Beyond Belief: The Bellagio Bandit -- Man walks into Vegas casino wearing motorcycle helmet, draws handgun, walks out with $1.5m in chips. Trouble is $25,000 denomination chips take some work getting rid of...
Simple Lore comparison of both the NCR's and Legion's currency
NCR 5 dollar bill is only worth 2 caps Legion silver Denarius is worth 4 caps That's 2 more of the base value of what the NCR 5 dollar bill can afford. Now lets check the highest. NCR 100 dollar bill is only worth 40 caps. Legion gold Aureus is worth 100 caps. That's 60 more of the base value of what the NCR 100 dollar bill can afford. Unlike Legion currency however, the NCR has a third denomination of a 20 dollar bill which is worth 8 caps. Still, the ceilings of both of their highest currencies available to the markets edges in favor of the Legion over the NCR dollar with the Aureus having a higher purchasing power in regards to commercial activity. sources; [By 2281, the NCR dollar is valued at about 40% of a water-backed cap[6] and only 10% of a silver Legion Denarius.](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/NCR_dollars) [Legion currency](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Legion_Denarius) [NCR currency](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/NCR_dollars) Dialogue points from merchant or merchant adjunct entities to substantiate probable currency values decided by the Wasteland market; >Dale Barton: "Hell, I don't even need to travel with guards most of the time in Legion territory. All the bandits are dead or run off." >Dale Barton: "Between having to hire protection and getting slapped with taxes, it's more profitable to stick to Arizona and New Mexico." >Rose Sharon of Cassidy: "Some caravans deal with the Legion now because the security. If towns could get the same protection? A lot more tempting than you'd think. Bunch of people would be willing to side with the Legion to not have to worry about Fiends and Boomers and Powder Ganger attacks." >The Courier: "You don't get paid in Caps?" >Chomp Lewis: "Nope. The NCR's been trying to switch over to using paper money, like in the Pre-War days. Trouble is that the exchange rates ain't exactly fair.For example, a hundred bucks in NCR money is valued at roughly half that in caps around here. Seems like a rotten deal for us, but work is work." >The Courier: "What can you tell me about New Vegas?" >Chomp Lewis: "I've been there once, and I don't recommend it. It's just a way to burn through amonth's pay in five minutes*. I've seen a lot of folks come through here thinking they'll have the easy life once they get there. It never happens."* From one of the developers: >J.E Sawyer: "And this is discussed in-game: BoS raided NCR's gold reserves until NCR could no longer generate gold coinage nor back their paper money. They abandoned the gold standard and established fiat currency, which is why its value is inflated over both caps and (especially) Legion coinage. (...) People in eastern NCR and the Mojave Wasteland lost faith in the NCR government's a) ability to back the listed value of paper money and b) stability overall. If you're living in Bakersfield, staring at a piece of paper that says "redeemable for value in gold" and you have no faith in the government's ability or willingness to do that -- or if you see that the government has changed the currency to say that it is not able to be exchanged for a backed good -- you may very well listen to the strong consortium of local merchants offering to exchange that paper note for currency backed by water." The Tops Vegas Casino exchange rates for in-house playing Chips; Note: With a double check, all the Casino cashiers in Vegas have the same exchange dialogue, barring the type of greeting they give depending on the chosen locale. That means the exchange rates for all Vegas Casinos are standardized and consistent. NCR 2 chips for 5$ NCR 8 chips for 20$ NCR 40 chips for 40$ NCR Legion 4 chips for 1 Legion Denarius 20 chips for 5 Legion Denarii 40 chips for 10 Legion Denarii 80 chips for 20 Legion Denarii 100 chips for 1 Legion Aureus or 25 Legion Denarii Source: Geck dialogue files, vDialogueCasinoCashier; Topics EDIT: To even nip this in the butt further, some comments here say that Precious Commodities don't have intrinsic value. If that is the case in regards to the NCR being discussed here, why by the time of FO2 was the lowest denominator of their currency, 1$ dollar, was in Gold Coins? $1 NCR - The Fallout Wiki (fandom.com) The NCR never or had any contingencies to shore-up their currency to a fiat one at all if the most basic unit of their internal monetary exchange was Gold Coins. If that were the case they would've had pure paper money to begin with without these Coins being in circulation in Fallout 2; with all Gold being in their reserve purely being for backing only, but this isn't the case as we observe. With the absence of their most basic unit of exchange being gone and the 5$ paper note being demoted to the new basic unit of their currency, that's a huge amount of unaccounted inflation off the bat; inflation they could've never prepared for since they valued Gold enough as a natural unit of exchange at such a base level to be circulated. They didn't expect the BoS to hit them that hard or anyone to do so with their perceived control of their core territory; nevermind the facts that its very unstable and unlucrative to deal in with raiders they can't hunt down with lack of dedicated manpower and poll taxes. Precious vs Fiat currencies have staunch differences that can't be reconciled in the context of the Fallout universe and a general post-apocalypse. Precious Commodities are backed by simple human consensus of its natural properties being of worth and desirable for a monetary unit of exchange. These can be traded and exchanged easily with a readily agreed upon value along with Caps because they are accepted by almost every post-war Tribal group, Wasteland settlement, independent Traders, and most other polities across America. Its supply is also naturally in nature, not manufactured artificially with Fiat money note printing. (In the Fallout series, we see some form of international travel is still somewhat possible with characters such as Alistar Tenpenny and in Fallout 4 with multiple characters from other continents. Take Gold from the US and bring it to the British Isles, it will still have ready value no matter what. Take simple Fiat bank notes of a faction in the US to say, the Fallout version of West Africa. It would absolutely have no value because the issuer of that tender back in North America literally has no economic influence to back its money in this region miles away; there is no Demand or recognition for it. Conversely with Gold taken from North America and traveling to Fallout West Africa, it has tradeable value no matter what because Gold is a natural unit of exchange from its recognized natural value by humans.) Fiat currency is only as strong as a nation-state can legitimize and maintain it. The only Fiat currency at the time of New Vegas taking place is NCR currency, which is doing badly from the aforementioned factors of the top of this post. The NCR IS a nation of some sort, but it isn't in the league of pre-war society statehoodship. It doesn't have the financial instruments or development of robust monetary institutions to handle Fiat when they've have been on a Gold economy all this time and the value of the NCR dollar has plummeted due to lack of Demand with its sudden absence. The only reason why the NCR dollar had high worthiness was due to the inherent value of Gold they had on reserve in a post-apocalyptic society that has an extremely high assessment of value it. With the Gold-backed era of the NCR (supported in FO2 with Gold Coins directly in circulation and being exchanged), Caps were practically worthless in the NCR territory as comments here note. Now with Gold out of the equation as we can observe with direct evidence, the highest focal point of NCR currency isn't even worth 40% of Cap currency by the end of the NCR-BoS war. Double Edit: The whole reason why the resource wars in the Fallout universe happened because the main natural mineral resource, Oil, was almost all depleted entirely- in an international society where almost all the pre-war Nations were Oil based economies. Without Oil we see in numerous cases in Fallout in the post-war landscape with products with exorbitant prices due to rampart inflation with money that had no value. [This](https://www.reddit.com/Fallout/comments/3x9cqj/how_inflated_was_the_prewar_economy_some_of_the/cy348gl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) comment here from 4 years ago from the main Fallout subreddit goes into the context of the universe. In the very intro of the first Fallout game, we see on the TV in the ruined building that is still running- a common non-luxury car is worth 200,000 dollars. Regular Gas in pre-war Fallout America was 1450.99$ Premium Gas was 8500.99$ To note, America was only one of the nations still with a minutiae of Oil left, but here are the prices. Source: [Gas Prices](latest (293×291) (nocookie.net)) The Mechanical Pony toy seen in Fallout 3 costs 16,000$.
I saw an old thread on this that I couldn’t comment to, so I’m taking a swing at it. In the peyote Vegas casino scene in the Kennedy and Heidi episode, I always thought Tony won a massive ton of cash at roulette before collapsing on the floor in laughter. After rewatching it closely, it’s disappointing. Tony lays one $25 chip on 24 and hits. Confirmed $25 denomination on pause. $25x35=$875 Tony lays four $25 chips on 20 and hits. $100x35=$3,500. *Strangely, you can see afterwards that the dealer pays him out 105 $25 chips, meaning he’s being credited for laying three chips instead of four. Also, not sure why the dealer wouldn’t switch to $100 chips, but he doesn’t. We can confirm this based on the quantity. Interesting miss here, but I’ll move on assuming four chips laid. Tony lays 12 $25 chips on 24 and hits. $300x35=$10,500 So after all, Tony only won $14,875, less what he laid on other numbers and tips along the way. Pretty disappointing considering I always imagined he was pushing a half million or something.
The Iron Clays are a luxury "game counter" (poker chip) first released by Roxley Games as part of their 2017 Brass Birmingham campaign. Due to demand from fans they went on to create a follow up Kickstarter in June of 2019 for just the Iron Clays. The campaign was delayed for a few months by COVID-19 but I received my shipment of Iron Clays just yesterday and wanted to let you all see them for yourself. My pledge was for the standard distribution of 400 chips in a printed box; the kickstarter price was listed as 182 CAD and, including shipping, I paid a total of 168 USD at the time. It was a bit of a rough start with a large hole and some dents in the shipping container. Fortunately the contents themselves were entirely undamaged. The chips are contained in a nice box with foil lettering and magnets that keep the lid closed. Within the box are four plastic containers that hold the chips securely. The chips are beautifully produced and come in 8 denominations currently (1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 2000). I was opposed to the inclusion of 10s and 50s during the campaign, I still am, but in the end I think the 50 may be my favorite looking chip. They weigh an average of 9.4g (compared to 9.2g for a stack of 20 casino chips I own and 8.1g for the chips in Splendor); individual variation in weight from chip to chip is low with all measuring between 9-10g (using a low precision kitchen scale). The chips themselves appear to be of excellent quality; out of 400 chips I have found only one misprint. It should be noted that all of the chips have small lightly colored spots on the edges where they were presumably attached to the mold and so I don't consider this to be a misprint. This doesn't particularly bother me and the edges are otherwise very smooth with a barely palpable seam. I have dropped a number of chips, as well as their plastic containers, from table height during my testing over the past day and have not managed to break or damage anything. Having shown you the chips I did want to discuss some of the concerns raised by various backers and poker chip aficionados since the campaign was announced. A major concern voiced by poker chip collectors has been the chips "slipperiness". The concern being that the chips actual usability is impaired by this because of poor stackability. I have compared the Iron Clays to some chips I grabbed from casinos in Las Vegas (I believe these are so-called Paulson chips which are generally accepted as top of the line and go for >$1 a chip) and find that they are indeed slipperier. This is demonstrated by a tilt test where stacks of Iron Clays consistently fall at a lower angle than the Vegas chips. When they fall they also tend to slide further on my table; on average sliding 55.5 cm compared to 35 cm for the Paulsons and 48 cm for the Splendor chips. I also compared manipulation of both the Iron Clays and the Paulsons and noticed some of the differences in the way these chips handle. The Paulsons are slightly easier to pickup by tilting the stack but in truth 20 chips is too many for me to comfortably handle with either of the chip types. All this said; I'm not convinced that this will impact usability and if that changes in the future there is apparently significant improvement with lightly sanding the chip faces. There has also been some criticism of the color choice and edge spot design. These concerns are valid because it is important to be able to quickly count stacks of chips to and this is aided by having distinct colors and edge spots. I have an album showing all combinations of chips under the same lighting so you can decide for yourself if distinguishing chips of different denominations is difficult in mixed stacks. While the 50s, 20s and 5s are somewhat similar I don't find that I have difficulty distinguishing them. I feel that the various other criticisms raised (color of specific denominations, labeled vs unlabeled, denominated vs undenominated) are entirely matters of opinion and am unconvinced that these design choices impact usability in any meaningful way. I backed the Iron Clays because I wanted to avoid the garish colors and immersion breaking casino theme of other poker chip lines so I think of these aspects of the chips as features rather than flaws. In conclusion I am very satisfied by the Iron Clays. They are sharp looking and do not sacrifice functionality; when considering their price keep in mind that they come with a transportation/storage solution included. I don't want to reduce my impression to an x/10 rating but I do feel that these are a top notch product that fit the theme of a wide variety of board games. Final Update: Out of curiosity I sanded a stack of chips too see if the slipperiness could be reduced. The white stack is sanded, blue is unsanded and the mixed stack is the Paulson's from prior. The chips were very lightly sanded and there is no perceptible difference in appearance but they now apear to be LESS slippery than the Paulson's! https://imgur.com/a/KsF9uBz
My first time playing bacc vs my most recent time (EPIC POLL & INSANE STORY)
Maybe not the best gambling come up ever told, but my personal best. Not dollar wise, I've cashed out way more before. It's a long read, but worth it.... Check this shit out.... I go up to buy a vintage boat in Illinois. 12 hour drive to Texas. Due to crazy weather (worst thunderstorm I have ever driven through by far) and even crazier girls, get stuck in St. Louis. Had an incredible night with and even more incredible woman on her birthday. Start heading home back to Texas. Driving through Oklahoma it starts up again, really bad rain. Nope, not doing this again, I take the next exit. I'm in Tulsa. Exit coincidentally at the hard rock (was just gonna wait the storm out or maybe see if they would comp my room). They say no way, you don't have any players card and this ain't Vegas, you gotta do some damage to earn your free room. I'm like ok...bet....(I am a high stakes baccarat player) So I buy in with $800, tell cashier that I'll be back shortly with $10k. Yeah......okay buddy sure.... I get wrecked, down to my last $12. Feeling shitty and mad at the rain. I proceed to turn that $12 into...well alot. Table max is $1000. My new best bud Jason from OKC was there and we started killing it. We made a deal with the pit boss that if we run them out of $500 chips they would go to cage and just out the golden $1000 chips. They said yeah ok, those chips are dusty because they never need them. I hit max bet wins 9 separate times. Beat a natural 8 with a natural 9 (if you don't know bacc it's the hardest and most satisfying thing in the world) twice for table max bet if $1000. My buddy Jason and I followed each other rarely betting against each other. We wrecked that table bad and did what we said we would do, drained every $500 chip they had. Pit boss begrudgingly called the cage for the ultra rare $1000 chips. Said it hasn't happy in 3 years. In 3 hours I hit my goal, cashed out at exactly $10,000. And headed to cashier. Same girl who I told her I'd be back either broke or with 10k. Slow walk, with my best ass face on. You could tell she felt bad because unlike the dealers cahiers love when people win. I put 10 $1000 chips on the window table, and said....I don't fuck around when it comes to Baccarat. Told ya. She flipped out, couldn't believe it. Got a casino hostess, free suite which was super nice, and a free room anytime I am in Tulsa. Also there was this Mexican pimp who was like a degenerate one armed bandit (plays slot machines like a tool). He tried to hustle me for all his jewelry for like $2000. I gave him $250 but only if he included his heiña's turquoise ring as well (I am a fucking savage). So that's why I am all blinged out on the drive home. And yes, for the doubters, I didn't give a dime back and drove straight home. Going to Vegas in two weekends with some girls and an even nicer free suite. Not going to gamble at all, just rent an exotic car and finally do all the cool Vegas non strip fun nature activities Ive always wanted. Lake Tahoe, Red Rock Canyon, float trip, etc. Yes 2020 sucks but I'm tired of it brining me down. Met somebody very special and from here on out I'm dedicated. Positive vibes only!!!! 💯 Required disclaimer: I don't even like to gamble because it is super stressful for me. I only go once or twice a year. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS. Scared money don't make no money..... Oh, big shout-out to mother nature. Without those two rainstorms I wouldn't have fallen in love or had a much needed come up. If only I could have danced with my baby I'm the rain it would have been icing on the cake. Made it home safe to Texas with boat intact and a fat stack. Life is good!!!! FIRST TIME PLAYING BACC: I was taught baccarat while living in Korea for 3 years. My white ass with big blonde hair and blue eyes, and for some reason Al the older Koreans would stop me in the street saying James Dean......James Dean!!! Well I was playing in a poker tournament, this guy does the James Dean thing during a break in the tournament as I'm walking to get a quick bite if food and bathroom. It's the final table and I'm in like 3rd place with 7 players left (not too big, I think it was $300 buy in, 100 players or so) . Anyway so he stops me and says....in his best broken English, Player ....Banker...James....James (he points at each).... Player, Banker?!?! I'm like shit I dunno this weird Asian card game never even seen it. Banker is like the house right? House always wins, so I say and point banker.... Again with the natural 8 losing to natural 9, player loses. Bank wins. Guy shits a brick and slides me his winnings. He makes me sit down. I realize he bet 4.2 million won ( like ~4000USD) at the time. And he just gave it to me thinking I was his good luck charm. He taught me how to play (it's very very easy to learn bacc...) But more importantly taught me how to play with balls of steel which is a required learned skill in this game. We proceed to wreck the table, I think I cashed out somewhere close to $18k and he hit like 75k. I ended up going back to tournament damn near blinded out but still in 5th place. Took third place and took home whatever $$$ that was. Korea's biggest currency denomination is a 10k won bill, like $10. So I literally walked out with a paper bag filled with money, like I robbed a bank, went home and spread it all over the bed and had sex on it like I was Scrooge McDuck or Walter White or Lil Wayne. Oh to be young again. Like I said I have cashed out more but my first and last times playing bacc were extremely memorable. 18k off a 4k freeroll and $800 to $12 to $10k. What do you guys think? View Poll
ULPT: While playing a table game at a casino, secretly pocket some of your own chips so that when you color out, the pit boss marks you down as losing more money than you actually did, and spending more money gets you more comps. (More casino tips inside)
Keep in mind the dealers do have an idea of how much you actually lost so you can’t go crazy with it. Also if they catch you doing it more than once, they will tell the pit boss about it. It’s not illegal or anything to take your own chips off your stack, but they don’t like people trying to lie about how much they won or lost. When you’re done at the table, ask to color out and the dealer will exchange your chips for higher denomination ones so they’re easier for you to hold/carry. They then call the pit boss over to look at the chips and make sure the dealer exchanged for the right amount. This is when the pit boss sees what you’re walking away with and marks down how much you won or lost. -When you leave a table, always cash your chips in at the cage before going to another table and then buy in with cash again at the new table so it appears that you are spending more. In the casinos eyes, if you sit down at a new table with chips from another table, then you’re not spending more money, just the same money at a different table. You want it to look like you’re spending a lot. The pit boss keeps track of how much you are buying in for each time you sit down at a table (you always give them your players card when you sit down so they can put the info on your account.)They also keep track of how much you are wagering per hand, but in my opinion it’s not worth it to wager more than you’re comfortable with just to increase your comps. You could end up losing a LOT more money than what the comps will be worth.
