Archive for July, 2007.
July 01, 2007
Hoyt ‘The Alabama Cowboy’ Corkins snapped a 15-year dry spell on Wednesday by taking down the first-place cash of $515,065 and the highly coveted bracelet in the Six Handed $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Event (#30). Corkins, who held the lead at the end of both Day One and Day Two action, was never headed as he finished off Terrence Chan for the victory.
Onlookers expected a fast-played final table and the players did their best to oblige. The first to hit the rail was James Pittman, who busted on Hand #10 when his A-9 failed to improve against William Lin’s pocket eights. Pittman earned $63,118 for his play.
On
Full Tilt Poker
the hand after Pittman’s elimination, the two chip leaders, Corkins and Alan Sass, tangled with disastrous results for Sass. Corkins rivered a full house (nines over aces), knocking Sass into the pack and giving Corkins over 2.1 million in chips. Five hands later, Corkins finished off Kelly Vande Mheen, who fell victim to Corkins’ pocket aces. Vande Mheen collected $96,431.
Four-handed play did stretch for a spell, with Corkins gathering chips but both William Lin and Terrence Chan managing a double-through. 40 hands elapsed before Corkins claimed another victim, and this time it was Sass. Sass was in good shape to double through himself with A-K to Corkins’ A-10, but a river 10 ended Sass’s hopes. Sass earned $132,471 for his fourth-place finish.
Chan busted Lin just four hands later. Chan hit a needed six on the turn to make two pair, ending Lin’s WSOP hopes. Lin collected $196,758 for finishing third.
Down to two, Chan and Corkins battled for over 20 hands before Corkins finished the matter. On the last hand, Corkins tried (K-Diamonds)(10-Spades) against Chan’s (A-Diamonds)(4-Diamonds). Chan was safe through the (9-Spades)(8-Diamonds)(8-Hearts) flop, but the (K-Clubs) spiked on the turn and (6-Spades) river sealed Chan’s runner-up fate. Chan earned $287,345 for finishing second while Corkins collected $515,065 and the bracelet for the runaway win.
June 30, 2007
Police officers and the city’s licensing board representatives commented that they usually confiscate illegal keno machines from the back rooms of the city’s coffee shops and bodegas.
The owners of the machines are then fined and the keno machines are kept in the police department’s seize property room for 6 months. If no one claims the machines during this period, then the city will have no choice but to destroy them, according to officials.
Officials said that the keno machines are valued at $1,000 and $2,000 per piece, but no one gets them back. Police officers said that the owner of the keno machines, who are connected to crime organizations, just buy new ones.
Detective Sgt. Tom Trommelen from the city’s Special Investigations Unit said that they keep confiscating the machines and the owners just keep putting them back in. City officials said that the machines have a negative effect on the lives of people in the area.
The city’s license inspector, Ralph Gambatese Jr., commented that his office frequently receives calls from wives and children that their husbands and fathers have lost all of their money from their paychecks by playing keno games on these machines. Trommelen said that many people are affected by the seemingly harmless gambling machine.
June 25, 2007
Casino owners all over the world, especially in the U.S., recognize the growing importance of their Asian customers. Just recently, casino organizations have become much more aggressive in attracting Asian customers in the country, as well as overseas Asian gamblers.
Casino operators are not only targeting the rich clients in China, they are also wooing Asian-Americans and immigrants from the Asian region. Some of these efforts by the casinos include remodeling extensive portions of their gaming floor to suit the taste of their Asian customers, advertising their casinos in Asian languages and advertising in community newspapers.
One leader in this trend has been Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which owns and manages about 2 dozen casinos in the United States, including Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
On June 13, 2007, Harrah’s made history by making the first Asian gaming pit in the U.S. Harrah’s bought imported carved woods from China to house their baccarat tables, which is the preferred game for most Asian players and for their several Pai Gow Poker tables, which is based on an ancient dominoes game from China.
The table game profits at Showboat improved by 35% last year, to $63 million, increasing from $46 million and the casino attracted more Asian customers.
