The "New" Palms
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https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/las-vegas-casinos/hard-rock/30135-hard-rock-soon-to-be-virgin-las-vegas/3/#post709316
The Palms beyond cooled. Got to the point where the crowd there was sketchy, and no one respectable gambled there. They took out their high limit pit. This all happened during the fifteen years or so that I quit gambling, so I didn't really care or keep track of the Palms' status. During that period we went to Vegas still frequently but only as a tourist and not to play a nickel.
Now that I started playing again last year, a friend of mine who went to the private opening of Palms' new club Kaos, said that the place seems to be really happening again. I read that Station Casinos put $620M into the place. (By way of comparison, Branson is putting $150M into the Hard Rock Vegas.)
Long story short I got hold of a host at Palms and opened a line there. It's not a small line, but it's not a whale level line either. This line would be too big for the, say, Palace Station, but my new Palms host says that Palms is ready once again for real action. Before I applied for the line she stated that they have the midi-Bacc tables where may touch the cards. Has anyone actually played there recently? How many midi-Bacc tables do they have?
She also assured that they have 3:2 BJ. Anyone know how many decks, what the rules are, so we may calculate the house advantage? Anyone gamble at the "new" Palms yet?
Would like to find out as much as possible before booking a stay. Otherwise, will just swing by next time we're staying at Cosmo or Encore to figure it out, but these days since I don't play super hard I generally play only where I am staying, one resort at a time.
I did well during both periods. Just...different, is all.
I don't think I've ever seen anyone at the HL table games area ever, but then again I don't go during peak hours. Last time I was there I think some dude requested $5k in front money at the roulette tables. AFAIK midi bac was $25 min? I just remember that it's really easy to get food comps at Palms.
The high limit area was closed for a period of time, and the Palms website verbiage refers to its being "re-opened" is this the "new" high limit room you refer to? From the pictures online all I see are slots in this "new" high limit room, but you mentioned table games.
Yes the Maloofs went bust and had to sell nearly everything they owned just to pay debt service, and eventually sold even the small amount in the Palms they retained so they have been all the way out of the Palms for a while now. I think the height of the Palms was over by 2007, when the Girls Next Door episode was filmed there. After it went downhill and no big players were there I wondered occasionally who was booking their large suites in the Fantasy Tower.
Yes my host said that the min. at midi Bacc is $25. which is fine I play $100. midi tables at Cosmo and Encore.
Last time we stayed there was 2009 I believe it was, we got a free suite because of a host who was a friend; I did not gamble. It was still busy but already on its way down.
One thing I guess I will find out is if a line at Palms translates to a line you may access at all Station Casinos (not that I would want to gamble at any Station casino other than the Palms but just wondering). In the old days it wasn't like that, even when Steve Wynn owned all the currently MGM properties my lines at Golden Nugget, T.I. and Bellagio were all separate. These days all my lines are at independent properties so I haven't been able to test that out.
Quote: TigerWuQuick side-question.... does "midi-baccarat" always mean hands on, regardless of casino? And is it just basic touching/picking up, or are you allowed to bend and mangle them like in Macau?
"Always" is a tough call. In my experience, the answer is yes. The cards are going into a garbage bin after playing once. So people can bend, stab, rip, whatever.
There is currently one table at Cosmo that appears to alternate between being designated a mini (may not touch the cards) and midi. The table looks the same on the outside, its designation just depends on the day and shift.
BACK THEN:
As far as HOW FAR you are able to go with the "touching," in the old days in Vegas and Tahoe when I played fifteen years or so ago, they allowed most everything except tearing the cards in half (which, some people even did that, and it depended on the pit boss if he was going to step in to stop that action or not), but in general, you could bend, poke holes in (looking for the dots), crumple, whatever the cards.
The general rule back then in Vegas and Tahoe was that as long as the card was still readable to the crew and camera, you could do whatever.
Back then on one big hand my buddy who was with me and I had a pre-designated shtick routine where I already knew what I had and then tore the corner off the card and handed it to my friend, he put it in his mouth, and said, "Mmm, tastes like a nine." At that point the pit boss stepped in and said, "Okay! that's enough." but it was as much about how he was tired of that I'd been winning ceaselessly for close to two weeks on that trip, as about tearing off a piece of the card.
