The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => People & Places => Topic started by: robot_god on September 16, 2010, 09:58:36 am
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Ever since I went to a casino night with my parents when I was like... six... I thought gambling was the coolest thing in the world. Now I realize it is exactly the third coolest thing in the world, which is still very good.
It's kind of interesting how some people have a serious aversion to gambling for seemingly no reason, while other people who do not even have addictive personalities are drawn to the addiction like a magnet.
Table games, sports betting, slot machines, lottery. Knockout pools, pick 'em pools. Can't get enough of that shit. Poker used to be the hip game for real men until it blew up into some lowlife fratboy shit. I probably played poker for a million hours before it was ever on TV. When it was cool. Dice games used to be big in the hood.
A friend of mine got into some real serious debt. Shit is crazy.
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I never got into debt with it but when I used to go clubbing more regularly there was rarely a night that didn't involve the casino. I used to love roulette, I think it was the illusion that all the probabilities were completely transparent unlike, say, blackjack where you couldn't know where they are in a deck etc. I was just thinking about this the other day actually, but student me can't afford to lose money the way working me could.
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I guess I'm what you'd call a social gambler.
My parents used to take us to the racetrack when I was a kid, probably starting when I was 7 or 8. I'd make a few $2 bets. I still go to the race once a year or so. I've been to a few casinos, but that whole scene doesn't do much for me. I'm not sports savvy enough to be a serious sports bettor with a bookie and all, but I participate in office pools and such.
I think if I took a fancy to it I could become a good poker player. Card playing is in my blood and I figure if I can become a decent bridge player than I ought to be able to do ok at poker. But I need another hobby like I need another hole in my head...
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I'm a gambler, but I'm definitely a low roller. I like craps and blackjack, but I like $2 tables ($5 if that's all you can get). I had a poker thing going for a while, but haven't been playing much lately.
Last month in Vegas, I watched a dude at Aria playing craps at $10K a pass. He was on the main casino floor, but at a roped-off table with no minimum posted, just "Reserved." (If you have to ask, you can't afford to play here!) Just him and the four-man crew. I didn't recognize the white chips with red and blue edging, and had to go to another table to figure out those were $5K each, and he was putting two at a time on the pass line. And he did NOT appear to be doing well, in the time I watched him.
I lost $200 that trip, which is pretty much fine by me.
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I made extra cash in college by occasionally dealing blackjack for corporate parties and charity events, which was fun, but honestly I like watching other people gamble (even with fake money) much more than I like doing it myself.
Except that one frat party. All half-dressed floozies spilling beer from paper cups on my table felt, all getting hit on by popped-collar douchebags while their girlfriends weren't looking. No offense to anyone who was in a frat, this was no high-class establishment like the one A-Cap undoubtedly belonged to. I'm talking about every negative stereotype about fraternity houses all rolled into one big drunken clusterfuck.
So yeah, I have the addictive personality in other areas of life, but gambling has just never appealed to me the way other games do. I think I'm too much of a cheapskate to enjoy the prospect of potentially losing money.
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For many years my parents went to Vegas every year. I've only been twice, for my 21st and 30th birthdays. I'm a craps man. I like that the odds bet is the only true odds bet you can make in a casino, I like that most people don't understand the rules, I like that it's the only game where you don't tip the dealers directly, and I like how everybody at the table gets excited together even if only 1 or 2 people actually won money on that throw simply because the rest of us didn't lose.
But yeah, $3/5 tables all the way.
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and I like how everybody at the table gets excited together
This is a fun aspect of craps. By and large everyone plays the pass line, so if you make a point, everyone is your friend. I have never high-fived total strangers more often than at the craps table.
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i lost $40.00 at hollywood casino in hershey. thats enough for me. forever.
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When I got the bread to lose, I enjoy blackjack. The illusion of math being on my side.
I put a buck or two on the lotto when I think of it. Every time I'm in a new state, I try to collect a losing lottery ticket from that state.
That's about it. I'm a low roller at best.
