I walked in and was immediately awestruck by the ornate interior of the best casino in the world, The Barterer’s Lounge. Some players were walking around with suits and escorts while other people looked like they had not eaten for days. My cohorts? Adam, Bart, Carl, David, and Erin. We decided to have a seat at a “Texas Holdem” table with someone waiting to play. This guy looked like he had just snorted cocaine, after a 2 day bender on whiskey, but hey, “When in Rome” right? Weird thing is, this guy was in a suit and had five escorts. Five! Judging by the sheer boredom of his lady friends, this dude clearly hasn't left this table in over eight hours.
The table seats six and the rules are very clear. At a new table: The only buy-in is allowed once at the beginning of the game. But you don’t have to pay the fifteen dollar entry fee in cash or otherwise until the end of the game. If you go out, only then do you have to pay the cash. We already knew this and we had plenty of cash for a trip to the casino. Woo! Adam had been saving for, jeez, over a decade? Adam’s been family friends since as long as I can remember. Who knows how old the guy is but he’s Bart’s dad and I love them both. Carl lives next door and we do some work from home but mostly sit at home playing some consoles drinking some beer and doing neighborhood poker with David and Erin. They’re an awesome pair. We all looked at one another and visually confirmed that we had exactly fifteen dollars in cash ready for the game because once you sit down, there is no turning back. Security has a person watching every individual one to one while sitting at a table. It is kinda creepy to have someone watching over you, but hey, I know the rules.
Carl and I were already doing a visual check on this guy and figured he’s too whacked out to be a smart player in this poker game. But he can obviously afford the buy-in so we were very happy to have a few more chips to pass around between the five of us at the end of the game. “Frank, you ready?” Carl asks. “Yeah, let’s rock,” I replied. We all sat down together and the player at the table eagerly agreed to play a game with us. Once we all agreed to play together, one of the security guards powered up the dealer. The automaton started whirring up and a few sparks flew from faulty wiring that obviously hadn’t been maintained in years. But if it works for the house, it works for me.
“Sir, this is a casino,” the robot said. I replied, “Duh,” and the dealer dealt our first two private cards each. Our extra player says “Hold on a sec, I want to make a side wager. I want to put a chip in saying that the old fart loses all his money on this first hand.”
The dealer mechanically screeches “This is a side wager separate from the game’s pot.”
We all looked at each other dumbfounded. “Does this guy even know the rules of Texas Holdem?” I thought. I looked at Carl and I knew that is exactly what he was thinking too. “Yea, I’ll call that for a chip.” We all threw a chip in. But not Adam. Why would he? He still has all his chips and as long as he doesn’t do anything stupid, or even bet at all, Kevin loses that bet.
Our extra player was turning out to be a real go-getter, so I wanted to do some small-talk to bring him off the game. “Hey, My name’s Frank. Yours?”
“Kevin,” he says abruptly between the twitches of his eyelids. “Hey Kevin, nice to play with ya dude,” I reply.
Kevin immediately says, “Hold on, I’ll bet another chip that the old man goes under this hand.” Easiest call of my life. Everyone throws another chip in because old man Adam ain’t no fool when it comes to poker. All he has to do is not wager “all-in” on a losing hand and we all get a few extra chips at the end of the hand. We all toss in that chip.
“Alright let’s get on with it,” Kevin barks at the dealer. The first three cards are shown and immediately Kevin wants to do another chip that Adam goes under this hand. We all call.
I ask him, “So what do you do, Kevin?” He says with a straight face, “Well if I’m not here I’m on my jet going between my five mansions.You know what, let’s put in another chip that Ole Yeller flops on this hand.”
I knew this guy was off his rocker and we didn’t care because everyone knows we’re all good for the money or else the “barter rules” come into effect. We all had visually checked our cash before we sat down. Well I don’t actually know about Kevin but I figure he’s good for it considering his escorts had all bought themselves Wendy’s chicken tenders from the food court on Kevin’s credit card.
Play resumes and Kevin puts a few chips on the actual game of poker this time. Adam does nothing, no surprise there. But the rest of us call Kevin’s position. Who knows what each other’s dealt hands are. I only know mine. “So five mansions huh? Nice,” I say. “You do anything else for fun?”
Kevin looks at me like he wasn’t expecting such filth to speak and disgustedly replies, “Well, I like my yacht. It’s got its own docking port for a smaller yacht. So you could say I’m into water sports.” After realizing he spent even a few seconds humoring me, Kevin shouts, “Let’s do three more chips in another side pot that the old man actually literally dies during the game.”
We all chuckled pretty good at that one and threw our three chips in each. “Let’s play.” Kevin demanded. “Show the next card,” he snarled. As the card lands on the table, Kevin bets ten more chips that Adam goes all-in on a losing hand. Seeing as this is the first round of the game and we all had the same chips at buy-in, it’s a no brainer match position for 10 chips. Meanwhile Adam is stone-cold poker face and hasn’t actually put any chips in on the opening three.
“Alright 15 chips on the play,” Kevin absent-mindendly said without even looking at the card. I noticed that he hadn’t even looked at his hand because his two cards were strewn out in front of him in the original place the dealer placed them.
Everyone but Adam plays Kevin’s bet and the showdown resumes. Well, almost resumes. “And I’ll put half of my remaining chips on my initial bet that pops loses all his chips this hand,” Kevin states. And guess what we all did? We called the bet because we’re all keeping track of how many chips were initially given out and this was a no-brainer that we were all on the same pace of losing chips. Except Adam of course because he hadn’t placed any bets so far. He was ready for a few actual full games of poker. I know he had more than only the fifteen dollar pay-out fee for a single game if he lost.
“And I’ll put the rest on my other bet that the boomer literally dies during this game.” We all blankly looked at each other and threw our remaining chips on that bet. But not Adam, why would he? He’s got all his chips from not even Adam’s old but he’s not on death’s door by any means. He lifted weights professionally in his earlier years and still does cardio daily. Naturally, he doesn’t look a day over fifty.
“We have an ‘all-in’ at the table” the junkbot for a dealer said and an extra set of lights flicked on at our table. They were so bright I was getting a terrible glare from an heirloom ring I had on my finger. I rotated the rock to the inside of my finger and made a fist so the glare wouldn’t blind me.
The robot dealer plays out the last card but it doesn’t matter to Kevin or anyone else because we’re all-in. “The player who placed the initial bet shows their hand,” says the dealer.
And we all waited patiently. We sat together in silence for what seemed like forever.
Until Kevin’s casino-assigned agent realized that Kevin was too coked out to do it himself.
“A two of hearts and a seven of clubs from the initial bet maker.” The dealer continues, “There are no additional plays on the field for the bet maker. The player with the best hand wins.”
I only had a pair of three of hearts and a four of diamonds in my hand.
Carl immediately turns his cards over. “A pair of sixes with another on the table. That’s three of a kind.” We all split the earnings of the initial side bet amongst ourselves minus Adam. And since Adam still had a pulse we all split the second pot too. “This game is closed. All players must pay their cash fee for the round. If any players do not have the cash initially agreed upon to enter the game, barter rules come into effect,” the dealer said. We all reached into our pockets and put the fifteen bucks on the table. Kevin reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a ten dollar bill and a half eaten chicken tender. Kevin frantically searches his other pockets for any cash on his person. “Oh shit,” Kevin muttered as his face turned pale. “I must have spent my cash last night when I was more drunk.”
I perk up a bit because I had no idea that there was even a chance to trigger the barter rule with this guy. The dealer asks, “Do you accept the remaining payment of meat to cover the remaining five dollars of this player’s entry fee?” “Hell no!” I shouted. “I want a million bucks, and one of your houses.”
Bart finally chimes in and says, “Me too. Oh yea and I want your jet.” Carl agrees and adds “And the yacht!” David says, “Don’t forget the mini-yacht too.” Erin says, “I know you have a nice car, We’ll take that too.” Kevin slumps into his chair as the dealer asks, “Are there any other terms to this agreement?” We all looked at each other and Adam added, “And an order of tendies all around. But not for Kevin.”
That was a bad move, Kevin.

Poker is my primary betting game, and it ought to surely be your top pick, too. No other betting game proposals as a great deal of an occasion to make benefits (other than sports wagering). Regardless, winning at poker has more to do with limit than in every practical sense, some other betting game. In this post, I offer several experiences on which poker frameworks are ideal on the off chance that you need to overpower at the match constantly. I had a light second first thing in my poker calling when I read a short book about Texas holdem from David Sklansky. In that book, he calls attention to that you completely should have the choice to see which hand is the nuts with some unpredictable board. It never happened to me that something that unmistakable was a supporting of poker framework, at any rate consider everything. On the off chance that you wrinkle the nuts without understanding it's the best of every conceivable hand, you'll lose piles of cash. Also, in the event that you acknowledge you're holding the nuts when you're really not, you can place insane extents of cash into the pot just to lose it. In the event that you don't comprehend the nuts and bolts of the game you're playing especially well, you have no suspicion for beating the more experienced players at the table who like the game you're playing. In what manner may you get straightforward with the fundamentals of the game? I overall propose Sa for attempting the play cash kinds of the games on the web to figure out how the wagering and development work prior to trying an authentic cash table live or on the web. The most discernibly ghastly poker method is to be a free, uninvolved player. A free player is something contrary to a tight player, and that just methods a free player takes an interest in a great deal of hands. Taking everything into account, free players don't wrinkle reliably. You can check how free or tight a player is by taking a gander at the amount of pots she takes an interest in. For instance, a player who folds 85% of their hands before the lemon is more close than a player who just cover 60% of their hands before the disappointment. Players can correspondingly have moving levels of partition or comfort during various occasions of the game, as well. You may play preposterously free before the disappointment and exorbitantly close after the lemon.

Poker is my primary betting game, and it ought to surely be your top pick, too. No other betting game proposals as a great deal of an occasion to make benefits (other than sports wagering). Regardless, winning at poker has more to do with limit than in every practical sense, some other betting game. In this post, I offer several experiences on which poker frameworks are ideal on the off chance that you need to overpower at the match constantly. I had a light second first thing in my poker calling when I read a short book about Texas holdem from David Sklansky. In that book, he calls attention to that you completely should have the choice to see which hand is the nuts with some unpredictable board. It never happened to me that something that unmistakable was a supporting of poker framework, at any rate consider everything. On the off chance that you wrinkle the nuts without understanding it's the best of every conceivable hand, you'll lose piles of cash. Also, in the event that you acknowledge you're holding the nuts when you're really not, you can place insane extents of cash into the pot just to lose it. In the event that you don't comprehend the nuts and bolts of the game you're playing especially well, you have no suspicion for beating the more experienced players at the table who like the game you're playing. In what manner may you get straightforward with the fundamentals of the game? I overall propose Sa for attempting the play cash kinds of the games on the web to figure out how the wagering and development work prior to trying an authentic cash table live or on the web. The most discernibly ghastly poker method is to be a free, uninvolved player. A free player is something contrary to a tight player, and that just methods a free player takes an interest in a great deal of hands. Taking everything into account, free players don't wrinkle reliably. You can check how free or tight a player is by taking a gander at the amount of pots she takes an interest in. For instance, a player who folds 85% of their hands before the lemon is more close than a player who just cover 60% of their hands before the disappointment. Players can correspondingly have moving levels of partition or comfort during various occasions of the game, as well. You may play preposterously free before the disappointment and exorbitantly close after the lemon.

