The Aces Casino Blog

Aces Casino Blog: Casino Party 101, A.K.A. "Which Tables Are Best To Have At My Next Casino Party?"

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

When it comes to finding out what the top Orange County casino party company known throughout the southland as Aces Casino does best, the answer would probably be something like, "we strive for excellence in the field of putting on elegant, professional casino events." It's been widely known for some time that our little team of casino party pros at Aces Casino has access to literally EVERY casino-themed games that Las Vegas and the casino world has to offer.

Translation: "If you've seen it in Vegas, Aces has it."

That's just one of the things that makes us a popular Orange County casino night company. But, that's not the ONLY thing we do here. Oh, no, there's MUCH more than just throwing the tables at the parties and getting out of the way. For 18 years now, Aces Casino Entertainment has gone the extra mile with each and every client that brings us aboard to help them with their event, something that is so important to us. And the reason that we DO all this pre-planning itinerary work is very simple.

Simply this -- Every casino night party is different.

That's right, my friends. There might be some events that have basically the same configuration, but that's where the similarities usually end. Clients have been coming to Aces Casino for almost two decades now, and putting on all kinds of events that fit our specific qualities; From Christmas parties to Grad nights, from birthday parties to employee networking events to Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, every group is different, and every group has certain "favorite" games.

The new kid on the block, "King High Poker."

That's where we come in. Aces Casino literally has EVERY exotic game in the industry. Oh, sure, Aces has Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Poker, all the staples on the casino gaming scene... But the company ALSO has games that some players may not have even HEARD of - Ultimate Texas Hold-'Em, 3-Card Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker, 3-Way Action, Pai Gow Poker (my fave), Let It Ride, even the Australian game known as King High Poker, a game that was just launched in 2011. Seriously, whether the game is 6 months old or 100 years old, if you want a certain game at your next event, you'd best come to Aces Casino. They know 'em all, and HAVE 'em all, believe me.

Now, for those of you that are planning an event in the next few days, weeks or months, and haven't quite settled on the games you'd like to have at your intimate in-home party, here are a few helpful tips that might assist your thought processes, when it comes to figuring out the best games for your guests to enjoy.... And, for this example, we'll assume a guest list of about 30-45 guests, give or take a few...

Blackjack - Yep, almost a gimme. Gotta have at least one of these, maybe two, if you have the room. Everybody either knows or would like to learn the game of Blackjack. Rare is the time we won't see one of these at an Aces Casino event.

Craps -This is the game we call the "party machine." It can be the most intimidating game on the casino floor, but in party mode, where you can take the time to teach the players the ins and outs of the game, and what all the betting spaces mean, it's the best game to have at just about ANY in-home event. If you have room for a huge, 4' x 12' monstrosity in your game room at the event, bring one of these aboard. You'll be glad you did.

Roulette - Ah, yes, the game that mathematicians and systems players have been trying to beat for years. Bottom line - Aces Casino has the most beautiful Roulette tables in the industry, and they're all casino size and quality, just like the "big boys" in Vegas have. It's about 4' x 7', so it's kind of big, but nothing screams "Orange County casino party" like a Roulette table. Helpful hint - If your expected gathering is looking like it'll be 50/50, men and women, this table is one you should consider.

Oooh, pretty!

Poker - Now, on the other hand, if your group is going to be predominantly of the "male" persuasion, you'd best consider a poker table in place of the Roulette table. That early-2000's poker boom created a huge market for these tables, and there are a lot of guys that would love to take on their buddies in a game of Texas Hold-'Em, especially when the chips are phony. Helpful hint - Remember, you'll need at least 9 chairs for this game to operate properly at your party. The Dealers have their own chair, don't worry about them.

Those are just a few of the countless number of suggestions that Aces Casino can make when discussing the various combinations of party tables to bring to your next event. Hey, we're not known as the best Orange County casino night party company in SoCal for nuthin'. Give us a call and try us on for size. Our in-house "propaganda ministry" will be glad to answer any of your party questions.

Coming attractions in the next couple of weeks right here on the Aces Casino Blog is one of our favorite subjects - In-depth coverage of the 2012 Aces Casino company party, also known as the "Blackmail Hour." People always used to say that someone at the company should be filming these soirees for posterity. Well, now we DO, and we'll cover the latest Aces invasion the first chance we get, or whenever the camera cools off. The actual date of the event is up in the air as this "goes to press," but when Aces hosts the party, we'll get the lowdown on the happenings, we promise.

There are also some interesting and timely subjects being addressed by the Aces Casino Blog staff in the next week or so. Thursday, we'll chronicle the selections by the staff of the 3 craziest casino party events in Aces Casino history. Then, next week, you can check out the team's irreverent look at nutty "world records" in the United States and abroad, as well as Part 3 of our in-depth discussion of the game of Craps in our "Aces Casino College of Casino Game Knowledge" series. 'Til then, have fun at your next event, and we'll see you on Thursday!

Aces Casino Blog: When It Comes To Cheating At Blackjack, NO One Was Better Than Dustin Marks

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Very early on, this Orange County casino party company known as Aces Casino found out something VERY interesting in their first years of business -- There are some people out there in this big, beautiful world that are VERY adept with their hands, especially when holding playing cards. (Ed. Note: Thought we were about to hit the 'dump' button on that one. You're OK, but watch those 'hands.')

Back in the day when Aces Casino was first forming the nucleus of their casino party entertainment team, the decision was made to not only have dealers that could easily DEAL the specific games - they wanted ENTERTAINMENT, people that were funny, eclectic, men and women who were 'fun' people. I remember at one of the very first "casting calls" for Aces Casino, the company requested entertaining people join them at the Aces Seminar. And, let me tell you, we got what we were looking for - entertainers, comedians, and one group that I didn't expect.

Magicians.

Now, when you have an Orange County casino night company with the word "entertainment" right in the name, no one in MY book fits that bill better than magicians. I've always LOVED magic acts. I'm one of those saps that applauds every time the bunny comes popping out of the top hat, and marvels when the guy shows us has a coin in his hand, and then, POOF. It's gone. I LOVE magic acts, so when it came time to add some much-needed entertainment to our team, we hired two magicians to deal at the events. (We now have four that we rotate here and there to different events in SoCal.)

My son, who makes food disappear.

Right away, these magicians on our party crew showed me something that I never even thought of before... Not only can these guys make coins and bunnies appear, they can also be VERY adept at making playing cards appear and disappear. No doubt, I thought to myself -- This is PERFECT for Aces Casino. And it was. We've always been on the cutting edge of supplying the perfect entertainment tool for all of our southern California clients, and with the addition of our "magic team," Aces Casino instantly became the leader in Orange County, San Diego, San Bernardino and Los Angeles casino party events.

Then, something ELSE dawned on me - I wonder just how many people are so incredibly talented at "making magic" try to use their talents at the legalized casinos in California, Nevada and across the United States and the world. No wonder all of those pit bosses, boxmen and shift bosses have that scowl on their face. They're looking for cheaters. Cheaters that can severely dig into a legal casino's profit margin. Hey, after seeing what some of OUR magic team could do with coins, chips and cards, I can see why the casinos would be bullish on eliminating cheaters.

Because of our contacts in the industry, we had the chance to speak with a few of the top heads of security for two different casinos in Las Vegas about ten years or so ago, and got a virtual tour of what were the most elaborate security facilities in the industry. It was an amazing sight, seeing all of these monitors being watched by some of the sharpest security personnel in the world, all looking for one thing - Cheating at their casino tables. At our visit to the Stardust Hotel and Casino, we actually were witness to one player attempting to switch the chip he bet on a Roulette table in order to make more money on a winning play. They caught him, and eventually prosecuted him for cheating.

After seeing all the steps taken to guard against people trying something like that Roulette cheat tried (and failed), I thought that attempting to cheat THESE casinos was fruitless, to say the least.

And that's when the name "Dustin Marks" came up.

When asked if there was anyone that was successful at consistently cheating these two casinos we had visited, both heads of security brought up the one name of a gentleman that, to this day, had cheated casinos out of literally MILLIONS of dollars, and had NEVER been caught. Dustin Marks. Or, as told to us, THAT was the name that the casinos KNEW him as. To this day, no one actually knows his real name.

Don't play "Go Fish" for money with this man.

"Dustin Marks" is known as one of the world’s most famous insider cheats. Not only had he been a casino dealer, but he had also been one of the very few cheaters who had managed to cheat the casinos where he worked for several years without anyone ever being able to catch him. He WORKED for the casinos! Ouch. That's gonna leave a mark. (Ed. Note: No pun intended, I'm told. That's two.)

Dustin Marks was born in the 1950s and is known to be THE most famous insider cheaters in the United States. He had worked in several well known casinos in Las Vegas during the 1970s and thru the 1980s. He had mastered several different cheating methods in blackjack over the years, mostly dealing with his adept handling of the cards.

One of his specialties had been second dealing where he used to peek at the card on top of the deck and then deal the second from the top cards to the players while reserving the top card for his partner. Though the technique had been invented and used by many other players before Dustin, he had mastered it like no other. He was also a master of the "False Shuffle," or a shuffling method that looked to the naked eye like a true shuffling of the cards, when in reality, the dealer was "mechanizing" the deck, or setting it up to play the way the dealer wanted it to.

A partner would come to his table and would place a $100 or a $25 bet, and then Dustin would begin the deal. Since casinos at that time were already aware of several different cheating methods, the betting amount was kept to $100 and not more in order to avoid any scrutiny from the pit bosses. However, Dustin had managed to perfect his shuffling techniques so well that he was able to manipulate his decks in front of the pit bosses without them knowing it.

While playing with his accomplices, Dustin used to peek at the top card in a very sneaky way and when there was a high value card he would signal his partner who would then place a high bet. Dustin would then ensure that the high value card was dealt to his accomplice. This would give their team an edge over the casino and would allow them to win a much greater share of Blackjack hands. This movement of his was so incredibly quick and so hard to detect, it looked just like second nature to the players AND the casino management. I'm sure that it would also fool our Orange County casino party team, as well. Aces Casino is good, but not THAT good. (Grin)

Yes, for many years, the man known as "Dustin Marks" successfully carried out his scam, and in process, won millions of dollars at the casinos where he worked by cheating his bosses. However, the interesting part about his career is that though he made so much of money and cheated right under the noses of the casinos, he was never caught during his career.

And that's why why Aces Casino, the top Orange County casino night party company in the industry, LOVES to have magicians at our tables. Our chips are fake. That, and we usually cheat FOR the players, not AGAINST them. Yes, we'd be really bad dealers at the REAL casinos, but our team is PERFECT for your next party. Give Aces Casino a call today, and set up your next casino night party!

Aces Casino Blog: What Happens When You Mix The Kardashians With Aces Casino? I'm Glad You Asked..

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

I don't know WHY it happens - It just happens.

Every time -- And I mean EVERY time -- you take the Aces Casino party crew and mix it together in the same place where Hollywood-types, sports stars and/or faux-celebrities are hanging around, something ALWAYS happens.