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five-buck single-shoe blackjack for me. i don't count cards, but i can keep track through a shuffle if there have been more high cards or low cards dealt. usually i come out close to even.
slots, though... i don't care for slots so much. it's too damned random, but for some reason, the only times i've won in vegas have been at slots. a couple times they've paid for the trip there.
but i will not go to a casino outside vegas ever again. every other casino i've been to has sent me busted quick and without even a decent cocktail.
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Hate is probably too strong a word for the way I feel about gambling. Strongly apathetic? Anytime I'm in a situation where all there is to do is "go to casinos" I spend all my time thinking about the other stuff I could be doing. Like folding laundry, sleeping, drinking beers in a hot tub - whatever. Even worse if the people I'm with are into the one-armed bandits. The images of the faces of the people I've seen there, woodenly feeding dollar after dollar into the machines & slapping the buttons on the cabinet (not even yanking the old-timey lever) - mix of desperation, boredom, and hope on their faces...it makes me think of the rats in addiction studies banging on the lever to pump more cocaine into their systems.
The main exception to the above is playing poker with buddies. That's usually a good time, assuming there's no douche friend-of-a-friend along who's convinced he's the next big thing in the World Series of Poker or whatever. All criticising my inept shuffling, "They'd shoot you in Vegas for dealing like that." Whatever, dude.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbmkdD1rwGM
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v1JEz3GvHI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v1JEz3GvHI)
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I've always hated gambling. My grandma was a gambling addict and a boy/friend when I was in knucklehead times had a mom who gambled away his and his twin bro's entire university fund. I see plenty of destitute people who's money would be much better spent on basic needs gambling, and I hate it all the more. I call it "a tax on people's dreams."
I spent too long not having cash. It's hard for me to be cavalier about the dockets.
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I'm with Jaydub. Gambling in a casino, to me, is tedious and boring. I enjoy playing poker with some friends around the kitchen table, quarter ante. Even that is only mildly amusing and is way more about being with friends and having drinks and conversation than the card game. We could just as easily be having a game of scrabble or putting together a puzzle, whatever. I'm always up for that, I should invite some friends over, it's been awhile.
But gambling in a casino, I'll pass. Ha ha, get it.
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20 bucks lasts a lot longer at the pinball museum than at any casino.
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I... think I spent a lot more than that at the Pinball Museum the one time I was in Vegas.
Because I am a huge nerd.
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I have a story vaguely like Asherdan's. On my second trip to Vegas, we went to the Rio relatively early Saturday morning in order to meet friends for brunch. We had some time to kill, so I played some blackjack. I was betting progressively--$5 first, then every time I won I added $5 to the bet, but if I lost I started back at $5. (I realize this makes no difference in the long run, but it's fun sometimes.) At one point I won or pushed on something like 12 hands in a row, so by the end of the session I was up $200. Combined with the $100 I had won the night before, I was rollin'. (At this point in my life, $300 was a TREMENDOUS sum of money.)
I also drank a lot of toasted almonds during that session. When the rest of the crew showed up, I gave my roommate the $100 I owed him (as a $100 bill), and said "No matter what happens the rest of this trip, do NOT give this back to me. We're even."
After brunch I paid for everyone to go on one of those eight-seat auto-racing games in the arcade where you all race simultaneously, and I proved once and for all that you should not drink and drive.
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20 bucks lasts a lot longer at the pinball museum than at any casino.
I'd much rather play pinball that gamble. I'd actually like to visit Vegas again because that's the home of the Pinball Hall of Fame (http://www.pinballmuseum.org/).
Is that where you were Mets?
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that pinball hall of fame is exactly where i am talking about. fantastic. they also have orange crush in glass bottles in their vending machine. it doesn't get much better.
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Anything anyone has ever been addicted to, I will get addicted to. It ain't good. I don't like gambling for real money against the house (although I don't have a problem with gambling with friends).
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The Pinball Hall of Fame is basically the best thing in the world other than ladies.
Holy crap, yes.
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One of the best times of the year for me is the Annual Arcade Expo (http://www.arcadecenter.com/).
It's so much fun. They turn a hotel conference hall into an old school game room just like I remember from the days of my youth. They turn the lights down low and put up a disco ball and some neon. Play some old tunes from those times. I go in there and feel like I'm 16 again.