It’s becoming more and more common for casinos in Vegas to charge for parking, but parking is free for people in the higher tiers of the players club. People accidentally leave their players club cards in slot machines, and if you can find a higher tier card someone lost you can use it at the parking ticket machine for free parking. For a more ethical version, simply ask someone if they can get an extra copy of their card made for you to use for this purpose. It’s easy to get a card made up and many people have 2 or more. You can’t do anything else with it without knowing their PIN so it’s pretty harmless. You can also google which casinos offer free parking and see if there’s one within walking distance to your destination.
If you want to watch a game or otherwise hang out in the sports book but don’t want to pay ridiculous drink prices, find out what their policy is for complimentary drinks for the people betting on horses. A sports bet will get you one comp drink voucher, but many casinos have a policy where horse players get free drinks without needing to use the drink vouchers. (This has something to do with horse betting being parimutuel; the casino makes money whether you win or lose. Horse players also tend to spend a lot of money going to the window and betting before each race, sometimes multiple tracks at once.) Sit in the horse betting area, turn your little personal TV to a racing channel, get a racing program and find some losing wager tickets someone left around so it looks like you’re betting horses and enjoy free drinks. You’ll be able to see the sports from that area too. You may have to place a bet on a race once in a while to keep the facade going, but it’s still cheaper than paying full price for the drinks (minimum bet on a horse race is $2). You would also get a free drink voucher when you make the bet; if you ask politely they might give you two of them. And who knows, maybe your horse will win ;)
When you’re playing a slot machine or table game, cocktail waitresses come around and serve complimentary drinks. If you want a mixed drink, such as vodka and cranberry, ask for one vodka and one cranberry and then mix them together yourself as they are quite stingy on the liquor in the comp mixed drinks. Tip your cocktail waitress well; it will ensure your drinks get to you quickly. Plus those poor women have to deal with a lot of drunk assholes all day and it’s just a nice thing to do. Besides, a buck or two is still a lot cheaper than if you’d have paid full price for the drink.
Casinos usually have different lines for people to wait on at the box office, players club help desk, hotel registration, etc. One line for the members in the lowest tiers of the players club, one for the “elite” tier members. The elite line is usually a lot shorter and gets priority. You can stand on this line and then pretend you didn’t know the difference once it’s your turn, there’s a good chance they’ll just let it slide.
If you’re a girl, hang out by a crowded craps table, act excited/interested and mention you’ve never played before. Everyone will want you to roll the dice and some might throw you a dollar chip (or more!) if they make money on your roll. This is more likely to happen with older wealthy looking gentlemen and in my experience has the lowest success rate of all the things on this list, but does happen. just FYI.
Speaking of craps- it’s not really unethical, but you’re kind of seen as a jerk if you bet the don’t pass line because you’re betting against the shooter. I don’t play craps often, but the way I see it is that they wouldn’t have the craps table if it wasn’t a money maker, so the majority of people must be losing at least some money. If you do the opposite of the majority maybe you’ll do better? I’ve found that when a shooter is hot but then something happens to delay their roll, like the dice go off the table or something, they seven out on the next roll. So that’s when I’d bet the don’t pass. Is this just me being superstitious? yeah probably.
To kill some time and get free drinks, put 5 bucks in one of those old-ish Game King multi-game machines and play keno for 5 cents per game. You can make $5 last a long time. Personally I play caveman keno and pick only 4 numbers, while my boyfriend always picks 10 numbers and goes through his $5 while I stay about even. Note that at some casinos, the cocktail waitresses will actually look at your machine and tell you that you have to be betting over 75 cents (or some amount) per pull in order to get comp drinks but I’ve only seen that happen a few times, I forget which casinos that was at. It’s also pretty normal for them to tell you that you have to be wagering over a certain amount per hand at the table games, or to have a certain level players card, in order to get the top shelf liquor for free.
The bars in the casino are stocked with matches so you could grab a bunch for free and maybe a few pens too. They could come in handy or also make for a souvenir if you’re on vacation.
If you make a complaint about something and bitch long enough about it, the host or manager will probably offer you a voucher for free dinner at one of the casino’s restaurants, or a bottle of wine, or a discount on your room if you’re staying there. I’ve only done this once because they put me up in a disgusting room that was absolutely filthy; they moved me to a new room and gave me a complimentary meal at one of their restaurants. But you could probably make something up to bitch about if you want to get “unethical” about it.
If you’re trying to raise enough tier points to get to a higher level players card (free parking!) without actually spending money, you could have the players club desk print you a bunch of copies of your card and stick them into a couple slot machines and hope the next person to sit down and play one doesn’t take it out to put their own card in. You’ll get the points for all the money they spend in the machine. Go for the “trendy” newer slots like the walking dead themed one, the simpsons one, game of thrones, etc. Those machines tend to have higher minimum bets and will therefore accumulate the points quicker. They also tend to be played more by tourists rather than regulars/locals, and the locals are more likely to take your card out and put their own in. The only issue with this is that I’m not sure if you can have cards in more than two machines at a time, so you might not be able to do a bunch at once. Maybe someone can comment on this.
I’ve personally done all of these “tips” except the waiting on line one and the sticking my card in slot machines for other people to earn me points. But I have seen other people pull off the waiting in line trick, and I have forgotten my card in a slot machine many times and came back for it to find someone playing with my card still in there getting points for their play. And the using someone else’s card for free parking, the person who owns the high level card was my friend. Thanks for reading, hope this helps some people out on their next trip to the casino! I’d be happy to answer any questions about casinos or Las Vegas for anybody who’s planning a trip out here. (Disclaimer- I don’t work for a casino I just hang out in them a lot) Edit: hi everybody, this post has got a lot of attention so I want to add- There are some people commenting who actually work the floor in casinos who disagree with some of the things I’ve written, so, even though I know these things have worked for me, you might want to read those comments before actually trying any of the tips and then decide who you want to take advice from. Thanks for reading!
Metal Coins for Board Games, A Compulsion - Part II
Part II: In this half of this article, I discuss generic metal coin manufacturers and other options for adding metal currency to your games. Check outPart Ifor more info about games that include metal coins and coins designed with a specific game in mind. Edit: I've fixed the image link for the "new"Terraforming Marscubes. Thanks to u/halfisglassfull for pointing out the error. Back in 2016, I posted an article under my other username (u/Luke_Matthews) about my obsession with adding metal coins to board games, which you can read here: Board Games and Metal Coins, An Obsession What started as a diversion became an obsession, and since that article bloomed into a full-on compulsion. I’ve upgraded over 60 games with unique metal coins and currency, and I’d like to share the current state of this compulsion and what I’ve learned along the way. It’s such a strange thing, because metal coinage is a purely aesthetic upgrade. They don’t change game mechanics or offer any extension to the gameplay experience. Even so, deluxe editions have proven there’s a market for aesthetic upgrades, and metal coins have grown into one of the most popular. I have fallen down the rabbit hole of adding unique, thematic coins for each individual game. This approach is not for everyone. If, instead, you’re interested in adding generic coins you can keep aside and use for multiple games, I’ll talk about what sets I think are the best for that purpose at the end of this article. For now, let’s get on with the show! GAME TITLES ARE LINKS TO PHOTOS. For a more user-friendly image browsing experience, view this post on my website or on BoardGameGeek. NOTE:There is no way this will be an exhaustive list of all the metal coins available. I’ll talk about coins I have direct personal experience with, as well as make notes of other coins I don’t have and why I don’t have them. There will likely be a lot of coins not included here, and I encourage you to add your own experiences and pictures in the comments.
Fantasy Coin is one of the first companies I encountered making a range of different coin styles specifically for gaming applications, without tying them to specific games. Of all the coin manufacturers out there, Fantasy Coin are definitely my favorite. Their coins are thick and heavy with fantastic finishes and colors, and come in a wide array of fantasy and sci-fi themes. Getting ahold of Fantasy Coin’s products can be a bit fraught, though, as their primary source of income tends to be Kickstarter. Their website frequently sells out, and as their stocks dwindle, they’ll run another Kickstarter to replenish. Once one of their Kickstarters ends and ships, they’ll typically have stock which can be ordered directly from their website, but be warned you might have to do a little research to find out when more are available. They’ve had some logistical problems with a couple of their Kickstarter campaigns, but for the most part they’re really good at fulfilling them. Their latest campaign was really well handled, and I think they’ve done a great job of addressing their past issues. Some previous backers, IMO, go a little overboard blaming them for mistakes, but forgiveness is not a typical trait of spurned backers. Don’t listen to the haters. Fantasy Coin’s products are genuinely amazing and come at a great price, especially if you get them in bulk from Kickstarter.
I spent a long time trying to decide what coins I’d get for Alchemists. Since it only really requires one denomination, I had a ton of options (the Charterstone coins are a phenomenal choice, FYI). I decided on these coins from FC’s “Magic” set.
Caverna’s one of the first games I upgraded with FC coins, and I have WAY too many coins for the game. They’re real nice, though, all from FC’s “Dwarven” set.
Originally, these coins resided in my copy of Lords of Xidit. They’re a great, generic fantasy theme, so can go in many games. Once I picked up the Roll Player coins, though, I thought those were a better fit for LoX, so I moved these over to Clank. And they’re a perfect fit!
This is probably one of my favorite upgrades using FC coins. I couldn’t find any really good, affordable Arabic- or Middle East-themed coins (at the time, there are some now), so I decided to lean into the fantasy side for Five Tribes. The silver coins are from FC’s “Serpent” set, and the golds are from their “Air Elemental” set. I think both work really well as representations of djinn. Some people complain, when using coins like this for Five Tribes, you can’t hide their denominations. If it’s important to you to do so, I suggest getting either pouches or player screens to keep the coins hidden. However, I’ve never once found open money to have a significant impact on the game, so we just don’t bother.
I was originally planning on putting the old Brass coins into my copy of Lancaster, but when FC launched their latest Kickstarter and I saw their “Nottingham” set, I just couldn’t resists such a perfect thematic match.
Lunarchitects doesn’t actually have currency in-game, but one of the other great uses for metal coins is as victory point chits. Lunarchitects has a LOT of VP chits, and I definitely went overboard here, but it’s such a great game and I love these “Sci-Fi” coins from FC.
There are actually several different options for Japanese themed coins, including the Yokohama metal coins and Artana’s Japanese set (which you’ll see in the next section). I chose to go with Fantasy Coin’s “Feudal Japan” coins for Nippon, because I just love the way they look.
Here’s another couple of games without currency, but for which I’ve replaced the VP chits with metal coins. In this instance, I don’t think I went overboard at all, and these “Credits” coins from FC are just an amazing aesthetic upgrade for two classic games.
Yedo is one of my wife’s all-time favorite games, and ranks high in the worker placement genre for me. So, naturally, I bought the same “Feudal Japan” coins I used for Nippon for my copy of Yedo.
While Fantasy Coin is the company you’d turn to for fantastical and sci-fi-themed coins, Artana’s where you go when you’re looking for something with a more historical bent. While they don’t mimic specific real-world coinage, their designs evoke real-world cultures and time periods, which make them a fantastic choice for your average Eurogame. They tend to be lighter and thinner than Fantasy Coin, but not in a bad way. They also have 5 different sizes and finishes, from “Tiny” – which live up to their name – to “Jumbo” which are larger than a US half-dollar. Artana’s coins used to only be available via Kickstarter, but they’ve since shifted their model to selling through game-bling websites like The Broken Token and Top Shelf Gamer. Since many coin manufacturers still rely on periodic crowd-funding to release new products, Artana’s consistent availability makes them unique. I have just as many Artana coins as Fantasy Coin, and for good reason: they’re awesome. I’m primarily a Eurogame player so their coins are a thematic match for a lot of games I own. Their price-point is roughly the same as Fantasy Coin – on the lower end of the spectrum, overall – although because they have five different sizes and styles in every coin set, the price point varies depending on what specific coins you buy.