EVERY time. Set your watch by it. It'll happen.

Oh, and we must make this crystal clear, right up front - it's normally not a good thing. The history of these past confrontations, A.K.A. "the stuff that legends are made," have been more than adequately chronicled in past editions of this parakeet-paper blog from Aces Casino.

And, we're talkin' about some DOOZIES here, friends -- Bruce Willis throwing our Blackjack table overboard on the Queen Mary; Robert Wagner causing a major "commotion" at another "21" table; Joan Rivers making it her goal in life to terrorize our Orange County casino party crew every minute of still another elegant event; Steven Spielberg's departure from an event early when he let it be known that he couldn't win a single hand at the tables, and left, "broke." Time, after time, after TIME. Without fail. Uncanny.

It got to where we'd avoid celebs at our parties, for fear of jinxing them or their latest films, teams, or projects. Didn't work. Saw Charlie Sheen at an event, didn't talk to him, thinking that would break the streak... Three weeks later, Chuck Lorre fired him from "Two And A Half Men." Saw Brandi Passante (Storage Wars) at a poker table, playing in one of our tournaments. She was eliminated 10 minutes later. We went to go and meet the Pawn Stars one weekend, but they were lucky. They weren't at the shop when we came by, therefore avoiding the "celebrity jinx," it appears..

Seriously. I'm surprised the Hollywood Reporter hasn't picked up on this phenomenon yet. It's like the S. I. Curse, the Madden Curse, and the goat from Wrigley Field all rolled into one big, giant mega-curse.

But, being the top Los Angeles casino night party company in the southland tends to place us directly in the cross-hairs of some of the biggest party planners and event coordinators in the entertainment industry that are looking for the perfect casino night party, and almost 100% of these incredibly talented people know virtually NOTHING about "the curse." And that's fine, because we're always looking to find a way to break the streak of crazy happenings at one of our next fun-filled galas. Hey, the events are always terrific - All we need to do is avoid the random table splash-down, alcohol-induced vitriol or horrible losing streaks brought on by our celebrated guests, and we're in there.

So, with this in mind, it shouldn't surprise anyone when, in the middle of the 2011 party season, a call came in from a client that was throwing a surprise party for his wife up north of where we're located, in the city of Calabasas. WAY up north. And in the middle of the week, not on the weekend.

Now, we're based in Orange County (with our main office in southern L. A. County), so Calabasas is quite a poke for our team. That's a 2.5 hour drive. And gas is probably $6/gallon in Calabasas. This is an event that our party crew wasn't too quick to sign up for.

Until one of our staffers, upon hearing the location of the event, uttered something like, "Hey, Calabasas. That's where the Kardashians live!"

Oh, no.

Well now, wait a minute. Would visiting this group of Ryan Seacrest-designed reality show pseudo-celebs count as a visit with the stars? We'd seen the show before on the office TV. I was surprised when I saw Bruce Jenner on the screen, he of the 1976 Decathlon Gold Medal for the USA. Hey, there's one of my heroes. Did he change his last name? Then, 10 seconds later, Kim Kardashian walked into the room to talk to Jenner, and BOOM! OK, don't change the channel. We're watchin' this. I don't care WHO changed their names.

It was decided. OK, yeah, we're taking the party. Contracted with the client, knowing full well that we'd be going out to Calabasas a few hours earlier than normal, so we could go up there see just how big the city of Calabasas was. Then, after some crack detective work (Ed. Note: 30 seconds on the 'net. Banacek, you ain't.), it was discovered that the Kardashian sisters owned a clothing store right near their place of residence, and it appears that the store is pretty famous - A place called "Dash." Oh, I get it. Cute name.

Then, someone said that one of the sisters had just recently married a player for the Los Angeles Lakers (Lamar Odom), and the die was cast. That was all she wrote. We're doin' this. Ladies and gentlemen of the best Orange County casino night company in the southland, pack your bags. We're goin' to Dash.

I. Q. Question #1 - Which of these does not belong?

Boy, it was a good thing we left early. The traffic getting up to Calabasas was BRUTAL, but the Aces Casino team, as diligent as ever, got there in plenty of time. It had been decided that the best way to smoke out a Kardashian would be to go to their clothing store, "Dash." And, by the power of our $3 smartphone, the address and location of the facility was an easy find, and only about ten minutes or so from where we currently were.

So, in no time flat, there we were - Driving into the parking lot of the store that some wanna-be-Kardashian clones would LOVE to be visiting - "Dash." And, as things usually evolve whenever Aces Casino is involved, one thing IMMEDIATELY stood out - The 8-foot-tall gentleman walking right by our car, and heading in the direction of "Dash." One of our team (A HUGE Laker fan) immediately recognized him to be L.A. forward Lamar Odom.

BOOM!

He immediately bolted out of the car, and roamed right over to where Mr. Odom was walking, and began chatting with this very large Laker player.

One Problem. Our co-hort didn't realize that when he rapidly approached Odom, he totally cut in front of none other than the infamous Khloe Kardashian herself, one of the sisters that is heavily involved with the E!-Network show's plot-lines. Needless to say, this did NOT sit well with our reality-TV super-diva. She proceeds to lay into our staff member with a vengeance, calling him everything from rude to, wait, how did she put it? Well, let's just say that it wasn't something that he'll name his first child.

GREAT, I'm thinking to myself - We're not even in the DOOR yet, and we're already behind the eight-ball. No worries, I think to myself - Us two remaining Aces Casino team members get out of the car, and head on over to the Pier Six Dash-Brawl. By the time the two of us get up to the three of them, we notice another problem - Odom and Rodney (our team member) are chattin' up the Lakers, which ANYONE could tell is NOT going over very well with Khloe. In other words, she's ticked, and I find this out when she turns away from the Laker pow-wow, stares right through me with a look that would have melted "The Terminator," and storms into the clothing store.

Oh, no, I think to myself. This is not good.

Agh, heck -- We drove out all this way, might as well see it through. So, by this time, Odom and Rodney are both walking into the store, and Khloe's nowhere to be seen. we walk into "Dash," and notice immediately that there are now a grand total of 7 people in this store -- The three of us, the Laker player and his girlfriend (Ed. Note: Accuracy submits that the two are possibly married, although this cannot be confirmed with the State of California) and two female sales people, two ladies that someone should give their OWN reality show. More on that in a moment.

Well, OK. Time to take a look around, and the first thing that I notice is this clothing store looks just like my early-90's bachelor pad when I was rooming with two old college buddies. There is stuff EVERYWHERE. On the floor, on the tables, some things on hangers, total disarray... It looks like what Wal-Mart looks like four hours after they open the doors for Black Friday. I'm surprised, but I feel right at home. Rodney feels right at home, too -- He's still yakkin' with Odom, and does so for the whole time out there. They're havin' a GREAT time talking.

Then, it happens. I notice that Ted (my other team member) has decided to go up to the sales girls behind the counter to ask a question, or make an observation (his specialty). I wander up so take in these sights, and have found out something interesting -- He's asking them more than one question about the store and the layout, and hasn't gotten so much as a nod or a look from these two. They're too busy talking about what they're going to wear to some party they're going to either tonight or some other time.

Ted decides to repeat his question to the staff (he wanted to find something for his wife), and they flat out ignore him. AGAIN. THAT'S when Ol' Ted makes his fatal mistake - Exposing his award-winning sarcasm to the masses at Dash. After looking at me with a look that asked, "what's going on here," he turns back to the two sales girls and asks them, "Hey, ladies, are these clothes all bunched up in this huge pile on the floor part of some half-off special?"

Like an Eastwood movie, these two employees of Dash turn their head slowly towards him, and one of them finally speaks. "We haven't got to that stuff yet, chill. Don't worry about it, Khloe doesn't mind that being there. You shouldn't be in here. We're taping in the store at 5:30pm, we don't want you in here."

I look at my watch. It's 11:20am, and there isn't a camera crew, a trailer, a grip, NO ONE around this 7-person "hotbed of activity." Gee, isn't a six-hour time block just a bit early to "prep the set?" I'm guessing that the pile of clothes won't be in any of the shots the camera crew catches later. At this point, I'm wondering to myself if Dash's mission statement starts with the words, "we don't want you in here," when the main event begins.

Right then, who should pop out from the back room but Khloe Kardashian herself, and once she sees us, her Swarzenegger look hasn't changed. "Honey, have to go," she tells Lamar, who's still chatting with Rodney and doesn't hear her talking to him. She fixes THAT rather quickly, when she walks right up to Rodney, and allegedly tells him, "Excuse me! I'm TRYING to talk to my HUSBAND!"

Whoa.

Ted immediately says to me, "we're gettin' 86-ed out of here, aren't we?" Odom looks at Rodney, and utters the line of the day. "Boss says we gotta go." Yeah, I'm gettin' that impression, big man. Only THEY aren't the only ones leaving. WE are, too. we begin to walk out of the store, right behind the Queen and her forward, and as we pass thru the doors, I take one look back at the counter, and the sales girls are right back to doing what they do best. Nothing.

WE get back in our car after getting one last dirty look from that Kardashian girl, and speed off to the event that brought us to Calabasas in the first place. We set up, do the event, it's a BIG hit as usual, just like the Orange County casino night crew we are ALWAYS does, and eventually, we make our way back to our home facility.

As we unload the equipment from another Aces Casino job well done, we look up at the company's long-standing motto as it's printed above the entrance. "This Beats Working." Not a truer word has been said. Aces Casino is a GREAT place to work, or "not" work, as the definition might state.

But, in the back of my mind, I just can't get that other catchy motto out of my head. I wonder how much the painters would charge to change the Aces Casino company motto to, "We don't want you in here."

Nahhhh. We'll stick with the original. Besides, I'm guessing that Aces will be around much longer, anyway.

Aces Casino Blog: Top 5 (Or Is Is Bottom 5?) Movies In 2011 That Truly Deserve One Of Those "Razzies"

2012-01-19T08:30:00.000-08:00

It's a funny thing about working at Aces Casino, A.K.A. "The Second-Happiest Place On Earth" (That place up the 5 freeway with the mouse has title to first place there) -- When you do most of your so-called "work," It's usually on the weekends, which leaves those precious Monday thru Thursday dates wide open. (Ed. Note: Speak for yourself. There's a LOT of pre-planning work and itinerary adjustments that need to be done at the Orange County casino party champions during the week.)

So, what to do when the weekdays are winding down? Why, go to the movies, of course. That is, after we get our daily paperwork and telephone calls done, of course. (Ed. Note: Uh-huh. SURE.) Fortunately for the team here at Aces Casino, there's a nice, BIG theater called the Regal Theaters 16 right next to our facility. We can almost WALK to the Regal Theater from here. So, as you can tell, we go to the movies whenever we can.

OK, OK, we go to the movies a LOT.

It got us to thinking.... We should create our own "movie review blog." Gee, when you think about it, I think we just DID! But, you know us here at Aces Casino -- We might be the best Orange County casino night party team in the southland, but when it comes to the cinema, as the saying goes, "The worse the movie is, the better we like it." Think about it - You secretly LOVE those awful movies, too. We do. Heck, do you remember Mystery Science Theater 3000? Those guys made a LIVING tearing bad movies apart.

