Tuesday, March 21, 2006

My first comp

Got my first "comp", sort of, at a brick&mortar casino yesterday.

I play a lot of poker, online and live. My father only plays around a little online with play money and the occasional (but rare) family homegame, so as a birtday gift I gave him a "Poker Night" at the regional state-run casino. It's a package deal where you get dinner and a poker tournament for the dinner guests. I arranged it well in advance and this Monday we went. The in-law that also was supposed to be coming along was ill, so we were only two. When I called to notify them of the change they said there were no other people booked for Poker Night. We decided to go anyway, now that I had travelled to attend.

When there, I let dad do the talking. We had the dinner, the casino apologized for not notifying us of the cancellation and we got a free dessert (panna cotta, yum). Got a quick runthrough of how poker cash games and tournaments work at the casino by a cute brush and got more freebies. Sunglasses, lighter-that-looks-like-poker-chips and a deck of cards. Each.

As part of the package you also got three 20-crown chips (20 crowns = $2.50). Dad put one down on the roulette, at 14/17. Clickettyrattle, fourteen red.

We played around on slot machines and video poker and then at Casino Holdem, which is a bastardization of Texas Holdem where you play against the dealer. Put one chip down to get cards, if you want to play them after you see "the flop" you put two more chips down. Then the turn and river comes and the dealer has to have a pair of fours or better to "qualify". If the dealer doesn't qualify you win one chip regardless. If he does qualify, your hand has to beat the dealer's hand and if you do, you win all that you've bet. Also some extra payouts if you have better than... straight (I think).

All in all, I think we were break-even on table games and machines, got some father-son time, drinks and dinner and some stories to tell.

The standard of the casino (Cosmopol) was... questionable. Never having been there (yet!), I would think that if it was in Las Vegas, it would be a run-down backstreet joint in downtown LV. But good staff.

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