Pearls of Wisdom Easy to Find Among Gamblers

There is an inherent wisdom in the words of the world’s most successful gamblers and poker players.

Gamblers have brains that are programmed differently than the regular Joe, relying on their life experiences, wit and unconventionality to get them through the day and succeed in such harsh waters.

Here are six of my favorite pearls of wisdom, along with the possible logic behind these select famous (at least in gambling circles anyway) words.

“There is more to poker than life.” — Tom McEvoy, 1983 World Series of Poker champion

Probable interpretation: A play on words off the popular “There is more to life than (insert topic here.)” Poker is a constant game without an end. Its limits are human, which means the game is unfortunately over when things such as sleep, a cousin’s wedding day and that troublesome day job get in the way from time on the felt.

“I guess if there were no luck involved, I’d win every one.” — Phil Hellmuth, poker Hall of Famer

Probable interpretation: The 11-time World Series of Poker champion believes he is the best no-limit Hold ’Em player on the planet, especially when it comes to tournament play. Even though poker is a skill game, luck has an unavoidable presence.

“What good is money if you can’t bet with it?” — Jack Strauss or Johnny Moss, poker Hall of Famers

Probable interpretation: It’s unclear which of these two late poker legends said it first, but both played the game according to this commandment. Elite poker players are able to distance themselves from the value of the dollar. If they didn’t, they would never have the killer instinct needed to bet a sum that could purchase a new home or card on a single hand of play. Keep in mind that Moss and Strauss also experienced tremendous swings from millionaires to glorified beggers.

“In limit poker, you are shooting at a target. In no-limit, the target comes alive and shoots back at you.” — Crandell Addington, poker Hall of Famer

Probable interpretation: Provided you know the basics of the game, limit poker is a relatively safe proposition. All it takes to call down an opponent or chase a draw is a single bet. This isn’t the case in no-limit, where an opponent can take everything in a single hand.

“The guy that invented gambling was bright. The man that invented chips was a genius.” — Julius “Big Julie” Weintraub, legendary Las Vegas junket organizer

Probable interpretation: Historically, gamblers tend to pucker up when the bets are made with real money. Replace the cash with a few innocent clay chips, and the games get looser. Chips also allow casinos to watch the money more carefully, since the cash is banked and the chips have zero value outside the walls of the establishment. Chips also make tournaments like the World Series of Poker possible. The weight of $10 million in cash is enough to buckle a table and take up every square inch of the felt.

“Gambling money has no home.” — Dan at the bar ... met him last week

Probable interpretation: Gambling winnings are destined to stay within that particular economy. If you win a sports bet or have a big poker night, that money only will be used to make a bigger bet the next time. It’s rarely used elsewhere.

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W

Walking Sticks - A pair of sevens.

Wild Card - A card that can be played as any value.

Worst Hand - A losing hand.

WSOP - World Series of Poker.

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Casinos Help Out Gambling Addicts

That last word is not usually mentioned in gambling circles, to be honest. It is one of those tags that society in general uses to label some people and to be frank, sometimes it is overused, giving card games such as poker a bad name. Yet the reality remains. There are people who get hooked too much and cannot control themselves, leading to the erosion of his relationships and life in general.

Not all is lost, though. In fact, at the Viejas Indian Reservation, there is good news for all involved. A group of addiction counselors were trained on the dangers of compulsive gambling. This was part of a movement that casino operators are starting – to help those who are addicted to gambling. Interesting, no?

According to Mark Sauer of SignonSanDiego:

"We don't deny there is a problem," said Bobby Barrett, incoming tribal chairman of Viejas, chairman of the California Tribal Business Alliance and a certified gambling counselor.

"We are concerned with the health and safety of the people in our casinos, and with the risk to people within our own tribal communities."

Self-help, 12-step programs have mushroomed. There were 10 Gamblers Anonymous meetings a week in San Diego County five years ago; today there are 35.