"Please choose your game, Sir", Val inquired.
I looked around, choosing what will I play. I only had 1 chance to start...
"What happens if I lose the first one?", I asked.
"You will simply be ejected from the Church, without your memories of the place intact", Val explained.
Fair enough. I set my eyes on a poker table, Texas Holdem. I thought I would be able to win easy enough at it.
I placed my bet of the gold coin, in exchange for 2 cards; a set of Queens. I maintained my poker face but inside I was stoked at my great hand. I won that round easy enough with 3 of a kind.
"Okay, now do we keep betting on the gold coins or...?", I asked the dealer only to be met by his silence.
"Keep playing and you will understand, Sir", Val said standing behind me.
I shrugged and was dealt another hand. The King of hearts and Jack of spades. When the river card was revealed to be the 10 of diamonds, I had a Straight in my hand. I looked at my only remaining opponent, some old Chinese guy.
"Your bet, Sir?", the dealer asked him.
"I bet my hearing"
I was confused, "Hearing? What does he mean?"
"Exactly as it sounds, Sir. We don't bet on materialistic thing here, only what you have. The truly valuable thing a human can have, their own body and its function", Val explained.
I was stunned.....and extremely thrilled. Oh I never expected the stake to be this dangerous! I was smiling inside, but maintaining my poker face again I called the bet.
My Straight trumped his 3 of a kind. I won! All of the sudden the old Chinese guy stood up, flailing his arms panicking.
"No...no! Where...where's the sound? I can't hear!", he screamed only to be escorted away by some guards. I laughed a bit.
The night went on and I kept playing different games. I lost some fingers, the ability to say the word "Frog", and a kidney. But in return I won some guy's ability to speak German and an extra heart. This was it! This was the thrill I was seeking for!
"Hey Val, is there like a higher stake room in the Church?", I asked Val. There's always a more exclusive table where people of higher status play. And I want in...
Val looked at me sternly. He moved his finger to his earpiece, seemingly being told something by someone.
"This way, Sir", Val said leading me to the very end of the large hallroom. Beyond the door was a small room about the same as the first waiting room. In there sat a table, with no one else but a man at the other end of it.
"Welcome Mr. Parish. I've been expecting you", the man said.
I noticed Val had left the room. Confidently I walked to the table, sitting opposite the man.
"I'm expected?"
"Of course. An honorable player such as yourself can't escape my sight"
"Who are you?"
"I'm the owner"
"The owner....you're Saint Cajetan", I said more of a statement than a question only to be met by him nodding.
"So, you seek of the highest stake of game. Here we are. Choose your game"
"Let's play poker, Texas Holdem", I suggested. Again the saint nodded.
"What do you say we make this more interesting? Blind bet. You will not know what you lose or gain when you win or lose", he suggested.
Honest, I was afraid to do so. But the rush and the thrill blinded me of what the repercussion might be. Almost immediately I agreed.
The game went underway. Without knowing I had lost the sight of one of my eye and the satisfaction of sneezing. But I won the ability to taste a flavor unknown to man, which was really interesting I might add.
"Well it's been very exciting evening, Mr. Parish. But what do you say we make the next one our last? The ultimate bet of the Church will be the stake", the saint asked.
The ultimate bet....I loved the sound of that. What could it be? I agreed.
I got a great hand then, a set of Kings.
"Do you know want to know what the ultimate bet is?", the saint asked all of the sudden.
I looked up, clearly not knowing the answer to that. He clearly was trying to rattle me.
"This place, Mr. Parish is a casino located outside of space and time. It cannot be built on simple material things such as bricks and cement. It needed something more powerful, much much more powerful"
First 3 cards were revealed, the King of clover, the 2 of diamonds, and the Ace of spades.
"I thought centuries ago, what could be so powerful it can create the foundation of something this absurd.....then it hit me. Human beliefs, Mr. Parish.
The capability of human to believe is so powerful it created religions, it took them to the sky, it took them across the ocean, it took them to the moon"
The 4th card revealed, the King of diamonds.
"So every now and then, I invited the best players in human history and get them to see this place. It started as mere illusion, but as I took their belief of this place's existence it strengthened its foundation. Turning it from a mere concept to reality.
In turn without their belief they would no longer remember this place and they will never set foor here ever again."
I was stunned at the saint's absurd story. Needless to say I was rattled. My resolve was shaken. Now silent he revealed the 5th card.
"Show your hands, Mr. Parish", he said.
No, no, I can't lose! I have 4 Kings! I can't lose!
"4 Kings!", I declared sure of my victory.
My face dropped immeditately however, seeing his face smirking. Looking down the final card was another Ace....and the saint had the other 2 Aces.
"4 Aces beat 4 Kings unfortunately, Mr. Parish"
I slumped back on my chair, defeated. For some reason the thought of not being able to play in that place again disturbed me so much. My pride as a gambler was taken down a notch.
"So....you'll take my belief now? Erase my memories?", I asked weakly.
The saint however chuckled, "Oh not quite. Throughout the night I saw you out there. There's a thing that you hold really dearly more than you yourself know, and it's the most powerful thing I've ever seen a human possess. I want that thing"
I sat up, "What is it? Tell me!"
"Tsk tsk remember Mr. Parish. Blind bet", he said waving his finger.
I couldn't remember much after that. I must have blacked out. The next thing I knew I woke up on my bed in my bedroom in the morning. I was inside the Church for hours but being outside of time itself, it's only been less than 4 hours in here. I woke up at 7am. Clearly still remembering my experience. And that gave me dread. What did Saint Cajetan take from me?
As per usual I sat in front of the computer with my breakfast, playing more online poker. It was my favorite game after all.
Strange....$100, $500, $2000, $10000 even...I couldn't feel excited for winning. I panicked...what was wrong with me? I bet more and more and more, despite winning I couldn't feel...anything.
I fell onto the floor, defeated. I realized then...that was what the saint had taken. The thrill...the thrill I loved so much was taken away from me.

Limit 2-7 Triple Draw – 2-7 Triple Draw, also known as Deuce to Seven Triple Draw is a game in which the best low poker hand wins the pot at showdown. This is a draw poker game and each player will receive five cards and can discard anywhere from one to all five cards, or none at all. When you draw, the number of cards you discarded will be replaced. 2-7 Triple Draw allows you to draw up to three times or stand pat on any of the three draws. Standing pat means no cards are discarded. In Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, the player after the big blind will open the betting round by folding, calling or raising. At showdown the player with the best possible low hand wins the pot. In this version, Aces will always play high and straights and flushes will count against your low hand. The best possible hand to have in 2-7 Triple Draw is 7, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Limit Texas Holdem – Limit Texas Holdem is played just like your regular Holdem games with slight alterations in betting structure. If you’re unfamiliar with Holdem please see our How to Play Texas Holdem, which gives a complete overview of how the game is played. Betting structure in Limit Holdem is pre-determined meaning player bets pre-flop and post flop will be the same as the big blind. The betting amounts will change on the river with bet sizes and raises double that of the big blind. Limit Holdem caps the betting at four bets per round.
Limit Omaha Eight or Better (Omaha Hi – Lo) – Omaha Hi Lo is an entirely different game. In this game players have the opportunity to play for both hi and lo pots. Each player will receive four hole cards whereby they will need to make the best possible poker hand using two of those four cards along with three of the five community cards. Since the object of this game is to play for both pots players should realize that only hands with 8 or lower will qualify as a low hand. The best possible low hand in Omaha Hi Lo is A, 2, 3, 4, 5. Suits do not play for the low pot. The betting structure for this game is similar to Limit Holdem listed above.
Razz Poker- Razz Poker, also known as Seven Card Stud (low only) is a unique game of its own. The object of the game is to play for the best low hand, hopefully A-5, in order to win the pot. Each player will receive a total of seven cards and the overall game structure is consistent with other forms of Stud Poker. Although you’ll receive seven cards, only your five lowest cards will play. The best possible hand in Razz is the wheel (5,4,3,2,A). Although Razz doesn’t have “eight or better” requirements, it’s extremely rare to see someone win a Razz hand with high cards. 토토사이트
Limit Stud Eight or Better (Stud Hi Lo) – Seven Card Stud requires each player to ante before any cards are dealt. Each player receives two hole cards and one up card. The player who’s hand holds the lowest up card will be the “bring in” and is required to make another partial bet or the full small bet. Once the first betting round is complete, each player still left in the game will receive another up card. The first player to act in this round is the player who’s holding the highest up card during the second round and will be receive the option to check or bet. If the player decides to bet 4th street, the bet size will be that of the small blind. If the player’s hand exposes a pair a full bet can be made. Again after betting round is complete, each player will receive another up card, also called Fifth Street. The player who is first to act will be the player who currently has the highest ranked poker hand. The betting structure on Fifth Street changes and is now full bets equal to the big blind. The final two streets play out the same as Fifth Street. During showdown the pot will be awarded to the player who has the best high hand and the best low hand, unless a player is fortunate enough to have both in which case he’ll scoop the pot.
Limit Stud Poker – This is played exactly the same as the Hi Lo version above except players will only play for the best high hand. The antes, bring-in, and betting follows the same structure as Limit Stud 8 or Better.
No Limit Texas Holdem – No Limit Texas Holdem is played exactly like the standard version except the betting structure differs. Unlike the Limit version above, players will have no restrictions placed on the amount of their bets and can bet as little or as much as they like on each round including pre-flop.
Pot Limit Omaha – Pot Limit Omaha is played just like Omaha however players will only play for the best high hand, not hi lo. Players will still receive four hole cards and will be required to use two hole cards and three of the five community cards to qualify as a legitimate hand.

^{(sorry for this repost, more details at the end})
As some have said a couple of times in the last months, NANO is great, but it lacks a lot on adoption. There is no "Killer App" that makes users interested in NANO. It might be great, but if it's not used it won't succeed.
​
Introducing PlayNANO
PlayNANO it's an attempt at fixing this. On PlayNANO users will be able to earn Nano by completing all sorts of tasks; Play multiplayer games with friends and earn Nano for winning; Bet on multiple casino games; And lastly spend their Nano on all sorts of digital products. Oh and also, no account or login required!
See why Nano is the best crypto, with fee-less and instant use cases. Earn, play, bet, and spend - no account or login required.
I might not be the first doing something like this, but I'm aiming for better than what we have now.

• First - it will be for-profit. I love this community and a lot of the projects built, especially in the last couple of weeks. But most of them aren't for profit, nor targeted towards the end-user, and if we keep on making projects that don't generate money, we won't have the means to reach the masses. Many say the "Feeless, instant, green" markets for itself - I don't think I agree - that sentence won't reach the ears of many people unless it's paid to get there.
• Second - there is an affiliate program, for the same reason - because people are much more willing to share if there's money involved. On PlayNANO you'll be able to earn 1% of everything your referrals earn. (approx. 30% commission)
• Third - I've made the effort to focus on UI and UX. As many might have noticed the last couple of weeks, we have great developers, that build awesome things, but we are lacking in the user experience, which nowadays it's so necessary.