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The Pinball Hall of Fame is basically the best thing in the world other than ladies.
Holy crap, yes.
We are just wrapping up a remodel of our basement, converting a big empty cement room into a band room and bar. I want to have a pinball machine in there within 365 days.
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most towns have companies that rent out games. it's probably not as fiducially responsible but you could swap out rentals every couplefew months.
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Yeah, if I had Stupid Money, I would definitely own a small arcade of my own.
I've probably posted my wish list somewhere here, over the years, in fact.
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Y'know, the pinball machine at home always sounds awesome but...you'll get tired of the same game. Your guests and friends won't, so if that's the plan then tally-ho...but...I got tired of mine about the time I started having to replace bumper rubber and bulbs and relays and such. They're not rocket science to work with and maintain but they get to be like having the exact same slice of pizza everytime, y'know.
The pinball machine collectors I know are always buying/selling/trading their machine. When a machine starts to get boring, trade that sucka for another one.
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smets if funhouse ain't on your list then your list ain't complete
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Funhouse is up there, for sure. My selections would be largely sentimental to my age, though, not just for quality of play.
Twilight Zone pinball, Addams Family pinball, Getaway pinball. Cyclone pinball! Maybe the Mars Attacks-ripoff hybrid pinball-videogame rig for novelty.
Gotta have the four player Simpsons and Ninja Turtles video games, the six player X-Men, the Terminator 2 shooter. A Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga split-box fersure.
Coupla lanes of old school woodball skeeball. Some Fascination or Pokerino rigs would fuck*ng rock, real old old old school boardwalk goodness.
That Slugfest game that was kind of a pitch-and-hit pinball game, that's fuck*ng rad as hell.
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I love 'em all (http://www.ipdb.org/)
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I also considered an old-school pachinko machine, such as my folks brought back with us when we moved back to Alaska from Japan in '72 or thereabouts.
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Addams Family pinball
YES YES YES OMFG YES.
I have to go change my panties now.
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I liked to hit the flippers to match Thing's snaps, even when the machine didn't do it automatically.
Because...
I am a huge nerd.
"HAVE A NICE SWIM!"
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See, my take on gambling is that you have to know when to hold them, but also know when to fold them. It's pretty complicated shit.
But pinball, FUCK YES! Going to Vegas next weekend. I'll see if I can talk my friend into spending some time at the museum. I love that place. Who knows, maybe I'll take some photos.
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I am really bad at every game in the world except for Settlers of Catan. I don't really gamble.
My radio station has the simpsons arcade game. Also Off Road, but it's been broken for a billion years.
The traditional first question during General Manager elections is "when will you fix Off Road?"
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My radio station has the simpsons arcade game.
The Simpsons pinball kicks ass. I would buy that if I had the cash and the space.
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I'm very glad you all are craps players.
Pinball? The Who's Tommy.
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TOUAMB meetup in Vegas! With expeditions to the craps table and the pinball joint.
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Pinball. Yes.
I remember once, I was playing some rad pin ball machine, and it malfunctioned in the most wonderful way - I just wouldn't stop giving me balls. First is shot out every ball it contained, then every time I sank one, it was shot back out again. That was good times. Eventually my parents made me leave, which was something I did not want to do.
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The one thing I really liked in Vegas was the car museum, but then again I didn't go to the pinball dealie.
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which car museum? i saw the collection at the old imperial palace years back, heck of a lot of heck of awesome cars from deusenberg to shelby and zonda-- but construction made a ridiculous path through the hotel and garage to get there.
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I was all about Silverball Mania (http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2156&picno=36193).
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sorry sir didn't mean to step on your lawn
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sorry sir didn't mean to step on your lawn
Hey!
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lol you know i'm just joshin
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I'm very glad you all are craps players.
Pinball? The Who's Tommy.
I played that at the expo kickoff party a couple of weeks ago.
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which car museum? i saw the collection at the old imperial palace years back, heck of a lot of heck of awesome cars from deusenberg to shelby and zonda-- but construction made a ridiculous path through the hotel and garage to get there.
That was probably it. It looked like one big floor of a parking garage right in the middle of some old beater hotel there. They had a bunch of shit like Hitler's staff car and all that, but also a bunch of Doozies like you mentioned. Those are awesome.