That's right, my friends. Tell me I'm wrong. When you're stuck watching one of those el-stink-a-dora movies, you start writing and inserting your own dialogue into it. It's fun, you can admit it. Hey, we're just gettin' our money's worth.

Which brings us to this little baby. "The Golden Raspberry."

Yes, the Aces Casino crew has been doin' the movie-thingy for years now. But, after suffering through a VERY long "losing streak" when it comes to films to avoid, we did a little internet research to find out if there was anyone on the 'net that not only covered bad movies, but CELEBRATED them.

That little curiosity led us to something called "The Razzies."

There it was, right there on our monitor -- The Razzies, a very knowledgeable and creative group of theater-going men and women that make it their life's quest to shine a bright light on some of the worst films of a given year, or, as they put it, "incinerating cinematic sins for over three decades." We loved the "Razzies" right away, they were one of us. Two of our Aces Casino team immediately joined, and are planning to attend this years' 32nd Annual Razzie Awards Ceremony on Saturday, February 25th, 2012.

I won't go into the history of the Razzies (and it IS extensive), but you can find a link to this incredibly entertaining bunch of people here. What WE'RE here for is to allow all of our readers a "sneak peek" at OUR Razzies ballot for 2012, specifically, our picks for the worst films of the 2011 season. Hey, we're entitled. By our count, we've seen 62 films this year. And included in some really spectacular movies, we've seen more than our share of total woofers.

So, without further adieu, here is the official Aces Casino Top 5 worst movies of 2011 in reverse order, brought to you by the best Orange County casino party team (and part-time movie critics) in SoCal....

#5 -- "Battle -- Los Angeles"

I remember we were all pumped to see this film when the trailers came out, and then, we finally got our chance to see it. Ugh. When you start rooting for the aliens to blow up all of these "heroes," you know you've hit the bottom of the barrel. I love great special effects as much as anyone, but the special effects crew attached to this film couldn't save it. We thought this film would challenge for the top spot on our list, until we saw some of the others.

#4 -- "Alvin & The Chipmunks - Chipwrecked"

I hated these lil' screechers back in the 60's, and my opinion hasn't changed. 50 years doesn't dull the senses, people. I don't get it. The music's awful, the "story's" so incredibly lame (an active volcano? And why the pelican costume?), and those VOICES. My ears are still ringing. WHY did I DO this to myself? Oh, NOW I remember -- I was leaving another film, one that'll show up later on this list. Must've already had enough ammo to skewer THAT film.

Please don't vote THEM off the island.

#3 -- "Zookeeper"

You know, I have one rule when it comes to films -- I have to believe that what I'm seeing on the screen is actually possible. I had no problems with Independence Day, I thought It's possible that an ape as big as Kong is sitting on some deserted island right this second, and I always suspected that the wax mannequins at museums DID really move around and talk. But Kevin James getting with Rosario DAWSON? They're a COUPLE?? Come on, that's just not possible. It's just like me and Scarlett Johansson getting together. Ain't gonna happen. Ya lost me right then and there, Zookeeper. And a bunch of talking animals that must have gone to the "Mr. Ed School of Talking Animals" isn't going to help out this dinosaur-sized egg. AWFUL picture.

#2 -- "Transformers - Dark Of The Moon"

I'm sorry, I just can't take any more crap from these talking trucks and cars. That, and you didn't bring back Megan Fox. What's up with that? Who was that goofy blonde that took her place? Let me guess, she "knows somebody" at the studio.... What a horrible actress. If I was the United States, I'd start thinking that Optimus Prime and his band of characters are just milking us for attention and don't really need to find their "robo-trinkets," after all. I'm starting to suspect that Optimus and the Decepticons are in cahoots, and they're just using Earth as their very own paintball stadium. No more of these movies, please.

#1 -- "Jack & Jill"

Holy crap on a cracker, THIS McBarker's a RUNAWAY winner from the Aces Casino crew. If we all make a New Years' resolution right now that we'll refuse to buy any more tickets to an Adam Sandler film, we may stop these films from being made, or at least force Sandler and Dennis Dugan to actually use a SCRIPT next time. Sandler's "yes men" need to stop telling the big dufus that poop and fart jokes aren't funny after the first 30 seconds. Seriously. Sandler as himself AND playing his sister? You have GOT to be kidding me. But, thinking that he's gotta break his bad film streak any time now, we went to see it. BIG mistake.

Our 2011 Razzie ballot will have this inane piece of celluloid at the top of our "please incinerate this film ASAP" list. And PLEASE stop giving Adam Sandler MONEY to MAKE these films. I know he's got his own studio and can make anything he wants, but come ON. You can do better. Hey, Dan Patrick has a pipeline to Sandler, Adam uses him in all of his films. DAN! TELL HIM! Don't be a "yes man." I know you like being able to tell people you're in movies. You do a good job in his films, but the films are just AW-FUL. They're not really movies. They don't count. Do the right thing next time, Dan. Just say "No."

(Ed. Note: In the interest of fairness, there are two films from 2011 that the Aces Casino crew did NOT see, but definitely would have made the Bottom 5 if they HAD been seen - "Bucky Larson - Born To Be A Star," and "Twilight - Breaking Dawn, Part 1." Aces Casino doesn't do Sandler's lackeys or boring vampire / werewolf pix. There goes the reviewer's job.)

Well, that's all from the Orange County casino night leaders - turned movie critics. Next week, we'll aim our blog-guns at another of the golden families of TV - We'll finally chronicle our visit to Calabasas and what happened when you combine the Aces Casino party crew with the Kardashian family. That's coming out next Monday.

We'll see you next week, have a good weekend, and if you're looking for someone to help you with your next casino night party,. give the Orange County casino party leader, Aces Casino, a call.

Oh, and check out the Razzies. Especially YOU, Sandler.

Aces Casino College Of Casino Game Knowledge: Craps 201, or Part 2 Of Our Online Craps Seminar

2012-01-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

Before we get into Part Two of our seminar on the game of Craps, the marketing and advertising staff here at Aces Casino has an announcement to make -- And that announcement is that it appears that our Orange County casino night juggernaut is finally back on schedule with our efforts to provide two blogs per week (Ed. Note: well, at LEAST once a week), in order to assist the many owners of parakeets here in the southland with their lining of the bottom of the cage with our irreverent, blathering blogs. Our detractors can never say that we don't provide SOME service to the public. Hey, some of our best blog subscribers are parakeets.

And whatever you do, do NOT make us write about that lorikeet attack at the Aquarium of the Pacific three years ago. We're not paying any more royalties to the Hitchcock family. But, as usual, I digress..... (Ed. Note: I'm told that the A.C. Blog will touch on that crazy story sometime in the next two months. It's worth the wait.)

OK, now, where were we? Oh, yes; If you read "Part One" of how to play this game called Craps, we left you with a question last week. And, with Aces Casino being the industry leader in orange county casino party rentals, it's only right to pick up the discussion from that particular point.....

"What if the shooter doesn't throw a six OR a seven for a VERY long time?"

And the answer is, "you'll instantly figure out the way to beat this game." I know we've all done it before...We've been walking thru one of the many gaming areas of a Las Vegas casino, and hear a wild commotion coming from one of the gaming tables in the casino pit. AND, every time I hear the shrieks of joy, I'm guessing it's at a Craps table. So, for those of you that are wondering to yourself at that very moment, "why is everyone going so crazy?" The answer is the question we posted above -- Someone hasn't thrown their point number or a seven for a VERRRY long time.

Think about it -- In the game of Craps, yes, the 'seven' DOES turn into the enemy of the player, once a point is created, but if the shooter avoids the sevens on the dice, it's like the Craps table has opened up it's very own ATM. EVERY time the dice roll and it ain't a seven, someone's most likely getting paid off on one of their "place bets" on those other numbers available for betting; 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and/or 10. OK, I know -- "So, Mr. "orange county casino party guy, can you provide us with a little tutorial?" Ahh, yes, ask, and you shall receive.....

Example -- On the 'come-out roll' (First roll of the sequence), shooter throws a five. Dealers mark the 5 as the 'point,' and now, the 'pass line bet' needs a five to be thrown BEFORE a seven. Now, the INSTANT that the shooter threw that five, he gives the dealer $27. Why? Because with that $27 wager, he can play what is called "across." The player can place the correct bets on the OTHER five main numbers on the game board, in this example, $5 on 4, $6 each on six and eight, $5 on 9, and $5 on 10. (You have to put an extra buck on the six and eight to get the correct payout odds, which are 7-to-6.

So, there you have it. Shooter throws 5, his pass line bet has that number covered. And, with that $27 bet, he ALSO has the 4-6-8-9-10 covered as well. For ALL SIX of these bets, there is only one number on the dice that can kill ALL of those bets -- SEVEN. Therefore, you can SEE why the table gets so crazy! No sevens for a long time = Cash, fun, and Craps euphoria.

Form the look on her face, she's not having much fun-fun-fun.

But, in our example, we've neglected to mention what is truly the best bet on the Craps layout, the only bet that pays out "true dice odds," the only bets where the house has NO advantage over the player, the odds are, in a way, EVEN. And what IS this bet that every player should make, the second the point is created?

Ahhh, for THAT, you'll have to tune into Part Three of our Craps series. Another Craps cliffhanger from the orange county casino party leader, Aces Casino! We'll post Part Three sometime in the next week or two. We'll hold off a bit as a result of the backlog of crazy happenings that we have to catch up on here in the Aces Casino blog but haven't gotten to as of this writing because of the December holiday calendar crunch (including the Calabasas visit to the Kardashians, we promise you). We have PLENTY to write about when it comes to our company that always seems to be "where the action is." Take care, and we'll see you on Thursday!

Aces Casino College Of Casino Game Knowledge: Craps 101, A.K.A. "The Best Casino Game EVER"

2012-01-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

Right up front, there is something that needs to be said.

Boy, does it feel good to be back.

True story. Believe me, when you work for a company whose motto is "This Beats Working," It's tough to take a vacation. We've said it once, and we'll say it again -- Aces Casino is the best company to work for. It's been described as "Pixar on PED's." The company actually studied how Pixar did business, and company owner Lawrence J. Stephens built his business model with the Disney animation giant in mind. I heard he even visited their northern California facility a while back. It shows, trust me.

So, as you can imagine, every day is a fun day here at Aces Casino. Especially what we call "game days," A.K.A. the dates that we put on casino parties for our fantastic clients all over southern California. The events are ALWAYS great, and It's so gratifying to help clients with their fundraisers, private parties, birthday celebrations, "grad nights," holiday parties. And, without question, the best thing about the events (besides having fun with the clients) has to be the ability to teach our guests how to play some of the games that they've always wanted to learn, but didn't want to risk real money at a live Las Vegas gaming table to find out how to play.

Enter Aces Casino.

