Delaware Poker Beat #3 July 5th “We’re in the Money…” (for now)

With a few minutes of downtime yesterday, I went to Delaware Park to pick up the “players card” I’m going to need to take part in poker tournaments. That process could not be easier. 1) Park a mile away from the building. 2) Walk in. 2) Hand a guy behind a counter your driver’s license. 3) A minute later he hands you your card. (Odd that they didn’t ask me for an email address, but whatever.) I asked the guy for directions to the poker room and decided to check it out even though I knew I would not be playing.

Maybe the table games are bringing in a better class of loser, or maybe it was the holiday, but the general casino crowd didn’t seem as pitiful the usual slots crowds I’ve seen. The slots area was packed, but didn’t look uncomfortable. The roulette, blackjack and other table games were all operating at full capacity. The poker “room” is 20 tables separated from the rest of the upstairs casino by a low railing. On Sunday at 3:00pm, every table had 9 or ten people playing. The $1,$2 no limit tables had an 18 person waiting list.

I have to say it was heart warming to see so many people who care about Delaware so much that they’d spend their free time and money to help balance the budget. And yet, it is hard to imagine where we go from here. When the drug has less and less effect over time, when our body politic gets used to this new money infusion and the money stream dwindles, (or fails to grow as it inevitably will). What do we do?

Slots saved the horse racing, table games saved the slots. What saves table games three years from now?

Bonus Material for People Who Can’t go One Day Without Thinking About Work

When not thinking about poker, I spend a lot of time thinking about Human Resources. This struck me as interesting.

Mashable/com

There’s an interesting thread today over at Reddit, where Google employees are asked to describe their experiences working for the Internet giant.

The replies are anonymous, and should thus be taken with a grain of salt. But some seem genuine, revealing some fascinating tidbits about Google’s corporate culture, strategy, and day-to-day life of a Google employee. The experiences are vastly positive, but some of them describe the downsides of being a Googler, too.

Here are some interesting quotes from the thread:

CinoBoo: I’ve been there for about 5 years. You can read about the good parts anywhere, so I’ll try to offer a counterpoint based on having worked at other software companies.

A common problem is that it’s easy to become spoiled by all the perks. Several offices have developed distinct cultures of entitlement, and people whine about the quality of the fudge on the free brownies. It’s embarrassing to be around people who’ve become like spoiled children.