Saturday, November 20, 2004

Casino Arizona, a Bastardization of Poker

On Monday, November 15, 2004, Glenn and I drove down to Phoenix for our first stop in the Arizona Poker Tour. We decided to try Casino Arizona first, since it was the biggest.

Our first bad beat; no nearby hotels. Yipes. We ended up spending $90 per night at the foo-foo La Quinta.

We got into the casino about 6:30pm. The 15/30 Stud was a mile long. As it got closer to 7pm, the floorman begged me to take a seat in 4/8 HE. He kept telling me that the football promotion alone was worth it. I finally took a seat.

One of the floormen came up to me and said he reads my journal online. He handed me two cards, which I assumed were business cards. Later, when I was able to really look at them, I noticed they were cards for free alcoholic drinks. LOL, so much for him reading my journal! Everyone who reads my stories knows I am very anti-drinking. Thanks, anyway, dude, but I think you told me all I needed to know.

I never really understood the FB thing, and didn't win at it, but I hated Casino Arizona right from the start.

In the most blatant, angleshooting, bastardization of the IWTSTH rule, almost every pot was stopped at the river with the IWTSTH request. The first time it happened, the pot was head's up, and I said to the slimeball, "Um, do you suspect collusion or something? The hand was head's up, who do you think he is colluding with?"

Almost every player, along with the dealer, looked at me completely puzzled. They all asked what I meant, what I was talking about. I told them that the only reason to ask to see someone's hand, was when you suspect collusion and want to make sure you are not the victim of it. They all laughed at me and said I didn't know what I was talking about, that the IWTSTH rule meant that they were entitled to free information about the way everyone at the table plays. I basically told them that they were retarded, and went to the floor.

The floor was an older guy in his mid 60's or so. When I explained the situation to him, he said that I was wrong, that the IWTSTH rule is defined as players getting free information about the table, and how other players play. I just stood there, gaping, with my mouth open. He said he'd been working there for twenty years, and that was the true definition of IWTSTH. He said he'd never heard of collusion.

(For a better explanation of the true meaning of IWTSTH and the abuses of the rule, please see Tommy Angelo.)

So that pretty much sums up my experiences at CAZ. I hated it. I never got called for the packed 15/30 Stud. I moved to a so-called NLHE game, but the max bet on any round was $150, so it was limited, so to speak. It was a slightly better game, with only a percentage of players asking to see losing hands before they slid into the muck, but it was still full of angleshooters and cheats.

Almost a week later, I am still shocked at the ignorance and crap that is tolerated at CAZ. Surely someone must know that this bastardization of the rules is horrible for the game of poker. Surely they must realize that someone asking to see every, single hand at the river only hurts their bottom line, by slowing the game by about 50% of the hands per hour. Or maybe not, maybe they simply don't care.

In addition to slowing up the game (hence not creating the revenue they would if the games were kept on track), they tolerated tons of arguing, fighting and abuse. There was extensive arguing at every table I played at or railbirded. One time an altercation came almost to blows. By allowing such twisting of common poker rules, they have placed themselves in the position to create fighting and arguments constantly.

As if the cheating wasn't bad enough, I saw that they also spread tourneys where the juice is a whopping 30%. We both hated CAZ and decided never go to back. At least not until they clean up their act and get rid of the criminals. Since I have heard that other Phoenix cardrooms are the same, if not worse, we decided to head south to Tucson.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Back Home

We just got back from the Arizona Poker Tour. Glenn wimped out, I wanted to keep traveling. I guess it bothered him that all of our clothes were dirty. I figured that would help us fit in better with other players, anyway, lol.

I'll write a full post tomorrow, but some of the things we did included going to Biosphere 2 and the Lavender Mine Pit. Tombstone was a first for Glenn, but my 3rd trip, so nothing new or exciting there.

Some of the poker rooms we played in included: Desert Diamond in Tucson and Casino Arizona in Phoenix. We have already played at: Apache Gold in Globe, Yavapai in Prescott and Cliff Castle is Camp Verde.

Needless to say, I'm pooped and don't feel like a big post tonight. In the meantime, you can check out Glenn's new posts on our trip.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Tucson

Update on Wednesday--We liked Desert Diamond so much that we're going to stay another day here. Tourney tonight at 7pm. We might also run over to Casino Del Sol and check out their cardroom.
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Slight change of plans. I forgot that Apache Gold in Globe is closed on Tuesdays. So instead, today we're going to Tucson. We'll visit Biosphere first, then the two cardrooms in Tucson later today and tonight.

I look like my pic, but with slightly longer hair (still very short). I'm wearing the standard poker players' jogging suit, in an orange and cream color. Hope to see you there!

Monday, November 15, 2004

Arizona Poker Tour

Glenn and I have decided to do a spur-of-the-moment tour of Arizona cardrooms. We just moved here a little over a year ago, and have barely seen anything outside of Kingman, Bullhead City and the casinos in Laughlin/Vegas. The rest of the state has been mostly a mystery.

Although I toured the entire state while looking for a place to hang our hats, Glenn has never seen most of Arizona, nor played in its many cardrooms.

We plan on playing in some of the Phoenix cardrooms, most especially Casino Arizona. We hope to arrive today around rush hour.

We'll stay a day or two in Phoenix, then most likely head over to Globe. One day in Globe is enough, then we'll head down to southeastern AZ and see Tombstone, Bisbee and some of the other small towns.

Once we see some sites, we'll head back up northwest towards Tucson and check out Desert Diamond and Casino of the Sun. We have played at DD before, but it's been a couple of years, so who knows what is new. From Tucson, we'll either head over to Yuma to play, or go north towards Payson and Cliff Castle. It depends solely on the weather, at that point. If Flagstaff is under 12" of snow, we'll head west to Yuma instead.

I have played at Cliff Castle, and absolutely hated it. I've heard nothing has changed there. We did, however, like Prescott, and I know that Payson has opened back up their cardroom, although they just have a couple of 3/6 HE tables.

If we go to Yuma, we'll finish up our Arizona tour south of Laughlin in Parker, AZ. I've heard they have a small, cozy cardroom there.

Please look for me if you play in any of these areas.