The number of certified counselors who offer the therapy they say is needed to straighten out a pathological gambler is shockingly low.

"I'm the only one I know of actually doing treatment in the county," said therapist Suzanne Graupner Pike, who has treated troubled gamblers in Vista since 2003. "There's no money in it."

The reason for that, Pike said, is the "impulse-control disorder associated with problem gambling is not considered a disease, like alcohol or drug abuse, and hardly any insurance companies cover it."

And the patients, Pike added wryly, have no money left.

Most gamblers with serious or severe problems, who make up about 4 percent of California adults, according to the state study, have related psychological problems, such as depression, which are covered by insurance, Pike said.

"Society needs to realize we have a medical crisis (with problem gambling), and there should be federal, state and local funds available for education and treatment, just as with other addictions," she said.

Barrett said the state's fledgling Office of Problem and Pathological Gambling has a $3 million annual budget. He said that is not nearly enough, noting, "All of that funding comes from California gaming tribes."

Lefkowitz said there are two basic types of problem gamblers: those who thrive on action, who tend to be men; and those who gamble to escape, generally women.

Now I am not saying I am biased, but it never occurred to me that women would be a great part of this gambling addiction problem! I guess it is a good thing, what they are doing in California. It is just wishful thinking on my part, I guess, that this sort of thing should never have happened in the beginning. Of course, there are some things we cannot control. Still, activities like this one brings hope to those who need it.

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Atlantic City To Debate Casino Smoking Ban Again

ATLANTIC CITY - Smoke swirled around Barbara DePierro’s head as she used one hand to puff on a cigarette and the other to play a slot machine at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.

DePierro, a New Yorker, settles into her cigarettes-and-slots routine whenever she comes to Atlantic City and dreads the thought that her gambling pleasures may someday be interrupted by a casino smoking ban.

“I like it the way it is now. If they banned smoking in Atlantic City, I would go to the Indian reservation casinos in Connecticut just to smoke,” DePierro vowed as her husband, James, nodded his head in agreement.

A year after Atlantic City delayed a total smoking ban at the request of the powerful gaming industry, city officials are again debating whether the casinos should go smoke-free. City Council backed away from a ban last year amid warnings that smokers would take their business elsewhere, further depressing casino earnings in the soft economy.

But council members also promised then to revisit the issue in a year. Just as it was on Oct. 8, 2008 - when it voted 5-4 to scrap the smoking ban - council remains divided.

The timing of a new vote is unclear. On Friday, the City Clerk’s Office released the agenda for the next council meeting on Wednesday and it did not include the smoking ban.

Councilman Dennis Mason argued it would be foolish to prohibit smoking in Atlantic City at a time when cigarette-puffing, cigar-chomping gamblers crowd casinos in other states.

“I’ll be happy to support a 100 percent smoking ban if and when casinos in other states enact the same thing,” he said. “All we want to be on is equal footing.”

Mason supports the current law, which limits smoking to 25 percent of the casino floor. But Councilman Bruce Ward, an anti-smoking advocate, believes a total ban is the best way to protect casino workers and customers from the dangers of secondhand smoke.

“I’d like to see no smoke impacting the health of workers, or customers for that matter,” he said.

Ward wants smoking restricted to the airport-style smoking lounges that casinos built off the gaming floor when the smoking ban temporarily went into effect for two weeks last year, before it was repealed.

Casinos complained that business declined dramatically during the two weeks of no smoking. Mark Juliano, chief executive officer of the three Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. casinos, predicted that a smoking ban now would be catastrophic. He said the current law for casino smoking is a good compromise.

“We know we have plenty of statistics to show that a complete smoking ban would be a disaster,” Juliano said. “As far as the status quo is concerned, we seem to think it is working for both customers and employees. It has become quite manageable for us.”

The Casino Association of New Jersey, the trade group representing the gaming industry, said that thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue could be lost if customers flee Atlantic City for smoke-friendly casinos in surrounding states.