​
PlayNANO's Roulette
Play the European Roulette with Nano - fee-less and instant as Crypto should be!
My favorite feature so far, a provably fair multiplayer roulette. Instant betting and very quick payouts - sometimes you even get your payout before the roulette stops spinning! ^{(and yeah, I'm gonna leave this as a feature to showcase the power of NANO xD})
With this multiplayer roulette, you are not betting alone, you will also see other players bets on the table, for a more fun and immersive experience. And it uses a provably fair system to make sure that all numbers/spins are fair and can't be manipulated by anyone.
​
PlayNANO's Jumper
I've also created Jumper - a simple game with simple rules, but there's space for great strategies! Each game starts with a 12 by 12 grid, and the objective of the game is to be the last one standing on the grid, by sweeping your opponents off.
Compete with other players and earn NANO by sweeping them out of the game!
Next steps
This is the first release but I have got a lot planned for the future! Starting with a multiplayer Texas Holdem Poker feature; more games to be added to the Play section; more ways to earn Nano, and add way more prizes to the spend list.
Quick FYI: I'm using a 400$/month server, with a GPU, to handle the heavy PoW generation. Within the last month my server has sent over 45.000 transactions, mostly due to the Earn - Watch Videos feature - which is getting quite popular on Venezuela, Indonesia, and Central Africa. So I don't think I'm in love with the future v21 PoW increase xD
​
The end
I'm not saying PlayNANO is the "Killer App" we need, but it's something. I intend to make a living out of it and use the profits to make Nano reach more people, whether through marketing, donations to the development fund, maybe help fund the next Build-Off competition, and/or other things.
So go ahead and try it out, maybe show it to your friends to show how awesome Nano is ;)
All feedback will be much appreciated.
​
^{(Once again, for those who caught it, I'm sorry for the repost. I made this repost because last time I posted I was in a hurry, the post was not well-formatted, I made a mistake on the title, I didn't pick a good time to post, and all that made that post's exposure quite low. This is my do-over, won't do it again!})

Woke up and was on the Luxor floor by 740am. Tables were already 15! Damn!
Went over to Excalibur for my wife to play slots. 15 doe the regular craps table, 10 for crapless at 830 in the morning
Drove to South Point. Spent about 4 hours there. 3 5 dollar tables and 1 10. 2X odds with no feature bets.
Now for the story. Bought in for 150. I got to throw shortly after buying in. Im far out tossing the dice to the edge of the table. One die stopped just short of the wall. Boxman told me to hit the back wall everytime. This is my first throw it would have hit the wall but bounced sideways. Next throw the first die hit the wall and the second hit the first die. "Sir if you don't hit the back wall im going to move the dice along". I told him I'm doingy best. I 7 out next throw. Box does the same to the next guy who decides to start chucking them down the table so hard that one hits me in the chest. Boxman seems mad that we were throwing them too hard. Couldn't make him happy. I decided to move to another table. I lost my buyin there.
Here is where the story takes a turn. I drop another 100 and get ready to shoot at the second table. Full crew change. The boxman from the first table moves to our table. I put a bet on the line for the dealers. I miss the back wall with one die but it hits a stack of chips for a 7 front line winner I did that 2 or three times in a row with the crew making some money. He's giving me the stinkeye. I hit two points woth odds for the crew and we were all friends. Not sure why he didn't say something to me this time.
Anyway, had a good time there but lost 500 at the tables including 100 at Texas Holdem. I never had anything more than a pair. Wife doubled up at the table and did well at slots.
Hoping to head to Gold Coast and the Cannery before heading to El Cortez to check into our room.

Ending Soon

Project Info	Players	Backers	Min / Avg Pledge	Ends	Comments
Tipping Point: the climate change card game A semi-cooperative game where players must build cities and protect their citizens from severe weather! // Has raised $15,857 CAD of $15,000 CAD so far. (~105%) ☑	2 - 4	289	$31 / $55 CAD	Jan 14	kicktraq
Questicus A hand-drawn adventure game of petty politics, flimsy alliances and overall backstabbery! // Has raised $6,666 of $11,000 so far. (~60%)	3 - 6	102	$60 / $65	Jan 15	kicktraq bgg
Dating Pool The first dating app themed board game // Has raised $5,887 of $5,000 so far. (~117%) ☑	2 - 10	140	$29 / $42	Jan 16	kicktraq bgg
SANCTORVM Sanctorvm is cooperative Sci-Fi horror game for 2 up to 6 players with a massive campaign. Fight and take decisions to survive! // Has raised €57,415 of €35,000 so far. (~164%) ☑	1 - 6	674	$89 / €85	Jan 16	kicktraq bgg
I Am An Adult The Board Game I Am An Adult The Board Game, the game that reminds you you didn't choose to grow up, but you're going to have to deal with it. // Has raised $7,249 of $8,000 so far. (~90%)	4 - 8	59	$100 / $123	Jan 16	kicktraq #hmm
Elementals Unleashed The card game that brings the Periodic Table to life. // Has raised £3,866 of £800 so far. (~483%) ☑	2 - 5	189	$15 / £20	Jan 16	kicktraq bgg
Manacrest (Physical & Digital TCG) A community-driven physical & digital trading card game. // Has raised $6,624 of $5,000 so far. (~132%) ☑	2 - 2	145	$10 / $46	Jan 16	kicktraq #take2
Launch Torpedoes! (PnP) A solo board game where it's up to you to stop an enemy fleet from getting through! // Has raised $435 of $45 so far. (~966%) ☑	2 - 2	101	$1 / $4	Jan 18	kicktraq

New This Week

Project Info	Players	Backers	Min / Avg Pledge	Ends	Comments
《West Chest》 《West Chest》A Card Game based on 18,19th century in Western // Has raised HK$230 of HK$65,500 so far. (~0%)	4 - 6	7	$5 / HK$33	Feb 07
100 Astronauts A beautifully designed space colonization card game with extremely addictive gameplay. Exclusive for "Make 100". // Has raised £4,407 of £1,000 so far. (~440%) ☑	2 - 3	137	$31 / £32	Feb 06
25 Monkeys Bilingual Bombardment A wonderfully insulting card game // Has raised $461 of $50,000 so far. (~0%)	? - ?	10	$20 / $46	Feb 05
AlderQuest An innovative game of tactics and tile placement for 1-4 players, pairing area control with a unique match-3 economy. // Has raised $10,896 of $18,000 so far. (~60%)	1 - 4	259	$34 / $42	Jan 29	bgg #take2
Almanac: The Dragon Road A game of trade, travel, and adventure. // Has raised $18,559 of $6,000 so far. (~309%) ☑	2 - 4	339	$49 / $55	Jan 23	bgg
APEX : Collected Edition APEX : CE includes the Base Game + ALL Available Expansion Decks! // Has raised $161,018 of $42,000 so far. (~383%) ☑	1 - 6	1836	$8 / $88	Feb 06	bgg #newedition #expansion
Battle of Element Make a simple and exciting board game with some cards // Has raised HK$10 of HK$6,600 so far. (~0%)	? - ?	1	$NA / NA	Feb 10	#hmm
Black Sonata: The Fair Youth The first expansion (and reprint) for Black Sonata, the award-winning solo game of hidden movement and deduction // Has raised $40,734 of $3,000 so far. (~1357%) ☑	1 - 1	1917	$12 / $21	Jan 26	bgg #expansion #reprint
Building Cities Board Game for 1/4 players - a modern city simulation where you can build, manage, expand and maintain your own city! // Has raised €2,753 of €43,330 so far. (~6%)	1 - 4	49	$59 / €56	Feb 07	bgg #take2
Cocky Cowrie The first-ever cowrie & money based game. Roll cowries & bet using multipliers to win money on each move. // Has raised $11,232 CAD of $10,000 CAD so far. (~112%) ☑	2 - 10	185	$20 / $61 CAD	Feb 07
Code Crackers: The Enigma The Cooperatively Competitive Board Game. // Has raised $1,141 of $19,500 so far. (~5%)	3 - 5	21	$35 / $54	Mar 07	bgg
Crusader Kingdoms: War for the Holy Land A game on the Crusades for 1 to 4 players with a solitaire engine. Fight the Crusades in an hour; solo, cooperative, and competitive. // Has raised $14,849 of $5,000 so far. (~296%) ☑	1 - 4	188	$64 / $79	Feb 01
Demi - True Online Trading Card Game Demi Card Game - A unique strategy collectible card game designed around mythologies. Starting with three: Greek, Norse & Egyptian. // Has raised $544 of $10,000 so far. (~5%)	? - ?	16	$3 / $34	Mar 07	#app
Dragon Ball Z - Smash Battle: The AR Powered Miniatures Game An Official Licensed Dragon Ball Z Miniatures Game with pre-painted miniatures and Augmented Reality (AR) apps // Has raised HK$154,400 of HK$10 so far. (~1544000%) ☑	2 - 4	138	$80 / HK$1119	Feb 04
DRINKS with FRENEMIES™ 2020 THE SABOTAGING PARTY GAME ...where friends become enemies & enemies become frenemies // Has raised $1,791 of $311 so far. (~575%) ☑	3 - 99	33	$20 / $54	Jan 21	bgg #newedition
Duffers Golf for Gamers. The Game for Golfers. A Golf-Inspired Deck Building Game // Has raised $2,650 of $10,500 so far. (~25%)	1 - 4	54	$25 / $49	Feb 07
Dungeon Party The Hilarious Coin-Bouncing Role-Playing Game // Has raised $50,004 of $5,000 so far. (~1000%) ☑	1 - 6	938	$19 / $53	Feb 06	bgg
Filthy Kings - A Card Game A strategic bluffing game, where you must expel all Annoying Inhabitants from your Kingdom, and send them to your opponents’ Kingdoms! // Has raised €1,330 of €3,000 so far. (~44%)	3 - 5	38	$17 / €35	Feb 06	bgg
Flap Flap Duck A 2-5 Players Saving Ducky Co-op Operation! // Has raised $1,145 of $10,000 so far. (~11%)	2 - 5	32	$36 / $36	Feb 05	bgg
Herrlof A two-person trick taking card game with closed bidding and a twist // Has raised €7,124 of €1,000 so far. (~712%) ☑	2 - 2	451	$11 / €16	Feb 04	bgg
Kept Prince And NEET Princess Real Time Table Top Action Game No MC New Style Karuta // Has raised HK$4,632 of HK$5,000 so far. (~92%)	2 - 6	23	$13 / HK$201	Feb 05
Kingdom's Candy: Monsters The engine-building game with many possible paths to victory! Build your army of monsters and steal candies from the Kingdom. // Has raised €4,527 of €5,000 so far. (~90%)	2 - 5	201	$19 / €23	Jan 23	bgg
Lift Off! Get me Off This Planet! - Expanded Deluxe Edition This is the Expanded Deluxe Edition of Lift Off! Get me off this Planet! (Full Version & Upgrade Kit!) // Has raised $18,678 of $7,500 so far. (~249%) ☑	1 - 6	396	$25 / $47	Jan 21	bgg #newedition #dicetowerpick
Middle Ages This game is marking by student.Join us // Has raised HK$30 of HK$100,000,000 so far. (~0%)	2 - 8	3	$55 / HK$10	Jan 15	#hmm
Nature Survival Games Board game with questions and challenges that help individuals/communities with protecting the environment and getting close to nature // Has raised $4 of $700 so far. (~0%)	2 - 10	4	$45 / $1	Mar 04	#hmm
Neo-Morphosis: Infestation Neo-Morphosis: Infestation is a co-operative game for one to four players. // Has raised $176,784 of $45,000 so far. (~392%) ☑	1 - 4	1321	$100 / $134	Feb 03	bgg
Pacific Rails Inc Pacific Rails Inc is a engine building, resource management, worker placement, network/route building game for 2 to 4 players. // Has raised $17,234 of $15,000 so far. (~114%) ☑	2 - 4	320	$35 / $54	Jan 27	bgg
Ruins of the Lorn Keep Card Game An affordable and portable dungeon delve card game for 2-3 players // Has raised $2,829 of $900 so far. (~314%) ☑	2 - 3	168	$10 / $17	Jan 25
Scruffy’s Treasure Hunt A 2-4 player treasure hunting board game. Easy to pick up and play, with layers of complex strategy for advanced players. // Has raised $642 of $12,000 so far. (~5%)	2 - 4	15	$35 / $43	Feb 09
Square Meal A fast-paced card game where players race to complete delicious patterns. // Has raised $2,519 of $8,000 so far. (~31%)	1 - 6	149	$18 / $17	Feb 01	bgg
Stuhoundious For people who like dogs and games. Or just dogs. Or just games. Or neither but need a gift. // Has raised $2,146 of $2,000 so far. (~107%) ☑	2 - 7	43	$20 / $50	Feb 08
TECH DECK Playing cards & Peer-to-peer game The TECH DECK brings playing cards into the 21st century. 54 cards in 4 suits: Info/Science/Tech/Services. Peer-to-Peer game built in. // Has raised $294 of $10 so far. (~2940%) ☑	1 - 6	14	$10 / $21	Jan 28
Texas Hold'em & Spell'em Poker A Word Game with Texas Hold’em Poker Rules // Has raised $153 of $20,000 so far. (~0%)	2 - 5	7	$30 / $22	Feb 14
The Contacts: call or lose New exciting tabletop game for you and your friends. Are you ready to rely on your contacts' knowledge? // Has raised €60 of €2,000 so far. (~3%)	2 - 6	9	$34 / €7	Feb 07
Twistagon An elegant, minimalist, "heirloom quality" tabletop game system. Designed with flexible rules and countless different games! // Has raised $3,120 of $40,000 so far. (~7%)	? - ?	28	$68 / $111	Jan 12
Up & Atom An educational card game that teaches players to count atoms using moles. For the classroom, homeschool, or nerds. All are welcome. // Has raised $624 of $2,100 so far. (~29%)	2 - 6	22	$14 / $28	Feb 06
Visions of Rainbows: The Race for the Champion's Stripes Visions of Rainbows is a card-driven, racing-themed strategy game for between 3-7 player with a fully customizable terrain map. // Has raised $1,550 of $17,500 so far. (~8%)	3 - 7	28	$60 / $55	Feb 10
Warp's Edge A Solo Adventure by Scott Almes. Fight. Warp. Repeat. // Has raised $33,643 of $10,000 so far. (~336%) ☑	1 - 1	683	$35 / $49	Jan 24	bgg
Yumeboku's Daily Board game Enjoy this card game with your friends. // Has raised HK$10 of HK$130,800 so far. (~0%)	? - ?	1	$NA / NA	Feb 10	#hmm

