Ivey, cheater or genius?

Phil Ivey‘s run-in with the Borgata wasn’t his first instance of collision with a casino that thought it had been cheated. In both instances the casinos would appear to have themselves to blame for getting gulled by Ivey’s charm and bankroll. In the spring of last year, Crockford’s, in London, got taken for 9 million pounds. Among the casino’s displays of weakness was keeping the same cards in play two nights running and rotating some of them 180 degrees when putting them back into the shoe simply because Ivey is “superstitious.”

Gaming-casino-croupierThis second point is significant because it enabled Ivey to track cards that had been improperly cut (“edge sorting,” it’s called), theoretically enabling him to know the cards’ value before they were turned. “This way Ivey and his partner could tell from the patterns on the back what cards would be dealt from the shoe. The two of them never even needed to touch the cards. They merely had to look closely. The rest was as easy as printing money.” Crockfords may claim impropriety but it was they who kept the same deck in play instead of destroying it, per club policy. This display of servility came back to haunt them. As at Borgata, Ivey requested — and got — a Chinese-speaking dealer, who communicated with Ivey’s companion. “But still, this is a well known method of cheating, and as soon as a player begins making requests like this, a lot of bosses would, without being rude, try to eyeball if they’re getting an advantage from something like edge sorting.”

This still leaves open the question of why Borgata didn’t withhold Ivey’s winnings at the time. Card maker Gemaco, which manufactured the defective decks, appears to be in a world of hurt but Ivey — who made the most of an advantage over the casino — would seem to be in the clear. Boyd Gaming may not want to admit it, but they got snookered and no amount of litigation will make people forget that.

Steak houses are ubiquitous in Las Vegas, but having a sirloin is going to cost you even more of a pretty penny than ever. Drought-ravaged herds (and the laws of supply and demand) mean higher prices and smaller cuts of beef. According to former Nebraska Cattle Association prexy Dale Spencer, “I think these higher food prices are here to stay, including beef.” So is demand, however, so save some extra mad money for dining out and maybe play less of it at the slots.

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