Casino Night

A few nights ago, the student council groups pulled together and put on a casino night, which I have to admit was absolutely a blast, and might be the best student event of the year. The venue was very classy, semi-formal dress was required, the food was great, they had a live band, it was just really very well done.
The entry ticket got you 200 chips to play any number of casino games (blackjack, roulette, poker, etc). I sat down to play poker, and had an amazing night. Of course, it helped that people were fairly inexperienced and playing loose, but I also caught amazing cards all night long. I never lost a showdown, knocked out three players, and by the time I was done had turned 200 chips into almost 2000. Now if only I could have cards like that when I’m playing for money …
The chips could be redeemed for a couple of different gifts, or for entry into a raffle for various prizes, among which was a flat screen TV and a couple of iPods. I didn’t stay for the raffle but I did spread some chips around to friends and my fellow players at the table, and picked up a $25 Starbucks card, which I enjoyed very much.
Only two complaints, and these are both from a semi-experienced poker player. They should have been running more tables; by the time I left, each poker table (which I’m guessing there were 4-5) had 10 players seated, and 10 more players waiting. Since Congress unplugged online poker, I think the council underestimated how popular poker would be. The other problem was fresh decks. At a casino, you switch to a fresh deck every hour, or sometimes even every 30 minutes, as the cards get beat up pretty fast. Here, each dealer had only one deck to last the whole night, which was just something I believe they didn’t think of. Given how much money they spent on the event overall, $20 would have gotten them an entire box of decks.
But, it was still a great evening, I had a really good time.
(The picture of course is not from the event; this is a screenshot of an online poker table. I had a friend who was going to send me some pictures from the event but he never got off his ass and did it … grrrrr …. )