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Footnotes

• #hmm means that something about the project seems a little off. Buyer beware kinda thing.
• #lolwut is reserved for projects that seem like copycat games or campaigns put together with little thought. Check 'em out for amusement.
• #take tags are for projects that have been restarted for some reason, with the number indicating what iteration we're currently on.
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So I came up with something that my players really love. Tried it on Discord and it worked out well, too. I had players interested in playing gamblers, and at first they were discouraged because it was just sort of opposed checks of Perception and Deception, representing bluffing and so forth, with the result just sort of “announced.”
Perhaps it was my failure as a narrator, but things weren’t going so well in the gambling end. They wanted something that felt like a drama driven by gambling, like the movies “Maverick” and “Rounders.” (They all play cards IRL) I felt like I needed a little more structure, at least for myself as a GM, so that I could carry them through it narratively. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far and they’re LOVING IT.
Before I say this, I should just say it’s a start, and I welcome any feedback. Also, all groups are different, so this might only come across as unnecessary to some, but I stress, all groups are different and it has worked for us:
In order for this to work, someone must have a winning hand, and someone must have a losing hand, and all other players must have “in-between hands.” In order to do this, the GM has to do one quick thing to prepare the sabacc game. Instead of the tedious ordeal of telling everyone what cards they have (suits and values and such), the GM simply rolls a percentage die, and assigns everyone hands based on numerical value—the higher the number rolled, the better a PC or NPC’s hand. Simple.
Let your players know that a “bad hand” is 1-30, an “okay hand” is 31-60, and a “good hand” is 70-100. The GM writes down what each PC has on a slip of paper and hands it out, face down to each player (For example, you just write “bad”, “okay,” or “good”, not the actual numerical value). That way, the PCs at the table don’t know what kind of hands their friends have, and if the player has a “good hand” they won’t know if someone has a better “good hand.” They just know about how good their own hand is, in the greater game of sabacc. (This represents having a full house, but not knowing if someone has a straight flush, as it were.)
Then, of course, the GM secretly writes down what kind of hands each of the NPCs have (for this, I recommend not having more than three NPCs playing the game, and two NPCs seems to be ideal).
A GAMBLING CHARACTER’S TURN It’s similar to combat. You get one Maneuver, which does not typically require a skill check…
…and maybe take a SECOND Maneuver by suffering 1 Strain, perhaps by sipping a strong alcoholic beverage to gather your courage, or just because you are stressed from trying to do too much in one round while keeping your head in the game…
And now you begin your rounds of gameplay, just like combat.
IMPORTANT RULE: At the end of each round, all players who have not folded MUST put in either 100 credits, 1,000 credits, or whatever (your choice on the stakes), in order to stay in. And they must, of course, ante up at the beginning of each round.
Here are your Maneuvers.
Raise: The player can simply raise the amount in the Pot, to pretty much whatever they can afford.
Chit-chat: Make small talk while gambling, making it seem nonchalant. Because there is sometimes a lot of talk around the table, and other times quiet because people are trying to concentrate in peace, you get this one Maneuver to try and squeeze in some questions without being annoying to the NPCs, or before someone else starts talking to dealing cards. Perhaps you ask one of the NPCs when a shipment of illegal spice is set to come in, or try and subtly tell a fellow PC what sort of hand you’ve got, so you two can coordinate and team up against the other NPCs. If you choose to chat up an NPC, you can either use Charm on an opposed roll to win friends, which grants you a boost die on all Deception, Skullduggery, and Perception rolls until the end of your next turn (because you’ve got the bead on how these players think and move), or let the GM roll a percentage die: on a 1-10, one of the NPCs lets something vital slip through casual conversation. (EXAMPLE: “I don’t know if Jabba’s gonna be happy about what Sasha did to his majordomo. Could be trouble…”)
Ask For Another Card: This can be done only twice per game of cards. Any player can do it, PC or NPC (this is like the flop, turn, and river in Texas Holdem). Everyone is “dealt” a new card (narratively), so the GM has to re-roll the percentage die again, determining what everyone’s new hand ranking is by adding whatever he rolled to their previous “hand values.” To be clear, in this weird game of sabacc, a person can use the below “Call” action to end all gameplay and betting, forgoing the right to an extra card, and simply hope they win…but the longer they keep NPCs and other PCs talking, the more the betting goes up. (As stated, at the end of each round, extra credits are always added to the Pot) TIP: The reason you might ask for another card is because your current hand sucks.
Call: End the betting and reveal all cards to see who has the highest hand. Whoever has the highest hand (as previously recorded by the GM) is the winner.
Fold: Simply fold and bow out of this round of cards. You do not get back the money you’ve already bet.
…and now you get one Action.
AND THOSE ACTIONS ARE…
Bluff: Send out (false) vibes that other NPCs pick up on, making them think you have cards that you don’t, or don’t have cards that you do. Perform a Deception check, using this method: Take the average Perception rank of all NPCs, that’s your Difficulty dice pool. For each NPC you are trying to bluff, upgrade a Difficulty die. On a success, you bluff your targeted opponent(s), and they each suffer 1 setback die on any gauging rolls until the end of the PC’s next round. Which brings us to…
Gauge: Using this action, any Player Character who makes a successful Perception check is able to tell which players have a strong hand and who has a weak hand, and recovers 1 point of strain (because he can now relax a bit, now that he knows who has what cards).
Put a Skifter Into Play: In old canon, a “skifter” was a fake sabacc card that could change values to whatever you wanted. So, in this action, you surreptitiously place a skifter into your hand, replacing another card, using a Skullduggery check to make sure you are not seen. On a success, you not only do it, but you now have the winning hand! You just have to wait until next round to gain a maneuver and use the Call maneuver to end the game and win! The Skullduggery check is this: However many NPCs there are, that’s the number of Difficulty dice—then, for every strain you have suffered so far, that’s how many Difficulty dice are upgraded (reflecting the level of stress and/or alcohol you are under, etc.).
Stack the Deck: This can be done only at the end of a game of cards. You offer to be the one to re-shuffle the cards and deal. On a successful Skullduggery check, you stack the deck to your liking, giving the winning hand next round to whomever you want, and the worst hand to whomever you want, as well. The Skullduggery check is done the same as “Put a Skifter Into Play.” If you fail with NO THREATS, you merely fail to do it. If you fail WITH THREATS, then you are spotted trying to stack the deck by the number of NPCs equal to your Threats, and must now perform a hard Deception check to put their minds at ease and convince them you really weren’t trying to cheat.
Throw Someone Off Their Game: A player smiles lasciviously at an NPC, or blows cigarra smoke in his face, or does something else annoying to distract and put the NPC off his or her game. Perform either an opposed Skullduggery check, or an opposed Charm check, either of which will be opposed by the NPC’s Resilience. If the NPC fails, they are now “rattled,” and suffer a Setback die on all their next checks, no matter who the checks are against.
Cheat: This is separate from the Skifter and Stack The Deck actions above because, while those were very specific, and the skifter was added in because of my love for Star Wars lore, this “Cheat” action is here for all the generalities that may be imposed by the greater narrative. Perhaps one of your players set up a droid across the cantina to zoom in on an NPC’s cards and read what sort of hand he’s got, and so the droid has to signal your player, so your player needs to do some kind of Perception check to pick up on what the droid is trying to relay. In any case, this is a major action, and needs to either be opposed or have an average check, since all eyes are on the players, and everyone is on the lookout for a cheater…
SO THAT'S IT! As a side note, we don't do this for every sabacc or pazaak game, just for the ones where they've entered a tournament or feel like the stakes should be high. It has helped me a bit as a GM as a kind of "training wheels" for this system when it comes to gambling, and I'm getting better at NOT using it now. Anyways, there it is.