I’m still genuinely surprised at how perfect Artana’s “Ancient Greek” coins are for Akrotiri. The specific motif perfectly matches the designs in the game, and I couldn’t ask for more.
For Archipelago I wanted coins fitting a 1700’s nautical aesthetic. These are from Artana’s “Pirate Ships” theme. The other coins in the set were a little too “skull and crossbones” for what I wanted (although colonizers ARE just another form of pirate), but I thought these two coins fit the theme really well.
I mean, these “Early English Kings” coins aren’t technically thematically appropriate. But I had them and figured I’d toss them in with a game set in 1800’s Bavaria because… well because the game needed some coins.
Artana’s “Middle Ages” theme is great for a game set… in the middle ages. They’re a little more Anglo-Saxon than Frank or Norman, but no one’s ever really going to notice. Ystari games once made coins for Caylus which were a perfect thematic match for Troyes; alas, they are no longer available.
Really, any of the Japanese-themed metal coins I’ve seen or owned – from the Tokaido coins to Fantasy Coin’s “Feudal Japan” theme – would work well in Yamatai. But as beautiful as this game is, I wanted something with a bit more variety. Artana’s “Japanese” theme fit the bill perfectly.
I’m a little torn on the Giochix Historical Coins. On the one hand, they’re nice sizes and weights, and they feel and sound great. On the other hand, they’re not really filling any sort of necessary niche. Artana has the “historical” space covered pretty well, and Fantasy Coin’s selection of SFF themes is pretty universal. If they were going to create specifically thematic coins, I wish they’d have filled some of the holes in this tiny industry, or just gone completely generic, which actually would’ve fit their physicality a little better. All that said, Giochix did manage to create a couple of themes I found useful, specifically their “Pre-Colombian” theme, which is an area of the world other companies have neglected. It is, however, pretty niche, and I understand why they chose to make more applicable themes for Eurogames. I only have two minor gripes: First, the shiny finish – while not necessarily bad in and of itself – does make the denominations a little hard to tell apart at a distance. Second, the relief on the faces of the coins is very shallow, looking much more like modern Euros than anything fantastical or historical. The problem this leads to is making it very difficult to differentiate coins from different themes, but if they’re assigned to a specific game this shouldn’t really be an issue. (It’s only an issue for nutty people like me who have this many different coin sets.) They’re a good price, coming in at about 24¢ (US) per coin, which is on the low end of the scale. Their affordability goes a long way to ameliorate the complaints I have. Now, it’s just a matter of figuring out their availability outside Kickstarter.
There aren’t many coins out there with a South/Central American theme, so when Giochix made their “Pre-Colombian” set, I knew I had to put some in my copy of Altiplano.
Okay, so it’s a bit of a stretch to have Giochix’s “Spanish Colonial” set representing Heaven & Ale, a game about beer-brewing monks more likely set in Germany or Belgium, but there were Benedictine monasteries on the Iberian peninsula, so I’m just gonna run with it.
“Celtic Apogee”. Can’t be a better fit. As a side note, the metal coins for Clans of Caledonia would also be a great match for Isle of Skye, but I wanted to differentiate the two.
Since I got these sets in bulk from Giochix’s Kickstarter, I ended up also getting their “Ancient Rome” set. But I have no game to put it in. I would be suitable for Concordia or Trajan or any game set in Ancient Rome, but I already have coins in Concordia, and no other game with a Roman setting at the moment. Here’s a picture anyway.
REAL CURRENCY
Sometimes, fake coins either aren’t the answer or aren’t available. If you can’t find fake coins for your games, the best option might be actual currency, either historical or current. I’ve used real currency in 5 games, so far. The real problem with acquiring real currency, especially if it’s historical or foreign (I’m in the US), is availability and price. Most of the time you’re not going to find it any cheaper than fake coinage, and getting enough coins in large enough lots to use for board games can sometimes be a chore. If you’re willing to do the extra legwork, though, you can get ahold of some really nice coins.
Ukrainian Kopiyka/Hryvna
When I published the original version of this article, I saw people shortly after talking about Ukrainian coinage for games. I followed through on picking some up, because they are INSANELY cheap in this context, running about 8¢ per coin. Which, incidentally, is massively higher than the exchange rate for some of them, but still massively cheaper than fake coinage. The design is pretty, and is the same across all the kopiykas, and they come in all the standard European denominations. There’s a problem, though. The 1s and 10s are extremely small, thin, and light. Smaller and thinner than a dime, and significantly lighter. For me, this is a massive issue, for a number of reasons. They’re so small and thin I actually have trouble picking them up, which makes them frustrating to use. But more importantly, they’re not really an aesthetic upgrade from punchboard coins. Every time I used them, I found myself disappointed and just wanting to go back to the cardboard ones. There is one MASSIVE exception here: the Ukrainian 1 Hryvna coins, which I’ll detail below under “Village”.
The unlike the kopiykas, the 1 Hryvna coins are actually pretty fantastic. They’re a little bigger than a quarter, and they’re really beautiful. You’ll have to cope with a very, very Orthodox design, and they’re obviously only good for games with a single denomination. But all those features make them really perfect for Village, a game with a small number of single denomination coins and a church as a major part of the theme!
I couldn’t find good, fake coins for Le Havre, so I just bought real ones! These are WWII-era aluminum “Emergency Coins” from France, and they’re absolutely fantastic. They’re a little light, being made from aluminum, but they’re beautiful and thematic, even if the time period is a little off. Beware, though: There are two different kinds of these coins. Some are from the French Republic, occupied in WWII by the Germans but still opposed to them, and some are from Vichy France, a French state who became collaborationists with the Germans. You can tell them apart (both physically and in ideology) by their mottos: The Republic coins say “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”), where the Vichy coins say “Travail, Famille, Patrie” (or “Work, Family, Fatherland”. YEAH). Don’t get the Nazi-adjacent coins.
Good Austrian coins for games are hard to find at a good price. The thematic ones – especially for a game like Grand Austria Hotel – are prohibitively expensive. Granted, it’s not entirely necessary to replace the money tracks in GAH, but I wanted to anyway. I ended up picking up a bunch of semi-modern Austrian Groschen. They’re a little small, and they might be too modern for the theme, but they’re Austrian and that’s enough for me.
I absolutely can’t take credit for this particular idea. I saw a reply on BGG from user TRONOFOTHEDEAD with the idea of using Indian Head Pennies and Buffalo Nickels for Great Western Trail, and I followed suit. I gotta say, I *love* these coins for this game, especially the 2-cent coin as the round marker. This is a rather expensive upgrade. The bulk of the coins aren’t too bad. The Buffalo Nickels are actually only about 7¢ per coin, but the Indian Head Pennies run about 60¢ each. The two, together, average about 37¢ per coin, which is on the high end, but not terrible. It’s the 2-cent coin which really breaks things, though. I paid $14 for the 2-cent coin alone, the common price range is for coins in not great shape. To be fair, when shopping for coins like these, you’re rarely going to get coins in decent shape at these prices. This is the cost for what are called “culls”, or coins collectors have separated out as junk and are selling in bulk because they’re not collectible. But they’re perfect for board games! As a side note, the metal coins for Montana: Heritage Edition are a near-perfect thematic match for Great Western Trail, if Big Kid Games decides to sell them at retail.
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect upgrade than these. The included coins are clearly modeled after rubles, so real rubles are a great replacement. This set was comparatively expensive, costing me about $18 for 20 coins, but since I only needed those 20 and they were so thematically perfect, I bit the bullet. The problem, now, is 90’s era rubles are pretty difficult to find. I tried searching for them on eBay (where I got these) and couldn’t find a decent lot.
OTHER GENERIC COINS
These are a couple of examples of other fake coins not specifically designed for board games, but which work well under certain circumstances.
Pachinko Tokens
Pachinko tokens are an absolutely fantastic option for generic coins, especially if you want something vaguely U.S.A. themed. I originally bought a large lot of them for a planned LARP which never materialized, and have since repurposed them for several different games. Almost all pachinko/pachislo tokens are about the same size and weight as a US quarter, and most of them will come with Japanese, vaguely American, or casino/gambling designs. Mine are mostly U.S.A. themed, so I use them in games with a modern Western theme.
No Thanks doesn’t actually have currency, per se, but it does have a set of tokens used for gameplay. My generic gold pachinko tokens fit the bill very well.
Again, modern Western setting, and nearly thematic coins to go with it. A great addition to Suburbia. At least right up until I get my copy of the Collector’s Edition, which includes bespoke metal coins!
Pirate Dubloons
“Pirate Dubloon” is probably the most ubiquitous theme in fake coinage, both metal and plastic. I got these particular coins on Amazon, for really cheap. They’re about he same size as a US quarter and come in 4 different finishes. Note: these are the same coins Eagle & Gryphon Games sells for Empires: Age of Discovery, but they’re MUCH cheaper on Amazon and can be obtained in larger quantities.
I don’t have a hell of a lot of pirate-themed games in my collection, so I found the one game they work really well with.
CUSTOM POKER CHIPS
Some games just scream for custom poker chips instead of metal coins, and I can’t help but oblige. I’ve made custom chips both for currency and tokens for games, but I’ve only included pictures of the currency here. Making custom poker chips is actually fairly easy with a set of relatively inexpensive tools. I’ve created a tutorial on how to do it, which you can find HERE. That tutorial also has links for artwork which can be used for printing your own stickers for the games I detail here.
The square wood “coins” included with Capital Lux, frankly, baffle me. They neither look like gold coins nor match the theme of the game, and for a card game as beautiful as Capital Lux, with stunning art from the always amazing Kwanchai Moriya, they actually detract. So it was a no-brainer for me to design chips for the game.
There’s a chance I may replace these with full-size custom poker chips some day, but for right now I love using these mini poker chips in Lord$ of Vega$. These particular chips aren’t available anymore, as far as I know, which is a shame. They’re the only mini poker chips I’ve found modeled after regular chips instead of the plastic, ridged ones, which I viscerally dislike.
Okay, there are a couple of different sites offering a metal cube upgrade for Terraforming Mars, to replace the metallic plastic cubes included with the game. The upgrade is phenomenal, and it was one of the first things I ordered after getting the game. Here’s a pic of that set. But it’s always bothered me that the “gold” cubes in the set are the gold bars from the Stonemaier Treasure Chest instead of actual cubes. I know it’s a piddling thing, but it just seemed a little off. A friend of mine, Eric, is the biggest Terraforming Mars fanatic I know. My gaming group plays the game a lot, and Eric plays it even more, with multiple groups he joins to play. So it only makes sense he’d be the one crazy enough to actually requisition a new set of metal cubes for Terraforming Mars, ones better matching the style of the game by a) actually having CUBES for the gold, and b) all being different sizes. Here’s a pic of these new, awesome cubes. This set is better, IMO, than the ones you can get from The Broken Token**. Eric** plans to make them available via an Etsy page soon, and I’ll update this article with a link as soon as it’s up and running.
DISHONORABLE MENTION
I know I already mentioned the coins for Tokaido’s Collector’s Edition, but before I bought the CE I had these coins for my retail edition. They’re unmitigated garbage. They’re thin and flimsy and tiny and they don’t sound great or feel particularly good and they’re really not any better than the carboard coins and they’re Chinese and not Japanese and they’re trash. A pic of these awful coins I paid $2.47 for 40 coins, shipped, and I got ripped off, honestly.
COINS I DON’T OWN AND WHY
Obviously I’m not going to go into detail here about games I don’t own which include metal coins. I mentioned several sets in the Bespoke section above. But here are some details on some metal coins made by other companies and why I haven’t added them to any of my games. The main reason I don’t own any of these is price. I was willing to spend the extra bucks for game-specific coins for LoW and 7 Wonders, and maybe my set of Russian Rubles, because the theming made it (sort of) worth the extra cost (I’ll be honest: I own and love those coins, but probably wouldn’t pay the price again. Maybe. I think?). Most of the coins below cost nearly the same (75₵-$1 per coin), but aren’t specifically themed for a board game. In a lot of cases, getting enough coins for a board game involves multiple “sets” – as the manufacturers define them – so you don’t run short during play. With these manufacturers, multiple sets just end up being too damned spendy. That being said, the coins they make do look fantastic. The designs are really good, but they’ll need to come down in price before I’d be willing to buy some.
The designs here are really great. I contemplated getting a set of their Arabic theme for Five Tribes, but I couldn’t justify the cost. Even in bulk, at their cheapest offering, they’re still 70₵ per coin. Most games, in my experience, require 50-60 coins to ensure you don’t run out at higher player counts, which rounds out to about $35-$48 for a set (depending on how you acquire them). That’s a little above my top end; half-again to double what I paid for the coins from Fantasy Coin and Artana.
Campaign Coins are really beautiful, and have the most “high fantasy” feel of any I’ve found. I actually considered getting sets from them for Lords of Xidit, simply because they match better thematically. However, at their cheapest, they’re about identical in price to the Legendary coins, so just out of my range.
Minion Games doesn’t have a wide variety, with only two different themes: “Metal Dragon Coins” and “Futuristic Metal Coins” (the coins for Hegemonic), and they range in price from 70₵ to 90₵ per coin. Which is, frankly, absurd. They’re cool looking coins, but they’re absolutely not worth the price.
The only reason I don’t have experience with Moedas’s coins is because I just haven’t ordered any yet. They have some very awesome bespoke coins for specific games, including the giants like Terra Mystica, Great Western Trail, Lisboa, and more. Their prices are right in line with companies like Artana and Fantasy Coin, and their coins look genuinely great. They’re a Brazilian company and their website doesn’t handle currency conversion, so to place an order in North America you have to e-mail them directly, which does add a layer of difficulty. It’s not something I’m at all averse to doing – the owner replies occasionally on BGG and other users have posted positively about their products and service – I just haven’t done it yet.
Again, gorgeous, but expensive. Not quite as expensive as some of the others here, but still just outside what I would consider affordable. And, honestly, I haven’t seen any recent information about this company, so they may not be making coins anymore.
Shirepost’s coins aren’t really viable for this kind of application. They primarily do licensed coins (Lord of the Rings, Kingkiller Chronicle, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc.), and they’re not built for bulk orders. They’re designed to be a novelty, and are wildly expensive, coming in at well in excess of $1 per coin. So, they’re cool, but not really worth it for board gaming.
Rare Elements Foundry is one of the first companies I ever encountered making metal fantasy coins. Unfortunately, they are ungodly expensive for the most part. Their coins run around $22-$25 for a set of 10, pushing them up to and even beyond Shirepost’s prices. Their coins are very beautiful, but not feasible in quantity.