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My favorite growing up was King Kool (http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1371&picno=1299). I keep hoping that it will show up at the expo. I wonder if they have that one at the Hall of Fame in Vegas.
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If only I had the bread to travel like that, I would highly advocate a TOUAMB meet-up thing in Vegas centred around the Pinball Hall of Fame.
When I was there, it was right across the street from the Liberace museum, too. Though I think the Liberace Museum might move often.
Everybody get a room in some cheap-but-safe almost-out-of-town place and gawk at the local addicts instead of the idiot tourists, only going into Actual Vegas to hit Circus Circus and fight rats with a rake. Document the ghost towns that used to be the residential areas.
But mostly play fuck*ng pinball. Days of fuck*ng pinball.
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I'm down with that plan.
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It seems I must organize a trip to this... how you say, pinball museum, if work takes my company back to Las Vegas.
Also for some reason I prefer slot machines to table games, even though I know the math on them. They are shiny! Fortunately I am also cheap, so I haven't ever lost more than I budgeted for entertainment.
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They got everything from the weirdest old shit to the weirdest new shit.
Hybrid games with, like, a vertical secondary game up top. Half-video game half-pinball shit.
Shit with twenty flippers. Popeye's face goin' all nuts.
A+++, Must Go Again, Great Shipping.
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also they got O.G. machines including one that's craps in disguise "no officer see we're playing pinball" and a couple mechanical shooter games. pinball baseball is odd and oddly entertaining.
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Any of you get to Portland, I'll take you Ground Kontrol (http://www.groundkontrol.com/). It's where I went to my first MetaFilter meetup and met all the folks. They're nice. (I'm pretty sure I've linked to it before.)
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That place is so dope. Drinking beers and playing pinball.
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Since there was a ref to it, the Liberace museum is closing, I guess (http://www.metafilter.com/95830/a-towering-glittering-icon-from-an-era-now-past-mumbles-a-barely-heard-farewell-as-he-slips-out-the-back-door).
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We got the Barcade over here in Brooklyn, they have a slew of retro games, about 30, and a really outstanding selection of microbrews. It was the hipster mecca of the world for like almost a year.
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Mana bar (http://www.manabar.com.au/) opened last year in my town and it's doing pretty well. No arcade machines but flat screens down each wall and a 360, Wii or PS3 attached to each all loaded with cool party games. It's a pretty good time.
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Won £40 at the casino last night, fuck yes do I gamble
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this book, _How We Decide_ by Jonah Lehrer provides insight into why people gamble, among other things... the below interview summarizes:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122854276
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Mana bar (http://www.manabar.com.au/) opened last year in my town and it's doing pretty well.
That was opened by the dude that does Zero Punctuation, right? I remember perusing the forums when it opened and people were always complaining about a line to get in. I'm glad a place that nerdy can do good business.
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That was opened by the dude that does Zero Punctuation, right? I remember perusing the forums when it opened and people were always complaining about a line to get in. I'm glad a place that nerdy can do good business.
That's the one. It's only been open about a year so we'll see how it does long term. I've never had to wait in line to get in but I've only been a couple of times. I think combination of a fairly small space not on the main drag keeping their rent down and a fairly loyal customer base gives them a fighting chance. I imagine they have some good industry contacts too, they seem to have a different event or pre-release demo going on every other week.
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Wow, I think my crush on Yahtzee Croshaw just grew three sizes. I want to go to there.
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You come visit JL and I'll even buy the drinks.
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Is this the topic where Paul was going on about pinball?
Anyway, National Pinball Museum opening in DC this week. w00t
http://www.nationalpinballmuseum.org/
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Is this the topic where Paul was going on about pinball?
Anyway, National Pinball Museum opening in DC this week. w00t
http://www.nationalpinballmuseum.org/
It's unclear whether you will be allowed to actually play the games.
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They wouldn't let me drive the Deusenbergs at the car museum, either. Fascists.
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It's unclear whether you will be allowed to actually play the games.
They have a "pay-to-play" area with tables you can actually play. I'm assuming some of the older/more historic models are off-limits.