Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[The-Crow]

I have hundreds of Emu pictures if anyone would like to see a few

[Chompy]

Ostriches's are dangerous imo

[bolt pp]

I have hundreds of Emu pictures if anyone would like to see a few

do you have any fighting with other birds or attacking celebrities? if not, no

[tikay]

Thank you for the "Blue Planet" Link Byron, it was lovely, & please excuse me for my little rant on space-exploration costs. It genuinely upsets me to see so many dying needlessly in Africa because wealthy Nations just don't care, & prefer to waste money on space exploration, & the pictures bought it to the forefront of my mind at just the wrong moment.

Rather coincidentally I took a look at Paul Phillips blog yesterday and he'd posted this link about how foreign aid was bad for Africa:
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID=D1ED8113-B52B-4674-9959-AD7902604D8B

You are an Extempore reader? Kudos!

Oh my word! What a head-turner that article is. It says, in short, that Aid to Africa just ends up in the pockets of the likes of Mugabe. Which would explain why the UN & other big World Aid organisations now refuse to sanction any Aid for Zimbabwe. While the kids die, slowly.

By coincidence, today's Independent majors on the dreadful situation in Zimbabwe, where even Mugabe has been forced to declare a National Emergency.

Cholera has become rife - it can kill in 9 hours, it's just acute dehydration caused by infected water sources, the patient gets renal failure very quickly, & that's that, busto, within hours. A dextrose drip is all it needs to recover, & recovery is instant, the patient is fit & well the next day. All for a dextrose drip. It's mega-contagious though, & even attending the funeral of a victim can infect. The cause of cholera, incidentally, was dioscovered in London in 18??, after a cholera outbreak killed 600. The source was traced to an infected well, the well was closed, (the well handle was removed) problem solved. That simple.

And now, if the Zimbabwe people did not have enough problems, with rampant deflation, no foreign aid, & cholera, guess what else has broken out? Anthrax. And if Anthrax escapes Zimbabwe - & it will - we had all better start worrying pdq.

I am a pacifist, & do not wish even my worst enemy any ill, but it would just take one bullet to Mugabe's head, job done, & life would return to normality in Zimbabwe very quickly.

Meanwhile, regular malnutrition continues to reap it's toll in Zimbabwe, but it's not newsworthy, & it just gets on & does it's job, day after day, efficiently killing kids. It's a vicious trick of nature, but these bloated kids are suffering from "kwashiorkor", which is caused by severe malnutrition.

[tikay]

I need a little help. I plan to play today's Stud Event at DTD, I enjoy Stud, it has a much higher degree of skill than Hold 'Em or Omaha, in my view, (though not the way I play it, I'm hopeless), but.....

It's LIMIT.

Sheesh.

A quick "what can I bet, when, pre flop, on flop, & Post-Flop", please, and this "capping" lark.

I have played one Stud Event in my life, & cashed somehow, at the Amsterdam Master Classics a few years back, & spent the whole Tourney making a complete cock of myself by betting the wrong amounts, on the wrong streets.

An oddity of that Event in Amsterdam was the "chip-race", where ONE player (with the high card) got ALL the chip-race winnings - which was enough for me to outlast Thomas Kremser, also low-chipped, & sneak into a minor cash. Nothing changes with my game, minor cashes galore.

[tikay]

If we go and play at any regular Licensed Venue, we have all that rigmarole signing in. Everywhere.

At Stanley Luton a month or two back, it took Tom, a regular Member, nearly an hour to get in, even though he's a regular Member & had all the necessary ID with him. "Sorry Sir, we'd like to let you in, but you know how it is, it's the law" said a young lady wearing a "We are here to help you!" badge. Fair enough, he got in eventually.

It's pretty much the same everywhere, big queues at Reception, though one gets "nodded in" if you go to a Venue often enough.

But at Brighton Rendezvous, they just tell you to go straight in, no matter who you are. How does that work? If they can do that, why can't every Licensed Venue do the same? Are we now to assume we can walk in to ANY Venue, Member or not, & play Poker, legally? And if so, that suggests the Venues just make us sign in for their own commercial reasons.

Who'd have thunk?

[gatso]

If we go and play at any regular Licensed Venue, we have all that rigmarole signing in. Everywhere.