Another time in Tahoe the pit boss told me I could touch the cards but asked me not to bend them so that they could put them back in for another round of play, because there was another set of players at the table whom she said, "Don't want to wait" for brand new cards on each shuffle. I was by far the bigger player at the table that day, but I accommodated them. Nowadays most casinos don't pitch cards even in BJ, so this would never be allowed, they'd be too worried a player might notch or somehow mark the Bacc. cards.
NOW:
Bending, mangling, crumpling, all that is still allowed. Nowadays, there are some pit bosses who won't allow you to poke holes in the cards, but they are in the minority. The one pit boss I asked WHY he cared about poking holes claimed that the pen used to poke might go through and poke/damage the table felt, so after that I'd always put the playing card over my score cards before poking so that the pen coming through would hit, at worst, the score card and not the table felt. (A couple of pit bosses that I mentioned to WHY I was doing it that way, came back and told me "I don't care where you poke the cards" so obviously it is a personal pit boss pet peeve and not corporate policy as to whether poking is allowed or not.)
In Bacc. what we players are looking for first as we bend up the cards, are the "sides" (no sides (ace, 2, 3) - two sides (4, 5) - three sides (6, 7, 8) - four sides (9, 10) - and then of course a "line" means face card meaning a 10), and then afterwards the "dots" to determine which of the sided cards it is. When I play I first look quickly to see what combination I have, and if it is a combination of sides that may not possibly add up to 8 or 9 (or at least, 6 or 7), such as say - a two sided card and a three sided card, meaning that at best I have two cards that add up to 3 - then I don't waste time looking much further. As far as poking - I poke holes only if I have two four sided cards, to see if at least one of them has that dot in the middle, meaning then that my hand is at least an 8.
Some players will sit there forever carefully bending up the side and top to figure out that they have two face cards, or some other worthless hand. (i.e. some players will take a long time to look carefully at both cards no matter what they add up to.) I recall one player from a long time ago who would get this look on his face like he was about to perform some heroic feet and then lift his elbows way up at an angle (looking a little like a seated Karate Kid about to perform the crane) before he dove into the cards. When he was "opening" the cards, and my buddy would ask me what I thought he had, I'd say, "I don't know, but I do know that whatever it is, it's going to be dramatic."
Many Asian players are superstitious and think that the way they look, and their blowing away dots or announcing that there must be a dot, actually affect the outcome of the hand. Other players just do it because it is fun and prolongs the mystery of the hand's final outcome.
Last time I was at Encore I watched a special limits high roller in the back room open both sides, Bank and Player, they simply allowed him in deference to his high credit line and high bets to open all cards at his own private table.*** On request, occasionally, in the regular casino the pit boss will allow a player to open both sides too, if no one is betting the opposite side.
For me, I touch/bend/poke the cards because it gives me a better "feel" somehow for how the shoe is progressing. (Each win or loss seems more deliberate when you yourself experience the unfolding of the hand, side and dot by dot.) I like to play at a table where I am the one opening the cards, which nowadays I am not always the big player at the table (the largest bet gets to open that side, Bank or Player) but lately a lot of the players who have gotten to know me are convinced that I am "lucky" and allow me to open the cards for them, or, I just play alone at my own table. My experience is that there are two kinds of Baccarat shoes, random ones and shoes that tend to follow a certain pattern. The random shoes there is no real way to win on, but the pattern shoes for whatever reason follow some sort of discernible pattern, at least for a while, and if you are betting right on them, you will win, or at least I have won, pretty consistently.
Quote: TigerWu... And is it just basic touching/picking up, or are you allowed to bend and mangle them like in Macau?
I have played baccarat exactly one time in my entire life -- at the now-closed Lucky Dragon in Las Vegas. I posted about that experience here.
As I reported there, the players mangled the cards without complaint from the casino, since it was established that the cards were single use. However, on one hand the young lady who was handling the cards was so upset with the result that she tore them in half. For that, she was sternly rebuked, but she was allowed to continue to play.
Quote: MDawgLast time I was at Encore I watched a special limits high roller in the back room open both sides, Bank and Player, they simply allowed him in deference to his high credit line and high bets to open all cards at his own private table.*** On request, occasionally, in the regular casino the pit boss will allow a player to open both sides too, if no one is betting the opposite side.