I witnessed a great hand last weekend.
2/5NL at Sugarhouse in Philadelphia, Sunday afternoon. Usually not a very good game, but the single 2/5 table is healthy and the late-night regs have not arrived yet. A stereotypical "street entrepreneur" sits in middle position, an even more stereotypical OMC sits on his left. About 2.5k effective stacks.
SE raises to 25, OMC raises to 100. It is his first preflop raise all afternoon. Folds back to SE, who snapcalls.
Flop: K Q 6 rainbow. SE checks, OMC bets $100. After chatting with his fellow OMC buddies all game, he has gone completely silent. SE calls.
Turn: 7. SE checks. OMC, visibly shaking, grabs a pile of black chips and bets $700 without counting it. An obscene overbet for this game. SE thinks for a minute, then calls.
River: K. SE checks. OMC instantly shoves all in for $1600. SE tanks. And tanks. And tanks. Suddenly, the river actually registers in OMC's mind. Oh no. The king has paired.
SE continues to tank, and OMC is in visible distress. He stands up, then sits down. "I know you're going to call me, just call." His voice is an octave higher than usual, and way too loud. He stands up again. "ANY REAL POKER PLAYER KNOWS WHAT I HAVE RIGHT NOW." Translation: I have aces, I only ever have aces in this situation, and I deserve the respect and sympathy of this table when I'm eventually stacked by KJ/AK/QQ/66/77. SE asks, relatively politely, for OMC to stop shouting while he thinks. OMC sits down again, still shaking.
SE tanks for another two long minutes, then finally looks up. "I know you ain't got shit, but I'm going to give it to you." SE folds face-up. AJo - ace high. OMC, now grinning at his biggest winning session ever, proudly scoops the pot and shows his AA. "Oh shit, I guess you did have it." OMC, victorious, walks around the room for 20 minutes telling his OMC buddies about the hand. Finally, his day has come. Justice is served and the aces remain uncracked, as is their god-given right as the best possible hand in Texas Holdem.
SE shrugs and looks up at me, and I make eye contact. "Good fold, bro."

There is no doubt side pot players are expected to reveal their cards first in a showdown at the end of betting, however, can they be pressed to do this before the flop as an example? Do all remaining players have the right to see those cards before further betting commences?
Extra kudos for anyone who can actually point to a clear texas holdem rule that clarifies this, as it has defeated my searching!

Myra Kindle is an independent investigative reporter.
Her other reports:

• What does Google want with male sex workers?
  
• A Tyson Foods board member was held ransom for $87,250 in December, 2018. Now released, he says Tyson is suppressing police investigations into finding his captors and threatening legal action if he speaks about his abduction.
  
• Google’s Algorithmic Decay - A Report on the Lenoir, North Carolina Bombing
  
• In 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was losing more than 120 informants a year to Russian KGB. by 1981, that number had dropped to just 10. Now, a former intelligence agent is raising alarm that the wildly unorthodox methods once used to protect Russian sources could pose a devastating new threat
  
• For Two Years a Former University Student Has Set-Up Unusual Protest Demonstrations in Buffalo, New York - No One Is Still Quite Sure What He’s Protesting
  
• Nearly Two Months After a Terrorist Attack in China Killed 337 People, Investigators Have Gotten No Closer to Determining How the Attack Was Carried Out
  
• A Report on the Grey Men of 327 Cedar Lane -- This was part of a collaborative project with nslewis, who wrote the incident that takes place prior, "The grey men of 327 Cedar Lane"
  

Boardwalk Attraction

What drives a person to cover themselves in gasoline and drop a match by their feet?
That was the question that ran through the minds of many in a crowd outside the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey on March 23rd, 2019.
At approximately 7:45PM on that cold spring eve, a Mr. James Ferdini, age 47, covered himself in gasoline and was prepared to drop a match in the fuel.
As the crowd shouted for him to stop and several witnesses called the police, Mr. Ferdini reportedly stood unfazed, simply grinning and appearing to revel in the crowd’s shock.
“It was a suicidal action but it didn’t look like a suicidal person,” says Sam Kenset, an eyewitness to the incident. “I guess I don’t really know what a suicidal person looks like, but his movements and the way he was talking -- he just didn’t seem like a man down on his luck.”
Ms. Kenset is quite astute in her observation -- Mr. Feredini was certainly not down on his luck. In fact only moments before covering himself in gasoline, Mr. Ferdini had cashed out more than $1.3 million in winnings from the Borgata Hotel and Casino, making his suicidal action all the more puzzling.
However dangerous, Mr. Ferdini’s gasoline soaked stunt would not lead to his death on March 23rd, but his life was not long for this world either. Three days later on March 26th he would be found dead from an entirely different cause.
In Mr. Ferdini’s incredible winnings and suicidal tendencies leading up to his unusual and grizzly death on March 26th, many questions remain. Who was James Ferdini? What happened to his more than million dollars in winnings? And what was the lead up of events that caused his demise?
Based on interviews with management at the Borgata Hotel and Casino, local police and investigators, and corroborated with eyewitness accounts, independent investigative reporter Myra Kindle, for the first time, brings you a report on the man who nearly bankrupted a casino, and whose luck seemed to make him invincible until his highly improbable death.

What are the Odds?

As the match fell to James Ferdini’s feet outside the Borgata Hotel and Casino, the crowd stood agasp as they waited for the inevitable fire and horrible death of a gas soaked man. This moment would never come however, and the match reportedly landed in the puddle of gasoline meeting it as though it were water.
“The crowd started to look away the moment he dropped the match,” says Matthew Gershowitz, a witness to the event. “I couldn’t though -- I needed to see what would happen. I mean we all thought we were witnessing a suicide or something, but the guy was jovial, happy, making jokes with the crowd before he lit the match. And then when it hit the gas, it just burned out, and the man started laughing. We were all amazed. It was like a miracle -- we thought he’d die for sure.”
While it’s quite understandable that the crowd believed they had witnessed a miracle when James did not burst into flames, professor of organic chemistry at Villanova University, Marcy Li, says the odds of Mr. Ferdini’s death were far less than certain.
“Gasoline is certainly flammable, but not like in the way shown in movies and TV,” says professor Li. “It’s the layer of vapor above that gasoline that is most likely to combust. There could be a number of factors like wind, humidity and temperature that improved Mr. Ferdini’s chance of avoiding being burned alive. I would certainly say he’s lucky, but I wouldn’t say it’s a miracle he didn’t burst into flames.”
If Mr. Ferdini relied on luck that day to survive, it would appear to have been with him in spades for quite some time.
Having just come from the Borgata casino floor, James was reportedly on a ‘hot-streak’, winning tens of thousands of dollars an hour over the preceding two days.
“You have to imagine we were pretty happy when he left the casino,” says Richard Markelson, a floor manager at the Borgata. “Normally we want customers to stay as long as possible so the house can win our money back, but Mr. Ferdini never had a bad roll, spin, or lever pull the whole 40 consecutive hours he was gambling at the Borgata. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Mr. Markelson was able to confirm through cash-logs and casino surveillance that Mr. Ferdini had indeed won big at the Borgata, and records show his total winnings amounted to $1,348,427.
Mr. Markelson said of the winnings: “It was enough of a loss over a short period of time that the owners of the casino were worried our insurance premiums were gonna jump. A casino in Atlantic City simply doesn’t lose that much money in such a short time, at least not to a nobody, and Mr. Ferdini was certainly a nobody.”

A Career Loser

While management at the Borgata Hotel and Casino did not know Mr. Ferdini prior to his 40 hour lucrative gambling binge, many on Atlantic City’s boardwalk have been acutely aware of James for years.
For example after James’s stunt with the gasoline, he was arrested and taken to the Atlantic City jail and held on the possible charge of disorderly conduct, but was released after the charges were dropped. The reason? The police had a long record of interactions with Mr. Ferdini and thought of him only as a minor risk.
“We were more worried about the guy’s mental health than him causing a scene on the boardwalk,” says Atlantic City officer Paul Stevenson. “We’ve known James for years -- I mean he’s a loser. Is it a shock to me that he would try and commit suicide like that? Absolutely not.”
When asked why the police did not opt to commit Mr. Ferdini to a hospital on a psychological evaluation, officer Stevenson replied: “The plan was to have him committed, but some lawyer showed up and we didn’t want a legal fight, so we decided to release him instead. I felt a bit mixed about it. I mean the guy was clearly suicidal -- why else would you douse yourself in gasoline?”
When told that Mr. Ferdini was reportedly jovial and happy during the gasoline incident, and that he had in fact won more than a million dollars immediately prior to the event, officer Stevenson struggled with the narrative: “That doesn’t sound like the James Ferdini I know. He’s always been a depressed gambler, and never won a game in his life as far as I know. He couldn’t win a hundred bucks, let alone a million. I can’t even believe they let him into the Borgata in the first place, but I guess the cash winnings explains the lawyer.”
Officer Stevenson asked if I could confirm the details of the winnings and that Mr. Ferdini was in a jovial mood during the gasoline incident. When I showed documentation of Mr. Ferdini’s winnings provided by Mr. Markelson and relayed several eyewitness accounts as to his temperament, officer Stevenson replied: “I don’t get it. So, why’d he try to burn himself alive?”

The ‘Cooler’

Perhaps no individual has a better sense of who Mr. Ferdini is and what happened to him than the floor manager at the Borgata, Mr. Markelson.
For 40 hours prior to the gasoline incident, Mr. Ferdini bet heavily at the Borgata casino, and Mr. Markelson was in close proximity for much of his hot-streak.
“I was actually supposed to be on vacation that week,” says Mr. Markelson, “but I got called in because the other cooler was sick.”
A ‘cooler’ as Mr. Markelson explained, is a relic of old casinos that today is rarely used, however some establishments still invest in what could be called ‘charms’ to bring bad luck to high rollers.
“I got hired because I’m unlucky,” explains Mr. Markelson. “I can do the job of floor manager just fine -- don't get me wrong -- but it was my knack for bad luck that got me the job for sure.”
A cooler operates by simply being present around those that are on a run of good luck. In Mr. Markelson’s account, he says that being around him will bring such bad luck to any gambler that their cards will go cold, their lever pulls result in no winnings, and their wheel spins doomed to lose money.
“It’s a talent I’ve had since, well, forever,” says Mr. Markelson. “If I just stand near someone, they’ll start to have bad luck like me. I know it sounds crazy, and sometimes I don’t believe it myself, but it’s true. I mean, like I said, I think that’s why the casino hired me. They could count on me to go onto the casino floor and bring bad luck to anyone that’s winning a bit too much. Best part, since it’s based on superstition, it’s completely above board.”
With James Ferdini, Richard Markelson found that his power did not work however.
“I don’t know about before I showed up, but for when I was watching him, that man could not lose. The casino made me stay multiple shifts, I’m talking nearly 40 hours to watch him and were hoping I’d bring him bad luck, but it never happened. He just kept on winning no matter what game he played.”