BEST GENERIC COINS
Here’s the thing: I love upgrading the coins in my games, and I think metal coins add a genuinely massive aesthetic boost. They’re absolutely my favorite type of upgrade. BUT, I also understand buying separate, thematic coin sets for a ton of different games isn’t for everyone. You might want metal coins, but would rather just have one or two generic sets you can use across multiple games whenever you play. So here are my opinions on the best coins for that purpose: Honorable Mention – Poker Chips Poker chips, either generic or custom, are a great option. They’re frequently cheaper than metal coins, and you can get them in a bajillion different styles with or without denominations. But they’re not metal, and that’s an issue. They’re a fantastic option, though. Honorable Mention – Pachinko Tokens Granted, pachinko tokens have a weird “theme” and they look more modern than thematic, but honestly they’re great coins and you just can’t find a better deal. They come so cheap and in such large quantities I have to mention them here as an option for the budget-conscious. Honorable Mention – Scythe Coins The Scythe coins are absolutely fantastic quality and, as I mentioned before, are almost so thematic they’re themeless. If you want a set of coins with a little extra flair and don’t think their odd theming will clash with your games, you absolutely can’t go wrong here.
BEST SINGLE-DENOMINATION COINS – CHARTERSTONE COINS
Stonemaier does it again with their Charterstone metal coins. You absolutely cannot get a better set of coins for games with a single denomination. Some examples of games these coins would work great in are Lancaster, Russian Railroads, Villages of Valeria, Alchemists, and Village. But, basically any game where you only need 1s, get yourself a set of these. Charterstone Coins
BEST OVERALL GENERIC COINS – SEAFALL COINS
The clear winner here are the Seafall coins from Plaid Hat Games. They may be rather generic, but their design is beautiful, and they’d make a fantastic addition to any game you’d want to use them with. They’re a tiny bit expensive at about 40¢ per coin, but there’s over 100 coins in the set and if you’re only buying them once, it’s an absolute no-brainer. They’re a great size and weight, and the colors and finishes are unmatched. I really like how distinguishable the colors are on these coins, and I absolutely love the satin finish because it keeps glare low and amps up the color variance, making the coins easy to tell apart from across the table.
I acquire new coins as I get new games, and sometimes coins change homes when a game leaves my collection. To track and show these changes, I’ve started THIS GEEKLIST on BGG. Do you have metal coins in your collection? Do you want to show them off? Please add your own pics and descriptions to that GeekList! I know my collection is not comprehensive, and the more pictures and suggestions for coins and they games they work with would be incredible! Thanks for spending the time to peruse my compulsion for metal coins in board games! I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures and commentary. If you have metal coins of your own and would like to show them off, I’d love to see them added to the GeekList, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you want to talk about metal coins, or DIY upgrades, or board games in general, you can always find me on Twitter @PixelartMeeple, on Instagram @pixelartmeeple, on BGG at PixelartMeeple, and on my website www.pixelartmeeple.com! You can also hear my (much more succinct) thoughts on games on The Five By podcast. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming!
Hey folks! Today I returned to the US after a week aboard the Oasis of the Seas gambling at the single zero roulette table. If you're interested, you can read the original story here where I kept day by day notes in the comments about my winnings and observations. Finished ~$2500 ahead Martingaling for a week. Cruise Background I wanted to vacation in Vegas this fall, my wife wanted to cruise again, so I spent a few months searching cruise lines, looking for a single zero roulette table with at least an 8-bet min/max spread. As it turns out, there are thirteen cruise ships in the world that fit that profile (that I discovered), and after checking all of them against NovembeDecember departure dates from CONUS, I downselected to the Oasis of the Seas from Royal Caribbean for a 7-Day Caribbean cruise, booked it, and thus it was so! The Game For the duration of this cruise, I played single zero roulette and nothing else. The casino on board the Oasis of the Seas has four roulette tables; two American roulette tables on the smoking side, and one each American/European on the non-smoking side. I use the word "European" loosely because while it was single-zero, it had no European rules on it. All four tables were $5 - $100 on the inside, and $5 - $1000 on the outside. I attempted to make arrangements before the cruise as well as with the casino manager during the cruise to raise the limits for my gambling to no avail since I didn't have an established play history with Club Royale. I also requested La Partage be put into effect during my session play without luck - but that was a long shot anyway; the only single zero table I know of in the US with a minimum bet lower than $25 is the $10 - $3000 La Partage table at the Soaring Eagle in Michigan (sorry guys, terminal games don't count!) Single zero roulette tables have a 2.7% house edge; down from the scandalous 5.4% house edge of American roulette (let alone the scammy triple zero crap that Carnival Cruise lines and the Venetian in Vegas are doing); La Partage lowers it to a magnificent 1.35%, but alas - I was destined to go without. My Bets Most of you are probably familiar with a martingale) series bet. For anyone else; on a $5 - $1000 table, $2,000 can bankroll a 8-bet sequence where I double my bet each time I lose, restarting my bet sequence each win. Due to chip denominations, my martingale progression is $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, which I find more reasonable than 5/10/20/40/80/160/320/640 due to the typical chip denominations 1/5/25/100/500/1000. In a tip of my hat to superstition, my increases from $10 to $25, $100 to $250, and $1000 to $2500 where applicable are my way of "punishing" the casino for making me leave the comfort zone of the outside minimum bet. Mock me if you must; its my personal flair - if my bets grow that high I "deserve" to win more than my base bet for the stress of having to bankroll the roll. The chances of heads or tails on a coin flip are 50% for either outcome. On a single-zero table without La Partage, the equivalent bets - black/red, even/odd, 1-18/19-36 is ~48.6%, with the other 2.7% representing the green zero, or house edge - creating a theoretical loss probability of 2.7% of your bet per bet over time. While the probability of an individual spin being black or red in my case is ~48.6%, the martingale betting progression ties your bets into a session, such that on the table I'm playing on, as long as I don't guess wrong 8 times in a row, I always win. On the off-chance that any newbs are reading this, this is NOT a "strategy" or "guaranteed way to make money." Martingale betting is a low risk, low reward means of using a large sum of money to win a little sum of money - pretty much the opposite of what people go into casinos to do. In statistical terms, the chances of me guessing wrong 8 times in a row in an 8 spin series is three tenths of one percent...but no one sits down for 8 spins and leaves - so my gambling is that when the house spins my losing sequence...I'm not there. =D Such is gambling. Goals! I've learned over the years that if I don't sit at a table with a fixed goal of when to leave, I will get bored and start making side bets (other even money bets or thirds) - more ways to win also mean more ways to lose, and when I am gambling, I am heavily socializing and drinking; I can't keep track of all of it at the same time. My goal is thus to always leave with 120% of my bankroll. This trip was a bit confusing for me because I couldn't reconcile what my bankroll was. Not knowing whether the table limit would be fixed to $1000, or be able to be raised to $10,000 I brought $5,000 in cash with another $35,000 available as credit - I'd wrongly assumed the casino would at least double the table min/max to $10-$2000, and had been hoping they would leave the minimum and double the maximum, adding a one-bet buffer to my 8-spin series. With a $1,000 bet maximum, I stopped bringing more than $2,000 to the casino. If my bankroll is $2,000, I aim to leave with $2400. If my bankroll is $5,000, I aim to leave with $6,000. With $10,000, I aim to leave with $12,000. I initially hoped to turn $2,000 into $2,400, but after doing that the first night gambling and the prospect of the rest of the cruise being bereft of gambling, I decided that since I'd brought $5,000 to gamble with, even if I could only play with $2,000 of it, my 120% goal meant I wanted $1,000 in winnings or bust. On day two when I realized how stingy Club Royale was, and that I'd be buying my own drinks, I shelled out $360 for the liquor package, and adjusted my winning threshold to also cover the liquor package. Then there was a $300 spa treatment. Then an $1800 studio photography session since my wife wanted some nice pictures - something we've not done in a decade. With these confusing inputs leaving me unsure of how to decide if I was up or down, it came down to the fact that while the casino was generally open 8-12 hours a day, the lone roulette table with the single zero didn't open until 8:00 PM - about when the cruise shows started. I did some begging and pleading to have it opened earlier every day to mixed success - a bit on the first day and on the last day, with nothing in the middle. They really wanted people on the American tables - which I had to resist, since for much of the cruise, it was American roulette or nothing. I contented myself during those periods with drinking, socializing with other gamblers, watching, drinking, and trying to find people who didn't have the booze package so I could buy them drinks. Fun Facts
Over 6 days of gambling, averaging 4 hours per day, I hit the $1,000 table maximum bet twice. Both were heart-attack inducing. The first was at 0100 on day 5, I was the last gambler at the table, $1,000 on red didn't screw me, and I took it as a sign to go to bed. The second happened on Day 6; since a $2,000 loss would have left me break even at that point, I took a short break, stretched my legs, and came back.
In the same period, I hit the $250 bet mark in my progression 4 times (resetting from $250 back to $5), and the $500 bet limit zero times. $100 and below bets were too numerous to count.
Total winnings were probably closer to $2800, but I tip freely when its free money.
Despite my "follow the house" betting method of deciding to bet red or black (which capitalizes on streaks), and I never choose which to bet on, there was one dealer would occasionally call a color, and she was only wrong once. I started switching bets when she'd call a color because it was spooky. If I asked her, most of the time she'd say, "I don't know" - but out of 20-30 "calls" over a week that I saw her spinning for me, she missed one.
If I had the balls to play numbers or neighbor bets, I'd have made tens of thousands; I don't believe in ball control; not on modern wheels, but one dealer put out four 28s in 8 spins, three of them in a row, 7 of the others were neighbor bet winners, and he just kept doing it. He's been a casino dealer 44 years...and kept telling people what number to bet on, and no one would listen to him. God, I wish I had.
I learned to play craps as a backup in case the single zero table was closed, but the craps tables were $5 - $300 with 1x odds, shifting to 3-4-5x with $50 minimum bets. I need to ease into craps, and didn't want to have to track different odds systems, nor did I want to play on a $300 limit table - all my practicing on craps was with 3-4-5x odds on a $5 - $2,000 table, and I have a tendency to double down on everything in every game. And in life too; Losing a 5/15 bet makes me put $20 on the pass line. It gets expensive quickly, so I'm not playing craps with less than $5k, $10k to be comfortable, and I need at least a $2k table.
Actually, all the games were a bit ...less competitive. 6:5 blackjack, 1x craps odds, no Euro rules on the Euro table, crappy slots payouts - I get it; I really do. Captive audience, no need to compete with other casinos. Once they're on board, you've got 'em for a week; they're gonna gamble or they're not.
Club Royale has terrible comps compared to Casinos at Sea with NCL. It takes 2500 points with Club Royale to earn comped drinks while gambling. Not only did Club Royale not buy my drinks this cruise, at the rate of my point earnings, it will take me 4 more cruises gambling at the same rate to earn free drinks. That's right; $10,000+ to get free drinks. I did however come away with an amazing $100 off my next cruise voucher.
Assuming total winnings of $2,800 (before tips), being right 48.6% of the time, I gambled through ~1200 roulette spins in a week.
Anyway; it was a blast - but I'll probably go to Vegas for my next vacation instead of cruising. I want to gamble during the day, and go to shows in the evening, not wander around during the day, then have to decide whether I want to gamble or watch shows in the evening. edit And here's a picture of me at my remote office aboard the cruise ship in case anyone was wondering what your mean old /gambling moderator ShelixAnakasian looks like.
/r/Numismatology currency of the month September 2019, The U.S Dollar Coin
Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions. Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794.
Flowing Hair Dollar
1794-1795 Designer Robert Scot Edge Lettered: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT Diameter 40.0mm Weight 27.0 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The Flowing Hair design appeared on the first United States Silver Dollars in 1794, but only lasted until sometime in 1795, when it was replaced with the Draped Bust design. The 1794 Silver Dollar is a rare coin, represented by approximately 150-200 survivors. The 1795 Silver Dollar is much more common, but the demand from type collectors keeps the prices high.
Draped Bust Dollar
1795-1804 Designer Robert Scot Edge Lettered: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT Diameter 40.0mm Weight 27.0 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The 1795 Draped Bust dollar represents the initial appearance of this design in American coinage. In the silver dollar series the obverse motif was continued through pieces dated 1804 (business strikes were last made in 1803, however), while the reverse motif was employed only through early 1798. The obverse features a portrait of Liberty as just described, with LIBERTY above, the date below and eight stars to the left and seven to the right. Varieties also exist which show 16 stars, as well as 13. The reverse shows a “small” eagle perched on a cloud within an open wreath. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds. Among early silver dollars, the Draped Bust obverse combined with the Small Eagle reverse may be the scarcest type. Among the four dates, 1795-1798, while 1797 is the lowest mintage, prices for all four are roughly the same. Specimens exist in all grades, with those most frequently encountered apt to be in Very Good to Very Fine preservation. Extremely Fine and About Uncirculated pieces are obviously scarcer, and an Uncirculated specimen is a prime rarity. Examples often show parallel mint-caused adjustment marks. As these coins were produced strictly for utilitarian purposes, no attention was paid to striking them carefully. The Heraldic Eagle type continues the Draped Bust obverse as preceding, except that the stars have been standardized to seven left and six right, the only exception being a scarce variety of 1799 with eight left and five right. The reverse is similar to that used on the dime of the year and is adapted from the Great Seal of the United States. Large Eagle Bust dollars were minted from 1798 through 1803. In later years, “restrike” pieces were produced dated 1804 as were Proof restrikes from new dies bearing the dates 1801, 1802 and 1803. Among business strikes, examples most often encountered are apt to be dated 1798 or 1799. Those dated 1800 are scarcer, while those dated from 1801 to 1803 are considerably scarcer, although they are not rarities. Dozens of varieties exist, and are listed in a work by M. H. Bolender.
Liberty Seated Dollar
1836-1873 Designer Christian Gobrecht Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 26.73 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper Following the production of an illustrious series of Liberty Seated pattern dollars in 1836, 1838 and 1839, the Liberty Seated style was first produced for large-scale circulating coinage in 1840. From then through 1865, coinage of the “No Motto” reverse type was continuous. The design parallels that of other Liberty Seated issues, with Miss Liberty seated on a rock, holder in her left hand a liberty cap on a pole and with her right hand holding a shield inscribed LIBERTY. Thirteen stars are above, and the date is below. The reverse shows an eagle perched on an olive branch and holding three arrows, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA above and ONE DOL. below. Within the 1840-1865 span there are a number of scarce and rare issues, with 1851, 1852 and 1858 designated as major rarities. Commoner issues are readily available in grades from Very Good through Extremely Fine, with most survivors being in Fine to Very fine grade. As silver dollars were not circulated as extensively as other denominations, few are seen in grades below Very Good. AU coins are available as are Uncirculated pieces, particularly 1859-O and 1860-O in the latter category (survivors from a small group of coins which came to light during the Treasury release of 1962). Superb Uncirculated pieces are rarities. Proofs were first distributed to collectors in 1858 and are available from that date through 1865, although scattered earlier issues occasionally come on the market. The Liberty Seated dollar design was modified in 1866 by the addition of the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the ribbon or scroll above the eagle on the reverse. Otherwise the design is the same as that which had been in use since 1840. The With Motto type continued in use through 1873. The glory days of the silver dollar denomination were yet to come, and mintages were low in comparison to what would happen with the Morgan silver dollar beginning in 1878. The only “common” Liberty Seated dollars in this range are the 1871 and 1872, and even they are scarce in relation to later issues. The 1870-S is one of the legendary rarities in U.S. numismatics, with only about a dozen pieces known. The few Carson City issues (1870-1873) are also quite tough, with miniscule original mintages. As Liberty Seated silver dollars did not circulate as actively as smaller denominations, pieces in well-worn grades such as Good and Very Good are much scarcer (though no more desirable or expensive) than coins in Fine to Very Fine grade, the latter being the conditions typically seen. Extremely Fine and AU pieces are available, with Uncirculated pieces being somewhat scarcer, though by no means rare. Superb Uncirculated pieces are fairly rare. Proofs were made of all Philadelphia Mint issues, and exist today in proportion to their original mintages.