** Of course this is going to get a little on the mystic side, but I like to put my energy and intuition into picking the right side, the side that is following the current trend of the Bacc. shoe, and then have that correct choice transmute into (be affirmed by) my opening of my winning hand. When I win a big hand, I like to declare, "Boy! am I glad I picked that side." This is why I like to open the cards it somehow reinforces in my mind and play whether I am playing right (picking winners) or not, which is why I don't get why any player, high roller or not, would want to open the cards on the opposite side, the side that is against you.
Would such a winner open his side with power and conviction, and the opposite side with disdain?
I'd think that opening both sides would mess up your flow towards directing your energy towards your chosen hand, towards your concentration on trying to win and follow the shoe's pattern, if it is a shoe with a pattern.
(And indeed, that whale I watched for a bit in the back room, who opened both sides, was losing badly. And he obviously was very superstitious - the pit boss told me so, when the high roller asked for the room to be cleared, after I had watched for a bit.)
Think about at a BJ table, when the dealer turns over her cards YES it doesn't change them or make a bit of difference HOW she turns them over, but it would not affect my game positively nor make me happy to watch a dealer slamming her Ace over triumphantly whenever she found it underneath a face card. The dealers are trained or somehow have learned to effect as neutral a guise as possible when turning over or dealing their own cards.
Quote: MDawg** Of course this is going to get a little on the mystic side, but I like to put my energy and intuition into picking the right side, the side that is following the current trend of the Bacc. shoe, and then have that correct choice transmute into (be affirmed by) my opening of my winning hand. When I win a big hand, I like to declare, "Boy! am I glad I picked that side." This is why I like to open the cards it somehow reinforces in my mind and play whether I am playing right (picking winners) or not, which is why I don't get why any player, high roller or not, would want to open the cards on the opposite side, the side that is against you.
Would such a winner open his side with power and conviction, and the opposite side with disdain?
I'd think that opening both sides would mess up your flow towards directing your energy towards your chosen hand, towards your concentration on trying to win and follow the shoe's pattern, if it is a shoe with a pattern.
(And indeed, that whale I watched for a bit in the back room, who opened both sides, was losing badly. And he obviously was very superstitious - the pit boss told me so, when the high roller asked for the room to be cleared, after I had watched for a bit.)
Think about at a BJ table, when the dealer turns over her cards YES it doesn't change them or make a bit of difference HOW she turns them over, but it would not affect my game positively nor make me happy to watch a dealer slamming her Ace over triumphantly whenever she found it underneath a face card. The dealers are trained or somehow have learned to effect as neutral a guise as possible when turning over or dealing their own cards.
All the dealers have to keep in mind is that losers don't tip, generally. It's a rare (and foolish) dealer that cheers for the house.
I was Going to do exactly that - check it out first, on our next trip to Vegas, and then apply for the line, but I went ahead and emailed the casino on their Contact Us form about a month ago, and someone got back to me a couple of days later and said that she has been a host at Palms "since Day One." I talked to her on the phone a couple of times and she told me eventually after checking with the casino manager that yes, we have 3:2 BJ and Midi-Bacc. (Somewhere too, I read that Palms in fact has Lots of midi-Bacc.)
Then I let it rest for a couple weeks and decided to go ahead and apply for the line. Now I have the line and no set trip. Yes I agree not the usual way I've done it in the past. It would not be edifying if we end up checked in and turns out their gaming is not what I expected.
Anyway, tonight a friend that I've known since college is pulling into Vegas and is supposed to check it all out and he knows exactly what I am looking for gaming wise.
One or two double decks in the high limit area. 100 to 5000. Don't know the rules on splitting re-splitting standing or not on dealer soft 17 yet.
I have not confirmed any of this info. It is second or third hand.
Quote: MDawgThat is an excellent question. Yes, at midi or grand Bacc (which grand Bacc. is getting very rare, saw it at Caesar's in March 2019, while walking through the last time I was there, they don't seem to have grand Bacc. at Wynn/Encore/Cosmo even the special limit players in the back rooms at Wynn/Encore I saw playing at midi tables only), but anyway - yes, midi Bacc. means you may touch the cards.
There is currently one table at Cosmo that appears to alternate between being designated a mini (may not touch the cards) and midi. The table looks the same on the outside, its designation just depends on the day and shift.
