toastcmu's Blog
Maryland Live experience
Well, I finally had free time last night, so I went to check out Maryland Live finally. I knew it would be crazy since it was a Sat night, and it was raining. I had no idea how crowded it would be! My wife and I remarked that nowhere that we've ever been in Vegas or AC looked like what we experienced. It's also the first casino where they have staff checking id's vigorously - and a dress code. I kid you not, go to their website, it's listed. Of course, the place is right next to a giant outlet mall, so they are just trying to stay in compliance. The place currently has over 3200 slots up and running and about 2900 were taken at any given moment. If you wanted to play, you had to stand like a vulture, waiting for your turn. While it will have eventually 4750 slots, I estimate the size of the building to be 1/3 less the size of Charles town, so I can't imagine how they'll be packed in any tighter - some places already only have a 1 person wide aisle.I saw the e-table games, just 2 separate 'pit' areas, with lots of waiters, so I never got to play any of those. What's interesting is that they have 8/5 JoB at the 50c and up denomination and 7/5 for quarters. I looked into MD law, and anything over 95% payback requires state approval. Since MD is a VLT state, I'm wondering if the 8/5 is in name only and the payback is set to 95%....
I did get $50 promo bonus for signing up for their text alerts prior to opening, and the supervisor that gave me a card was nice enough to give it to me even though the promo was expired. I thought that was a nice gesture.
All in all, they had a good selection of slots, and a decent mix of denominations, but my wife and I would only return in the mornings or during the week when all of creation is not coming to the casino. It's not often that my wife thinks Charles Town is a better option....
-B
Harrington is nice to a 2nd WoV member
I finally decided to take a mental health day from work and go check out Harrington Raceway and Casino - from my place, it was just over 2hrs driving, so it makes for an easy day trip. They recently changed the table games hours to have them closed from 4am - 9am during the week. I arrived about 8:45 and noticed that a few dealers must have shown up early, as a few tables (Miss. Stud, i-table BJ) were up and running. I signed up for the players card, and they told me that if I got 20 points that day, they'd give me $20 in freeplay. Overall, I thought casino was a nice, medium size casino, with a small table pit area in the center, similar to Dover. One thing I noticed was their shufflemaster electronic blackjack machines where Hit Soft 17, which was a surprise. I eked out a whopping 0.50 profit there. By then, I noticed that the i-table was free, so I gave a try, since I had never seen one before. Interesting concept for sure, but with H17 and a CSM, it's not the greatest option. I played for about an hour and made $75, so I was happy with the end result. One player did have the i-table stand on a hand she wanted to hit, because she kept banging on the screen in frustration. The floor supervisor had to swipe and manually delete/enter cards for about 5 minutes to fix the issue - I'm surprised it doesn't cause more problems than benefits for the casino. Finally, I ventured over to the craps table, which finally had more than single shooter. Yay for $5 craps outside of Vegas!!! I played for a little over and hour with people, where we all were taking turns throwing the dice for 10-15 minutes a piece, hitting points, and making each other money. I even made a few bets for the boys which hit, making the crew very happy. I colored up for another +95, and collected my freeplay, which I actually turned into another $11. All in all, not a bad place, although it doesn't really get busy till about 11a-12pm. I did not get to check out the poker room, but noticed it was hidden far away from the action.-B
Comments
odiousgambit
Sep 15, 2011
Congratulations and glad you are proving their Craps can kick out some wins! so far a break-even is the best session I have pulled off there in Craps.
Are you sure the I-table is Hit-soft-17? I was pretty darn sure it was S-17 when I played that table some months ago. In any case more recent I used the 'real dealer" table which was $10, about what I want anyway. The only way I would play $5 BJ is if I thought I wanted to just play and play... something I am trying to avoid these days, especially at BJ. In any case I was convinced it was S-17. I am capable of getting these things wrong but I was sure at the time.
FrGamble
Sep 15, 2011
Harrington has been nice for a 3rd member in me. Last session was a loser at craps, but had a great time and was treated well.
Quick jaunt to AC
Well, my work did their annual trip to AC, so I tagged along again - one big change is that we are large company, and we would usually get 5-7 buses from Va, and this year there were only 3 - and the 3rd bus driver told his bus that he had to leave early at 6pm, as opposed to the 8 hrs we got (12-8).This year was to the Trop - we got $20 in slot money, which I turned into $15 on the JoB machines. Off to a good start. Took some time as they only appeared to have about 1/3 of the tables open before swing shift arrived (Pa competition?) - All the mins were $15 and up except for the carnival games.
Took a while for me to find a spot, but finally sat at a H17 (Boo, Trop used to be all S17) table - it looked near the end of the shoe so I told those there I would wait - good thing I did, as they all busted out with the dealer turning 20/21 every hand. I start the shoe with a dealer BJ - but it improved from there and I left up $40 or so.
I finally hit the Tiles table, my archnemesis, and survived 90 mins, but lost about 80, but it was only 3 bets (always a $25 min), so I don't feel bad.