Trade Dollar
1873-1885 Designer William Barber Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 27.2 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The Trade dollar was first minted in 1873 in response to the need for a coin to compete with the Mexican “dollar” (actually the 8 Reale or Peso) in the Orient. Weighing 420 grains, or slightly heavier (1.8%) than a standard silver dollar, the Trade dollar was intended for export only. Despite this, they were legal tender in the United States until 1876, at which time Congress revoked their status. Quantity production continued through 1878, after which point only token quantities were made for proof sets through 1883 (the few pieces dated 1884 and 1885 are of dubious origin). In 1887, the law authorizing the Trade dollar was repealed, and the treasury officially redeemed all un-mutilated pieces. The obverse depicts Miss Liberty seated on a bale of merchandise, her right hand holding a branch, her left hand holding a ribbon inscribed “LIBERTY, a sheaf of wheat behind, and the sea in front. IN GOD WE TRUST appears at the bottom just above the date. Stars surround the upper portion. The reverse depicts an eagle holding three arrows and a branch, with E PLURBUS UNUM on a ribbon above, 420 GRAINS, 900 FINE, below. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TRADE DOLLAR surrounds. The numismatist today can readily secure a trade dollar in grades from Fine through AU. Some pieces display chopmarks, consisting of Oriental characters impressed by bankers and merchants when the pieces circulated in the Orient. Except for the ultra-rare Proofs of 1884 and 1885, most dates are available, although a good portion of the 1878-CC’s were melted shortly after they were struck, making them elusive today. Uncirculated coins are scarce, and superb Uncirculated pieces are rare. Proofs exist in proportion to their original mintages and are primarily available from the years 1879 through 1883.
Morgan Dollar
1878-1921 Designer George T. Morgan Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 27.2 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The Coinage Act of 1873 demonetized silver, leading to the demise of the silver dollar. Although Trade dollars were produced from 1873-1878, they were meant for circulation overseas and were not legal tender in America. In response to the sour economic condition that persisted through much of the 1870's, and as a sop to Western suppliers of silver, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act in 1878. The Act required the U.S. government to purchase large quantities of silver and turn it into silver dollars. Thus, the dollar denomination was restored once again in the form of the Morgan dollar. Named after its designer, George T. Morgan, the Morgan dollar is one of the most popular of all American coins. It's large size, abundant supply, and pleasing appearance make it both affordable and desirable. Morgan Dollars were struck without interruption from 1878-1904, then again in 1921. U.S. Mints that produced Morgan Dollars include Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver, and Carson City. Mintmarks for all mints except Philadelphia were placed on the reverse of the coins just beneath the ribbon bow of the wreath. Key dates in this series include 1889-CC, 1893-S, and 1895 (Proof only). Other dates (such as 1895-O) are considered condition-rarities (common in low grade but extremely rare in high grade). Silver Dollars were once the mainstay of Las Vegas casinos, where they were used in slot machines and other gaming devices. Once silver prices advanced beyond the face value of the coins, the casinos converted over to chips and tokens. Some of the popularity of Silver Dollars can be attributed to three watershed events: 1) the sale of the Redfield hoard in the 1970s; 2) the GSA sales of the 1980's; and 3) the Continental-Illinois Bank Hoard of the 1980s. The Redfield hoard consisted of hundreds of bags of silver dollars, most Uncirculated and include a wide range of dates, most from the San Francisco Mint. The GSA sales consisted of millions of Carson City mint silver dollars discovered in Treasury vaults in the 1970s, apparently of coins that had never circulated. The Continental-Illinois Bank Hoard was even larger than the Redfield hoard and the overall quality exceeded that of both the Redfield and GSA hoards. Popular collecting methods include high-grade date sets, complete sets from low to high grade, and by VAM varieties. VAM (the acronym for Van Allen-Mallis) refers to a set of Morgan Dollar varieties, some of which are insignificant and other important varieties that can be identified at arm's length.
Peace Dollar
1921-1935 Designer Anthony de Francisci Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 26.73 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The so-called Peace silver dollar, designed by Anthony DeFrancisci, was first produced in December 1921 following a large mintage of Morgan dollars that same year. The idea for a coin to commemorate the peace following World War I came from Farran Zerbe, former President of the ANA from 1908 to 1910 and active promoter of numismatics, particularly during the first quarter of the 20th century. The Peace dollar depicts the obverse of Miss Liberty, facing left, wearing a diadem of spikes (in somewhat similar style to that seen on the Statue of Liberty). LIBERTY is above, while IN GOD WE TRUST and the date are below. The reverse shows an eagle perched on a rock, with a laurel branch, and with PEACE inscribed below. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and EPLURIBUS UNUM are above, while ONE DOLLAR is to be seen just below the center. Rays of an unseen sun emanate from the lower right. Issues of 1921, and a few pieces dated 1922, are in high relief, although collectors have not necessarily differentiated this as a distinct design. It was found that the high relief cause problems in having the pieces strike up properly, so in 1922 the motifs were redone to a shallower format, a style continued through 1935. Mintage of Peace silver dollars was continuous from 1921 through 1928 and again in 1934 and 1935. In 1964, the Denver Mint struck 316,076 Peace Dollars but, before they were released into circulation, all of the coins were destroyed. A few may have been purchased or "taken" by Mint employees and rumors persist of this coin's existence. However, for fear of confiscation by Treasury officials, none have yet appeared on the market. Were it legal to own, the 1964-D Peace Dollar would become one of the most valuable of all United States coins. While there are no extreme rarities in the rather short-lived Peace dollar series, the 1928-P is the key date, commanding a good price even in well-circulated grades. Most of the San Francisco issues are tough in top uncirculated grades, particularly the 1927-S and 1928-S as well as the 1924-S and 1934-S. Specimens of the common issues from 1921 through 1925 are readily obtainable in various grades from Very Fine through Uncirculated. Sharply struck Uncirculated pieces with full luster and with a minimum of marks are quite scarce.
Ike Dollar
1971-1978 Designer Frank Gasparro / Michael Collins & James Cooper Edge Reeded Diameter 38.5 mm Weight 22.7 grams Metal 75% Copper, 25% Nickel. In 1970, Congress passed legislation authorizing a new one dollar coin to commemorate both the death of General Dwight David Eisenhower and man's first landing on the moon (on July 20, 1969). The obverse features a bust of Eisenhower facing left; the reverse copies the insignia of the Apollo 11 mission, minus the name of the mission. "Ike" dollars made for circulation were of a cupro-nickel composition. Special Uncirculated and Proof versions containing 40% silver were struck and sold at a premium to collectors. A new design was created to celebrate the 1976 Bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The 1976 Bicentennial coins can be found in two different variations. Variety 1 features a low relief design with thick, bold, non-serifed lettering. Variety 2 features a stronger design, with lettering that has serifs, is thinner and more delicate, yet higher in relief. The most obvious difference can be seen on the second S of STATES, where on Variety 1, the bottom tail of the S is considerably higher than the lowest bar of the E. On Variety 1, the peaks of the M in AMERICA come to sharp points.
Susan B. Anthony Dollar
1979-1999 Designer Frank Gasparro Edge Reeded Diameter 26.5 mm Weight 8.1 grams Metal 75% Copper, 25% Nickel. By 1979, half dollars were rarely seen in circulation. The proliferation of vending machines, arcade machines and other coin-operated devices, most of which dispensed goods or services worth more than a quarter dollar (the highest denomination coin in general circulation at the time) prompted a call for a convenient coin of high value, while a Treasury-sponsored study showed that a metallic dollar had a useful life in circulation of 16 years or more, as compared to only 18 months for a paper dollar. Thus, the new small-diameter dollar was conceived. Frank Gasparro produced the designs. The obverse depicts suffragette Susan B. Anthony facing to the right, with stars to the left and right and with IN GOD WE TRUST near the right border. LIBERTY is above and the date is below. The reverse is an adaptation of the motif first used on the 1971 Eisenhower dollar and consists of an eagle landing on the moon, with the earth and E PLURIBUS UNUM above and the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ONE DOLLAR surrounding. From the outset, the public confused the small-diameter dollars with the quarter dollars in circulation, much as they did with the twenty cent piece about 100 years earlier. Vending machines were slow to adopt, or did not make provisions to take the new dollar coin, and most cash registers did not have a “bin” in the change drawer for the additional coin. As a result, public resentment was high and the Anthony dollar was unpopular. Mintage was suspended in 1981 after about 860 million were made, the vast majority of these being 1979s. After an 18-year hiatus, an additional 40 million pieces were struck in 1999.
Sacagawea Dollar
2000-Present Designer Glenna Goodacre / Thomas D. Rogers Sr. Edge Plain / Lettered Diameter 26.5 mm Weight 8.1 grams Metal 88.5% Copper, 6% Zinc, 3.5% Manganese and 2% Nickel The Coinage Act of 1997 called for a new dollar coin of the same size and weight as the Susan B. Anthony dollar, but with a golden color and a plain edge. After a national competition, a new design was chosen featuring a portrait of the Shoshone Indian, Sacagawea, carrying her infant son, Jean-Baptiste (or "Pomp"). The coin was heavily promoted and nearly three-quarters of a billion Sacagawea dollars were struck for circulation. After an initial wave of enthusiasm, demand for the dollar coins dropped and mintages fell to 5-6 million coins per year from 2002 on. Despite intense marketing efforts, Sacagawea dollars are seldom seen outside of collecting circles and are mostly viewed as curiosities or annoyances by the general public. 39 Proof 2000-W Sacagawea Dollar coins were struck in 22 Karat gold at the West Point Mint in June 1999. 27 were melted and the remaining dozen examples were sent to space aboard the space shuttle Columbia, returning to earth five days later on July 22, 1999. Thereafter, the coins were stored in a vault at the Mint Headquarters in Washington, DC. One coin was displayed at a private congressional dinner on or about August 5, 1999. One coin was displayed at the Philadelphia Mint during the first-strike ceremonies for the 2000-P Sacagawea circulation strike coins on November 18, 1999. Sometime in August or September 2001, the dozen Proofs were sent to the Gold Bullion Depository in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The dies for the Gold Proofs were prepared with Thomas D. Rogers, Sr.'s original reverse design featuring 12 tail feathers. Circulation strikes from other mints have 13 tail feathers. 5,500 Sacagawea dollars were placed in random boxes of Cheerios cereal as a means to promote the new coin. Unfortunately, collectors did not discover until years later that these were special coins featuring the prototype reverse with 12 tail feathers on the reverse. These have proven to be great rarities and are easily the most valuable coins in the series.
Presidential Dollars
2007-Present Designer Joseph Menna / Don Everhart Edge Lettered Diameter 26.5 mm Weight 8.1 grams Metal 88.5% Copper, 6% Zinc, 3.5% Manganese and 2% Nickel In 2007 the U.S. Mint began honoring the United States Presidents on circulating coins under the Presidential Dollar Coin Program. Under this program, four Presidential Dollar coins will be issued per year. Each President’s portrait will be struck on one dollar coins and released for circulation for a period of three months. Each President will appear on mint state, proof and satin finish one dollar coins in the order in which they served as President of the United States. Each Presidential Dollar will bear the same Statue of Liberty reverse design. All Presidential Dollar coins contain edge lettering inscriptions with the date and mint mark. From 2007 to 2008 Presidential Dollars had the motto "In God We Trust" located on the edge of the coin. However, since there have been tens of thousands of coins found with missing edge lettering inscriptions, the U.S. Mint changed the location of the motto beginning in 2009. From 2009 to date, all Presidential Dollars will have the motto "In God We Trust" on the obverse of the coin. This program will continue until at least 2016 with Richard M. Nixon’s portrait (in order for any other U.S former Presidents to be honored on circulating coins, it is necessary for the former Presidents to be deceased for at least two years). When the coins were first released in 2007, there was a lot of excitement in the coin market and media about the new coins, especially since the last time the U.S. Mint struck coins with edge lettering inscriptions was back in 1933 on the Saint Gaudens Double Eagles. More excitement came once missing edge lettering dollars were discovered. These are considered major mint errors. Other more minor varieties have surfaced since then, including double overlapped edge lettering, double inverted edge lettering, and weak and partial edge lettering varieties. With so many different Presidential Dollar coins, errors and varieties, this is a definitely an exciting coin series to collect. Note The Gold Dollar Coin and other Gold Coins will have a separate COTM post, Also Silver Eagles and other Bullion Coins will have a separate COTM post. Sources Wikipedia PCGS Coin Facts "United States Coins by Design Types - An Action Guide for the Collector and Investor" by Q. David Bowers
A week of degenerate gambling on the Oasis of the Seas comes to a close!
