Do they think we're all stupid?

Does it ever matter if a photo is staged? If the activity pictured would never happen in the real world, does it make any difference? Is the general public so ignorant that they never notice? Are "fake" scenes indicitive of the sorry state of affairs in the world?

Case in point.

Can you spot the inconsistencies in this photo?

Breast size/shape aside, there are several issues with this photo which appeared in GamingToday.

There are no bets on the table.

The lid is on the box.

There is a deck spread on the table while another deck is being dealt.

I'm pretty sure the picture was taken inside the Mint and not the Playboy Club.

I don't know why this type of photo drives me crazy,but it does. You see this all the time. Poker advertisements showing players with 5 cards in their hand. Sure, 5 card draw IS a legitimate game but when was the last time you saw it played inside a casino and do you really think modern casinos are marketing to the 5 card draw crowd? There are pictures of crap tables with generic chips on them. Come on, people lets shoot for just a touch of authenticity.

The caption under the bunny picture in Gaming Today Vol 32 NO. 38 states:

DESPITE VARIOUS INDUCEMENTS Nevada poker rooms saw their first year-over-year decline in revenue in July in more than four years.

While I AM interested in this little tidbit, what does that have to do with a Playboy Bunny pretending to deal blackjack? You tell me as I have no idea.

The poker related portion of the article states:

The state's poker rooms are showing signs that the poker crazw has possible peaked as their rake-the amount withheld from poker pots-declined 6.1% to $15.8 million in July.

I can't argue that fact.

Poker Wars

The Palms poker room is still without a new manager.

That doesn't mean that those with some sort of say in the matter haven't come out swinging.

As of last Wednesday we reduced our maximum rake to $3. $1 on $10, $1 on $20 and $1 on $30 (10%) in our limit games (and, I believe, in $1-2 and $1-3 no limit) and $1 on $20, $1 on $40 and $1 on $60 (5%) in our $2-5 blind no limit.

This comes shortly after Red Rock and Green Valley increased their max rake to $5 and then quickly brought it back to max $4. While those two rooms were at $5 the "joke" among our shared players was that they were overcoming the higher rake by not tipping the dealer. Not funny at all but I'm sure that is how some of the players reacted.

Some of the Harrah's properties have been at $5 for awhile now. I also have it from a reliable source that:

Bally's has been running their higher rake ($5 max) for a few weeks now.

This past Friday, Harrah's & Rio went to $5 max.
Chances are high that the Flamingo will do so at the end of this month.
That would leave Caesars as the only Harrah's property not at $5

The cold-hard-truth of the matter is that there are still way too many poker tables in this town.....

The shake-out may have started. The poker room at the Hilton is scheduled to cease operations on October 17th.

Rumor is that two other very large and high profile rooms are close to pulling the plug.

The next few months should be very interesting.