Category: The Strip

On This Date: February 28, 1906 Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was Born

February 28, 2017
Bugsy Siegel Mug Shot

Bugsy Siegel an American Mobster

On this date: Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was born February 28, 1906. In 1945. Bugsy Siegal, was instrumental in establishing the first resort on the now famous Las Vegas Strip with the opening of the Flamingo Hotel & Casino.

Siegel opened The Flamingo Hotel & Casino at a total cost of $6 million on December 26, 1946. Billed as the world’s most luxurious hotel, the 105-room property and first luxury hotel on the Strip, it was built seven miles from Downtown Las Vegas.

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On This Date: January 27, 2015 White Castle Opens on the Las Vegas Strip

January 27, 2017
White Castle

White Castle opens on the Strip

On January 27, 2015 at the stroke of midnight, White Castle opened on the Las Vegas Strip. This is the first White Castle west of the Mississippi River. White Castle has over 400 store located in the Midwestern and Mid-Alantic states. White Castle is famous for their small square shaped burgers served with grilled onions, ketchup, mustard and pickles. Some people refer to these small greasy burgers as “Sliders”. This iconic burger chain follows in a long migration of fast-food to the glittering lights of Las Vegas including: In-n-out, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and Five-guys.

White Castle located on the Las Vegas Strip in the Casino Royale, 3397 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, NV as is open 24 hours a day.

UPDATE:  In less than 24 hours of the restaurant opening, they had to close to restock and do maintenance.

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On This Date: January 26, 1993, the Dunes Hotel Closed its Doors

January 26, 2017
The Dunes Hotel and Casino

The Dunes Hotel Closed on January 26, 1993

The Dunes Hotel closed it doors on January 26, 1993. It sat where the now famous Bellagio resides on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. and Flamingo Road. The Dunes was the tenth resort built on the Las Vegas Strip and opened on May 23, 1955. The resort included a 18-hole Championship golf course which ran from Tropicana Ave .to Flamingo Road, it was called the Dunes Miracle Mile.

Photo By: © 1983 Larry D. Moore (CC-BY-SA)

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On This Date: January 25, 2008 Fire at the Monte Carlo Resort

January 25, 2017
Monte Carlo Resort

Monte Carlo Resort and Casino fire broke out on January 25, 2008

On January 25, 2008, at 10:57 AM, a fire broke out on the exterior of the top six floors of the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino. The fire was on the exterior of the building burning the foam facade. The ignition of the facade wall was attributed to welding on a catwalk on the roof. The hotel and casino were evacuated with no major injuries or deaths during the fire, which lasted a little more than an hour. The hotel remained closed for 21 days and an estimated loss of $100 million due to the fire and resulting closure.

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A Look At The Best Texas Hold’em Odds In Vegas

October 28, 2016
poker-hand

Look At The Best Texas Hold’em Odds In Vegas

Vegas is a great place to visit almost any time of year, as it boasts pleasant weather and good flight deals all year round. However with September to November being one of the peak times for visitors to head to Vegas, (alongside March to May), it’s almost certain that the casinos are going to be rammed this time of year. You can take a virtual stroll down the Las Vegas Boulevard without even having to be there, but finding the right games with the best odds isn’t always that easy. That’s where we come in. If you’re a Texas Hold’em fan then you’re going to want to find the casinos that have the best odds, particularly if you’re a newbie to the casinos. You’ll be surprised at just how different online poker is to live poker, so starting off your Las Vegas Texas Hold’em run in the right casino with the best odds is important.

Texas Hold’em In The Casino

Unlike some of the other games you may find in the casino, like Blackjack and even Craps, the odds of Texas Hold’em are somewhat stacked against you as opposed to playing real poker in a casino. Minimum bets for Texas Hold’em tend to be a lot higher than at most tables so if you’re not very good at playing then you’re likely to lose a lot of money quite quickly at one of these tables. This applies to almost all of the casinos that you may find in Vegas. Whether you’re playing against the dealer or the rest of the table, the odds are relatively stacked against you. When it comes to Texas Hold’em you’re probably going to come up against a lot of experienced players, and because of this it is important to prepare yourself so you don’t end up losing a lot more money than expected. Whether you practice your game play with online games or you study Texas Hold’em Strategy with guides like the Ladbrokes Hold’em Poker Strategy guide, there are many ways that you can prepare – and in order to put the odds more in your favour (hypothetically) preparing is the best way.

Odds Of Texas Hold’em Hands

There are a few different odds of the poker hands that you should know when it comes to playing Texas Hold’em. For example, the chances of you getting a top starting hand (such as double aces, A-K suited etc.) is really small, with the percentage being around 2.1%. If you plan on holding out for this type of hand then you’re probably going to lose a lot of money. Using your common sense can be important when it comes to Texas Hold’em, because you’re not always going to get the best hands as you go. For example, two suited cards shouldn’t always be played just because they’re suited as this only improves your hand by about 2.5%. Another thing to consider is pocket jacks. While they look good the chances of a higher card is 52% so you may not always get the result that you want when you rely on pocket jacks.