Bottom line -- We LOVE teaching the games! And, I have to agree, some of the games CAN be intimidating, but not when the "Aces Casino College of Casino Game Knowledge" takes over. And, should you ask which of the games is the most requested casino game in the industry when it comes to the interest of the players to learn how it works, one name always comes up.

Craps. Just one word, a word that makes people shudder.

If I had to guess what the number one question that's asked of Aces Casino, the Los Angeles casino night party crew (besides 'where's the bar?'), it's "Craps? Wow...How do you PLAY this game?" And, usually, my response goes something like, "That's asking 'how do you fly the Space Shuttle,'" but, when you think about it, flying the shuttle might just look easier to the uninitiated when it comes to what has to be the most imposing game on the casino floor.

But, fear not, my friends: There's good news! The chips are valueless, and the dice don't know the game is fake! Translation: IMHO, the best way to learn the game of Craps is at one of the Aces Casino Craps tables. Yep, free lessons, and, should you die a horrible death in the hour that it takes to teach you how to play, you can look inside your wallet/purse and say to yourself, "Wow. Haven't lost a dime."

Ahh, yes, it's good to be Aces Casino. Being the best Los Angeles casino party company DOES have it's advantages......

So, since the question has been asked...And asked....AND ASKED, we here at Aces Casino thought to ourselves, "what better way to teach the game than explain some of the nuances in our Aces Casino blog? (Yeah, we talk to ourselves a lot. Too many crazy casino parties.)

One end of the Craps table. The other end is exactly the same.

PART ONE - GETTING STARTED

Yes, we'll skip over the history of the game. In prior blogs, we've already explained that our history grades in school weren't the best, so we start off in our wheelhouse: the game itself. Ever heard the term, "Seven-come-eleven?" Craps is the game that witty lil' phrase came from, because on the very first roll of a sequence (called the 'Come-Out-Roll'), if you throw a 7-or-11, you win your first bet, which, as WE teach the game, is the "Pass Line" bet.

OK, I know, I know, i'm already hitting you with these names, titles and phrases. No worries, as Scott "P" (the winner of the 2010 'Aces Casino 500') would say. You'll get the game, eventually, for one simple reason: This game is just like my mother-in-law. Repetitive. THe game constantly repeats, so, if you give this game (in a live setting at one of our events) just one hour, we'll teach you ALL you need to know. But, first, as Tony Soprano would say, "Ya gotta learn the lingo."

First roll of a series of rolls? Come out roll.

Pass Line Bet? First bet to place on the table.

Here...Check out this picture of one end of the Craps table...It's that pic you saw at the top of this blog. (See? Aces Casino isn't the Orange County casino party leader for nothing! We aim to please! Grin) Remember, the ends of the table are mirror images of each other. Stand on either end, you'll get the same game....... See the pass line at the bottom? That's where you'll place your chip(s) for your initial bet, right in that skinny lil' area, right in front of where you're standing at the table.

Now, on the very first roll of a sequence, yes, the come out roll, 7-or-11 is an automatic winner, and 2, 3, or 12 is an automatic loser. (2-3-12, that's Craps, baby.) But, if any other number comes up, you'll see the dealer mark that particular number, and, until the end of the roll, you'll need the shooter (the one rolling the dice) to throw THAT number before a seven, to win your pass line bet. Let's say for example, he threw a six. OK, that's your number.

Yeah, I know, it's starting to go over your head. Remember, my mother-in-law. You'll get it, it keeps repeating.

Now, when it comes to the pass line bet you made initially, the only two numbers that matter to your bet are SIX (which would be a pass line winner), or SEVEN (which would be a pass line loser). Yep, once you "create a point" (throw some maerked number, like six, on the come out roll), seven turns into your enemy. But, you KNOW how dice can be, sometimes......What if the shooter doesn't throw a six OR a seven for a VERY long time?

Good question, my friends. And that's where we'll move to part TWO of, "How the heck do you PLAY this game?" Brought to you by your friends at Aces Casino, the best Orange County casino night party company in SoCal. (And modest, too!) We'll post Part Two in a few days..... In the meantime, we've assigned you some homework: Go online, and search for one of the many free craps trainers online. You can roll thedice, get acclimated to the Craps layout, and maybe even win a few fake chips.

We know -- We're experts in fake chips. See you next time........

Aces Casino Blog: The December Holiday Parties Are In The Rear View Mirror - What's Next?

2012-01-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

OK, THAT was a CRAZY month.

Here at Aces Casino, we pretty much expect that our Decembers can be a little wild around the offices of this, the Orange County casino party leader. We understand that EVERYBODY wants Aces Casino at their Christmas events, and we are very happy to supply our band of more than 165 frustrated game-show contestants to our cherished clientele that annually looks for the best in casino party entertainment. That having been said, when you put on your top performance at some 58 events over a 15-day time frame, your team gets a little tired, come the New Year.

The good news is, when it comes to Aces Casino, we take not ONE break, but TWO. More on that a little later, but suffice it to say that after taking a week off from the madness that is the holiday season (and we wouldn't have it any other way), we're fully re-charged and ready to go full steam into what looks to be a fantastic 2012 Orange County casino night party season.

As mid-January approaches, we see that a lot of fundraising organizations are joining forces with Aces Casino this year to bolster their coffers with some much-needed revenue. And believe me, NO ONE does a better fundraising assistance for local schools, youth sports teams and charitable organizations than Aces Casino Entertainment. Next week, we'll be posting some of our better ideas on how to make your next fundraiser a rousing success, as well as getting back to what our blog team does best - Taking a peek at the irreverent side of life here in Orange County. Trust me, we've got some pretty funny stories to tell about some of the happenings in the last two months.... We'll get to everything in subsequent blog releases here in our internet "parakeet paper," we promise.

Oh, yes, before we go, we wanted to get back to something we mentioned earlier, something we call the "Aces Casino Staff Re-Charging Initiative," A.K.A. the 2012 Aces Casino Entertainment Holiday Party. The team already had a week off for New Years, but this is "break number two," OUR holiday party. (We throw it in January, because no one is ever available in December, because of our industry. Go figure.)

Now, LAST year's event, our first and last annual "Aces Casino 500" held at the incomparable K-1 Speed location in Anaheim, right near the 57/91 interchange, was a BLAST. (No I didn't compete -- Somebody had to shoot the film for the dumb blog. Rip-off.) Here's a reminder of who did the best in the 2010 race....

The "Inquiry" sign is on. Please hold all Win, Place and Show tickets.

Yes, there they are, the "top three" in the 2011 "Aces Casino 500." In the middle, the winner (who almost went wire-to-wire) was Scott Percifield, who not only didn't get the memo to actually look at the camera when the K-1 staff took his picture, but also must have skimmed over the part in the invitation that Aces Casino wasn't ALSO holding it's annual "ugly shirt playoffs" until the following week. (Ed. Note: He's usually a VERY snappy dresser. We'll give him a mulligan. When you're the top Orange County casino party company in the SoCal area, you can let one ugly shirt slide.)

On the left is 2nd-place finisher Yolanda Wong, who is celebrating in the picture as a result of her finding out she's not liable for the more than $2300 in damage she caused by running not one, but TWO Aces team members off the track during the race, including the odds-on fave to win the race, Larry Hankin (whose car was so badly damaged, it's suspension had to be replaced by the K-1 staff). However, after the steward's inquiry, Yolanda was removed from the 2nd-place spot and placed last, making the gentleman on the right side of the photo, our own Darwin Valentine, the silver medalist in the event. (Darwin also finished 2nd in the ugly shirt competition.)

Now, without question, K-1 Speed in Anaheim is our favorite location EVER for hosting our holiday party, but the staff wants to make the "500" an every-other-year event, so now, yours truly has to find something just as good. (NOT easy, believe me. K-1's staff, from top-gun RaeLyn Stokes, to everybody on down the line, was SO helpful in getting us the best event in our history. Thanks again, RaeLyn.)

Well, that's all for now. We'll pop up with more drivel from the Orange County casino night party leaders tomorrow or Wednesday, and get back on our "at least once a week" schedule of posting nonsense on our parakeet paper. And remember -- If you're planning a fundraiser, winter/spring formal, or just an intimate in-home event, give your friends at Aces Casino a call. We're here to help, and are the best in the business at putting on fantastic casino night parties! OK, we'll see you all later in the week!

Aces Casino Blog: December Events Are Going Smoothly - Except For That 60 Freeway Debacle

2011-12-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party leader, is BU-SY! We apologize for our lack of blah-blah-blog posts, but things have just been crazy around our offices, as you can well imagine. This weekend marks our last big December holiday weekend before the Christmas break, so we promise to return with all the stories from our many events, including the story about our trying NOT to use the Pomona (60) Freeway. Those of you that live in SoCal know what I mean... That story's one for the books - We'll hit you with that one in January....

That's all for now. Again, your parakeet-paper-worthy Aces Casino blog will return after the holidays .. Until then, this is your roving Orange County Casino Night blog-junkie wishing ALL of our many clients, friends and co-workers a very happy holiday season! (Ed. Note: the Aces Casino fantasy football team is in the semi's, once again. We'll update all that fantasy stuff later, also.)

Aces Casino Blog: Don't Look Now, but The Buena Park Coyotes Varsity Fooball Team is CIF-Bound

2011-11-15T11:22:00.001-08:00

Yes, yes, I know - "Oh, great, HERE he goes again.... Hey, Aces Casino - What do the Buena Park Coyotes' 2011 varsity football team have to do with your Orange County Las Vegas Night casino party company?"

Well, Aces Casino and the Coyotes DO have ONE thing in common. They're both WINNERS. Oh, and one more thing - They both have ME in common. Those that claim that this 'reporter' is a dyed-in-the-wool Buena Park Coyote honk - Guilty as charged.

Sorry, but I'm honkin'. The Coyotes are going back to the CIF Southwest Division PLAYOFFS, bay-bee! That's two years STRAIGHT, thanks to a GREAT group of coaches that are working with the boys to be all they can be, both on the field, and in the classroom. They're a class bunch, and they're fantastic teachers, too.

Here's a taste of what's happening at BPHS Football, courtesy of ABC-7 TV, Los Angeles....

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=8411368

Oh, and we'll include THIS lil' vid to set the mood out at BPHS....

OK, I'm suitin' up, I'm ready to play now. It's the Haka, it does it to me every time.

Congratulations to Coach Anthony White on his being selected as the High School Coach of the Week in 2011, and good luck in your upcoming game against a tough Foothill High School in Round 1 of the CIF Varsity Football Playoffs, from the gang over at Aces Casino, the orange county casino night kingpins of SoCal! Bring on the pain, BP. Let's go out there and WIN!

(Ed. Note: We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog. It's OK, he loves BPHS Football. But, if his team DOES win, I'm taking a one-week vacation from Aces Casino. He'll be impossible to live with. (I graduated from Foothill HS back in 1987. Stay tuned.)

Aces Casino Blog: December Is Coming - Is YOUR Casino Party Company in the "TOY" Business?

2011-11-09T16:57:00.000-08:00

It happens EVERY December, like CLOCKWORK.