Hey folks! Today I returned to the US after a week aboard the Oasis of the Seas gambling at the single zero roulette table. If you're interested, you can read the original story here where I kept day by day notes in the comments about my winnings and observations. Finished ~$2500 ahead Martingaling for a week. I called out 14 crew members that I thought were exceptional; 11 of them in the casino - the crew were amazing everywhere. The ship itself is probably due a refit. Elevator buttons broken, chairs broken, everything looking a little run down and scuffed. I won't dig into the ports because everyone in here probably knows their way around the Caribbean by now. =D Cruise Background I wanted to vacation in Vegas this fall, my wife wanted to cruise again, so I spent a few months searching cruise lines, looking for a single zero roulette table with at least an 8-bet min/max spread. As it turns out, there are thirteen cruise ships in the world that fit that profile (that I discovered), and after checking all of them against NovembeDecember departure dates from CONUS, I downselected to the Oasis of the Seas from Royal Caribbean for a 7-Day Caribbean cruise, booked it, and thus it was so! The Game For the duration of this cruise, I played single zero roulette and nothing else. The casino on board the Oasis of the Seas has four roulette tables; two American roulette tables on the smoking side, and one each American/European on the non-smoking side. I use the word "European" loosely because while it was single-zero, it had no European rules on it. All four tables were $5 - $100 on the inside, and $5 - $1000 on the outside. I attempted to make arrangements before the cruise as well as with the casino manager during the cruise to raise the limits for my gambling to no avail since I didn't have an established play history with Club Royale. I also requested La Partage be put into effect during my session play without luck - but that was a long shot anyway; the only single zero table I know of in the US with a minimum bet lower than $25 is the $10 - $3000 La Partage table at the Soaring Eagle in Michigan (sorry guys, terminal games don't count!) Single zero roulette tables have a 2.7% house edge; down from the scandalous 5.4% house edge of American roulette (let alone the scammy triple zero crap that Carnival Cruise lines and the Venetian in Vegas are doing); La Partage lowers it to a magnificent 1.35%, but alas - I was destined to go without. My Bets Most of you are probably familiar with a martingale) series bet. For anyone else; on a $5 - $1000 table, $2,000 can bankroll a 8-bet sequence where I double my bet each time I lose, restarting my bet sequence each win. Due to chip denominations, my martingale progression is $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, which I find more reasonable than 5/10/20/40/80/160/320/640 due to the typical chip denominations 1/5/25/100/500/1000. In a tip of my hat to superstition, my increases from $10 to $25, $100 to $250, and $1000 to $2500 where applicable are my way of "punishing" the casino for making me leave the comfort zone of the outside minimum bet. Mock me if you must; its my personal flair - if my bets grow that high I "deserve" to win more than my base bet for the stress of having to bankroll the roll. The chances of heads or tails on a coin flip are 50% for either outcome. On a single-zero table without La Partage, the equivalent bets - black/red, even/odd, 1-18/19-36 is ~48.6%, with the other 2.7% representing the green zero, or house edge - creating a theoretical loss probability of 2.7% of your bet per bet over time. While the probability of an individual spin being black or red in my case is ~48.6%, the martingale betting progression ties your bets into a session, such that on the table I'm playing on, as long as I don't guess wrong 8 times in a row, I always win. On the off-chance that any newbs are reading this, this is NOT a "strategy" or "guaranteed way to make money." Martingale betting is a low risk, low reward means of using a large sum of money to win a little sum of money - pretty much the opposite of what people go into casinos to do. In statistical terms, the chances of me guessing wrong 8 times in a row in an 8 spin series is three tenths of one percent...but no one sits down for 8 spins and leaves - so my gambling is that when the house spins my losing sequence...I'm not there. =D Such is gambling. Goals! I've learned over the years that if I don't sit at a table with a fixed goal of when to leave, I will get bored and start making side bets (other even money bets or thirds) - more ways to win also mean more ways to lose, and when I am gambling, I am heavily socializing and drinking; I can't keep track of all of it at the same time. My goal is thus to always leave with 120% of my bankroll. This trip was a bit confusing for me because I couldn't reconcile what my bankroll was. Not knowing whether the table limit would be fixed to $1000, or be able to be raised to $10,000 I brought $5,000 in cash with another $35,000 available as credit - I'd wrongly assumed the casino would at least double the table min/max to $10-$2000, and had been hoping they would leave the minimum and double the maximum, adding a one-bet buffer to my 8-spin series. With a $1,000 bet maximum, I stopped bringing more than $2,000 to the casino. If my bankroll is $2,000, I aim to leave with $2400. If my bankroll is $5,000, I aim to leave with $6,000. With $10,000, I aim to leave with $12,000. I initially hoped to turn $2,000 into $2,400, but after doing that the first night gambling and the prospect of the rest of the cruise being bereft of gambling, I decided that since I'd brought $5,000 to gamble with, even if I could only play with $2,000 of it, my 120% goal meant I wanted $1,000 in winnings or bust. On day two when I realized how stingy Club Royale was, and that I'd be buying my own drinks, I shelled out $360 for the liquor package, and adjusted my winning threshold to also cover the liquor package. Then there was a $300 spa treatment. Then an $1800 studio photography session since my wife wanted some nice pictures - something we've not done in a decade. With these confusing inputs leaving me unsure of how to decide if I was up or down, it came down to the fact that while the casino was generally open 8-12 hours a day, the lone roulette table with the single zero didn't open until 8:00 PM - about when the cruise shows started. I did some begging and pleading to have it opened earlier every day to mixed success - a bit on the first day and on the last day, with nothing in the middle. They really wanted people on the American tables - which I had to resist, since for much of the cruise, it was American roulette or nothing. I contented myself during those periods with drinking, socializing with other gamblers, watching, drinking, and trying to find people who didn't have the booze package so I could buy them drinks. Fun Facts
Over 6 days of gambling, averaging 4 hours per day, I hit the $1,000 table maximum bet twice. Both were heart-attack inducing. The first was at 0100 on day 5, I was the last gambler at the table, $1,000 on red didn't screw me, and I took it as a sign to go to bed. The second happened on Day 6; since a $2,000 loss would have left me break even at that point, I took a short break, stretched my legs, and came back.
In the same period, I hit the $250 bet mark in my progression 4 times (resetting from $250 back to $5), and the $500 bet limit zero times. $100 and below bets were too numerous to count.
Total winnings were probably closer to $2800, but I tip freely when its free money.
Despite my "follow the house" betting method of deciding to bet red or black (which capitalizes on streaks), and I never choose which to bet on, there was one dealer would occasionally call a color, and she was only wrong once. I started switching bets when she'd call a color because it was spooky. If I asked her, most of the time she'd say, "I don't know" - but out of 20-30 "calls" over a week that I saw her spinning for me, she missed one.
If I had the balls to play numbers or neighbor bets, I'd have made tens of thousands; I don't believe in ball control; not on modern wheels, but one dealer put out four 28s in 8 spins, three of them in a row, 7 of the others were neighbor bet winners, and he just kept doing it. He's been a casino dealer 44 years...and kept telling people what number to bet on, and no one would listen to him. God, I wish I had.
I learned to play craps as a backup in case the single zero table was closed, but the craps tables were $5 - $300 with 1x odds, shifting to 3-4-5x with $50 minimum bets. I need to ease into craps, and didn't want to have to track different odds systems, nor did I want to play on a $300 limit table - all my practicing on craps was with 3-4-5x odds on a $5 - $2,000 table, and I have a tendency to double down on everything in every game. And in life too; Losing a 5/15 bet makes me put $20 on the pass line. It gets expensive quickly, so I'm not playing craps with less than $5k, $10k to be comfortable, and I need at least a $2k table.
Actually, all the games were a bit ...less competitive. 6:5 blackjack, 1x craps odds, no Euro rules on the Euro table, crappy slots payouts - I get it; I really do. Captive audience, no need to compete with other casinos. Once they're on board, you've got 'em for a week; they're gonna gamble or they're not.
Club Royale has terrible comps compared to Casinos at Sea with NCL. It takes 2500 points with Club Royale to earn comped drinks while gambling. Not only did Club Royale not buy my drinks this cruise, at the rate of my point earnings, it will take me 4 more cruises gambling at the same rate to earn free drinks. That's right; $10,000+ to get free drinks. I did however come away with an amazing $100 off my next cruise voucher.
Assuming total winnings of $2,800 (before tips), being right 48.6% of the time, I gambled through ~1200 roulette spins in a week.
Anyway; it was a blast - but I'll probably go to Vegas for my next vacation instead of cruising. I want to gamble during the day, and go to shows in the evening, not wander around during the day, then have to decide whether I want to gamble or watch shows in the evening. And here's a picture of me at my remote office aboard the cruise ship in case anyone was wondering what your mean old /gambling moderator ShelixAnakasian looks like.
Weekend Reader: Two Haralabos Voulgaris Gambling Stories From The Past. (Very long).
[Note to this sub: Here are two gambling stories involving Haralabos Voulgaris. Two things you should know. 1) I originally wrote this for a completely different, anonymous audience and not for all the wonderful "Shoe Fitness Architects", "Pizza Delivery Engineers", Overnight Security Enforcers, and DMV Workers that I've gotten the pleasure of meeting on here during my time on /billsimmons. Instead, it will seem like I'm talking to a room full of strangers, and for the first time. So if you read something that you've already seen me say on this sub, you know the reason. I also sound “different” in this. 2) It's long. You've been warned, I don't want to hear shit about it being so damn long. Think of this as a throwback to the Page 2 days, when you knew a guy was going to take a huge, extended shit because he just printed out Simmons' latest article and ran into the bathroom. You know, the “glory days”. If you read this on Friday, you can save this for your afternoon work shit. Read it on your phone though, because it's got a short YouTube clip in it that helps tell the story. If you read it over the weekend, I suggest smoking a bowl beforehand, especially to our Canadian friends up North. Doesn't have to be Top Shelf, just something to buzz you going in. That's it. Enjoy. The recent news of the Dallas Mavericks hiring Haralabos Voulgaris as Director of Quantitative Research and Development recently blew my mind. I knew it was Bob's goal to be an NBA GM, and this job isn't quite on the GM level, but I still can't believe he's made it onto a real NBA organization. I still think of him mostly from his early 2000's poker and sports betting days, and I never imagined he'd be able to hold down a real job someday. I didn't think anyone from the gambling world ever could. I was heavily into sports gambling and poker at the same time as Bob was ascending as a sports gambling force, from the late 80's until well into the 2000's. I didn't know Haralabos well, yet I heard about or saw him all the time. This pretty much describes all relationships in gambling to be honest. But I did make sure to hear all the stories about Haralabos back then, because they always made the gossip rounds and were usually funny. I'm here to share two of Haralabos' famous gambling stories, to give you a little insight into the man. If you are an Old School gambler, you've already heard them. But they are now 15 years old, and I couldn't find a good telling already on the Internet, so new people might get a kick out of these. Sources are at the bottom of this post. People need to understand that, back then (early 2000s), Bob was best known for two things: betting the NBA, and being a smart ass trash talker at the poker tables. Bob was a world class needler that people highly resented because he had “Fuck You” kinds of money and he sure lorded that fact over everybody. He found everyone in the gambling world incredibly stupid compared to himself, and wasn't afraid to let people know it. I guess that's not much different than his Twitter in 2018, except he's learned to be more polite about it. It was amusing being in a poker room with Bob in it, unless you were the focus of his remarks. He did not have any boundaries and was merciless, and really went after people “Micheal Jordan style” with the ferocity of his put-downs. Asked to describe him, I'd say 98% of players back then would call him an “arrogant dickhead” (including me at that time), while 2% would say “really sharp guy who doesn't tolerate fools” (including me now). We would all agree that he could be hilarious. With that set-up, here are two Haralabos Voulgaris gambling stories that let's you know what he was like back in the early 2000's. Story #1 My favorite Haralabob story, which long time 2+2ers have already heard about and whose legend has grown over the years, is the infamous Freddy Deeb story. If you know it, you are already nodding your head. But hopefully it's new to you. It's a classic. Freddy Deeb was a rich business man from Lebanon, but a lot of people thought he was Egyptian (close enough for poker players). “Fast Freddy” was a decent if unspectacular poker player who pre-dated the poker boom. So Freddy was a legit and well known regular even before TV got involved with the game, and parlayed that “real, genuine poker player” label into appearances on TV when the poker boom happened. He had strong credibility. Freddy is probably most famously remembered for being accused of “Going South” by Johnny Chan on an episode of High Stakes Poker. Freddy handled that accusation in typical Freddy fashion – making a big deal about this small joke insulting his integrity, aggressively confronting everyone about it and challenging them to heads-up poker matches to prove his manhood. The dude could be a hothead. (“Going South”, which was more commonly called “rat-holing”, is when a player sneaks high denomination chips off the table undetected after winning a big pot, so he has no possibility of losing them back in a later big hand. It's a unethical way to play “hit and run” if you win big quickly, without the “running” part being as obvious as picking up and leaving immediately.) The two things you needed to know about Freddy: 1) He was short. I mean really short, like 5'1” or less. Not to play Freud too much, but you can probably guess that the reason he spent all his time in poker rooms was because of this physical limitation. Poker attracted the social rejects like no other activity in the 1990's, and welcomed the physically and mentally defective in droves. It was a haven almost exclusively for nerds and losers, before TV made it cool for everyone to play No Limit Texas Hold'em, The Cadillac of Gambling Games (so hip!). 2) Stemming from #1, Freddy could have a short temper. If you are jumping straight into a “Napoleon Complex” accusation for Freddy, well, in this case you're the heavy favorite. Freddy was a quiet, nice guy for 90% of the time he played. But Freddy was quick to act like a gangster you didn't want to fuck with if you ever gave him the chance, with that persistent shoulder chip that will never go away. Everyone let him play gangster without comment as long as he still had a bankroll to gamble with. Here is a YouTube video that illustrates both points perfectly. Watch the whole thing to the end for maximum comedy – it's fucking hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqwQiIy1b48 Here's Freddy acting like a super tough guy, and – in the moment - you can believe it too. Until the camera pulls back and shows the other players at the table, and then you get a height perspective of the whole scene. It's unreal funny at that point. Gus Hansen sitting next to him looks like Yao Ming by comparison. So when this first HBob story happens, poker is just about to really take off. My guess is that it was around 2003-4, so the hype around poker was growing fast but still not close to the peak yet. The first Season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) had already aired, and it was a cultural phenomenon. Poker players were speculating already that WPT tournament champions were going to be as famous as top professional athletes, and with the same kind of ultra-lucrative sponsorship opportunities and endorsement deals. A very common topic at the table was how much getting to the final table at a televised WPT event was worth in fame, above and beyond any of the listed prize money. Perhaps a few million? It was a crazy time, and being on TV was all anyone cared about back then. Seems a bit silly now. Freddy had been on TV a few times with some respectable runs in some bigger tournaments. The WPT and ESPN featured him in a few “flavor of the game” clips during their early poker broadcasts, and that seemed like a pretty big deal, especially to Freddy. TV Poker was grooming narratives and trying to create presentable, relatable stars in the poker world and weren't above adding in some artificial flavor to an otherwise unremarkable cast of characters. Being a legit long time poker player was enough for Freddy to get some screen time – the TV producers could take it from there. I think the narrative was along the lines of how anyone – all ages, ethnicity, shapes and sizes could find a home in the poker world, and Freddy exemplified all that. It all went directly to Freddy's head, and he was not alone during this time. Anyway, the story goes like this. Haralabos is playing in a very juicy high stakes poker game in a California casino, most likely the Commerce. The game was already full with 9 players, which is the max in most California rooms. Haralabos himself was very new to poker at this time. He dabbled previously, but only started playing for big stakes in the past year or two because of the huge influx of new poker players, who watched the WPT on television and flooded into casinos, chasing riches. Thus there was easy money to be made. Before then, of course, he was focused on his NBA gambling. He was very near the height of his powers as an NBA sports bettor, and known pretty damn well in the sports betting world, if not the general public yet. Far more people in poker knew about Bob than he knew about them, though. He was just starting to get serious about playing poker. Bob knew about some of the bigger poker names he gambled with betting sports together in the past, but knew almost none of the newly (and artificially) created TV “poker stars” that ESPN / WPT had chosen to promote. So Freddy walks into the Commerce one day and sees the high stakes poker table, and eyes the line up. Freddy knows this “Main Game” is incredibly juicy, and wants in – immediately. He calls the floorman over and insists they create an extra space at the table for him and for the game to be played 10-handed. 