An Escalation of Bets

In attempting to find James Ferdini’s state of mind prior to the gasoline incident, floor manager Richard Markelson provided unfettered access to video of the casino floor, even though he realized he could be breaking several state gambling commission laws by allowing a reporter to look at such surveillance. In fact, more than taking the risk, it was Mr. Markelson that called me and led me to this story in the first place.
“The police didn’t send him to the hospital after the gas thing I’ve been told. I figured the truth has to be somewhere and when police won’t do their job, I guess it’s reporters that have to step in,” says Mr. Markelson. “The most important thing to be me personally is finding out why he died just a few days later in that horrible freak accident -- the one on March 26th.”
When asked if Mr. Markelson had any interest in finding Mr. Ferdini’s still missing $1.3 million, he replied: “Of course, but that’s not my primary concern here. I just want to know what the fuck happened. How does a guy who should have felt on top of the world go to dousing himself in gasoline, and then ends up dead a few days later? I really want to know.”
In the video access provided by Mr. Markelson, I managed to find new clues that might be able to explain Mr. Ferdini’s downward spiral.
It could best be described as an escalation of bets that appeared to take place soon after Mr. Ferdini began his run of good luck. According to video of the casino floor, around the time manager Richard Markelson appeared, Mr. Ferdini started his miraculous winning streak.
The video shows Mr. Ferdini starting with craps, moving to baccarat, then slot machines, and followed by a long run at twenty-one. He continues to gamble for 40 straight hours, much of it with Mr. Markelson in close proximity.
“I was the only cooler around, so the higher ups at the Borgata made me stay the whole time. I got a lot of overtime that week,” says Mr. Markelson.
Curiously, the video shows that at around the 25 hour mark Mr. Ferdini attracts something of a crowd. While the video offers no sound, it appears as though Mr. Ferdini is making several wagers with his new found groupies.
At first a few in his new entourage gamble him directly in casino floor games like Texas Holdem, but it appears as though they make several bets outside of the casino games as well.
In one instance Mr. Ferdini appears to bet that he can drink boiling hot water. The video shows him drinking a scalding hot cup and immediately receiving a small payout from several people he was talking to before beginning the stunt.
It became clear to me after reviewing the video surveillance that for this story, I would need to speak to at least one of the people who witnessed Mr. Ferdini taking on these non-casino game bets. Thankfully, with Mr. Markelson’s help I was able to track down Maria Nowak, who in the video appears to spend several hours with Mr. Ferdini.
A resident of Atlantic City, Ms. Nowak was able to confirm that Mr. Ferdini was taking part in what she describes as “extreme behavior”, and that he was seemingly willing to bet on anything and everything. Even games that were clearly not of chance, like drinking boiling hot water.

”For $500, Right?”

Why did Mr. Ferdini cover himself in gasoline and drop a match? It’s a question essential to understanding his mindset, and one for which the answer appears to be quite simple.
After tracking down Ms. Nowak, a long time resident who often partakes in long gambling binges herself, she claims Mr. Ferdini covered himself in gasoline and dropped a match in the fuel simply because of a wager.
“We had been doing side bets for hours,” says Ms. Nowak, who agreed to meet me at Hayday Cafe, a local coffee shop. “I was with a group of friends and we noticed that this guy [Mr. Ferdini] had not been losing any bets for hours. The guy was pretty much throwing money around and that type of attitude attracts the crowd I was with. So, we started making small talk and then made a few bets, dumb, small ones to start.”
When asked what bets her group made with Mr. Ferdini, Ms. Nowak replies: “At first it was things like, how many casino chips he could fit into his mouth. But then it escalated pretty quickly, like soon we were betting on how much money he could win in an hour. Then a bit after that he did this really stupid boiling hot water challenge -- he simply bet he could drink boiling hot water without having to go to the hospital. The bet didn’t make any sense, but like everything else, he won.”
“The gasoline challenge was the craziest though,” she continues. “It was clearly a joke when my friend suggested it, but James took him up on it right away. The challenge was, like, ‘can you cover yourself in gasoline, drop a match, and survive?’ James said he would do it for $500, and we just assumed he was kidding, but sure enough he was dead serious.”
Ms. Nowak claims that she too was present in the crowd outside the Borgata when Mr. Ferdini made good on the gasoline bet, and that immediately prior to him dropping the match, he said to her and the rest of the gambling entourage, “This is for $500, right?”
“He said it but I’m not too sure how many people heard it,” Ms. Nowak says. “I mean the whole crowd was screaming for him to stop. They all thought the guy wanted to kill himself. I guess one of us nodded our heads to James’s question, and then he dropped the match. I’ll be damned, but he won that bet too. We gave him $500 alright, not that he needed it after making all that money at the Borgata.”
When asked if Ms. Nowak saw Mr. Ferdini after he was released from the police station, she responds: “Yea, we hung out for the next two or three days -- all of us -- the gambling group that had formed at the casino, James Ferdini, and then, oh yea, that guy Richard Makel-something. I think he worked at the Borgata but he hung around with us for a couple days while we partied at a different hotel. It was around the time Richard and the rest of us left that James was in that freak accident.”

Richard Markelson

The details of Ms. Nowak’s account have confirmed two things to this reporter.
One, Mr. Ferdini’s suicidal gesture to cover himself in gasoline was nothing more than a bet to earn more money. Feeling high from his good luck at the casino, it would appear Mr. Ferdini thought himself invincible and was willing to take on any challenge, even if it put his life on the line.
Two, Borgata floor manager and ‘cooler’ Richard Markelson has not been fully forthcoming in his account of what happened. For example, he never mentioned spending time with Mr. Ferdini after leaving the Borgata.
Confronting Mr. Markelson, I ask him for a more accurate account of what happened after Mr. Ferdini’s gasoline soaked stunt. Mr. Markelson is nervous in his reply, realizing he’s been caught withholding valuable information.
“You have to understand that James is not particularly good with money,” starts Mr. Markelson. “I know I’m saying that having really only met the guy at the Borgata casino, but you could just tell he was something of a loser. Maybe other people told you that too, I don’t know. My point is James was destined to spend that money on drugs and alcohol, and well, we all kind of just tagged along for the ride.”
Mr. Markelson goes on to describe a drug fueled binge that lasted from Saturday March 23rd until sometime before Mr. Ferdini’s death on Tuesday, March 26th.
“James and I had been awake for more than 40 hours when he left the casino, and I was going to go to bed, but somehow I got roped into his entourage he found at the Borgata when he was raking in cash. I would’ve gone home, but free cocaine is free cocaine. I’m not particularly proud of saying that, but it’s true -- I really like the drug.”
Richard Markelson says that in addition to drugs, Mr. Ferdini hired prostitutes and strippers for the group’s amusement.
“I’m not into all the seedy stuff, but we had been awake for a long long time and on so much shit. I mean we were taking meth rips and stuff. Yea, it’s weird now that I look back on it, but a binge can be like that sometimes.”
The most important question to this reporter is what happened in the final hours of Mr. Ferdini’s life. In this respect, Mr. Markelson claims to know nothing.
“I left before he died on Tuesday,” says Mr. Markelson. “It doesn’t surprise me that he died though. The gasoline bet was just the beginning of it. That girl, Maria Nowak, the one that told you I was hanging out with the impromptu entourage -- it was her boyfriend that really stepped things up in a pretty violent way in terms of betting.”
When asked what he means by “violent”, Mr. Markelson responds: “I mean they were actually gambling on Russian roulette in the hotel room when I left.”

That Other Roulette

Once again reaching out to Ms. Nowak, I ask her about Mr. Markelson’s description of partying and gambling in a hotel with Mr. Ferdini.
It was at this point that Ms. Nowak declined any further questions, only providing the statement: “I’ve said everything I’m going to say.”
While this seemed like a certain dead end to discovering what happened in the final hours of Mr. Ferdini’s life and also possibly to tracking down what happened to his $1.3 million in winnings, I by luck received a phone call shortly before I was ready to call it quits on this investigation.
The phone call was from one Mr. Samuel Howlser, boyfriend to Ms. Maria Nowak.
Mr. Howlser said he wished to speak with me to clarify a few details that Ms. Nowak had shared with me and to dispute any “lies” stated by Mr. Markelson.
“Me and Maria didn’t steal nobody’s money and we’re not gonna get in trouble for what Richard Markelson or anyone in that entourage might be telling you,” Mr. Howsler said to me in a phone interview.
When asked about details of the drug fueled gambling binge shared by Mr. Markelson and Ms. Nowak, Mr. Howsler mostly confirms their accounts, however his description of floor manager Makelson is less favorable than what Mr. Markelson told me himself.
“He was the craziest fucker of the bunch, definitely,” says Mr. Howlser. “He knew the hookups for the crystal and coke, got us ketamine too. But the nuttiest thing about him is what the fuck he’d bet on. Like if Ferdini thought he was invincible, doubly so for that manger from the Borgata. Markelson was the one that brought out a revolver for Russian roulette too, and they played like dozens of games.”
Russian roulette, a lethal game of chance that has the player hold a loaded pistol to their head and fire, is an extremely dangerous game that has been popularized in media and fiction for decades. The game requires a loaded revolver to have at least one bullet chambered before firing, with the odds of death usually being one in six.
“It was fucking crazy when Markelson said he’d play it, but the dude was having as good luck as Ferdini so he thought he could do it,” says Mr. Howlser. “So they load a pistol with a bullet and start playing each other cause they were the only two fuckers crazy enough to do it. They play one round, but no winner so they go again. Second round, no winner so a third. Eventually they play enough rounds where they figure they gotta up the odds. So instead of loading one bullet, they load two. They play round after round with two out of six chambers loaded with bullets, spinning the revolver cylinder each time before they pull the trigger. This goes on for a while right, and then they load another fucking bullet. Each round now these guys have a one-in-two chance of blowing their brains out, but they keep playing.”
In Mr. Howlser’s recounting over the phone, I hear he is deeply disturbed by this story and ask why him and everyone in the gambling entourage continued to sit in the hotel room. In response he says, “We had been up for days smoking crystal and doing other shit. We were fuckng zombies. It’s only looking back now, sober, that I can see how crazy it was.”
But the game of lethal roulette was not over yet. Mr. Howlser claims that Mr. Ferdini and Mr. Makelson continued to play round after round, occasionally loading another bullet until finally the revolver was fully loaded.
“With six out of six chambers loaded, the odds of them dying on the next trigger pull was 100%,” says Mr. Howsler. “And I’ll damned, but they both went, and they both fucking lived. Somehow, they both got dud cartridges. After that, they both just had huge laugh for a while. A little bit later, Richard Markelson leaves and James Ferdini and the rest of us stay doing drugs for a bit until the rest of us guests leave too.”
Before Mr. Howlser ends the phone call, he stresses again the reason for contacting me.
“What happened is a messed up story, I know, but the point is that me and Maria don’t know anything about James Ferdini’s death or where his money is. Once we were sober enough to leave that seedy hotel outside Atlantic City, we left along with the rest of the people that were following James. And when we left, he was alive, and he had his money.”