Every weekend in December, without fail, Aces Casino Entertainment, A.K.A. the top Orange County casino party company in Southern California, will get a call from a VERY unhappy client.

No, not one of OUR clients. Rather, one of our "Ex-Clients."

Now, make no mistake about it; We LOVE all of our clients here at Aces Casino. They're the ones that we LOVE to show off for, the ones we put on a spectacular casino party for. But, unfortunately, every year, we see it happen..... A long-time client has a change of personnel at the top of the event coordination chain, and someone new takes control of the creation of the next December Holiday casino event for their corporation. Then, we find out this "new" event coordinator is considering the possibility of saving a buck or two, and considering hiring some fly-by-night discount casino company to do their most pretigious event.

It's the Aces Casino "worst nightmare scenario," all over again.

Worse yet, every once in a while, we find out that the corporation's event coordinator, who's really interested in putting on a good face with the boss by saving $50, HIRES the fly-by-night casino company, and gives them the key to their prestigious 550-guest Christmas Holiday event. Fortunately, this rarely happens. It happens maybe once every five years, but it invariably DOES happen to our orange county casino night party company.

I HATE when this happens, because I ALWAYS know what comes next.

Fortunately, we're so incredibly busy every December that after a period of time, the thought of the party that was lost to the $50 underbid fades from memory.... Until we're reminded about it when "the dreaded call" comes in. And make no mistake about it -- It ALWAYS comes in. It's the WORST. We HATE that call.

Here's a sample of what that dreaded call feels like, from a call back in 2010.... It's the night of the big holiday Christmas event, and the event coordinator calls us, in a PANIC. It's two hours before the event is about to begin, and the woman is literally CRYING. She tells us that the casino party company she hired instead of Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party LEADER in Southern California, has brought TOY EQUIPMENT to her prestigious event.

Yep. TOYS. It's the same call we get every time, once every four years. It's like the Olympics, only with awful-looking casino equipment.

THIS is a TOY.

Like I said, she's panicking. "You have to help me," she says. "The Roulette wheel this cheap company brought is a cheap toy about the size of a pie plate, the chips they're giving us to hand out to my guests are like tiddly winks, the blackjack tables are just cheap fuzzy layouts on plywood, and everything's so rickety. I'm afraid it's going to fall over on someone. I want to fire them NOW. Can you come down and do our event??? PLEASE...I can't have this ruin our Christmas party!"

I HATE WHEN THIS HAPPENS. Like I said, we LOVE all of our clients. We always have. We LOVE putting on spectacular events. We're ACES CASINO, for goodness sakes. We've been doing this FOREVER.

That's when we have to relay the bad news. We're already sold out, our teams of staff members are already assigned to other events, there's no itinerary info to work off of. There are no more tables, and no more staff members available.

She starts to sob, uncontrollably. It was the worst telephone call I've EVER had to deal with.

Until the NEXT one happens, that is.

THIS is a casino-size and quality wheel. 32", and gorgeous.

It's true, Aces Casino got to be SoCal's best orange county casino night party company by doing what we've done for 17 years -- Putting on GREAT events. Unfortunately, we're NOT the "cheapest." Our prices are INCREDIBLY competitive, though. We're normally the second least expensive casino night party company in SoCal. It's probably because we're the #2 casino party company in southern California. We're big, and have the ability to do ANYTHING, when given the task ahead of time.

But unfortunately for our very distraught woman on the phone, It's too late.

There IS good news, though. This year, this same nice lady brought us back on board to do their 2011 December holiday event, an event taking place about one month from now. The bottom line? We never hold a grudge. Our event calendar ALWAYS fills up in December. And, We know that it's tempting to save a buck or two, but the reality is, there are a lot of mom-and-pop-type casino party companies out there that use toy tables and equipment to host casino parties.

Yes, I suppose that they're "entitled." There's no tried and true rule that states ALL casino equipment should look like it came from a casino. That pie-plate plastic roulette wheel is good enough to hold a roulette game.

But...That's not the point. Here at Aces Casino, we KNOW which of these unscrupulous companies are currently sending out sub-standard "equipment," and toy wheels. We understand that it's not EVERY company that can shell out $4400 for a true casino size and quality Roulette wheel.

That's why WE'RE not just "any company."

Oh, yes, just for reference, there are actually three VERY good casino party companies that DO use full-blown casino size and quality casino equipment, accessories for those games, and pro casino staff members. We're one, and the two other ones are really good, too. (A little pricey, but I digress.)

Hey, you want to know who the other two companies are? Call us, we'll tell you. I remember when one of the two companies called us to thank us for the reference. They didn't fully comprehend the assistance at the time, but they do, now. We're not info hoarders here. Funny thing is, people don't realize that we're in the business of making everyone's event a success. We really don't care which of the three companies you choose. Here at Aces Casino, it's all about the commitment to casino party excellence. Simple as that. It's never about the money -- It's all about the event.

Oh, we have one small side note to this bloated blog entry this week.... We currently have a client on our calendar, a VERY good and prestigious corporation, one of the top guns in their field of expertise, that feels like they're about to "jump the shark," and possibly lean to bringing aboard a "toy company" to do their event this December, even though the quotes between our company and the toy-maker are almost exactly the same.

Toys. I used to LOVE toys.

Well, as of this writing, the decision is yet to be made. Hopefully, our client will feel and find out the difference between Aces Casino and the Toy-Maker, and continue their affiliation with one of the best casino party companies in the business.

I sure hope so. I really like this event coordinator that's making this decision a LOT. She's VERY nice. But - she's considering bringing a Ford Pinto to a NASCAR event, and running it in the race. She's spending SO much money on all of the other peripherals for the event. It must be costing a FORTUNE for the event, it's totally a high-class event, in every other way. You should SEE the facility that she chose for the event. Beautiful place. If those guests get toy equipment, they're going to be TICKED. I would be. It'll be a DISASTER.

I hope she chooses to bring back Aces Casino. If not, I'll brace for "the dreaded call." It ALWAYS comes. We'll update this blog later on, in two months. We'll let you know what happened. In the meantime, just a piece of advice, for those of you working on putting together a casino night event -- ASK the company that you're considering for your event if they supply ACTUAL casino size and quality equipment and dealers. If they say "yes," you've found one of the three companies.

If they "hem and haw," or chamge the subject, just call us. I KNOW that WE'RE one of the 3 companies. Either way, call Aces Casino any time you have any questions about an upcoming event that you're planning, we'd be happy to help out. Oh, and have a happy and entertaining holiday season!

Aces Casino Blog: A VERY Quick Peek at the Dunn-Edwards Fantasy Football League

2011-10-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

Aces Casino has always taken pride in their lofty ranking as the number one orange county casino party company in southern California, and, since attaining that goal, the company does allow for a little, shall we say, "frivolity" amongst it's many employees. And, when it comes to frivolity, nothing could possibly surpass the company's desire to waste time with the love for fantasy football. (Hey, it's a lot of fun, and It's on Sundays, when we don't work.)

Therefore, we thought it'd be nice to show off one of the Aces Casino fantasy football blogs, written once a week (Ed. Note: NOT on company time) that touches on some of the teams that have a home here. So, without further interruption, courtesy of the orange county casino night champions of Aces Casino, here is the weekly column entitled, "What Was I Thinking?"

I don’t know about YOU guys,but, for moi, this 2011 NFL season continues to confound me. We’re four weeks into another NationalFootball League stanza, about 1/4^th of the way thru the schedule,and there are quite a few surprises as the league hits the quarter-pole….

----- The Detroit Lions, ateam that seemed to be the poster children for getting ripped off by officialsduring games in 2010, is now 4-and-0 on the year;

----- The Buffalo Bills,despite getting surprised in a Cincinnatiambush last week, are still 3-and-1 on the year, and tied for first in the AFCEast;

----- The San DiegoChargers, who are hired by molasses companies to teach their product how tostart slow out of the bottle, are 3-1 so far:

----- And in the DFFL, afull EIGHT of the twelve Dunn-Ed franchises are at either 2-2 or 1-3 after fourgames.

Has parity hit theDunn-Edwards Fantasy Football League? Well, if you ask me, parity hits the league in one way or another EVERYseason. I play in more than a fewfantasy football leagues on this end, and without QUESTION, there is morecraziness, unpredictability and flat-out goofiness in this DFFL than in anyother league that I’ve EVER participated in. Translation? It’s SUCH a goodleague..

With that in mind, my DFFLbrethren, with 1/3^rd of the Dunn-Ed games in the can, and everybodystill more than alive in the race for the 2011 Dunn-Ed title, It’s time to lookback at the wild and wacky results of Week Four of the DFFL. It’s time to find out which of my Dunn-Edfriends were dining on steak last week and who chose Spam for their post-gamemeal, it’s time to discover which team owners were listening to Pavarotti ontheir CD players, and who chose to throw in the ol’ “Roseanne’s Greatest Hits”8-track tape and give it a listen – It’s time to ask that age-old question,“What Was I THINKING?”

We begin our Week Four questfor greatness in the Genius Division, and, usually, when the “bye” weeks begin,we normally see some pretty good scores stand out at this point of the WWITseason. Perfect scores are the norm whenthe “byes” hit our league, but, surprisingly, none THIS weekend… So, with no perfecto’s to choose from, wefind that the lowest score of the week belongs to a man that is no stranger toGenius-level play in the WWIT – That man is none other than Ron Bolton ofRun&Gun, who lost a grand total or TWO bench points for the week, when hisPK foiled the perfect score. Give theGold Medal for Week Four to the 3-1 “Gunner” of the Dunn-Ed League, and we’llalso give him one bonus point for that 144-point explosion last weekend. Good job, Ron.

The Genius Division SilverMedal for Week Four goes to Anthony Pitassi and MGL for only coughing up 6points to the bench. We’ll give ourresident Bills’ fan five Genius points + one Bonus Genius point for only havingone miscue in the lineup selection for the weekend. Bronze medal goes to FTP for leaving Julio Joneson the bench, and losing seven points in scoring on that one error. 3 Genius points plus one more for his attemptat a perfecto in Week Four play.

Those three teams were theonly teams to score in single-digits of bench-point loss for the week, so it’stough to award any other bonus points. Isuppose we can give Trojans’ owner Andrew Gillette a half-bonus-point forsuffering yet another tough loss last weekend. He’s lost three games by a TOTAL of SIX points this year. That, and his only WIN was a two-pointsqueaker. Change a few things, and theTrojans are the 4-and-0 team at this point in the season, instead of the Bolts.

OK …. Here are the Week 4 Standingsin the 2011 WWIT Genius Division…..