One of my coworkers wanted to learn Spanish 21, so I brought him a cheat sheet, and we sat down at the table for a few shoes, it was a great table, with a young lady who had a chance to win the super bonus, but it wasn't to be. She was appreciative of the advice of not to split though, when she saw the reason why! I broke even on that table.
It was now about 5pm, and now the trop was completely full of people, so off to the tiles table - I played two spots, but the luck was not there. I even played banker this time, and the one time I get to play bank, guess what my hand was??? H6 L4 L6 L7. Damn, there goes any luck I had. I blow through 180 in no time, and call it a day.
Aside from the large amount of closed tables during the day, one thing we all noticed is the cut backs on CW - Before the evening rush, you would have to wait 10 mins or more for a drink. I can't imagine how long it would take during the night, as I didn't see any appreciable increase in the # of wait staff.
Well, my wife and I are off to AC next weekend, so hopefully my luck will be better - I think I'll be sticking solely to VP this next trip.
Comments
odiousgambit
Aug 06, 2011
so the pai gow tiles havent worked out for you ?
toastcmu
Aug 06, 2011
Overall, the tiles have been nice to me, I think I'm stilll positive overall, but this was the first time in a while where I just bled money....
Hot hand, if only for once!
I went to Dover Downs the other day, and was playing Pai Gow for the normal "flea" amount of $20 a hand - the table was only going so-so, and was full, but I was teaching a co-worker how to play too. For the first time, I decided to bank against a full table, as a full on-gamble. One other gentleman had banked and gotten a 3 pair monster hand, so I figured I would give it a one-time shot. One player doubled his bet to $50, so I had to pull an extra $100 out of the wallet to cover all the wagers on the table.When I finally look at the hand I was dealt it was the following: Ac Asp 7c Joker 8h 9h 10h !!!
After my shock and surprise, I set my hand and announced to the table that it didn't look good for them. I cleaned the entire table at once for about $160. My poor table mate left in disgust and I had to issue my apologies to his wife. She laughed it off. I did not tempt fate and bank again, and figured I'd wait for another time and day to tempt the card gods!
-B
Comments
teddys
Feb 24, 2011
I love banking.
Ibeatyouraces
Mar 01, 2011
I remember one day back in the mid 90's I was playing in Windsor and decided to bank but another player who had been steadily losing upped his bet to $150. I politely asked if he could lower it since I was banking and he grumbled and said no because he was down and wanted to win. I pulled out some extra cash and said ok but really didnt want to. Well to make a long story short, he wasnt very happy when I turned over a full house in the 5 card hand with a pair of aces in the 2 card hand! Obviously I wiped out the whole table including the dealer and watched him storm off to whereever he went. All I could say was "well I asked him to lower it and he said no"
First foray into live poker
I finally took the plunge and decided to dive into live poker today. All in all, I played tight for most of my time at the table (a little over 2 hrs). Unfortunately, I got burned on the turn - I had AK pre flop, the flop came out Q J 8 rainbow, I bet 23, river was J, which I checked, and turn Q. I got jaded after the river, and neglected to remember the full house, and threw another $45 in the pot, and my opponet flipped AQ. I can't complain, as I didn't throw many hands away like that, but that was 80% of my loss for the day.Charlestown continues to take $6 time charge which some people complain about, but it is nice to see pots without a rake. They had 4 tables running when I showed up around 11am, and by the time I left, it looked like a dozen tables were going, including a 2/5 NL game that seemed to have about 3k a pot every time. All the players had purple chips and not in small stacks either. :)
On the way out, I threw my obligatory $10 in a double diamond VLT, and it rewarded me with a $50 payout to help stem the loss. ;)
-B
Comments
odiousgambit
Oct 19, 2010
any report on what the table games seemed to be doing?
toastcmu
Oct 19, 2010
The craps table is still 2x odds, but is now $10 min. The main pit by the entrance is still $25 min for blackjack, while the no smoking pit to the left of the main pit had 1 $15 blackjack table. The Pai gow poker was at $25, and the high limit room was still $100 for all tables. Much as in all reports and visits, all seats were taken at those levels. I have yet to see an empty seat at the tables yet, regardless of the levels
Comments
Too bad you didnt get to play e-table games.
I keep tossing around the idea of going back there [been once]. But I am vowing never to go on a weekend.
>I'm wondering if the 8/5 is in name only and the payback is set to 95%....
Well, the craps payback is playable on the line for approx. 98.6%, ignoring free odds, so that either got approved or there is a "wink and a nod" operating freely here.
I am from Baltimore originally, from cops and robber family, and a wink and nod ! I would be offended if it wasn't for all those envelopes my boss ( bigtime bookie) and I would hand out to the cops at Christmas time. Henry was gonna move the poolroom to the BLOCK, even leasing space above the 2 O'clock Club ( Blaze's Starr's strip joint).
When somebody showed up asking for $5,000 Henry said to go away. Then on Dec 31, zoning called an emergency closed meeting. Pool table are licensed and they denied his transfer. As a poolroom at that location would be detrimental to the neighborhood. Heaven
forbid you put a poolroom above a whore house Wind and Nod, my ass LOL