At Stanley Luton a month or two back, it took Tom, a regular Member, nearly an hour to get in, even though he's a regular Member & had all the necessary ID with him. "Sorry Sir, we'd like to let you in, but you know how it is, it's the law" said a young lady wearing a "We are here to help you!" badge. Fair enough, he got in eventually.

It's pretty much the same everywhere, big queues at Reception, though one gets "nodded in" if you go to a Venue often enough.

But at Brighton Rendezvous, they just tell you to go straight in, no matter who you are. How does that work? If they can do that, why can't every Licensed Venue do the same? Are we now to assume we can walk in to ANY Venue, Member or not, & play Poker, legally? And if so, that suggests the Venues just make us sign in for their own commercial reasons.

Who'd have thunk?

same at empire leicester square, it's an lci thing. they still have membership but it's voluntary, for those who want to collect loyalty points

[AndrewT]

It's the same at the Empire in Leicester Square now - when I went down to rail Ironside in the WSOPE I got my member's card swiped at the desk on the way in, then didn't believe Gatso when he said he just walked straight in.

I prefer it the old way - the good thing about the Empire was that it was a great place to get a late drink in the centre of London as it was free t get in and the drinks were just normal London bar prices, yet relatively few people would just go there to drink.

Now they have big posters up saying 'walk straight in' and people, annoyingly, do.

[tikay]

If we go and play at any regular Licensed Venue, we have all that rigmarole signing in. Everywhere.

At Stanley Luton a month or two back, it took Tom, a regular Member, nearly an hour to get in, even though he's a regular Member & had all the necessary ID with him. "Sorry Sir, we'd like to let you in, but you know how it is, it's the law" said a young lady wearing a "We are here to help you!" badge. Fair enough, he got in eventually.

It's pretty much the same everywhere, big queues at Reception, though one gets "nodded in" if you go to a Venue often enough.

But at Brighton Rendezvous, they just tell you to go straight in, no matter who you are. How does that work? If they can do that, why can't every Licensed Venue do the same? Are we now to assume we can walk in to ANY Venue, Member or not, & play Poker, legally? And if so, that suggests the Venues just make us sign in for their own commercial reasons.

Who'd have thunk?

same at empire leicester square, it's an lci thing. they still have membership but it's voluntary, for those who want to collect loyalty points

Hmm. So let me get this right. There is NO legal requirement or compulsion to sign in, or be a Member, in a properly Licensed & Regulated Poker Venue?

[Laxie]

Short answer...no.  Only people who intend to play poker are required to sign in and it really only matters if they happen to go on to cash in a tournament.  Not sure if cash tables are affected the same way.

[The_nun]

Alea in Leeds is the same. We walk straight in there and we only go for the poker.

[gatso]

Hmm. So let me get this right. There is NO legal requirement or compulsion to sign in, or be a Member, in a properly Licensed & Regulated Poker Venue?

nope, none at all. I'm thinking this is like the grosvenor thing where the gc have told them they can't open new tables after a tourney has started whereas everyone else is allowed. the gc give different rules to different companies, lci seem to be better at negotiating a good deal than others

Short answer...no.  Only people who intend to play poker are required to sign in and it really only matters if they happen to go on to cash in a tournament.  Not sure if cash tables are affected the same way.

not sure where you get that from, lci do not require poker players to sign in

[Jon MW]

If you cash out over a certain amount you have to be signed in at LCI venues.

Other than that I suspect it's mainly the commercial value of the information from the registrations meaning the management don't want to stop the registration process for most casinos. The people on the reception desks might genuinely not know that the law was changed.

[Laxie]

That's what I was told during one of my visits this year.  Newcastle I think it was.  They said you only have to sign up (not sign in each visit, but sign up just the once) if you intend to play poker.  Otherwise, you can come and go as you please.

[celtic]

Hmm. So let me get this right. There is NO legal requirement or compulsion to sign in, or be a Member, in a properly Licensed & Regulated Poker Venue?

nope, none at all. I'm thinking this is like the grosvenor thing where the gc have told them they can't open new tables after a tourney has started whereas everyone else is allowed. the gc give different rules to different companies, lci seem to be better at negotiating a good deal than others

Short answer...no.  Only people who intend to play poker are required to sign in and it really only matters if they happen to go on to cash in a tournament.  Not sure if cash tables are affected the same way.

not sure where you get that from, lci do not require poker players to sign in

Me & pelham boy went to the empire a couple of months ago, didnt sign in or show i.d, played cash games for 3 hours then left. No-one said a thing.