playing cards -- and you are playing those stakes you should at least have basic strategy down cold. Sammy doesn't play perfect basic strategy for the game he plays. I've seen him win about $500k and I've seen him lose that much, more often lose. He can be quite obnoxious when losing, too. And oh he loves the crowds. But he's not a good player.

The HA for basic strategy on Sammy's game (which is what I play too) is 0.19%. That's without counting or any advanced play, and doesn't factor in other pro-player advantages.

But Sammy plays like an old Chinese lady -- that is, he is superstitous as hell. In any event, I'd estimate the advantage over Sammy as .75%. That means he loses 4 times as fast as he should, and it definitely is starting to kill him. I will miss seeing him at the tables and in the restaurants at the B when he is busto. He won't be drawing such big crowds when he drops his game down to $100/hand instead of $5000-$10000.

High stakes table games players (like me) have a million of those stories and they are only half true. I've been down to my "last" $500 and won $100k. But what does that mean -- yeah I had $500 in chips in front of me but I also had $200k in credit still available at the casino, so it really wasn't my last $500. It just happens that I began my "run" right before taking out another marker.

I'm pretty sure casinos don't allow picture taking anywhere.

When I was playing at a table next to Bobbys room during last years WSOP people were taking pictures with their phones.

Gotta gamble to win, boys and girls

Was Phil Laak in the game?

Which game is 0.19%?

El_Timon

please don't ruin a TStone gossip thread

QFT

This posts and posts like this are def. NVG worthy

With the series starting soon, I think we need a "what's going on in Bobby's Room" thread

This was true about 20 years ago.

My brother was told not to take pictures in the Fontana Lounge by security.

And is still true today.

So I'm playing a 30 hold'em game at Bellagio and Aaron Katz sits in the game to play with his girlfriend for a bit. I had no idea who he was at the time but high stakes players kept stopping by to say hi and ask him why he was playing 30 like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world so I assumed he played very high.

He was very nice and didn't at any point try to let others know that it was a small game for him or whatever. I was sitting next to him and eventually this happens:

He raises preflop and bets the whole way with KK on a 666QQ in that order board. I folded Q6 this hand. He wins and I jokingly commented that I would have made quads full of trips, one of the strongest hands in poker.

He looks at me and says, "It's just quads."

Still sarcastic I say, "but I had the queen as well."

"It's just four of a kind, this is a five card game, only best five play."

At this point I begin to suspect that he's not joking and he really thinks I don't know the rules. I say, "what about really strong hands like a seven card straight?"

"Nope you can only make a five card straight."

I didn't see the point in explaining that I knew the rules to Texas Hold'em so I just shrugged and put my headphones back on.

TStone did you see that they were running a 100/300 blind PL 2-7 TD game a few days ago?

You should've followed up with "What about three pair?"

TStoneMBD

Yes that would've been perfect! Although I could not have said that without calling it the Canadian full house and the jig might have been up.

Mizrachi didn't win quite that much. He bet 750 on the tie and hit it, then bet 2k on the tie again and hit that. He then asked for a free spin at the roulette wheel saying he should bet a thousand on 20, which came in.

Re: The Grinder

Get the newest issue of 'PokerPlayer' with him on the front, he talks about all his big losses playing Baccarat etc...

From DB's blog:

To quote Liz Lieu "Any game the Grinder is in is a good game."

Raptor??

TStone,

More, please! You are a NVG master.

Try to sustain this push through the World Series, when NVG becomes the best forum on 2+2.

Other Las Vegans- please try to do your part in getting this important Gossip to the forums.

The Camel, Brandon Adams, and the 10 post lurking locals who drop gossip bombs periodically; this is your time to shine!