BACK THEN:
As far as HOW FAR you are able to go with the "touching," in the old days in Vegas and Tahoe when I played fifteen years or so ago, they allowed most everything except tearing the cards in half (which, some people even did that, and it depended on the pit boss if he was going to step in to stop that action or not), but in general, you could bend, poke holes in (looking for the dots), crumple, whatever the cards.
The general rule back then in Vegas and Tahoe was that as long as the card was still readable to the crew and camera, you could do whatever.
Back then on one big hand my buddy who was with me and I had a pre-designated shtick routine where I already knew what I had and then tore the corner off the card and handed it to my friend, he put it in his mouth, and said, "Mmm, tastes like a nine." At that point the pit boss stepped in and said, "Okay! that's enough." but it was as much about how he was tired of that I'd been winning ceaselessly for close to two weeks on that trip, as about tearing off a piece of the card.
Another time in Tahoe the pit boss told me I could touch the cards but asked me not to bend them so that they could put them back in for another round of play, because there was another set of players at the table whom she said, "Don't want to wait" for brand new cards on each shuffle. I was by far the bigger player at the table that day, but I accommodated them. Nowadays most casinos don't pitch cards even in BJ, so this would never be allowed, they'd be too worried a player might notch or somehow mark the Bacc. cards.
NOW:
Bending, mangling, crumpling, all that is still allowed. Nowadays, there are some pit bosses who won't allow you to poke holes in the cards, but they are in the minority. The one pit boss I asked WHY he cared about poking holes claimed that the pen used to poke might go through and poke/damage the table felt, so after that I'd always put the playing card over my score cards before poking so that the pen coming through would hit, at worst, the score card and not the table felt. (A couple of pit bosses that I mentioned to WHY I was doing it that way, came back and told me "I don't care where you poke the cards" so obviously it is a personal pit boss pet peeve and not corporate policy as to whether poking is allowed or not.)
In Bacc. what we players are looking for first as we bend up the cards, are the "sides" (no sides (ace, 2, 3) - two sides (4, 5) - three sides (6, 7, 8) - four sides (9, 10) - and then of course a "line" means face card meaning a 10), and then afterwards the "dots" to determine which of the sided cards it is. When I play I first look quickly to see what combination I have, and if it is a combination of sides that may not possibly add up to 8 or 9 (or at least, 6 or 7), such as say - a two sided card and a three sided card, meaning that at best I have two cards that add up to 3 - then I don't waste time looking much further. As far as poking - I poke holes only if I have two four sided cards, to see if at least one of them has that dot in the middle, meaning then that my hand is at least an 8.
Some players will sit there forever carefully bending up the side and top to figure out that they have two face cards, or some other worthless hand. (i.e. some players will take a long time to look carefully at both cards no matter what they add up to.) I recall one player from a long time ago who would get this look on his face like he was about to perform some heroic feet and then lift his elbows way up at an angle (looking a little like a seated Karate Kid about to perform the crane) before he dove into the cards. When he was "opening" the cards, and my buddy would ask me what I thought he had, I'd say, "I don't know, but I do know that whatever it is, it's going to be dramatic."
Many Asian players are superstitious and think that the way they look, and their blowing away dots or announcing that there must be a dot, actually affect the outcome of the hand. Other players just do it because it is fun and prolongs the mystery of the hand's final outcome.
Last time I was at Encore I watched a special limits high roller in the back room open both sides, Bank and Player, they simply allowed him in deference to his high credit line and high bets to open all cards at his own private table.*** On request, occasionally, in the regular casino the pit boss will allow a player to open both sides too, if no one is betting the opposite side.
For me, I touch/bend/poke the cards because it gives me a better "feel" somehow for how the shoe is progressing. (Each win or loss seems more deliberate when you yourself experience the unfolding of the hand, side and dot by dot.) I like to play at a table where I am the one opening the cards, which nowadays I am not always the big player at the table (the largest bet gets to open that side, Bank or Player) but lately a lot of the players who have gotten to know me are convinced that I am "lucky" and allow me to open the cards for them, or, I just play alone at my own table. My experience is that there are two kinds of Baccarat shoes, random ones and shoes that tend to follow a certain pattern. The random shoes there is no real way to win on, but the pattern shoes for whatever reason follow some sort of discernible pattern, at least for a while, and if you are betting right on them, you will win, or at least I have won, pretty consistently.