“Since the economy has continued to deteriorate and our regional competitors continue to permit smoking in their casinos, the ability to continue to allow smoking on a portion of our casino floors is essential to avoid a further deterioration of our local economy,” Joseph A. Corbo Jr., the association’s president, said in a statement.

Stressing the health dangers of smoking, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society are urging City Council to approve a total ban. They noted that New Jersey’s 2006 Smoke Free Air Act protects the state’s entire work force, with the exception of Atlantic City’s casino employees.

“The American Heart Association believes it is time to offer casino employees the same protection that all other New Jersey workers enjoy,” Corinne Wisniewski, director of advocacy for the heart association, said in a statement to council members.

Local 54 of UNITE-HERE, Atlantic City’s largest casino union, argued that a smoking ban should be delayed for at least another year, while the economy recovers from the recession, to preserve jobs that might otherwise be lost if business sinks further.

“My membership clearly, without any ambiguity at all, is petrified of a 100 percent smoking ban,” said Bob McDevitt, union president. “It could close the doors of casinos operating right now. ... To do something like that at this point in time, with all of the other challenges Atlantic City has, would be suicide.”

Hardly surprising, casino customers are split on the issue. Smokers claim they have every right to light up, while nonsmokers say they don’t want to be bothered by secondhand smoke.

“I can sit in the nonsmoking section and gamble or I can go in the smoking area and have a cigarette. I want that option,” Marie Balandis, a 71-year-old smoker from Utica, N.Y., said while playing a slot machine in a nonsmoking section of Trump Taj Mahal.

A few yards away from Balandis, 22-year-old Lissette Jones, a respiratory care major at Long Island University, was also playing a slot machine in the nonsmoking section.

“I don’t like smoking,” Jones said. “When you walk through a smoking area and smell it, it’s very irritating. I would like to see a smoking ban.”

Then there are the DePierros, the New Yorkers who threaten never to come back to Atlantic City if a smoking ban is approved. Holding a pair of cigars, James DePierro gazed over his wife’s shoulder while she smoked and played the slot machine.

“Smoking, drinking and gambling go together,” he said. “If we can’t do it here, then we’ll go do it at the casinos in Connecticut.”

Poker player places a bet on Hollywood

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Is Poker Gambling?

I know this sounds like an easy “Yes” answer, but poker is definitely a different kind of gambling than roulette, craps, or playing the lottery. Poker takes skill unlike casino-type games. Should online poker be illegal just like those other online gambling games, or should poker be an exemption since it is a game of skill.

Also, there are professional poker players making millions of dollars. You don’ t see professional roulette players or professional lottery players. This is some peoples jobs where they collect all their income from. Taking away online poker could put people out of jobs.

Just a thought.

Poker jogador coloca uma aposta em Hollywood

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Gamblers Protest Man's Entrance to Ladies' Poker Contest

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — In the glitzy, high-stakes world of tournament poker, there are some unwritten rules among gamblers.

One of them is: Don't enter tournaments where you may not be an appropriate player.

So when Nicole Rowe, physically exhausted and emotionally battered from a recent struggle with breast cancer, drove here last weekend to enter a ladies' no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament, she was surprised to see Abraham Korotki in the field.

For Rowe, 40, of West Windsor, N.Y., the prize money was just one reason to make the trip to the Borgata. She also looked forward to bonding with other women and telling them about the importance of early detection of the disease.

Rowe, who is scheduled to undergo a double mastectomy at the end of the month, urges women to get a sonogram in addition to an annual mammogram.

Two years ago, before being diagnosed with breast cancer, Rowe, a veteran gambler who plays poker about three times a week, came in second in the Borgata tournament. This time, she was determined to win it.

But Korotki, a 63-year-old semiretired real estate developer from Ventnor, N.J., took home the top prize of nearly $21,000 last Saturday, and a trophy. In a field of 260 players, each of whom had put up $300, Rowe came in second, winning just under $12,000 after taxes.