Casino table games like Baccarat, Pai Gow, Craps, Blackjack and Roulette also improved their performance. The Showboat Casino also made their own version of an Asian gaming pit after Harrah’s own Asian gaming pit became a huge hit with their customers.
Another casino to follow Harrah’s example is the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, which also made their own Asian gaming pit in July 2006 and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, which is currently building their own Asian gaming pit with a Chinese style food court.
The Las Vegas strip is also currently undergoing a similar change. Asian themed Baccarat rooms and noodle areas are now a normal feature in most casinos as the game generates larger profits compared to roulette or craps. As William P. Weidner, the President of Las Vegas Sands, said that the growing popularity of the game of Baccarat is due to the growing influence of the Asian customers on the strip.
According to Weidner, about 80% of the whales that come to Las Vegas are from the Asian continent. Most Baccarat players on the Las Vegas strip are from China and Hong Kong.
Aside from that, casino organizations are also opening casinos where there are high-rollers. Like the Sands and Wynn Resorts, which opened casinos in Macau. The Sands Casino is also looking to expand elsewhere in the region.
Kent Woo, the Executive Director of the NICOS Chinese Health Coalition in San Francisco, said that gambling has been an integral part of Asian culture for thousands of years.
People grew up with gambling in their homes and even participated in it during important celebrations in their lives. Nonetheless, he said that there is also a feeling that casinos are taking advantage of Asian culture. Critics are also worried about the increase of gambling addiction on the Asian population in the U.S. and other countries because of this ongoing trend.
June 21, 2007
After striking it big while playing keno games , the female keno player was only too pleased to share her winnings with others. She won $275,000 by choosing 9 out of 9 numbers on her keno card at the Alexandra Headland Surf Club.The female player, who does not want to be identified due to personal reasons, gave each of the employees in the room a generous reward. According to the staff of the Alexandra Headland Surf Club, when the woman returned the next day to collect her winnings, she tipped all of the employees again.
Keno gaming attendant, Genice Daines, commented that aside from being very happy with her win, the winner was also a very generous and kind person. According to Daines, the winner said that maybe she is very lucky in games because she shares her winnings with others. The winner plans to give some of her winnings to her mother, make a donation to their church and donate money to her home country of South America.
The winner stated that she is not greedy and she just wants to help those that are close to her. She has won at keno 3 times, but she never won such a large cash prize. Had the winner chosen to pick 10 numbers and then succeeded, she would have won the jackpot of over $1 million.
June 19, 2007
After a hard February and an off month in March, the profits from Nevada Gaming improved in April. The casinos across the state won a total of $1.053 billion from players during April, an improvement of 6.4% compared with the $989.9 million in April 2006, according to the report released by the Gaming Control Board on June 8, 2007.
Gaming Analysts commented that the numbers were important on 2 fronts. The results marked the first time that the Nevada Casino breached the $1 Billion total for casino wins during the month of April and the good results came despite the problems that month, a 13% improvement compared to the same period a year ago.
Frank Streshley, the Gaming Control Board’s Senior Research Analyst said that these results were better than they expected. Casinos reported a casino win of $1.054 billion in March 2007, a decrease of less than 1% during March.
In April 2007, the statewide casino wins from the slot machines were $736.4 million, an 11.4% improvement from last year. The sum of money that the customers bet on slot machines was $11.3 billion, which was down less than 1%.
The total win from the casino table games was $303.1 million, which was less than 4.1% from April 2006. Justin Sebastiano from the Nollenberger Capital Partners said that they believe the slots win is affected on the time that the money was put in the slot machines.
So they believe that the gaming win in March was underestimated and the gaming win in April 2007 was overestimated. On the Las Vegas strip, the casinos won $529.2 million in April, a 2.4% improvement compared with the $516.6 million that were collected by the casinos last year.
The analysts said that the total baccarat game wins helped the strip casinos regarding their total wins. The state reported a total of $60.4 million in Baccarat profits. They expect that big events in Las Vegas such as the Mayweather-Dela Hoya match will keep profits high.
Streshley said that the performance of Baccarat was stronger than they were expecting. Analysts also said that the timing in counting the total slots win also helped the casino’s wins.