GENIUS DIVISION –WEEK 4 - DFFL

1. Run&Gun (16 points) – Well, well, lookwho’s back at the top of the heap!

2. Trojans (15.5 points) – This’ll be athree-way battle for awhile.

3. Burbank Thumpers (14 points) – Minor blip,and still just two points out.

4. Your Name Here (8 points) – No, Ben, AaronRodgers’ “50” doesn’t help you here.

5. J-Squad (7 points) – I know how you feelwith that Bolts game, Jesus.

5. Full Tilt Poker (7 points) – Even when I do well,it’s STILL bad.

7. Mr. Go Lucky (6 points) – “Moral victory”for one of the DFFL good guys.

8. Norsemen (3 points) – Another “Just-Win” jobfor the Vikes fan.

9. The Nemesis (1 point) – Hey, one point isbetter than none.

Yet to score – Grim Reaper, Bolts(17 straight for the Commish), BaltimoreRavens

There you have it – Ourthree geniuses for the week, along with one DFFL owner that we had best put onsuicide watch. Wow… Andy’s four gameshave all been decided by a grand total of 8 points. He’s the new “Cardiac Kid” of the Dunn-EdLeague. Ahh, yes, but enough of the GOODplayers – It’s time to leave the field of greatness, and move to thebattle-scarred sandlot of the “not-so-good,” the place that DFFL team owners PRAY not to appear on week afterweek….But, eventually, we ALL do. It’sinevitable…. So, gather around the campfire of ineptitude, kiddies, for it’stime to find out who on Monday morning was asking themselves the question,“What Was I THINKING?”

But, before we move on anyfurther, I think that it’s time to stop and give everyone a quick peek intosomething we rarely do here at WWIT, and that would be to allow our members tolook at our rock-solid criteria on just how we score the team owners here,week-in and week-out. And, right at thetop of the WWIT list, there it is – “Rule #1 – If your bench out-scores yourstarters in any given week in the DFFL, you qualify for special treatment inthe WWIT.”

Hey, we just follow therules around here. (grin)

It IS a rare occurrence, butBurbank Thumpers team owner Jose Cano pulled off this feat when he lost hisWeek Four game to Rob Mielke of the Norsemen, 65-63 last week. That’s 63 points for Jose’s TEAM, and 84points for the Thumpers’ BENCH. Hey, heTOLD us his bench was a beast. Guess hewas right! So, for losing a DFFL game bytwo points when your bench outscores your entire team, Jose Cano hits the WWITexacta – Gold Medal and 7 big goofy-points for the 53-point giveaway for theweekend, and an additional 3 goofy-points for that BEAST of a bench pulling offthe exacta. Don’t worry, Rob – We’ll getto you soon. (grin)

Silver medal in Week 3 ofthe WWIT goes to our other Buffalo Bills’ fan, the Grim Reaper’s Alan Sullivan,who was also in the spirit of giving last week, when he left a whopping 41points on his bench in his game against Run&Gun. Five WWIT points for the 41 point loss, butno bonus goofy-points. When you face ateam that puts up 144, you’re safe, there. Bronze medal for the week goes to the aforementioned Rob Mielke of theNorsemen, who TRIED to give away that game against Burbank when HE left 26 points of HIS bench,and STILL got the win. 3 WWIT points forthe Viking Fan.

Let’s see….Bonus WWIT pointsfor “Weak” Four – Oh, DEFINITELY one WWIT point for the Bolts. He’s this year’s version of Your NameHere. Slams the Squadron by 34, and STILLthrew away an additional 23 points on his bench. Give the Commish a point for THAT. Also, the previously unbeaten J-Squad scoresa goofy-point for their 23-point bench loss last week, as well. An interesting note on this game – Talked toJim Francis on Monday; he told me that Jesus could see the bomb from the Boltscoming, but didn’t care. “I’ll still be3-1, and playing in my division,” Jesus reportedly said. Hey, works for me!

OK, here we go, 4 weeks intothe WWIT…Standings, with the new name – I told you there was some specialtreatment coming. Rule #1, baby.

BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWNBURBANKDIVISION – WEEK 4 - DFFL

1. Beautiful Downtown Burbank (17 points) –What are YOU doin’ up here, Jose?

2. Mr. Not-So-Lucky (13 points) – I knewAnthony wouldn’t stay on top for long.

3. The NEMISES (12 points) – OK, I’llspell it your way. STILL good for apoint-a-day.

4. J-Lo Squad (7 points) – You needed 5 JaredCook’s last week, Jesus.

5. Grimy Reaper (6.5 points) – No one couldexpect Garcon’s explosion, Alan.

6. Dolts (6 points) – One point for stealingDecker, and one for being 4-and-0.

6. Dirty Birdies (6 points) – I feel bad for myson. He’s really banged up.

8. Nameless Wonder (5 points) – He’s like theChargers. BIG second half coming inWWIT.

9. Fully Tilted Poker (4 points) – Last in mydivision, and last here, too. Can’t win.

9. Worst-Men (4 point) – You’re winning games ANDscoring points here? How?

Yet to score – Trojans, Run&Gun(Four great weeks for both.)

There you have it, anothercrazy WWIT week in the DFFL. Hope all ofyou are having a good week, and with that, good luck in your Week Five games,and may all of your players stay healthy and score big-time points for you!

Aces Casino Blog: Fantasy Football Takes Over The Office, and Deleting Unknown Files isn't Too Smart

2011-10-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here at Aces Casino, also known as the Orange County Casino Night Party Kingpin, we tend to get, well, shall we say, "A tad sidetracked," when it comes to office work. (Ed. Note: Gee, what a surprise.) OK, maybe we got a LOT side-tracked. Hey, we're allowed! That, and deleting the files here at Aces Casino that dealt with this particular blog sure wasn't a good idea, now, WAS it?

Agh....Well, no sweat...It looks like the Orange County Casino Party guys are back on-line. And, we return with three thoughts as we test the internet waters, to make sure that we really ARE back....

#1 -- Fantasy football can drive you CRAZY! One injury, and you're 1-and-3, and already facing must-win games. (I speak from personal experience here. Grin) Now that we're back up and running, we'll post some fantasy football propaganda tomorrow.... Oh, and rumors that I purposely twisted the offices' computer system to stop the spreading of info about my awful fantasy team or to get out of blogging altogether is a lie, or you can't prove it - One of those two. I'll know which, in about a week.

#2 -- It's early October, and the Aces Casino party calendar is filling up. We'll be firming up dates with all of our regular clients this week, and into next week, but we're ALWAYS looking for a new client or two that would LOVE to have the elegance of a full-blown casino supplied by Aces Casino at their next holiday gathering. Give us a call right away, and we'll get you on our event calendar.

#3 -- Take from this Los Angeles Casino Night guy -- Ashton Kutcher ain't gonna work as the new "man" in Season 9 of "Two and a Half Men." He just isn't funny. That show's supposed to be funny, right? Someone tell Chuck Lorre it ain't, or I'LL have to do it, and we all know how well THAT went over at the CBS gig two years ago.

Not funny now, not before, not EVER.

OK, friends, that's all for now. We'll be back with our regular drivel starting next week. From all of us here at Aces Casino, your orange county casino party giant, thank you for your support and your business, and we'll see you at your next event!

Aces Casino Blog: Aces "Paparazzi:" Casino Party Pictures From the Aces Photo Vault - Issue #1!

2011-09-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while (Editors' Note: more like once a year), the powers that be here at Aces Casino come up with an idea that seems to fit our irreverent, "witty" Aces Casino Blog perfectly. Such a suggestion was made just last week at one of our many in-house conferences, when one of our orange county casino party team members suggested that we begin posting some of our best pictures and video taken at the various events that Aces Casino Entertainment appears at here in the southern California area.

Hmmm.....Not a bad idea. It fits the two qualifications involved in the decision-making process when analyzing any possible suggestion used here at the Aces Casino Blog: #1, that It's easy to do, and #2, that it doesn't involve heavy lifting. Hey, so, OK, I'm a lazy blog-writing light-weight. Sue me.

So, since the pictures aren't very heavy, and we're already here typing the blog for today, here is the first installment of the "Aces Casino Blog Paparazzi Division," courtesy of us lazy blog-typers here at the orange county casino night party kings, A.K.A. Aces Casino.

This shot proves that you just never know who you're going to see playing a little Texas Hold - 'Em Poker at a major charity event. Sitting at the table, second from the left in the print dress, that's one of our favorite people from the reality TV show "Storage Wars:" It's none other than Brandi Passante, who, along with business partner and soul-mate Jarrod Schulz, are the owners of the "Now and Again Thrift Shop" in Orange, CA.

Notice that she doesn't look very happy - I'm guessing that her lack of chips while sitting at the table has something to do with her mood at the time. Hey, Brandi: It might be poker with play money, but the game's still tough to beat, just like how tough it is to win a bid from you and Jarrod. Oh, by the way: We've been to their thrift shop in Orange. It's pretty cool. Those that might be inclined and in the area should check it out. They've got some nice stuff in there. My son must have bought every DVD they had.

There'll be many more candid shots of our celebs in the days, weeks and months to come, believe me. Before we go, just a reminder to the fantasy football players out there -- The NFL season begins TONIGHT, with a big-time matchup -- The New Orleans Saints visit Lambeau to take on the Green Bay Packers. Set your lineups early, friends. Everyone has SOMEBODY in that game. Take care, have fun watching the game, and call us TODAY if you're planning on that big holiday casino night event -- Our calendar is filling up fast.

OK, I'm out of here. Gimme the camera, and watch out. We've got a lot of events this weekend. Do I get paid for every picture I take? (Editor's Note: NO.)

Aces Casino Blog: The Dunn-Edwards Fantasy Draft is Over, But there's Still Another Pain To Deal With

2011-09-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Instant Apologies go out to all of our many (3?) loyal Aces Casino blog followers across this vast internet wasteland. Our orange county casino party machine's ability to blog this Tuesday has been unabashedly derailed as a result of two unrelated occurrences ....

1) A last-second request for a meeting with one of our many catering affiliates in regards to an upcoming holiday event scheduled for later this year, and 2) an unforeseen accident that has resulted in a broken tooth in the mouth of the normally glib blog-guy that frequents these blog-halls.... (Editor's Note: Wow, we thought it was a little quiet in the office today.)

So, unfortunately, we'll have to delay our normal Tuesday blog 24 hours, and post the usual drivel from your favorite orange county casino night party company one day later, on Wednesday. In the meantime, good luck to all of of you, and we'll see you tomorrow!

Aces Casino Blog: Don't Look Now, But Here Comes the Buena Park 2011 High School Football Season

2011-08-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

I remember it like it was yesterday.

Someone came up to me at an early business meeting when Aces Casino (the orange county casino party juggernaut) was born some 17 years ago and told me, "Aces, if you want to be a success in this industry, you have to be well-rounded." I also seem to remember that this man doing all the talking at this new small business symposium was about 5 feet, three inches, and weighed some 290 pounds.

Well, I thought, he's pretty much the well-rounded-est person I've ever seen, so I'd best take his advice, in more ways than one. I've gained more than a few pounds over the years to keep my bases covered in one aspect of his suggestions to success, but here at Aces Casino, we've also taken that OTHER meaning of his advice to heart. Yes, we're VERY good at what we do in the orange county casino party business, but besides that, we also taken pride in the fact that our "eclectic nature" also helps make us what we are today.