For Golden Nugget nostalgia's sake I was watching a couple of old episodes of the 2004 reality show "The Casino." In episode 2, about half way through, the gambler Geoff Mills is losing his a** at Baccarat and getting frustrated, and takes his frustration out by tearing one card in his losing hand into tiny pieces, putting bits and pieces on the table slowly to reveal eventually what the hand is. Finally, the casino owner comes down from surveillance, gets fed up with him and tells him to stop, declaring that he may not tear the cards at all. Mills and his friends in turn get upset, saying that they've been tearing the cards up for four days already, and hightail it to Mandalay Bay.
Towards the end of the episode, the Nugget casino owners and management sit down and agree that they have to lure this guy and his group back, so they decide to tell him that it's okay to tear the Bacc. cards in half, but just not into tiny pieces.
Quote: MDawgThe info I got is that they have good Bacc. tables. Midi. 100 min up to 5K, or 200 up to 10K. If so, not the greatest spread - at Cosmo and Wynn/Encore 100 min gets you 20K at the upper end.
One or two double decks in the high limit area. 100 to 5000. Don't know the rules on splitting re-splitting standing or not on dealer soft 17 yet.
I have not confirmed any of this info. It is second or third hand.
Palms Baccarat does go to $20k. For sure.
Palms. I won on the first night, so why complain? but still, I will.
Basically, the "high limit" aspect of the table games here, at least definitely with respect to Baccarat, is in transition. They are in the process of making the minimum bet $300. in their high limit room. But, what they are also trying to do, is make the minimum tie bet $300. if you have no other bet - i.e., if you bet "tie only." This is not in keeping with any major casino on the Strip, where even at a $500. minimum Bacc. table you may toss $100. on the tie and play the hand "tie only."
They have $100. to $10,000. Midi tables in the regular Baccarat area. This is not in keeping with the major casinos on the Strip, where a hundred minimum earns you a $20K Baccarat table max. (Even at T.I. it is $25. to $15,000. at their Midi table.)
Their Bacc. dealers are inexperienced. Twice, a dealer drew a sixth card after a bank 4, player 1, player draws a face card (monkey), and handed the sixth card to the player betting bank to mangle. They had to free hand that next hand using the first card that was erroneously drawn as the first card of the hand.
I was promised by my host that I would have at least two Bacc. tables to choose from in the high limit area. When I got there early that evening, there were three tables open, but two were reserved (for minimum $500K line players). So I had only one table to play at there. So I bailed on that, and went to the regular limit area, and the shift manager told me he would call ahead to set the table at $100. to $20K for me. When I got there the limit was exactly that $100. to $20K. I cut the shoe, and started playing, and some player who bets all these weird bets like nine over seven, eight over six, three card bank wins with 7, three card player wins with 8, nine over one, etc., a whole slew of them, came over to my table and started emptying the rack of purple $500. by hitting one after another of these 50:1 and 100:1 bets. It was crazy, these odd ball, terrible house edge bets, were coming up something like fifty percent of the time, and he was betting them to the limit, collecting ten grand for $50. on some of the bets, eight grand for $200., on others. After the second win they actually came over and LOWERED the max to $100. on the exotic bets so that no one could win more than $5000. on any one, but grandfathered that guy in with a $200. limit on the 50:1 bets.
The Wiz goes over some of these bets here
https://wizardofodds.com/games/baccarat/side-bets/golden-frog/
although their names have changed and there are now six side bets not just four.
I really didn't care as I was not interested in any of these crazy bets (although I should have been, tonight anyway), but then I suddenly noticed that the table limit had been changed from $20,000. to $10,000. Now it was a $100. to $10,000. table. The shift manager from high limit was suddenly over there, because EVERY FRICKIN' TIME this guy next to me hit one of those exotic bets for five or ten grand they had to call upstairs, and get confirmation and hold up the game about ten minutes until they could pay him, and sometimes they would miscalculate and try to short change the dealer side bet he had made for the dealer, and then later on they started claiming that the most he could bet for the dealer was $20. not $25., so they started paying the dealer only $1000. instead of $1250. on bets where the guy had laid out a green chip. I mean just silly, made up on the spot, ways of dealing with payouts. I knew they were playing fast and loose with payouts, but no one else at the table realized it, apparently.
Anyway, I played my shoe lightly for a while until the runs started happening, which took the patience of Job I mean I will run through a Bacc. shoe in thirty minutes alone, and this shoe was taking over an hour just to go through twenty or so hands, because they kept holding it up to "verify" the exotic bets the guy next to me kept raking in.