Different Tables

While all different casinos will have various minimum and maximum bets, there are a few different variants of Texas Hold’em poker that you may want to consider before you decide where you want to go, as this can ultimately affect your odds of winning. For example, Ultimate Texas Hold’em (played in Bally’s) has an average house edge of 2.185%, Heads Up Hold‘em has a house edge of around 2.36% and regular Texas Hold’em has a house edge of around 2.04%. Although it may not seem that much of a difference, you’ll be surprised at how the different variants can affect your winnings.

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Las Vegas Card Counters

June 23, 2016

Las Vegas Card Counters

Last year you may have heard of Hollywood megastar Ben Affleck getting in trouble for his card counting antics. Although the card counting in itself isn’t illegal, casinos do reserve the right to refuse card counters entry to the gaming floor, and can eject players whom they suspect them of card counting. As the professional player Anthony Curtis says: “the science [of card counting] is knowing how to do it; the art is being able to get away with it.”
Ben Affleck of course isn’t the first, nor will he be the last person to be ejected from a Las Vegas casino. This being the case we thought we would provide you with a list other gamblers that have found themselves in trouble for their card counting ways, or got away with remarkable winnings.

Keith Taft

Keith Taft isn’t one of the best known members of the card counting club, but he is one of the more interesting ones. Taft is one of the members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame, because of his innovative strategies for card counting that involved a whole series a different wearable computer devices over the years.

Taft unusually came from a very religious background, he first got hooked on the game of blackjack when on a family holiday to Reno. He received a token to gamble at Harrah’s Casino, he warily went into the casino, but as luck would have it the 3 hands he played were all winning ones! Taft was hooked, and from there on in he would study card counting, and even practise the game with his family. The breakthrough for him happened when he came to the realisation of why he should be doing all the card counting in his head when a computer could do the calculations for him.

Keith Taft

Keith Taft

This lead to the invention of George, a manually wired clunky 15 pound machine strapped to his chest, which attached for 4 switches hidden in his shoes which he controlled with his toes. The information of the dealt cards was then conveyed from the computer to his glasses where LED lights had been concealed. Who needs Google Glass when you have George right? Technically, this is one of the earliest pioneering forms of wearable tech, amazing when you consider that at this time in the early 70’s people like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were just dropping out of college, and hadn’t even begun to work on the first prototype of the Apple 1.

Eventually Taft and his crew got busted when their invention called Belly Telly. This involved hiding a camera in a belt buckle and filming the action, whilst a van with a huge satellite picked up the video feed, was discovered by a security guard. Although the law surrounding using computer devices was unclear at the time, the judge ruled that they be sentenced to 6 months in prison. Keith didn’t do time though. This incident also lead to the passing of legislation that prohibited the use of technology to aid gameplay.

Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey’s game was a little bit different from the standard form of card counting. Phil Ivey who is one of the world’s greatest poker players won £7.7 million ($11,490,000) playing a form of Baccarat at Crockfords Casino in Mayfair in London called Punto Banco. This is amazing when you consider that the game of Punto Banco is purely luck and requires no skill whatsoever. However, what the unsuspecting casino staff didn’t know that night is that Phil Ivey’s partner Cheung Yin Sun knew a skill called edge-sorting. Edge-sorting is a skill whereby the player notices imperfections on the back of cards, and memorises them to know what value the card has before it is turned over. This comes in very handy in the game of Punto Banco where a player has to guess which hand, the dealers or the players has a value that adds up closest to 9.

Unfortunately for Phil he would never see his winnings. Crockfords decided that what he was cheating, and therefore went on to withhold his winnings, and only returned to Phil his original £1 million stake. This decision was upheld by a Judge at the High Court and as such Phil won’t ever see his winnings.

Don Johnson

Although this man is technically not a card counter he is worth mentioning as his ‘lucky’ streak meant he walked away with $4 million from Caesars, $5 million from the Borgata, and $6 million from the Tropicana in Atlantic City. In one hand he won a staggering $800,000. The latter casino ended up having the 2nd lowest profits in April 2011 of any of the Atlantic City casinos. As a result the president and CEO of the Tropicana Mark Giannantonio got the boot a few weeks later. So how did he do it?

Well although he may not have been counting cards, in Tony Rodio’s words (the man who succeeded Giannantonio as CEO) “He plays perfect cards.” Don Johnson is very good at maths, and his method is based on calculating the odds against the house. What Johnson knows is that the best way to do well, is by running a smaller number of hands and paying attention to variation. As Johnson puts it the way averages work, the larger the sample, the narrower the range of variation. A session of, say, 600 hands will display wider swings, with steeper winning and losing streaks, than the standard casino charts. That insight becomes important when the betting terms and special ground rules for the game are set—and Don Johnson’s skill at establishing these terms is what sets him apart from your average casino visitor.

He knew how to play the casinos and get what he wanted from them to give just enough of an advantage over the house.

Although these people all managed to do something exceptional in their own way, they are the exception rather than the rule, card counting or trying to get an advantage over a casino in any form can get you into a lot of trouble, so before you start trying to mimic any of these methods, it’s best to weigh up the risks against the rewards. However, nothing can beat the thrill of beating the house, whatever the risk.

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