SOOPOO
SOOPOO
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Joined: Aug 8, 2010
August 12th, 2011 at 3:05:36 PM permalink
Today I just returned from the Fallsview casino in Niagara Falls Canada. Both my sons are in town so we went together. My younger son just turned 19 so this was his first casino gambling experience. Both boys are proficient in Pai Gow Poker, so that is what we played. To get canadian money, US dollars are converted at the cage, and the casino essentially takes 2.5% each way. The line to get a Players card for my younger son was short, and they were very efficient. They accepted an address change from me with just my passport. The American casino (Seneca) requires me to bring a bill with my address on it, which i never remember. The casino is 100% non smoking, which is GGRREEAATT. We went to the "Asian Pit" which had probably 20 tables, about 6 were pai gow poker, and 5 were tiles. I think the others were sic bo or baccarat but I didnt check. We sat down at a table as it was opening. The dealer 'reminded' us that we were only to look at our own cards and not to discuss the hands during the setting of them. I ignored him, looking at my kids cards each time to make sure they didn't miss anything. At one point after we both set our hands I was congratulating the younger one on his trips aces and pair of jacks. I was scolded as their was another player at the table who might have used that info. Although technically correct, I politely mentioned to this dealer that he was the only one rotating through who applied the rules that strictly. He politely said he has to as it his job to do so. We understood each other. There was almost always a pit boss with us, as they seemed to like the family of 3 white guys playing together. None of the pit bosses ever seemed to care about me checking/helping my kids. My older son had particularly bad luck and lost his 7 unit stake pretty quickly. I was hovering around even, and my younger son was down to 2 units (it was a $25 table). I moved over to the adjacent tiles table where I could sort of watch both tables. Twice he was down to his very last chip, but he ended up going on a hot streak and ended up $5! He has never played tiles and there was an empty table so we went and sat down and since there was no one else there I could explain the game in action, without time pressure. After one win, I was explaining why I did what I did, why the dealer did what he did, etc.. The dealer was too impatient for me to move him the 1.25 commission and started breraking the $25 chip even though I had enough small change to pay the commission. Even though there was NO ONE else at the table he ignored my request to stop making the change and take the 1.25 i pushed forward. I was up $80 at that time and was pissed off enough I colored up and left. So total family loss was about $100, and lots of fun and good lessons for my kids. I explained how much more pleasant and comfortable the dealers are in las Vegas, but the non smoking part makes it close to a wash. We did have one 'statistically' interesting hand. My son had 10 J Q Q K A A, and I had 9 9 J J K A A on the same deal. So we had 14 out of the 24 natural cards 9 or higher. If you use a 53 card deck that should happen about 1 in 1.2 million times, I think. For those of you who I still have to make a bet for from your beating me in the Wizard's Challenge, I did not do it on this trip. I am going, I hope, to Seneca Niagara in a week or so and will do it then, and will give each of you your results.
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