Monday, October 30, 2006
Pay the Fisherman
So I played another session at Greektown on Saturday. I have a somewhat limited bankroll for my trip to Foxwoods next weekend, so I was kind of worried that a bad session at Greektown would have me restricted to playing $3/$6 limit at the Foxwoods all weekend. Anyway, my new favorite game (NLHE) has been treating me well lately and I ended up winning $333. Whoo Hoo!
But before I could get too excited, I started calculating the cost of my last three sessions at Greektown.
I played approximately 6 hours each session. The ½ hour charge is $6. I paid about $5 per night in waitress tokes and about $25 per night in dealer tokes.
Using my handy-dandy calculator:
6 hours x 3 session x 2 half hours x $6 = $216
Plus
$5 waitress tokes plus $25 dealer tokes x 3 session = $90
equals
Grand total = $300 or $100 per night.
To most thinking players, this cost should come as no surprise. Myself, on the other hand, am a dumb-ass. I just now figured this out. I’m completely floored by how expensive it is to play poker at the casino. This $1/$2 no limit $100 max game must be the most expensive game they spread – no wonder they have 15 tables of it running.
Do you realize just how much you need to win to overcome the charges/tokes? This is incredible. I’m totally pissed. I know I’m a small stakes player. Winning $100 in a session is a nice win. To net a $100 win at the casino, I would actually need to win $200 and then deduct $100 in charges/tokes. This equates to a charge/toke ratio of 50%. Incredible! I suppose if I was paying the $2/$5 NL game, the ratio would go down a little. This ratio would probably continue to go down as you move higher and higher in stakes. Note to self: I need to find a casino poker game where the charge/toke rate is around 10%-15%. Who can afford a 50% charge/toke rate?
But now, as Paul Harvey used to say, …is the rest of the story. Greektown is able to deliver the fish in sufficient quantities to make playing there a profitable venture. I sat at a table that, I’m not kidding, featured 3 solid players (I’ll include myself – I know, a stretch) and a rotation of 7 spots for the contributors. We had young guys, old guys, white guys, black guys, nicely dressed, poorly dressed, everything. They just kept coming in, dropping $100 and then leaving…only to be replaced.
I’m still pissed about the amount of money I paid to Greektown in charges/tokes. After all, this is my money that I won, fair and square, but I guess I need to give the casino some credit for delivering the fish. I guess I just need to shut-up and pay the fisherman.