Then some silly tattooed Asian girl put $300. on the Bank, and while the dealer's back was turned after she saw that the player drew a six, which she must have thought was a nine, she grabbed two of her black chips off the stack. Then when Bank drew a seven and she had won, the dealer piped up about how she had changed her bet. I knew exactly what had happened but it wasn't my business, so I just sat there silently bearing the delay, until finally thirty minutes later they paid her her $300. I would have kicked her out of the casino entirely, obviously she was pulling back her bet because she thought she had already lost.
Anyway after an excruciating few hours I had won about two grand, betting almost nothing, like barely $200. a hand, as the shoe moved along at a snail's pace, and went back over to high limit. I hit a player run, and then decided to bet tie only, and the dealer booked a $100. bet of mine and paid it, $800., so I pressed to $150., but then the pit boss piped up about how their new rule in there was minimum $300. on tie unless you had a table minimum bet elsewhere. So I placed $300. on player "just to look at the tie," and sure enough it hit again, so I pressed to $200., and it hit again. Crazy, three in a row. I left $200. up for a fourth tie, plus $500. on player, and player hit, but no tie. Then another player.
When the next hand hit bank, I quit, just as the player who had been cleaning up on the exotic bets showed up. I passed back through the pit again to see how he was doing after picking up some food to take up to the room, and he was busy dumping all the money he had won so easily. He said he had a flight to catch back to the mid-west in the morning, and I'd be willing to bet that he'll board the plane broke. Quitting while ahead is essential for any game, but especially for Baccarat.
By the way, the Bacc. dealer told me that if he gambled, he would play Baccarat, and the pit boss at Cosmo I know well, plus another pit boss I have known twenty years at Venetian, all say the same - that if they gambled, Baccarat would be the game they would play. They've seen it all. They know.
As far as the resort, Palms is definitely upgraded. Lot of high end art, such as a $13M embalmed shark by Damien Hirst (why a shark that costs, what fifteen or twenty bucks a pound to eat from Whole Foods, is worth thirteen million when chopped into three pieces and embalmed, I couldn't tell you). The casino is much bigger and brighter (which the exception of the darker than dark high limit room, reminds me of the dark old Grand Bacc. table at the Hard Rock). The suite we are in, in the Fantasy Tower is nice, but just basic minimalistic style, something not so different in style from the suites at say, the Platinum Hotel on E. Flamingo. And it has only two small waste baskets, a little odd for a one bedroom suite.
The mini bar refrigerator or maybe the mini bar electronic snack stand hums. Don't like it, will ask them to either fix it or unplug it. Luckily it's a suite, so can't hear that hum in the bedroom, but I don't want to hear it at all.
Also, the mini bar and mini bar refrigerator were half empty when we got there (I phoned downstairs to make sure we weren't held responsible for whatever the prior guest had cleaned out before we got there), and there were...bits and pieces of chips, peanuts and...rubber bands, all over the living room floor. Strange. I called to have it all vacuumed up before we went to an early dinner.
In all, like I said, why should I complain, after all I won over five grand without even trying and barely even betting, but there are definite glaring inconsistencies and growing pangs at this casino's attempt to cater to high roller gamblers.
Quote: MDawg
By the way, the Bacc. dealer told me that if he gambled, he would play Baccarat, and the pit boss at Cosmo I know well, plus another pit boss I have known twenty years at Venetian, all say the same - that if they gambled, Baccarat would be the game they would play. They've seen it all. They know.
The day you start listening to casino employees will be the start of your demise.
I hear so many fallacies from dealers and slot attendants on a daily basis. Just yesterday a slot mechanic was telling a player that a particular machine has been over holding so they should play it because it needs to pay more to get back to its set hold percentage.
Most people thatQuote: MDawgI agree with you, but then again, I myself do win regularly at both Baccarat and BJ, so I know those two are good games to play at the casinos. I'd never play slots period.
gamble frequently win regularly. They just
Lose more than they win in the end. There's a few anomalies however that's just
dumb luck if its a -ev game.
I was going to play some Face Up Pai Gow afterwards but I saw the dealer get four aces with a pair of kings as I was about to sit down and I was like, “ehhh, pass.” (She had gotten a couple of really good hands as I overlooked before the buffet as well).
