Metal Money, Money and Gamblers

[Johnny Hughes]

The idea of metal dollars is a bad one. I got a job in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget as a shill, playing poker for the house,in 1960. It paid a dollar an hour, eight silver dollars for an eight hour shift. They would weight your pants down. Passersby could count you down. One night I shot craps. I lost a dollar, doubled up and lost two, doubled up again and was down seven dollars. Doubling up is called the Gambler's Fallacy.

In the early days we played with all cash money because of raids by the law. In your stack, you kept singles on the top, hundreds and up in the middle, and twenties on the bottom. Fifties were not allowed because they are considered unlucky. It was impossible to tell how much your opponent had until there was a big bet. Five hundred dollar bills and thousand dollar bills were in circulation. You could slip one of these coarse notes, as they were affectionately called, into the middle of your stack.

Once when I was twenty, I won about $1200 which would be like $12000 now, adjusted for inflation. I had a check for $900. I was at the bank at 9 a.m. before payment could be stopped. They gave me a $500 bill and four $100 bills. I practically ran out of the bank. My rent was $25 a month at the time.I had just won four years rent.

Keep your money tightly in rubber bands. Keep a few dollars outside to spend where you won't be pulling it out in public. When you leave a game, keep the wad of money in your hand. You can throw iit if you are hijacked.

All of you Internet players are going to be playing in live games and learning that God's good green cash money can be a hassle to carry and hide.

[bones]

Wait, what?

[Max Raker]

LOL

[HugoM]

nice post johnny, i remember playing pot limit hold'em with you at the 'shoe a few WSOPs ago (98 or 99, something like that)

[Daddy Warbucks]

This is a pretty cool post.

[Boredom]

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Five hundred dollar bills and thousand dollar bills were in circulation. You could slip one of these coarse notes, as they were affectionately called, into the middle of your stack.



[/ QUOTE ]

[GoAheadRiverMe]

Finally a post that held my interest. Thanks!

[Johnny Hughes]

It was no-limit. I was at the World Series almost every year after 1978 or so. That was when it was hard to get the joints to spread no-limit. For a while, it was all limit. Long ago, in the late seventies, you could play no-limit at the Nugget, Shoe, Plaza, and the Four Queens. I am new posting here. Is this the right area of anything goes type of generalities?

[Daddy Warbucks]

Yes, generally anecdotes like this would be posted here.

[Wetdog]

I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] these old school stories.