Friday, August 19, 2016

When the Casino Cries Foul over a Huge Slot Machine Jackpot

Poor Veronica
From time to time, or maybe even a bit more frequent than that, a casino patron wins a huge jackpot only to be told by the casino that there was a malfunction with the particular slot machine and therefore the jackpot is voided.

When this happens, is the casino deliberately trying to avoid paying out a legitimate jackpot,or is the casino telling the truth about a malfuction?

Well, I will answer the quesiton like this: About forty years ago I walked into a bank to withdraw the last five thousand bucks I had in my savings account to finance a gambling binge (a legitimate one before I got into casino cheating). After the transaction, I asked the teller what my balance was.

She answered five hundred fifty-five thousand dollars and change!

I thought my ears were deceiving me, so I asked her to repeat it...and she did!

I knew immediately that this was some kind of computer error but of course I thought about withdrawing all that money on the spot and closing the account.

But my ball were not big enough at the time, so I just ignored it and waited for the next bank statement which reflected the correction and posted my true balance of fifty-five cents.

My point is that these types of errors do happen, and they happen with slot machines as well. So I conclude that the faulty non-cheating jackpots that occur in casinos are real. I mean, after all, casino jackpots pay for themselves by the money that patrons put into the machines, so there is absolutely no reason for casinos to play hanky-panky with slot jackpot payouts.

The latest victim of this was Veronica Castillo, who for a few minutes thought she hit an $8 million jackpot at the Lucky Eagle casino in Washington State. The casino staff advised her of the machine's malfunction and deleted five zeroes off her jackpot total--paying her eighty bucks and apologizing for the error.

That's the way it goes, Veronica

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Is Poker Night in America Real or just another Cheat the Public Poker Show?

Poker Acting at its Best
If you remember, I heavily criticized the old "High Stakes Poker" TV show, claiming it was nothing more than an agreement between the Gaming Show Network, who wanted to increase their ratings, and the participating poker players, who wanted the publicity to further their careers, to stage the show so that both entities would profit. I never said the hands or their outcomes were fixed. I only said that whatever monies were won and lost in the huge cash game were redistributed back to the participants while off the air.

I believe that "Poker Night in America" and whatever other big televised cash-game is nothing more than the same thing.

It's all bullshit.

And if you look at some of the hands where huge money is won and lost, you will see my point.

One that comes to my mind is the hand played between Phil Laak and Shaun Deeb back in September, 2015.

Deeb raises $9,000 all-in with second pair after the flop and Laak calls with Ace-King. Deeb ends up winning $41,000 in the hand.

Come on, gimme a break!

If you believe that, then you believe I never cheat a casino outta one single chip!

And note that Laak's wife/girlfriend (I´m not sure which) Jennifer Tilly was also in that game. Just the presence of Laak and Tilly in ANY game would leave me believing absolutely NOTHING of that game's validity. I mean, do you remember Tilly's famous check-fold of a full house on the "Poker After Dark" show a while back?

I'm still trying to figure out that one!

And as I wrote in my book Dirty Poker back in 2006, I still to this day do not believe that Jennifer Tilly's 2005 WSOP Ladies Only Championship was anything more than a deal arranged by people in the poker world at that time.

I can't mention any specific names.