Korotki said he thought he saw other men signing up for the women's-only tournament and, besides, he wanted more practice time to get ready for when the World Poker Tour (WPT) rolled into town this week. That event attracts hundreds of top gamblers from around the globe, who come to participate in more than 40 WPT-sanctioned tournaments in Atlantic City casinos through Thursday.

"I didn't do this for the money," Korotki said. "I'm preparing to go into a main event this week, and I needed some practice time. I hadn't played in tournaments in a while."

Korotki, who doesn't describe himself as a professional poker player, has pocketed more than $650,000 in poker-tournament winnings in his lifetime, including a gold ring in a World Series of Poker event here.

Rowe said she took Korotki's presence in the tournament in stride, and even struck up a kind of friendship with him. But other women who had been seated with him as the competition became narrower and narrower over a 14-hour period left the casino angry, feeling a man had muscled his way into a place he did not belong.

Rowe uses the gambling term "side pot" to describe Korotki as a blessing in disguise. The flap brought by the incident — from mainstream media down to poker Web sites and blogs — has garnered more attention for Rowe's breast-cancer awareness crusade.

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Casino Doing Better Than Expected

Despite the struggling economy, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem is getting the attention of not just the local community, but the entire state of Pennsylvania.

As of August, Sands is the fourth busiest casino in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board disclosed on Sept. 2 that out of the nine casinos in Pennsylvania, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem grossed the fifth highest terminal revenue, which is the gross revenue left in the machines after winners are paid.

The terminal revenue of the Sands Casino for Aug. 2009 was $20,235,659. This revenue surpassed that of another newly built casino in Pennsylvania, The Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, which was expected to do much better than Sands.

However, both casinos contributed to a 19.8 percent increase in gross revenue, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The total revenue of all the slot machines at the nine casinos in Pennsylvania was $186,936,232.

This translates into Sands paying winners back 93 percent of all money waged-thus, the casino retained 7 percent of what was played, according to an article in The Morning Call on Aug. 24.

So, what else keeps the casino so popular? Three thousand slot machines, including electronic table games; four upscale restaurants, including Emeril's Chop House; two bars, Coil and Molten; a parking garage that can hold 3,400 cars; and an open bar while gaming, which is what many individuals appreciate most.

These features are just a few of what Sands has to offer, according to Robert DeSalvio, President of Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

On Aug. 24, the casino expanded its smoking area from 25 percent to 50 percent of the floor due to high customer demand. All of the restaurants and 50 percent of the casino floor are now non-smoking.

"We welcome all guests, over the age of 21, to come and enjoy the live, free entertainment as well as the unique dining and gaming experience," DeSalvio said via e-mail.

Rob Shannon, '10, said he has visited the casino twice so far this year and left with more money than he bet on games like virtual three-card poker and blackjack.

"The casino is a great place to have fun and mix things up from the normal Lehigh activities and nightlife," said Shannon.

"Even though there are no table games, the virtual blackjack, poker and roulette games are just as good," said Shannon.

"Regardless of how into gambling someone is, the free drinks the casino provides you with while you play is definitely worth the visit."

Due to the economic downturn, the completion of the hotel, retail space and convention space associated with the casino was put on hold. But plans are still in the works to fill up the vacant space in the future, according to DeSalvio.

"We are reviewing retail options for the mall portion of a project that's current still on hold, and we will have a large 46,000 square foot multi-purpose event room, which can be used for meetings, trade shows, concerts, and banquets," DeSalvio said.

It is not yet known when construction on the rest of the resort will begin again, but DeSalvio hopes it happens soon.

"Once the rest of the resort is done, I think it will be a great place to rent out for school functions like date parties, or community service functions," said Brooke Blythe, '10.

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I

Inside Straight - Four cards which require another between the top and the bottom card to complete a straight. Players who catch this card make an Inside Straight.

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U

Up Card - A card that is dealt face-up.

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