Among our many semi-insane (and proud of it) staff members, you'll find the most interesting and diverse types of hobbies and "like-to-do" things in the industry, from bird-watching to NASCAR, from eBay to E-Trade, from poker tournament play to fantasy football play. Every week, someone around these here parts has a fascinating story concerning what they did or saw during the past week.

Now, when it comes to THIS quasi-reporter, one of MY favorite "likes," or one of my favorite things to do around here, is to go to football games; mostly the NFL Chargers' games, but on a more local and personal level, high school football games. And not just ANY high school games -- Buena Park High School football games. It just happens to be the high school that I graduated from some 20 years ago (Ed. Note: OK, yeah, more like 50 years ago), and, because of my love for the game, it seemed a natural thing to stay connected to the ol' alma mater and take in a few games each year.

Now, as high school football factories are concerned, Buena Park High ain't exactly Servite or O-Lu... As a matter of fact, over the last, say, 40 years, the team hasn't exactly re-written the CIF Southern Section record books. The Orange County Register, one of the best newspapers in the world when it comes to local high school sports, lists the Buena Park Coyotes' win-loss record over the years at 193-317-18, which means we've averaged about 4 wins a season, thru the years.

That ain't much.

But, there HAVE been some big-time thrills here and there in Coyote-Land. Ten years ago, the Coyotes' football team did the un-thinkable when they stormed all the way to the CIF Southern Section Championship Game at Cal State Fullerton against the Brea-Olinda Wildcats. That was one of the greatest days of my high school football life, walking into that stadium to watch my high school team battle for the title.

Then, the game started. Ouch. Actually, when you follow prep football as closely as I do, you kinda know when your team's in trouble, and I knew that BPHS was wandering into the Twilight Zone when they took on Brea-Olinda. They totally out-played Buena Park the entire first half, but they didn't out-class the Coyotes -- Buena Park came out at the start of the second half, and marched right down the field for a TD, looking just like the team that had beaten South Hills the week before to get to the title game.

I don't remember the score of the BOHS / BPHS game (Ed. Note: Don't worry, I'll find that score someday), but I'll never forget the pride inside of me when I went to that game, as well as all the other games I've seen over the years.

The last few years HAD been rather tough to watch, however. There were times just two or three years ago when it seemed that the Coyote playbook could be written on the back of a business card. The dog days had returned, and these dogs were BARKIN', to the tune of a 1-and-39 win-loss record over a four-year span, and that one win was by forfeit. At THIS rate, we're NEVER gonna get our overall record back to .500... (Grin)

THEN came 2010.

The 2010 BPHS Football Program had a new staff, led by first-year Head Coach Anthony White, a man that has just one important vision for his kids -- Excellence in academics as well as athletics. He's intense, but not a screamer. He's knowledgeable, but he's not a know-it-all. But, to me, his one most important thing is, he's a TEACHER. I mean, I could go on and on about Coach White, but the OC Register and other periodicals have already done that for me. Go look him up thru the various news clippings like this link. Or THIS link. Or THIS one. You'll see what I mean. The best part -- The man knows FOOTBALL. He MUST -- He brought me back on board as "the Voice of the Coyotes," A.K.A. the P.A. announcer, a job I had held for about 15 years, earlier in my BPHS 'career.' I loved Coach White from the start. In a VERY short time, I could tell he was someone that got things DONE. I like that.

Then, the season started.

Now, I'll go into EVERY Coyote season thinking the best..."Hey, you never know, this year just might be one of those years..."

You can say THAT again. For the first time in school HISTORY, the BPHS Coyotes rattled off wins in their first SIX games, on route to their first CIF Playoff Berth since the 2001 season. Coach White and his staff re-built the Coyotes from scratch, preparing them for the '10 season like no other staff, instilling a feeling of pride, accomplishment, a desire to excel not just in football, but in LIFE.

For the first time in a long time, the alumni, parents, families and friends of the Coyotes were joining forces, and getting involved in the school at a level that I haven't seen in a long time. "The Coyote Club," the BPHS Booster Club, saw a spike in membership and participation. Suddenly, my ol' buddies from those other schools, schools like Sunny Hills, Katella, Estancia, Bolsa Grande..... They didn't want to talk to me about football any more. But I DID. (Until they hung up.)

Which brings us to 2011......

I can't WAIT to see the 2011 version of the Buena Park Coyotes football team. But not for the reason that you might THINK..... For me, It's just fun to be around a group of people, of kids, of coaches, all types of people that are getting together for the cause, bonding for not just athletics, but for each other. It really is a great thing to see. For the first time in the school's history, Aces Casino, the orange county casino party giant, volunteered it's time and energy to help the Coyote Club throw a casino night party and fundraiser for the Club two weeks ago, something that I'd never thought I'd see. I'm tellin' ya, things are happening out at Buena Park High these days.....

Oh, yeah, the 2011 Football Team....

Here....Let me introduce you to two fine gentlemen.....

Two gentlemen that are smiling as broadly as I am.

Let me introduce you to Kameron Taylor (top) and J. J. Christy (bottom), just two of the members of the 2011 BPHS Coyotes football team. You know why they're smiling? Because they're two of the members of the 2011 BPHS Coyotes football team, THAT'S why. They get to play for Coach White and his staff.

Kameron played on the 2010 team, racking up more than 750 yards in receiving last year. Kameron's smiling because J. J. just joined the Coyotes as their new QB for 2011. J. J. USED to play in Alaska, for Service High. You know Service High, right? They've been in more than a few STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES with the aforementioned Mr. Christy as their QB. 2,000 yards passing, 440+ yards rushing.... Looks like J. J. was BUSY in Alaska the last two years. Oh, yeah, here's a little video from Alaska for ya....

And now, these two gentlemen play for BP. Them, and about 25 more just like them.

I think I'll give my Sunny Hills friends a call..... Haven't talked to them in a long time.....

Aces Casino Blog: Ocean View / Huntington Beach, CA - Little League World Series CHAMPIONS!

2011-08-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Aces Casino Special Report: This normally isn't our day to post, but we now have GREATNESS is our midst -- The Ocean View (Huntington Beach) Little League juggernauts have just won the Little League World Series Championship in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, by defeating a VERY good team from Japan today, by the final score of 2-1.

Congratulations to all of our friends out at Ocean View LL from all of us here at Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party leaders (and proud sponsor of Ocean View LL and Booster Club)! As far as we have heard, the OV Baseball Team, parents and boosters of the team will be coming back home sometime tonight or tomorrow.

And THAT'S THE GAME!

Also, the Mayor of the city of Huntington Beach, Ca., the Honorable Joe Carchio, has announced that there WILL be an official parade for the kids, scheduled for Saturday, September 10, 2011, starting at 3pm. The Parade will start at Orange and Main Streets and head on Main toward Pacific Coast Highway to end at Pier Plaza.

Again, our congratulations go out to a great group of kids. What a fun ride that was! Our thanks to all the parents, coaches, supporters, and staff for a great job, as well. Come HOME, you guys and gals! We'll see you on the 10th!

Aces "College of Casino Game Knowledge:" Top 5 Things you Probably Didn't Know About Las Vegas

2011-08-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

When you're known as the top orange county casino party company in SoCal, you had better know EVERYTHING about casino games. Thankfully, the brass at Aces Casino DOES. Now, possibly, their expertise in selecting authors to write their twice-weekly blog might be questioned, but, for now, I'll gladly accept the weekly $34.65 stipend for creating this published (?) train wreck, and cash the check, before someone gets wise.

This Friday's blog is a result of yours truly roaming the halls of Aces Casino, and asking the tough questions: #1, "do you know any really good trivia about the city of Las Vegas," and #2, "who stole my $16 pen?" Well, I didn't get any nibbles on question #2, but as for the first query, yep, without question, there's no one group of casino party crazies that know more useless trivia than this team of orange county casino party nuts. (I do have the greatest job in the world.)

So, without one more moment of hesitation (and before they can stop payment on the $34.65 check), here are the top 5 Aces Casino "gee whiz" facts about the city of Las Vegas.....

#1 -- Everyone knows (or thought they knew) that Ben Siegel's "Flamingo Hotel and Casino" was the first hotel / casino resort built in Vegas, in 1946. Uhh, nope...Not true. Actually, the very first hotel / casino in the city was built some five years earlier -- The El Rancho Vegas, a strip property, was built in 1941. Goofy factoid: This hotel burned to the ground 19 years later, in 1960. Anyone that knew Siegel's whereabouts on that particular night is encouraged to call the LVPD cold-case division.

Flamingo Hotel, 1946. VERY cool.

#2 -- When you officially leave California, and take the 15 freeway across the border into Nevada, there was a time that you used to refer to that area as "State Line, Nevada." However, since 1996, that border area's name was officially changed to "Primm, Nevada," in honor of the area's founder, Ernest Primm.

Ernest Primm.

#3 -- There are some people that think that the MGM Grand Hotel at the corner of North Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue is NOT the largest hotel in the world...They're wrong. It's still the boss of the planet, boasting a total of 5,005 rooms. Word is they go thru about a million rolls of toilet paper a year there. My wife must stay there when she's in town. That woman can go thru GOBS of the stuff, believe me.

#4 -- Mormon settlers have always been given credit for discovering that vast plot of land know as Glitter Gulch, but actually, the Mormons, while receiving proper credit for setting up the first settlement in the city in 1855, were NOT the original group to discover Las Vegas: Spanish explorers actually discovered Las Vegas some 26 years earlier, in 1829. Guess they didn't want to stick around and wait for Siegel's hotel to open. Can't blame 'em.

#5 -- It seems that a big part of Las Vegas' "history" is to seemingly erase it's past history: every year or so, decisions are made to demolish one of the older hotels that made the city famous, in order to build something new, something"bigger and better." With that in mind, you'd best fasten our seat belt -- There are current discussions with one of the major hotel chains in the city (MGM Resorts) to actually knock down a hotel that is STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. I kid you not. It's called the Harmon....Seems the darned thing might have a few defects in it's initial foundation construction. Translation: It probably wouldn't still be there if an earthquake hit the city.

Hey, at least the ticker works. DOES look like It's leaning, though.

Uhh, yeah, that's gonna be a problem. I'm not staying in a new hotel that has signs on the wall requesting that the patrons not sneeze hard. Here's the link to this amazing story. Hey, at least MGM can save money on the demolition of the thing. Sounds like a loud party might be all that's needed to raze that thing. Someone's losing their job over THIS one. I can't believe someone forgot the rebar....

Well, that's all for now, my friends. Any possible last-minute casino events that our clients might be planning over the Labor Day weekend should book now with ol' Aces Casino -- Our orange county casino party crew loves going out of town during this holiday, but they'll be glad to stick around, should the need arise. Should anyone need info about or is interested in booking their next casino party, give Aces Casino a call today. Maybe, by then, I'll find my $16 pen.

(Ed. Note: I doubt it. I brought it home with me last week. You're right, it IS nice.)