Bad Luck

While Mr. Markelson, Mr. Howlser, and Ms. Nowak all say they only know the most basic details of how James Ferdini died, his death has actually been well documented by investigators and the coroner's office for Atlantic City.
Prior to this report, it was the mindset of Mr. Ferdini that was previously unknown. Sill up in the air is the whereabouts of his $1.3 million. But from what I've found, the report on his death is fully accurate, and even clears any of the entourage that was following him from being involved in any possible wrongdoing related to James Ferdini’s death.
On Tuesday March 26th at approximately 4:30AM, it would appear Mr. Ferdini’s luck simply ran out.
In that early morning hour, someone on Mr. Ferdini’s floor had ordered room service. As the porter was delivering the food, he slipped and fell outside of Mr. Ferdini’s room.
The noise from the fall awoke Mr. Ferdini who opened his door to find the porter picking up a tray of food in the hallway.
Upset at the disruption and the clanging of silverware outside his room, Mr. Ferdini proceeded to yell at the porter, pushing him against the wall in the hallway.
The confrontation ended when Mr. Ferdini told the porter that he was so upset that he was going to go down to the lobby and speak to management about the disruption.
Heading to the elevator, the porter told Mr. Ferdini that it was out of service. Frustrated, he turned to the stairwell and began walking downstairs.
Mr. Ferdini would never make it to the lobby however.
What Mr. Ferdini didn’t know was that the porter had also used the stairs to walk up to his floor, and that along the way he had spilled a small dish of ketchup.
When Mr. Ferdini walked across the spot where the porter had dropped the ketchup, he slipped and fell, falling down the stairs and knocking himself unconscious on the ground floor.
While in bad shape, investigators say that Mr. Ferdini was still alive at this moment, but what came next would be the fatal blow, or series of blows.
With the elevator out, the stairwell was the only way up and down the hotel floors. While Mr. Ferdini was unconscious on the ground, he blocked the entryway to the stairwell from the ground floor. A guest a moment later would attempt to open the door to the stairwell, but found that it was blocked by some obstruction that he could not see. Bothered and wanting to get to his room, the guest then started slamming on the door, thrusting it open with all his energy. He did not realize it, but the door he was thrusting over and over was slamming into the left side of Mr. Ferdini’s temple. The heavy metal door banged away over and over again, causing Mr. Ferdini’s brain to hemorrhage, and eventually doing enough damage that it would kill him fully.
The guest only stopped thrusting as the porter came back down the stairs to see Mr. Ferdini with his head being repeatedly bashed in by the door.
The porter screamed and soon the guest was made aware that he had accidentally killed Mr. Ferdini.
In this unusual and grizzly death, a confluence of bad luck came together to end Mr. Ferdini’s life.
If the elevator had not been out. If a guest on Mr. Ferdini’s floor had not ordered room service. If the guest had not ordered a dish that came with ketchup. If the porter had not spilled ketchup in the stairwell or dropped plates outside Mr. Ferdini’s room. If Mr. Ferdini had not waken up. If he had not confronted the porter and decided to go down to the lobby. If he had not slipped in the stairwell. If a guest on the ground floor did not repeatedly try to enter the stairwell. If any of these things had gone slightly differently, Mr. Ferdini would still be alive.
It could be said that Mr. Ferdini had finally found a run of bad luck, and incredible bad luck at that.

Double Negative

I cannot speak to Mr. Ferdini. He died long before I came to Atlantic City. For this story I’ve had to rely on the video surveillance from the Borgata casino and several eyewitness accounts of the drug fueled binge at the seedy hotel outside Atlantic City.
In those accounts from Mr. Ferdini’s hotel room, I’m left with conflicting views and shattered narratives.
It is clear to me that Ms. Nowak, Mr. Howlser, and Mr. Markelson cannot be trusted to give a full accounting of what happened. In my mind, the clearest liar of them is Mr. Markelson, who both omitted his story of seeing James after the gasoline incident, and also whose story is in direct conflict with Mr. Howsler and Ms. Nowak. While Mr. Markelson claims it was Mr. Howlser that had a revolver to play roulette, Mr. Howlser and Ms. Nowak both say it was Mr. Markelson.
Embedded in these lies and less than full accounts is a still missing $1.3 million. Something I believe Mr. Markelson is desperate to try and find, and for which was his original impulse to contact this reporter.
Now with an understanding of James Ferdini’s mindset leading up to his death, I am left with the unanswered question of what happened to Mr. Ferdini’s missing money.
I head back to where this story started, the Borgata where the gambling binge took fold. I seek an interview with Bill Hornbuckle, President of MGM resorts and a majority stakeholder in the Borgata Hotel and Casino. He agrees to speak with me and provides a full record on floor manger Richard Markelson.
I start the interview by asking if he’s aware if Richard Markelson owns a handgun, and in particular a revolver. In response, he says: “Our records indicate Mr. Markelson has a concealed carry license from the state of New Jersey for a Ruger LCR Six-Shot revolver. We have this in our records because Mr. Markelson is authorized to carry the weapon on the premises.”
Mr. Hornbuckle asks if I believe Mr. Markelson was involved in Mr. Ferdini’s death, to which I tell him I do not believe he is. I give the accounts of Mr. Markelson, Mr. Howlser, and Ms. Nowak, and while Mr. Hornbuckle is disturbed by the story, he agrees that Mr. Markelson has done nothing strictly illegal outside of drug use. He does add however: “The story with Russian roulette, if true, would certainly make us reconsider allowing Mr. Markelson to carry a weapon in the casino.”
Confirming that Mr. Markelson was the owner of the revolver has led me to believe Mr. Howlser and Ms. Nowak’s account over Markelson’s. It seems likely now that like Mr. Markelson did indeed play a dangerous game of Russian roulette with Mr. Ferdini, and that it was he who provided the gun to use.
Before I leave the Borgata, I ask Mr. Hornbuckle about another detail Mr. Markelson told me that I am no longer sure is true. I ask if a ‘cooler’ is something casinos really use, and if specifically Mr. Markelson is designated as one at the Borgata.
His response is to laugh at first, but he goes on to say: “Yes, a cooler is a real term. I actually believe in them myself. Luck is real. It’s a tangible thing that follows people around -- good luck and bad luck. I believe coolers have saved my casinos a lot of money over the years, and Mr. Markelson certainly fits that role at the Borgata. He's terribly unlucky, couldn't win a game of cards if his life depended on it. Still, he's invaluable at cutting the luck high rollers short."
He pauses before continuing: “There is of course the problem of the double negative, or when two coolers are together. It happens when a cooler is around someone who has luck just as bad as him or her. Like two positive or negative charges on a magnet, they repel each other, and the cooler’s effect instead of bad luck is one of incredible good luck. I’ve never seen it myself, but I’ve heard that even the most unlikely people on earth can have incredible runs of good luck if someone as equally unlucky as them is near.”
I propose the idea that maybe Mr. Ferdini was as unlucky as Mr. Markelson, and that together they achieved this ‘double negative,’ bringing them good luck while they were together.
“Yes,” Mr. Hornbuckle says. “I suppose that’s possible. It’s a very dangerous situation though for an unlucky person to suddenly be met with non-stop good luck. It could make you think yourself invincible, unable to be defeated in any challenge. You might even start to take on bets on things that aren’t real games of chance, like harming yourself by drinking boiling water. There’s also the danger of what happens when the double negative effect is over. One cooler parts ways, then each would fall into their own run of terrible luck, not realizing that their hot-streak has ended.”
As the interview concludes and I leave the Borgata, I think about the good luck Mr. Ferdini and Mr. Markelson had. I consider the incredible odds that both survived firing a loaded gun to their temples only for each to find a dud cartridge. I ponder the unfortunate series of events that would kill Mr. Ferdini after Mr. Markelson left his hotel room.
Lastly, I think about Mr. Markelson’s own luck since March 26th. Maybe it hasn’t been as bad as Mr. Ferdini's, but I know he contacted a reporter and as a result management at his casino will be looking into his behavior. I consider and think, that is not too lucky.

Porter

What was meant to be a short report about an unusual death in Atlantic City has grown into something longer. This is now a meandering investigation with unreliable characters, newly discovered details, and a still missing $1.3 million.
Before I leave New Jersey and return to New York, I go to the seedy hotel where Mr. Ferdini and his entourage consumed drugs and played Russian roulette, and where he would eventually die. It is my hope that I can speak to the porter -- the last person to ever see Mr. Ferdini alive.
At the hotel I speak to the manager and ask her who was the porter in the early morning hours of March 26th. The manager tells me that the porter no longer works for the hotel, and that in fact he had quit the very same day Mr. Ferdini died.
“After the police left, he flipped us all off,” the manager says. “That son of a bitch quit in style, telling us he didn’t need to work here no more. He said he was set and that we can kiss his ass goodbye.”
I ask the manager if they knew where the porter could have gone, to which she replies: “No idea. After he was done talking to the police about the death in the stairwell, I think he was out of New Jersey for good. He used to live nearby so I saw him when he left. He was fully packed. Had all of his stuff with him and three really full duffel bags I’d never seen before. He really didn’t seem like he was coming back -- had everything with him.”
Like the porter, I load my bags and finally prepare to leave New Jersey. As I do a thought pops into my mind: Could the porter that night have discovered Mr. Ferdini’s $1.3 million in three duffel bags in his room? I consider and think, maybe, and if he did, maybe this porter is the luckiest man in Atlantic City.
Myra Kindle is an independent investigative reporter. She covers tech, law, politics, and other stories that would be impossible to write about in more traditional outlets.

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New to Omaha wanted to get advice on a few hands from yesterday if there’s any studs in this sub please give advice.
I’ll walk through 3 notable hands at 1 2 automatic $5 straddle on whoever wins pot
Hand 1: Hero has $180 stack
Hero is first to act with 9s9hJsQh in the CO
Hero opens to $15 folds to SB
SB calls
BB folds
Villain UTG raises to $45
Folds to hero who calls
Flop 7h5dTs
I have a pair of 9s with two backdoor flush draws, a bunch of back door straight draws and any 8 will give me the nuts.
SB bets $70 Villain shoves I call SB called
SB ended up having 3d4c5c7s
Villain had KcKs3c7d
Hand 2: hero has a stack of $280
Hero is first to act again in the BB with KcKsAcQs
Hero opens to $20
UTG, UTG +1 call everyone else folds to CO who 3bets to $85
Not sure if I should shove here or just call but I ended up shoving since I was out of position, in hindsight villain is probably only betting $85 here with aces though.
UTG and UTG + 1 both call villain rejams for $600 both call
Villain ended up having AdAh7s3h and flopped a set taking down a big pot
Hand 3: hero is on the straddle in the LJ with a stack of $600
HJ is first to act and opens to $15, folds UTG who calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG +2 calls
Hero looks down at 6c6s2c2s and calls the $10
Flop 7h6dJc
Checks to Hero in LJ who bets $75
HJ calls, folds to UTG +2 who calls
Turn 7h6dJc3d
UTG +2 checks
Hero checks
HJ bets $200
UTG +2 calls
Hero? Read on HJ is that he’s an extremely loose cannon.
I ended up calling hoping for a board pair
River 7h6dJc3d9h
UTG +2 value bets $100
Hero folds
HJ calls with a set of 3s, villain shows the nuts with 8dTdKhQs
I know this a lot id appreciate any feedback as I’m trying to get as good at Omaha as I’m at Texas holdem.