10-handed was actually the common number of players in Las Vegas poker tables at the time, and Freddy was usually based there. Freddy is sort of 'big timing' the floorman, reminding him how much he's played there over the years, how much rake he's given that casino, and how all these new poker players want to play with someone like himself, a big-shot, old school, now famous poker player. There is nothing that poker players like more than poker room drama (except maybe comped food), so this commotion has drawn the attention of every table within earshot. Everyone near by was focusing on the Main Game with Haralabos in it. Drawn from many accounts, here is a recreation of what happened: Freddy (accented, slightly broken English)(to Floorman): Johnny, there's no board. Just put me in big blind right now and we can play with ten. Floorman Johnny: Table's not big enough for ten, Freddy. This isn't Vegas. Our players will object. Everyone wants their space. Freddy: Just ask then. If there are objections then Freddy will wait. But no one will object! C'mon Johnny, how much action I give to you? Freddy is “action player”. Everyone wants to play with Freddy. They see me, they know “That's Freddy” and they want to play. [Yes, Freddy was talking about himself in the Third Person. What can I say?] Floorman Johnny (reluctantly, to Main Game): Guys, Freddy wants to sit and play 10-handed. There is no board an he doesn't want to wait around for nothing. Any objections? Haralabos (immediately): I object. Who the fuck is this guy? [To Freddy] Buddy, you're not special. What makes you think you control this game? If more people come, then you can start a “Must-Move” game and play in that. Otherwise, wait your fucking turn like everyone else. Ok, buddy? [To Floorman, incredulous] What the fuck? Freddy (heated at Haralabos): Listen, buddy. Everyone here know Freddy. Floorman. Dealer. Players. All know Freddy, love Freddy. Who the fuck are you? In Vegas, Freddy wants a game, the manager come running to help Freddy! They bring in best table to start new game for Freddy! They get best dealer on break to come deal! They bring in new chips, new cards for Freddy! They bring special chair for Freddy to sit in! Haralabos: Oh yeah, Freddy? Is it a high chair? A thunderclap of uproarious laughter rang out from all who were listening in, perhaps fifty people or more, all rubberneckers from other tables drawn in by the drama. There was no denying the spontaneity, no denying the reason, and certainly no denying the focus of who the laughter was directed at. Fast Freddy, all five feet zero inches of him, with the hair-trigger anger and never lacking words, was truly stunned and humiliated into silence. His eyes became squinted and his face was stuck in a wince of pain, his whole head turning as red as a stubborn, two-week old pimple that just wouldn't pop. He rocked back and forth as if recovering from a physical punch, not knowing what to do as a second, smaller wave of laughter began because it was just that funny, and now the story was being instantly re-told. The few that were present and could actually feel sympathy quickly stifled their laughter, feeling the guilt of knowing the guy just got hit in his most sensitive area in front of a very large audience, and was truly wounded. They were hoping Freddy would finally say something, anything, to show that he wasn't completely crushed inside, that he wasn't as hurt as he seemed. Instead, Freddy walked away silently, his decades of “bluster armor” built protecting his sensitivity about his height laid on the ground, smashed. Souls are crushed all the time in poker rooms. You think you've seen it all, and you just grow immune. But this one stood out, as almost a warning. You just don't want to get into a verbal war with Haralabob. There is an addendum to this story. A year or so later, and strictly by chance, Freddy and Haralabos found themselves at the same table during a big tournament. Neither man had forgotten their previous encounter (how could they?). By this time, poker was being covered in real-time by a fleet of new poker reporters and journalists, and, by all accounts, Haralabos was riding Freddy hard that day, with verbal put-downs and jokes at Freddy's expense non-stop. Freddy tried to play it cool, knowing he was no verbal match for HBob. Until this happened. There was a Random Guy sitting directly on Freddy's left hand side who was new, didn't know anyone at the table (or their past history with each other) and who politely told Freddy this (recreation): Random Guy (to Freddy): Hey man. You need to protect your cards better. I can see your hole cards flash sometimes when you look. I saw you had paint last hand. You need to learn to peek without flashing. Freddy: Buddy, do you know who I am? I'm playing this game since before you were born! I win more money this year than you will have in your whole life! They ask me to write new poker book, that is kind of player I am! Buddy, I'm writing now, next time I see you I bring you a signed copy of my poker book! Haralabos: Next time you should bring a phone book instead so you can sit on it and see your cards better. Well, Freddy was playing it cool with HBob until then, but that last comment instantly set him off. Again, by the written accounts of the poker reporters live blogging the event, Freddy shot straight up out of his chair (though you probably couldn't tell...) and challenged HBob to a fist fight, screaming expletives at him and demanding a duel. Haralabob just sat in his chair laughing, saying he didn't want to go outside and fight Freddy because he didn't want to get arrested for child abuse. Famous poker player Daniel Negreanu witnessed this incident live, and blogged about it at the time. I remember that he thought that Freddy would be a decent favorite in a fight between Freddy and Haralabos. But I have my doubts about that. Negreanu disliked Haralobob personally, like many poker players who ever faced him at that time, because HBob could be so vicious. So he was biased in his fight assessment, IMHO. HBob was not a figher at all - more of a jester than a knight – but I thought he could always just stiff-arm Freddy by the forehead and then Freddy would be left with that cartoon 'swinging of the arms trying to reach him' thing while HBob could just jab him with his other arm. I would have made Haralabos the -200 favorite. Story #2 This happened in the early 2000's, during Season 3 of the World Poker Tour, just a year or so after Story #1. Haralabos had played in one of the WPT's big televised tournaments and made the Final Table. Not only that, but he ultimately came in Second Place, meaning he was going to get a LOT of TV time, which, again, most players thought was worth more than the actual prize money. Poker by now was white hot in America and was bringing so many people instant overnight fame. Players were resorting to obnoxious table antics and hyper displays of “personality” just to get a few seconds of screen time. Everyone was trying to create a “brand”. Not to belabor the point, but before television made poker cool and respectable, it was filled with 95% scumbags and degenerates with almost no white-collar, working professionals. But TV poker didn't want to portray that sordid image. In the very early days, the WPT actually had a “dress code” for appearing on the televised Final Table, where a sports jacket and collared shirts were required and would be provided for you if you didn't own them yourself (in other words, for everyone). Even the long time “Old School” gamblers were cleaned up and presented as daring adventurers instead of leather-assed angle-shooters they (we) really were. Known broke degenerates like T.J. Cloutier was turned into worshiped, heroic figures instantly, romanticized by television producers as sharp equity traders who practiced at the table instead of on Wall Street. The reality was that guys like Cloutier were hanging around poker rooms mostly to shamelessly beg recent winners for a buy-in, or even just a meal. Under this ethos of “cleaning up poker players' images”, players were allowed to manufacture any kind of image they wanted if they were going to be on the WPT TV show. Producers for the WPT would ask each finalist for a biography, but did absolutely no fact or background checking at all intentionally, mostly out of fear of what they might find if they actually did do so. So with all that in mind, here is the official bio for Haralabos that appeared on the WPT website before his televised event, almost certainly written by HBob himself: "Haralabos Voulgaris is a 29-year-old professional sports bettor from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This poker tyro brings a lot more to his first WPT final table than meets the eye. He is a playwright, holds a degree in philosophy, and his goals reach far beyond the green felt. His plans for the next 5 years include learning to play the piano, to have one of his plays performed on Broadway, and to win a WPT title." I'm not sure how much of this was an inside joke, how much was just the pressure to appear white-collar in order to attract advertisers (remember, poker players were all thinking about future endorsement deals at this time), and how much of this was HBob's ego run amuck. BUT COME ON! “Playwright”? Has Haralabos ever gone to a play yet, even in 2018? But that wasn't enough; he wanted to have one of his many, many written plays performed on Broadway very soon, because that's how dedicated he was to this art form! Just remember, this is the guy who widely known throughout the poker world for using his mastery of language to mercilessly torture midgets and other unfortunates at the poker table. Not exactly Tennessee Williams. Add in the piano lessons and the PhD in philosophy (philosophy!), and the fact that the WPT didn't bat an eye in putting this up as his bio, and the unintentional comedy is off the charts. Haralabos claimed to friends at the time that it was mostly a joke, but as we will now see, he seemed to really care about this false image. As you probably well know, there is a gap between when the WPT Final Table was played, and when the show based off of it is actually aired. By the time Haralabos' episode was about to air, he was staying as a guest in the house of a former poker pro named Paul Phillips, who only the most dedicated and old players will remember. (Paul Phillips won 2 WPT titles in the very early seasons, took the prize money, and pretty much disappeared from poker, going on to live a “normal” life. One of the few gambling success stories, IMHO). Well, Paul was a practical joker himself, and he had found a way to hack his DVR and change the description of recorded programs, including Bob's WPT episode. Knowing that Haralabos was coming back soon to watch it, Paul changed the description on the DVR to fuck with him. The original show description was something like this: “Six new players vie for the title of Champion of the LA Poker Classic Tournament. Players include movie star John Smith, astronaut Mark Hunt, playwright Haralabos Volgaris, undercover international spy Chris Jenkins, the crown prince of Wakanda Jerome Jones, and the inventor of the Internet Joe “Man Tits” Mande.“ Obviously the other names and titles were made up by me, but you get the picture. Anyway, Paul made one small adjustment, knowing Haralabos would see it: “Six new players vie for the title of Champion of the LA Poker Classic Tournament. Players include movie star John Smith, astronaut Mark Hunt, uptight playwright Haralabos Volgaris, undercover international spy Chris Jenkins, the crown prince of Wakanda Jerome Jones, and the inventor of the Internet Joe “Man Tits” Mande.“ Paul then waited for Haralabos to return so they could watch the episode together, leaving up the modified description of “uptight playwright” on the TV and making sure HBob was in the room alone for a few minutes before starting the show, so he had no choice but to stare at the phony description. Bob noticed it immediately. According to Paul, HBob started to get really worried, thinking that the show was going to portray him in a terrible light and edit him to look dumb and foolish, just because of that one word “uptight” in the description. Before even starting the show, HBob was already making excuses, telling Paul that he forgot they kept his microphone on at all times, and he said some critical things about the WPT's production crew, and now they were getting their revenge by calling him uptight. He kept bringing up ways he might have acted uptight during the Final Table and was pre-rationalizing them for Paul, who was enjoying it all. This went on for the first 15 minutes or so of the show, with Haralabos worrying and moaning non-stop about being called “uptight” and wondering how they were going to edit him to look that way, until Paul finally let him off the hook. According to Paul, Haralabos didn't believe it was a practical joke and kept worrying and griping longer, until he saw for himself that it was just a standard WPT show with no unfair editing involved. I'm not going to put too much on Haralabos for being so worried about his portrayal. Players really did believe that a good edit was the difference between a lucrative endorsement deal with Budweiser or Nike and getting nothing. The sky seemed to be the limit. BUT... the notion that Bob was just playing an inside joke and didn't really care about being known as a “playwright, piano player, and philosopher” didn't quite match up with his defensive and concerned attitude that day. Sources: Source for Story #1: This is a very famous poker story that was talked about amoung players live and on 2+2 (the dominant, high-traffic poker forum back then and perhaps now) a lot when it happened. You can find snippets and references on twoplustwo.com. I'm sure other long time and knowledgeable players will verify hearing a version of this story before. An account of it was given by Haralabos himself on the podcast “Big Poker Sundays” which he used to co-host with Scott Huff, but has long since disappeared. It was a part of Poker Road Radio, which was run by Barry Greenstein's asshole son before closing. As this story is now close to 15 years old and poker media is on life support, many previous accounts from blogs and recording are now gone, and thus a lot of it had to be reconstructed from memory. Part of the reason I'm re-telling it is because it was gradually being lost in time, and that is a motive to re-tell it now, for a new generation. Source for Story #2: I got the exact WPT description of Bob's bio from the 2+2 Archive (http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5504109&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1). The story of the altered DVR description and Paul Phillips came from the memory of Paul's old blog on LiveJournal (“extempore”), which has long been deleted, and from my own correspondence with Paul Phillips at the time (we were pretty good “online friends” before the invention of Social Media. Anyone remember r.g.p. on Usenet?). Again, unfortunately memory had to play a large role. I by no means want to pretend Haralabos and I were close. I knew about him and tracked him more than most poker players due to my sports betting background, but Bob was just one of a hundred different and strange characters in the gambling world that you'd recognize daily, none of whom you'd want to spend a lot of time with. We had some mutual friends, that's about it. Both stories were written under the Geneva Convention rules, which explicitly states that all gambling stories worldwide may contain up to 15% of exaggerations in order to make the story more entertaining or dramatic and still be called “truthful”. Like all good gambling stories should be told. But the core elements are as faithful a retelling as I could make it, including the WPT description, and the key dialogue by Bob that was quoted the most at that time. It's the dates and locations I'm least sure about.
/r/Numismatology currency of the month October 2018, The U.S Dollar Coin
Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions. Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794.
Flowing Hair Dollar
1794-1795 Designer Robert Scot Edge Lettered: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT Diameter 40.0mm Weight 27.0 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The Flowing Hair design appeared on the first United States Silver Dollars in 1794, but only lasted until sometime in 1795, when it was replaced with the Draped Bust design. The 1794 Silver Dollar is a rare coin, represented by approximately 150-200 survivors. The 1795 Silver Dollar is much more common, but the demand from type collectors keeps the prices high.
Draped Bust Dollar
1795-1804 Designer Robert Scot Edge Lettered: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT Diameter 40.0mm Weight 27.0 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The 1795 Draped Bust dollar represents the initial appearance of this design in American coinage. In the silver dollar series the obverse motif was continued through pieces dated 1804 (business strikes were last made in 1803, however), while the reverse motif was employed only through early 1798. The obverse features a portrait of Liberty as just described, with LIBERTY above, the date below and eight stars to the left and seven to the right. Varieties also exist which show 16 stars, as well as 13. The reverse shows a “small” eagle perched on a cloud within an open wreath. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds. Among early silver dollars, the Draped Bust obverse combined with the Small Eagle reverse may be the scarcest type. Among the four dates, 1795-1798, while 1797 is the lowest mintage, prices for all four are roughly the same. Specimens exist in all grades, with those most frequently encountered apt to be in Very Good to Very Fine preservation. Extremely Fine and About Uncirculated pieces are obviously scarcer, and an Uncirculated specimen is a prime rarity. Examples often show parallel mint-caused adjustment marks. As these coins were produced strictly for utilitarian purposes, no attention was paid to striking them carefully. The Heraldic Eagle type continues the Draped Bust obverse as preceding, except that the stars have been standardized to seven left and six right, the only exception being a scarce variety of 1799 with eight left and five right. The reverse is similar to that used on the dime of the year and is adapted from the Great Seal of the United States. Large Eagle Bust dollars were minted from 1798 through 1803. In later years, “restrike” pieces were produced dated 1804 as were Proof restrikes from new dies bearing the dates 1801, 1802 and 1803. Among business strikes, examples most often encountered are apt to be dated 1798 or 1799. Those dated 1800 are scarcer, while those dated from 1801 to 1803 are considerably scarcer, although they are not rarities. Dozens of varieties exist, and are listed in a work by M. H. Bolender.
