Casino Fun Facts

Over the past couple of months, I've received a couple emails and instant messages from folks telling me they read my blog and invariably mention that it's a good way to "get their Vegas fix", at least on a semi-regular basis. I know that many of my posts are just fun little youtube video posts or funny pics. But I thought I'd take some time out today and list some things that I've been privy to these past 11 months, both at my current place and my break-in joint (Nevada Palace).

Biggest Single Win
The largest payoff that I've ever made at a single time was $4,500. Some guy, who had been playing pretty heavy action at the dice table, decided to throw in a $500 chip to me while I was on stick to bet on the hard six. Guess what the very next throw was! The payoff was $4,500 and he took his bet back down. So he got back 5 grand, paid of his marker, and that was it for him for the day.

Biggest Single Loss
The most anyone has ever lost on my table at any single time was $4000, at least to my recollection. It's happened twice and it involved a guy playing two hands of blackjack at once with 2 grand on each circle.

Biggest Single Win for a Session
I'm not quite sure of this one since dealers rotate in and out of games. If someone is on a pretty hot streak and is betting big bucks, then the chances of any one dealer being there for the entire session is very slim. I'm guessing that I've seen players at my table walk away around 10 grand up, but once again, I did not deal them their entire winnings.

Biggest Single Loss for a Session
I think the biggest loss over the course of a session was the player that I dealt to last Saturday. He had about 12 grand in front of him when I tapped in, and 30 minutes later it was all gone! He had between $600 and $2000 in action at any given time (this is blackjack we're talking about), and I just crushed him in rather short manner. I've also seen a player smoke though exactly $11,000 in about 12 minutes at the dice table.

Smallest Bet Made
Okay, now we're going to re-visit the most depressing place on the planet, Nevada Palace Hotel and Casino. There are no longer table games there and the place will be blown up within this next year, finally putting it out of its misery. While breaking in there, I dealt on the $1 craps table probably 95% of the time. The worst thing about it being a $1 minimum dice table is that it conveniently came equipped with 25-cent chips! So of course, in the rare instance when someone would put the dealers up, it would invariably be for a whopping quarter! That's the smallest bet I've seen made.

That's not all though. "Case money" is money that a player has when he's just about to go broke, when its not enough to cover the minimum table bet. For example, if someone is playing on a $10 table and they lose their ass, a floor sup will usually let the player bet their final $7, for example, on the last bet if that's all they happen to have left. Well, as you may have guessed by now, I've seen "case money" being bet at the $1 craps table at Nevada Palace. I kid you not, some loser had exactly one 25-cent chip left in his rack one night and the boxman let him bet it on the pass-line.

Hitting Rock Bottom
I've seen the working dictionary definition of "hitting rock bottom" occur right in front of my eyes while standing at that $1 dice table. After gambling for about 6 straight hours, one of our more annoying fleas was losing (per usual) and apparently went broke. So he got off his chair (no, we do NOT supply chairs to the players, he would actually bring his own), reached into his pocket and spilled out exactly 4 quarters. "Sorry Doc, you can't buy in with quarters dude", was my immediate reply. So up off his chair he went, slowly waddling over to the casino cage, and then returning to the dice table with the $1 chip that he now owned after exchanging his 4 quarters with the friendly, service-oriented cage cashier! Where did he decide to put his precious $1 chip? You guessed it, BIG RED CORNER 6! So when the six hit, he now had a whopping $2, so now he had a buck on the BIG RED CORNER 8! Of course, the six hit again, so now he was getting into high-roller status with $3. "Place the 6 and 8 for $1.50 each". I placed the 6 and 8 for him, the next roll was a 7-out, and out the door he went!

Weirdest Player Dealt To
Let's go with either the drugged out cokehead at Nevada Palace or the drunken "Rastafarian Midget" at my current place. We need to supply a chair to the midget so that he can play at the dice table, and he has to lean down to pick up the dice. So Mikey's and my ultimate fantasy (since Mikey's dealt to him to) would be for him to lose his balance and fall onto the table, thus giving us the chance to yell out "No action on the midget!!!".

Most Famous Player Dealt To
That would be Jerry Dixon, guitarist for the band Warrant.

Biggest Dealer Bet Made
I covered the smallest dealer bet made above, but the biggest bet made for me at any one time was a $500 bet on the blackjack table. As you would guess, it didn't win. A lady bought in with a $5000 marker one day and played pink only. She was up for a while, but when she got down to her final 2 pink chips she said "Okay Robert, this it it. One for you and one for me as she made her bet." In case you're wondering, I would have MUCH rather her had me drop the money instead of betting it, but it was very much a surprise and appreciated!

Best and Worst Toke Days
In case you don't already know, the term "toke" is just another word for tips. When you're a dealer, you generally make minimum wage from the casino and the rest of your income is generated from tips (which are pooled amongst all of the dealers).

The biggest day of tokes for me came not long after I started at my current place. It was $199 and change. The smallest, of course, happened over at Nevada Palace. We got a whopping $17 for 8 hours worked last St. Patrick's Day! The kick in the teeth for that day is that we later found out that the dealers down at El Cortez made $79 for that same day! Unbelievable.

Biggest Mistake Made
The costliest mistake that I've ever made happened at a $25 minimum blackjack table. I mis-dealt (can't remember the specifics) and the shift manager just had me pay the entire table. The total payoff was somewhere north of $500. As luck would have it, I busted everyone at the table within the next half-hour.