I'm posting this here because I think it may play into why they should add poker to the online mode (to make it fun and...yknow...playable) but as someone who plays tournament poker quite often, this AI isn't merely fish level bad. It's downright incompetent.
For example, it always irks me that when you put in a raise of about three to four big blinds, Arthur always remarks something like "yeah this is all I got.", or, "I know...not too exciting". Well actually conventionally a raise size of three and half to four and a half BB is considered pretty standard at a live game. Reraises vary from there as it is no limit, but there is intention behind that size. It allows you to see flops with more marginal holdings such as a J10 suited hand or a middle pair like 66 or 77 (I:e why put in a ton of chips when merely raising at all will likely get really bad holdings to fold to begin with), and when raising first in with premium hands like AA or AKs, it allows some of the more marginal holdings from the big blind to call and see a flop, allowing you to build a pot and get paid with your premium holdings. It has become standard because it serves to accomplish what's called disguising your range.
Now I'm aware that may be expecting too much, for game devs to be brushed up on Texas Holdem strategy, but other things relating to the AI are just good damn senseless and make me think they act off RNG alone. I was just playing in Sant Denis and someone at the table bet almost all of his chips (4.25 or so) with only 5c left behind. I reraised with a good hand simply out of habit (because I've seen this AI do this before with like, a pair of 3s and I had 3 of a kind so I wanted to just get the five cents in) and the AI immediately folded. That right there is just a sign of half assed programming. Who would ever fold five cents more after putting 4.25 cents into the pot. That's almost as dumb as betting 4.25 instead of just going all in in the first place in terms of poker, but in terms of just being an AI that's hilariously broken in some way. Its a computer. It should at least be smart enough to understand the value between five cents versus what it stands to win.
There's a lot more I could get into that is probably too deep for programming into this game and so I won't, but the poker in this game is so.bad as to not even be fun. Honestly, what you should do, is put Holdem in the online mode and let guys like me shark some people. It'll be fun, it'll make the poker game playable and useful as you won't even have to program an AI to be competent anyways.
Oh and one more thing. You didn't have to lovingly and slowly animate everyone standing up to collect their chips after a pot. Even real life live poker isn't this damn slow. And after every hand? It's just annoying. This poker minigame really is totally worthless.
Edit Since a lot of y'all seem to be (somewhat overly) protective of the game versus what I'm saying, I (unfortunately) feel like I have to clarify this: first off, it's just an observation (hence the rant flair) and secondly I'm not being super critical of the devs. No one is asking for them to program the Libratus poker AI into the game. If I'm asking for anything at all, it's that they put Holdem in RDR online as I think it'd be fun. Otherwise I was just having fun making a Holdem post.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 78%. (I'm a bot)

An artificial intelligence called Pluribus has emerged victorious from a marathon 12-day poker session during which it played five human professionals at a time.
All of the pros had previously won more than $1m playing the game.
What counts as a beating for humanity ranks as a milestone for AI. No computer program has ever achieved superhuman performance against multiple poker players.
"It's the first time AI has achieved superhuman performance in a multiplayer game," said Tuomas Sandholm, who developed Pluribus with his PhD student Noam Brown at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The ability to beat five players at a time in such a complex game of bluff and hidden information opened up new opportunities for AI to tackle real world problems, he said.
In poker, players have only partial information and a cast of potentially bluffing opponents, making it a far tougher AI challenge.

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Ever since I was little, I remember being fascinated by airplanes. Or, not just airplanes; all things that fly had me riveted practically since I breached the womb. I would always go with my brother down the local airfield and just watch airplanes take off and land. We would sit on the porch of the convenient store just off the grass, he would buy a moon pie for me and a pack of Chesterfields for him, and we would listen to the gentle, lazy whirring sound of planes going buy. I was 17 when he died--I’m sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you about myself and my origins in a clearer manner.
I’m from the small town of Collins, Wyoming. In 1940 (when I was 15, also the first time I checked) the population was 1,227; everyone in Collins new each other. There was an old man I used to walk past on my way home from school- Mr. McCullough-who remembered clearly the days blue smoke filled the skies as brothers killed each other. He would sit in his chair and smoke his pipe. Every now and again he would invite me into his house (mind you, he was a close friend of my family (and everyone in the town for that matter). I wouldn’t do this with just anyone) and pour me a cup of coffee. I hadn’t started drinking coffee yet, so this was my special moment.
There was June Clark, who could be routinely found in her garden assuming whether permitted. She grew plants that I now know to be marijuana. There wasn’t really any serious policing in Collins; we took care of our own.
Dwight Clark, her husband, owned the bookshop, which also served as a library. He was long since retired, and spent most of his days reading or playing cards. He taught me how to play Texas Holdem, and some days on the weekends, he would run an “underground game” that everyone knew about. They would drink gin and smoke cigars, winning and losing a full season’s worth of tanned deer skins. They never bet money.
My father died when I was 12. He shot himself. My mother went four years later of liver complications from alcoholism. My brother, who was six years older than me, started looking after our little bit of land on the outsides of the town center, near the airport. He started getting into airplanes, and from there it turned into a passion for both of us.
Jim Clark (same last name but no relation to Dwight and his wife) was the one who taught my brother to fly. They would go up in his old Curtis Jenny and practice flying. At the end of the day, I would enviously watch my brother push the Jenny into the dilapidated hangar at the Western corner of the field. It was a lovely scene, the sun setting behind the wire-winged airplane. My brother would always find me afterwards; he would light a cigarette and we would walk home together.
Then 1941 came. I was becoming more independent, I was finally getting on with some of the other boys my age. I had a girlfriend, Trudy, whom I would take to the airport to watch my brother fly. She feigned interest, I now know. I loved having her around. I remember being happy for the first time since my father died.
My brother told me one cold January morning that he had joined the Army Air Service. He was going to the Pacific. “Don’t worry, Tom.” he said. “I’ll be in the P-40, that’s the best airplane we have. I’ll be an ace before April.” I hugged him.
I got the news on April 16th, 1942. He had been shot down near Port Moresby, presumed dead. I went to see Mr. McCullough. I figured he could help me. He asked me what happened, and I just started crying. I can’t remember anything else from that day, but he told me his good friend Jack Daniel had played a few cards in my favor.
I woke up late in the night in my own bed room in my house, which I suppose I was the sole occupant of at that point. It was cloudy, no stars. The trees had that surreal shadow-less look to them. In memory the woods around my house give me chills, but I was calm. I remember walking down the stairs without lighting the oil lamp, something I never did. I’m chronically afraid of the dark.
I walked straight through the trees, never questioning my footing. When I came to the Eastern side of the airfield, the stars and the moon appeared above me. I could see the convenient store where my brother and I sat, the hangar. I walked to the convenient store, Andy’s, it was called, and sat down on the steps. No tears came to me then, but I could feel the warm breeze of those summer nights over me again, hear the whir of the airplanes.
I looked at the hangar. I realized I’d never been inside of it. I decided I needed to see that old Curtis Jenny right away. I got up and started walking. The man in the moon scowled upon me that night, I remember. The cold, gray scale face of the moon seemed terse that night. I found the door, and let myself in.
Immediately in front of me was a biplane, but not the Jenny. It had a different shape, a larger engine. Guns. Guns! I thought. This is a fighter plane! But how had it gotten there? I walked towards it. I gently ran my hands along the propeller.
“Watch it.” said a voice. I turned around quickly to the sight of a glowing ember in the corner of the hangar.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was yours.” I said.
“I should have told you sooner, but I never was a good father.” My dad walked out into my view. The light in the hangar was moonlight, filtering in from the high South-facing windows.
“Dad? But, you’re dead.”
“Yeah, mortality has a tendency to get in the way of things.”
“Dad!” I ran towards him.
“Son, I don’t have much time, and neither does he.”
“Who’s he?”
“Me.” I turned around to see my brother, but he had a mustache and looked...exhausted.
“Charlie, how--”
“All will be explained, don’t worry.” he said. I looked behind him where the biplane had been, but it wasn’t a biplane. A riveted steel monoplane stood there instead, carrying the American insignia. It was a P-40; it was my brother’s plane. It clicked. The first airplane had belonged to my father. I turned and looked at him again; he was wearing World War One officer’s uniforms. The first fighter was what I now know to be a Spad.
“I know what you’re thinking, and yes that’s my plane. I was a pilot, once. I flew in the Great War, with the hopes that no one would need to follow me in the years to come. It seems I’ve failed at that too.”
“Why are you here? You’re both dead.” I said.
“Well, we’ve been discussing that,” my brother said, lighting his cigarette.
“and we wanted to give you a piece of wisdom.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Well, you’ve lost so much. But you mustn’t despair! We’re not completely gone.” My father said.
“What do you mean?” My brother took up the response:
“Was I once alive?”
“Of course you...were.” I said to him.
“What made him alive?” my father asked.
“Was it my flesh? My bone? My blood? Of course not. It was my soul. And, quite frankly, those don’t vanish the same way as these mere corporeal globs. Everywhere we walk, everything we touch, takes a bit of our soul with it. But our souls are not like pies, being divided up and diminished, but as a candle flame, which may light all that is around in while never depleting. Take our airplanes, for example. Dad’s Spad rests in the hands of a collector in Britain, but does it belong to this collector? Surely not. Dad’s soul persists within that airplane. This is why you came here tonight.”
“You see, Charlie, your brother, whom you loved very much, is gone forever. But, remnants of him may be found in our house, or the Curtis Jenny.” I looked behind him to see the Jenny where it had been left.
“When relatives die, we seek heirloom: This is why. Those we’ve lost persist in the objects they leave behind. I am not dead because my body is gone, I am dead because I am forgotten by all.” My father stared into my eyes, he looked tired.
“So, what about people who have no objects left? What about old Mrs. McCullough, who died in crossfire at Gettysburg? None of her belongings can be found anywhere.”
“That’s the other type of afterlife,” my brother said. “We don’t die until all those whose hearts we have touched die as well. But here’s the catch: When someone who’s heart we have touched touches that of someone else’s, we are passed on too. You see, we are all saved by each other. If someone dies before they can touch someone else, in a metaphysical sense I mean, they are truly dead. And this is the tragedy of war.”
“You see son, we are all connected by the same people.” I looked at the ground.
“No one is born one way or another, we are all a mix and match of everyone we’ve ever met, and everyone they’ve ever met, and so on as far back as humans go. I’m sorry Tom, but we must leave.”
I woke up with sunlight streaming into the hangar. I sat up. My head was throbbing. I looked around. The Jenny was parked nearby. I went to it, and I ran my hand along its propeller. Every hangar is haunted, Tom. My brother’s voice sounded in my thoughts. How so, you ask?
Planes travel; it’s what they do. Every time they stop, more and more unique people pour their souls into them. They are the culmination of humanity. Hangars are haunted to an unfounded degree, as they’ve been touched by all those airplanes, who were touched by all those people.
I don’t know where the moral is, or even why, seventy-seven years later, I’m writing this. Perhaps it’s that I’ve been trying to convince myself that this whole thing was a dream for my entire life, and just now have given up. I went to the United Kingdom recently, my daughter married a British man, and it was my grand-daughter’s birthday. We went to see some old airplanes, and one stuck out to me: A Spad. I took some photographs, did some research, and by the tail number it was my dad’s plane. I suppose it’s up to you: Where do we go when it’s finished?