Liberty Seated Dollar
1836-1873 Designer Christian Gobrecht Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 26.73 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper Following the production of an illustrious series of Liberty Seated pattern dollars in 1836, 1838 and 1839, the Liberty Seated style was first produced for large-scale circulating coinage in 1840. From then through 1865, coinage of the “No Motto” reverse type was continuous. The design parallels that of other Liberty Seated issues, with Miss Liberty seated on a rock, holder in her left hand a liberty cap on a pole and with her right hand holding a shield inscribed LIBERTY. Thirteen stars are above, and the date is below. The reverse shows an eagle perched on an olive branch and holding three arrows, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA above and ONE DOL. below. Within the 1840-1865 span there are a number of scarce and rare issues, with 1851, 1852 and 1858 designated as major rarities. Commoner issues are readily available in grades from Very Good through Extremely Fine, with most survivors being in Fine to Very fine grade. As silver dollars were not circulated as extensively as other denominations, few are seen in grades below Very Good. AU coins are available as are Uncirculated pieces, particularly 1859-O and 1860-O in the latter category (survivors from a small group of coins which came to light during the Treasury release of 1962). Superb Uncirculated pieces are rarities. Proofs were first distributed to collectors in 1858 and are available from that date through 1865, although scattered earlier issues occasionally come on the market. The Liberty Seated dollar design was modified in 1866 by the addition of the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the ribbon or scroll above the eagle on the reverse. Otherwise the design is the same as that which had been in use since 1840. The With Motto type continued in use through 1873. The glory days of the silver dollar denomination were yet to come, and mintages were low in comparison to what would happen with the Morgan silver dollar beginning in 1878. The only “common” Liberty Seated dollars in this range are the 1871 and 1872, and even they are scarce in relation to later issues. The 1870-S is one of the legendary rarities in U.S. numismatics, with only about a dozen pieces known. The few Carson City issues (1870-1873) are also quite tough, with miniscule original mintages. As Liberty Seated silver dollars did not circulate as actively as smaller denominations, pieces in well-worn grades such as Good and Very Good are much scarcer (though no more desirable or expensive) than coins in Fine to Very Fine grade, the latter being the conditions typically seen. Extremely Fine and AU pieces are available, with Uncirculated pieces being somewhat scarcer, though by no means rare. Superb Uncirculated pieces are fairly rare. Proofs were made of all Philadelphia Mint issues, and exist today in proportion to their original mintages.
Trade Dollar
1873-1885 Designer William Barber Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 27.2 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The Trade dollar was first minted in 1873 in response to the need for a coin to compete with the Mexican “dollar” (actually the 8 Reale or Peso) in the Orient. Weighing 420 grains, or slightly heavier (1.8%) than a standard silver dollar, the Trade dollar was intended for export only. Despite this, they were legal tender in the United States until 1876, at which time Congress revoked their status. Quantity production continued through 1878, after which point only token quantities were made for proof sets through 1883 (the few pieces dated 1884 and 1885 are of dubious origin). In 1887, the law authorizing the Trade dollar was repealed, and the treasury officially redeemed all un-mutilated pieces. The obverse depicts Miss Liberty seated on a bale of merchandise, her right hand holding a branch, her left hand holding a ribbon inscribed “LIBERTY, a sheaf of wheat behind, and the sea in front. IN GOD WE TRUST appears at the bottom just above the date. Stars surround the upper portion. The reverse depicts an eagle holding three arrows and a branch, with E PLURBUS UNUM on a ribbon above, 420 GRAINS, 900 FINE, below. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TRADE DOLLAR surrounds. The numismatist today can readily secure a trade dollar in grades from Fine through AU. Some pieces display chopmarks, consisting of Oriental characters impressed by bankers and merchants when the pieces circulated in the Orient. Except for the ultra-rare Proofs of 1884 and 1885, most dates are available, although a good portion of the 1878-CC’s were melted shortly after they were struck, making them elusive today. Uncirculated coins are scarce, and superb Uncirculated pieces are rare. Proofs exist in proportion to their original mintages and are primarily available from the years 1879 through 1883.
Morgan Dollar
1878-1921 Designer George T. Morgan Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 27.2 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The Coinage Act of 1873 demonetized silver, leading to the demise of the silver dollar. Although Trade dollars were produced from 1873-1878, they were meant for circulation overseas and were not legal tender in America. In response to the sour economic condition that persisted through much of the 1870's, and as a sop to Western suppliers of silver, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act in 1878. The Act required the U.S. government to purchase large quantities of silver and turn it into silver dollars. Thus, the dollar denomination was restored once again in the form of the Morgan dollar. Named after its designer, George T. Morgan, the Morgan dollar is one of the most popular of all American coins. It's large size, abundant supply, and pleasing appearance make it both affordable and desirable. Morgan Dollars were struck without interruption from 1878-1904, then again in 1921. U.S. Mints that produced Morgan Dollars include Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver, and Carson City. Mintmarks for all mints except Philadelphia were placed on the reverse of the coins just beneath the ribbon bow of the wreath. Key dates in this series include 1889-CC, 1893-S, and 1895 (Proof only). Other dates (such as 1895-O) are considered condition-rarities (common in low grade but extremely rare in high grade). Silver Dollars were once the mainstay of Las Vegas casinos, where they were used in slot machines and other gaming devices. Once silver prices advanced beyond the face value of the coins, the casinos converted over to chips and tokens. Some of the popularity of Silver Dollars can be attributed to three watershed events: 1) the sale of the Redfield hoard in the 1970s; 2) the GSA sales of the 1980's; and 3) the Continental-Illinois Bank Hoard of the 1980s. The Redfield hoard consisted of hundreds of bags of silver dollars, most Uncirculated and include a wide range of dates, most from the San Francisco Mint. The GSA sales consisted of millions of Carson City mint silver dollars discovered in Treasury vaults in the 1970s, apparently of coins that had never circulated. The Continental-Illinois Bank Hoard was even larger than the Redfield hoard and the overall quality exceeded that of both the Redfield and GSA hoards. Popular collecting methods include high-grade date sets, complete sets from low to high grade, and by VAM varieties. VAM (the acronym for Van Allen-Mallis) refers to a set of Morgan Dollar varieties, some of which are insignificant and other important varieties that can be identified at arm's length.
Peace Dollar
1921-1935 Designer Anthony de Francisci Edge Reeded Diameter 38.1 mm Weight 26.73 grams Metal 90% Silver, 10% Copper The so-called Peace silver dollar, designed by Anthony DeFrancisci, was first produced in December 1921 following a large mintage of Morgan dollars that same year. The idea for a coin to commemorate the peace following World War I came from Farran Zerbe, former President of the ANA from 1908 to 1910 and active promoter of numismatics, particularly during the first quarter of the 20th century. The Peace dollar depicts the obverse of Miss Liberty, facing left, wearing a diadem of spikes (in somewhat similar style to that seen on the Statue of Liberty). LIBERTY is above, while IN GOD WE TRUST and the date are below. The reverse shows an eagle perched on a rock, with a laurel branch, and with PEACE inscribed below. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and EPLURIBUS UNUM are above, while ONE DOLLAR is to be seen just below the center. Rays of an unseen sun emanate from the lower right. Issues of 1921, and a few pieces dated 1922, are in high relief, although collectors have not necessarily differentiated this as a distinct design. It was found that the high relief cause problems in having the pieces strike up properly, so in 1922 the motifs were redone to a shallower format, a style continued through 1935. Mintage of Peace silver dollars was continuous from 1921 through 1928 and again in 1934 and 1935. In 1964, the Denver Mint struck 316,076 Peace Dollars but, before they were released into circulation, all of the coins were destroyed. A few may have been purchased or "taken" by Mint employees and rumors persist of this coin's existence. However, for fear of confiscation by Treasury officials, none have yet appeared on the market. Were it legal to own, the 1964-D Peace Dollar would become one of the most valuable of all United States coins. While there are no extreme rarities in the rather short-lived Peace dollar series, the 1928-P is the key date, commanding a good price even in well-circulated grades. Most of the San Francisco issues are tough in top uncirculated grades, particularly the 1927-S and 1928-S as well as the 1924-S and 1934-S. Specimens of the common issues from 1921 through 1925 are readily obtainable in various grades from Very Fine through Uncirculated. Sharply struck Uncirculated pieces with full luster and with a minimum of marks are quite scarce.
Ike Dollar
1971-1978 Designer Frank Gasparro / Michael Collins & James Cooper Edge Reeded Diameter 38.5 mm Weight 22.7 grams Metal 75% Copper, 25% Nickel. In 1970, Congress passed legislation authorizing a new one dollar coin to commemorate both the death of General Dwight David Eisenhower and man's first landing on the moon (on July 20, 1969). The obverse features a bust of Eisenhower facing left; the reverse copies the insignia of the Apollo 11 mission, minus the name of the mission. "Ike" dollars made for circulation were of a cupro-nickel composition. Special Uncirculated and Proof versions containing 40% silver were struck and sold at a premium to collectors. A new design was created to celebrate the 1976 Bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The 1976 Bicentennial coins can be found in two different variations. Variety 1 features a low relief design with thick, bold, non-serifed lettering. Variety 2 features a stronger design, with lettering that has serifs, is thinner and more delicate, yet higher in relief. The most obvious difference can be seen on the second S of STATES, where on Variety 1, the bottom tail of the S is considerably higher than the lowest bar of the E. On Variety 1, the peaks of the M in AMERICA come to sharp points.
Susan B. Anthony Dollar
1979-1999 Designer Frank Gasparro Edge Reeded Diameter 26.5 mm Weight 8.1 grams Metal 75% Copper, 25% Nickel. By 1979, half dollars were rarely seen in circulation. The proliferation of vending machines, arcade machines and other coin-operated devices, most of which dispensed goods or services worth more than a quarter dollar (the highest denomination coin in general circulation at the time) prompted a call for a convenient coin of high value, while a Treasury-sponsored study showed that a metallic dollar had a useful life in circulation of 16 years or more, as compared to only 18 months for a paper dollar. Thus, the new small-diameter dollar was conceived. Frank Gasparro produced the designs. The obverse depicts suffragette Susan B. Anthony facing to the right, with stars to the left and right and with IN GOD WE TRUST near the right border. LIBERTY is above and the date is below. The reverse is an adaptation of the motif first used on the 1971 Eisenhower dollar and consists of an eagle landing on the moon, with the earth and E PLURIBUS UNUM above and the inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ONE DOLLAR surrounding. From the outset, the public confused the small-diameter dollars with the quarter dollars in circulation, much as they did with the twenty cent piece about 100 years earlier. Vending machines were slow to adopt, or did not make provisions to take the new dollar coin, and most cash registers did not have a “bin” in the change drawer for the additional coin. As a result, public resentment was high and the Anthony dollar was unpopular. Mintage was suspended in 1981 after about 860 million were made, the vast majority of these being 1979s. After an 18-year hiatus, an additional 40 million pieces were struck in 1999.
Sacagawea Dollar
2000-Present Designer Glenna Goodacre / Thomas D. Rogers Sr. Edge Plain / Lettered Diameter 26.5 mm Weight 8.1 grams Metal 88.5% Copper, 6% Zinc, 3.5% Manganese and 2% Nickel The Coinage Act of 1997 called for a new dollar coin of the same size and weight as the Susan B. Anthony dollar, but with a golden color and a plain edge. After a national competition, a new design was chosen featuring a portrait of the Shoshone Indian, Sacagawea, carrying her infant son, Jean-Baptiste (or "Pomp"). The coin was heavily promoted and nearly three-quarters of a billion Sacagawea dollars were struck for circulation. After an initial wave of enthusiasm, demand for the dollar coins dropped and mintages fell to 5-6 million coins per year from 2002 on. Despite intense marketing efforts, Sacagawea dollars are seldom seen outside of collecting circles and are mostly viewed as curiosities or annoyances by the general public. 39 Proof 2000-W Sacagawea Dollar coins were struck in 22 Karat gold at the West Point Mint in June 1999. 27 were melted and the remaining dozen examples were sent to space aboard the space shuttle Columbia, returning to earth five days later on July 22, 1999. Thereafter, the coins were stored in a vault at the Mint Headquarters in Washington, DC. One coin was displayed at a private congressional dinner on or about August 5, 1999. One coin was displayed at the Philadelphia Mint during the first-strike ceremonies for the 2000-P Sacagawea circulation strike coins on November 18, 1999. Sometime in August or September 2001, the dozen Proofs were sent to the Gold Bullion Depository in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The dies for the Gold Proofs were prepared with Thomas D. Rogers, Sr.'s original reverse design featuring 12 tail feathers. Circulation strikes from other mints have 13 tail feathers. 5,500 Sacagawea dollars were placed in random boxes of Cheerios cereal as a means to promote the new coin. Unfortunately, collectors did not discover until years later that these were special coins featuring the prototype reverse with 12 tail feathers on the reverse. These have proven to be great rarities and are easily the most valuable coins in the series.
Presidential Dollars
2007-Present Designer Joseph Menna / Don Everhart Edge Lettered Diameter 26.5 mm Weight 8.1 grams Metal 88.5% Copper, 6% Zinc, 3.5% Manganese and 2% Nickel In 2007 the U.S. Mint began honoring the United States Presidents on circulating coins under the Presidential Dollar Coin Program. Under this program, four Presidential Dollar coins will be issued per year. Each President’s portrait will be struck on one dollar coins and released for circulation for a period of three months. Each President will appear on mint state, proof and satin finish one dollar coins in the order in which they served as President of the United States. Each Presidential Dollar will bear the same Statue of Liberty reverse design. All Presidential Dollar coins contain edge lettering inscriptions with the date and mint mark. From 2007 to 2008 Presidential Dollars had the motto "In God We Trust" located on the edge of the coin. However, since there have been tens of thousands of coins found with missing edge lettering inscriptions, the U.S. Mint changed the location of the motto beginning in 2009. From 2009 to date, all Presidential Dollars will have the motto "In God We Trust" on the obverse of the coin. This program will continue until at least 2016 with Richard M. Nixon’s portrait (in order for any other U.S former Presidents to be honored on circulating coins, it is necessary for the former Presidents to be deceased for at least two years). When the coins were first released in 2007, there was a lot of excitement in the coin market and media about the new coins, especially since the last time the U.S. Mint struck coins with edge lettering inscriptions was back in 1933 on the Saint Gaudens Double Eagles. More excitement came once missing edge lettering dollars were discovered. These are considered major mint errors. Other more minor varieties have surfaced since then, including double overlapped edge lettering, double inverted edge lettering, and weak and partial edge lettering varieties. With so many different Presidential Dollar coins, errors and varieties, this is a definitely an exciting coin series to collect. Note The Gold Dollar Coin and other Gold Coins will have a separate COTM post, Also Silver Eagles and other Bullion Coins will have a separate COTM post. Sources - Wikipedia - PCGS Coin Facts - "United States Coins by Design Types - An Action Guide for the Collector and Investor" by Q. David Bowers
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