Aces Fantasy Football Blog #1: Top 5 Pre-Season Situations That Are Driving Team Owners CRAZY

2011-08-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year that the offices of Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party giant, just LOVES to see coming.....(That is, besides the beginning of another school year that'll get the kids out of our house for a while, so we can concentrate)....

It's Fantasy Football Draft time again!

That's right, friends. Fantasy Football has GRIPPED the Aces Casino team once again - Time for the fur to fly at the annual Dunn-Edwards Fantasy Football League draft, with the date coming up some nine days from now. We always wait until after the 3rd NFL pre-season game to draft, so we can all take a good look at who's finally signed, in camp, just got hurt, or whatever. Those of you that do the fantasy-thing know what we're talking about, and those who don't, well, I guess you stopped reading already. Too bad - We might just re-post our link to "Chumlee On Toast." When it comes to our kooky and eccentric staff here at the Orange county casino night kings, you just never know. (Ed. Note: He's serious. Someone should be filming OUR staff Christmas party.)

So, since we still have nine days to kill before we all get together and put together our teams for the 2011 DFFL season, we thought it was just the right time to discuss some of the more pertinent pre-season NFL topics that are floating around in the various fantasy football blog sites, topics revolving around certain players and teams. So, without further hesitation, here are the Aces Casino "pre-season top 5 NFL Fantasy Football hot topics," courtesy of your favorite orange county casino party company-turned-fantasy football info station...

#1 -- Chris Johnson's new contract negotiations

Boy, I bet things got pretty crazy over at the Titans' offices when they got word that "CJ2K" was asking for somewhere around $13M PER SEASON.....Then, when the numbers in regards to the Larry Fitzgerald contract with the Arizona Cardinals were released (8 Years / $120M, $50M guaranteed) ol' "CJ2K" has his agent contact Tennessee, and tell them they were looking for MORE than $13M / season.

Holy smokes....$13M per season...That's like getting TWO "Six Million Dollar Men" like Steve Austin, and still having $$$$ left over to afford parking at the 2012 Super bowl. The Aces Fantasy Slant on this -- Chris Johnson will be signed right around the end of the 4th week of preseason games, and will be trotted out on the field on opening day, 2011. Someone tell Ron Bolton that It's OK to breathe, now... (Grin) I wouldn't let this guy drop down in the first round TOO far, and give some other team a bargain.

CJ2K arrives at Titan HQ to discuss contract squabble.

#2 -- Peyton Manning's "Pain in the Neck"

Shows how much I read in the off-season -- I didn't even know that Eli's older brother had HAD some sort of neck surgery. Must've been a tough operation.... That guy's neck is like two feet long. Peyton came out and said he might be ready for the start of the regular season, he's just waiting for the nerves to regenerate. Aces Fantasy Slant -- I agree with Manning's former head coach, Tony Dungy - Unless Peyton's dead, he'll be out there on opening day. Extra info nugget -- This has only happened to Peyton Manning one other time in his career (missing most, if not all of the pre-season). When it DID happen, Manning was VERY ordinary for the first month of the season, but became his old self after week 5 or 6. Don't downgrade him too far.

#3 -- #1 Draft Pick -- Foster, Peterson, CJ2K, or Charles?

Here, we'd rank 'em Foster #1, AP #2, Jamaal #3, and maybe even Ray Rice ahead of Chris Johnson, A.K.A. the "13 Million Dollar Man." You really can't lose here, my friends. The better question MIGHT be 'which QB - Rodgers (yes), Brees (yeah, OK) or Rivers (love him, too). Gotta love the first round of the draft....

#4 -- Gates or Clark?

OK, this one's a toughie. I love me some Antonio Gates, but his Plantar scares me. Dallas Clark's a stud, and fully recovered from his devastating wrist injury, but his QB might be missing at the startt of the season. We'll put Gates 1a, and Clark at 1b, for now. IMHO, you can't go wrong with either one. Watch out for how soon one or both of these guys might be drafted, but rest assured that there are some pretty good TE's all the way to the top SIX in this group, and probably better than six.... (Sleeper? Jimmy Graham.)

Manning LOVES this guy, and so do I.

#5 -- Round 2 RB's ... Bradshaw, Blount, Moreno, Hillis, or DeAngelo?

In order.....1 - Bradshaw. Quick as a cat, and we're not scared of the Jacobs thing. 2 - Blount. Give yourself one fantasy point if you can name LeGarrette's backup. 3 - Hillis. Ditto for Peyton, he's the man, and we're not scared of a slow-down at the end of 2011. 4 - DeAngelo. Should be higher, but Johnathan Stewart's a problem. 5 - Moreno. This hurts to put him at five, but with Willis "the Vulture" McGahee stealing goal-line carries, I just gotta do it.

That's all from the orange county casino party leaders for this very late Tuesday blog, my friends. Friday, we'll be looking at another one of our Aces Casino "College of Casino Gaming Knowledge" quizzes. Have a good week, stay cool, and we'll see you in two days!

Oh, and for those of you who hung in and finished our fake football ramblings, here you go, as promised.

Chum on Toast, bay-bee.

Aces Casino Dept. Of Nonsense: Top 5 Useless Pieces of Las Vegas Trivia to Stimulate The Mind

2011-08-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

When you're a member of the Aces Casino Entertainment team, A.K.A. the top Orange County casino party company in Southern California, you find that you're never at a loss when it comes to mindless trivia. I think that's why this Aces Casino Blog was created in the first place; it was management's way of channeling the world's largest supplier of goofy Las Vegas history and casino gaming information. Trust me when I say that there's goofy trivia hiding in every nook and cranny of these offices.

You have to be careful around here when you go around asking the Aces team about some of their favorite Las Vegas trivia. I think we started this quest some two weeks ago, and the submissions for this edition of the Aces Casino Blog are STILL coming in. We probably should change the company motto from "Top Orange County casino night party company in SoCal" to "This Beats Working." (Ed. Note: Actually, that IS the company motto. It was a slogan given to us during an event in Anaheim by one of our long-time clients, who told us that "It's never working if you're doing what you love, and are good at doing it." So true.)

Anyway, you want to talk about a tough job -- We had to pare the list of about 56 suggestions from our team down to five. So, without further adieu (Now, I KNOW that's not a word), here are the top 5 pieces of useless yet interesting pieces of Las Vegas trivia, brought to you by Aces Casino, southern California's top orange county casino night party company....

#5 -- In 18th-Century British gaming parlors that featured an earlier version of the game of Craps, there was always one employee hired to do just one specific job -- If the gaming establishment was raided, his job was to swallow the dice, therefore hiding the evidence. Now I know why the game's called 'Craps.' I've been in games where it seemed that I had been waiting for a 'hard eight' for a long time, but that's ridiculous.

#4 -- You know about those lights on the top of those old slot machine that signal when a player needs to call an attendant? That light on top is called a "candle," and that's not it's only function. It also alerts players as to how much the minimum bet is at that particular machine. The color 'red' means 5-cent minimums, 'yellow' signifies quarters, and 'blue' signifies a dollar minimum coin slot.

#3 -- (My Favorite) -- The U. S. Postal Service decided, in a moment of patriotism, that a Statue Of Liberty "forever" stamp should be commissioned. The USPS asked for photo submissions to decide which image would be used for the special stamp, and the winning entry, submitted by a man named Raimund Linke, was declared the winner. The stamp went to press to be printed and circulated late last year, to the tune of about 3 billion units. His submission appears below...

Lady Liberty.

Only one problem with the photo, however -- It ain't the Statue Of Liberty. It's a picture of "Lady Liberty," the statue that appears out in front of the New York, New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Here's the link to the story that appeared in the L. A. Times back on "tax day," April 15th. Oops. Heck, if I knew the USPS was using Faux-pics of her, I'd have submitted my wife's Halloween pic of her, dressed as the Ellis Island icon. And, no, I won't show THAT pic here. I have to live with her, my friends.

#2 -- In Nevada, you can be hanged for shooting a neighbor's dog, when the dog is in his own yard. Seriously. Here's a link to some of the craziest laws in America, courtesy of one of our fellow blogspot bloggers. Good thing Michael Vick hung up his "hobby." Reminder: If there's a way for this Los Angeles casino party company to insert a fantasy football link, they'll do it.

Looks like laws regarding dogs are different in Vegas.

And the #1 piece of Las Vegas trivia from Aces Casino?? Did you know that there are 3 Las Vegas casino party companies that do business in the city of Las Vegas? I remember long ago, one of our southern California clients hired us to do a convention for them in Las Vegas.. We thought it was so incredibly strange to take our team out to where the games were so plentiful, but we soon found out why they did it. Simply for the same reason that our many clients hire us for their special events in California- They want the FUN of Las Vegas, without the chance of losing a lot of REAL money.

Sounds good to us.

Hey, before we depart, just a note: When we return on Tuesday, we'll be about one week away from our annual Fantasy Football draft. That means it's time to dust off our computer, and talk some serious fantasy football. (Ed. Note: Which means more time for the author to brag about his titles. Oh, JOY...)

Also, Tomorrow night (Aug. 20), The Buena Park High School Football boosters, "The Coyote Club," are throwing their very first casino night party over at the Buena Park Women's Club building, at 6711 Beach Blvd. in BP. Dinner at 7pm, casino-style games at 8pm. I'll be there, along with a lot of the crazies from the Aces Casino staff. Come on down and join coach Anthony White, Coyote Club Prez Tom Chavez and V.P. Glen Stephens and a lot of great staff members and guests and help support a great cause. Hope to see you there!

Aces Casino Dept: Of Nonsense: 5 Things You (Hopefully) Didn't Know About "Pawn Stars"

2011-08-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

My friends, the toothpaste is out of the tube.

"What does THAT mean," you ask? Simply this: The brass here at Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party superstars of all things "virtual casino," have unwittingly opened up Pandora's Box, and given this goofy reporter "carte blance" is creating blog entries under the heading, "Department Of Nonsense."

Tough break, Aces Casino brass. Can't get THAT toothpaste back in the casino party tube. If I don't have the greatest job in the world, I'd like to meet the people that do. (Ed. Note: Great, MORE mail for me to sort through.)

So, since we're "up against the clock" in the ol' blog-posting biz, we thought it best to turn to our expertise in everything unusual, goofy and non-sensical. Familiar territory, to be sure.

We mentioned in a prior post that our Aces Casino entourage was planning on visiting the infamous stars of the History Channel's hit TV show, "Pawn Stars" in late July, something that we did actually do some 15 days ago. Now, anyone that has seen the show KNOWS that the Pawn Stars (Rick Harrison, the Old Man, Hoss and especially Chumlee) can usually be counted on to come up with something fairly unusual to chat about or showcase...

Hallowed Ground.

So, without further fanfare, here are "5 things that you (hopefully) didn't know about "Pawn Stars," brought to you by the kings of non-sense, the gang at Aces Casino, the Orange County casino night party entertainment team....

#1 -- If you're planning on actually going over to Las Vegas to see the Pawn Stars at their pawn shop location shown on their television show, you'll be in for a slight shock: It's a total tourist trap. The Gold and Silver Pawn, located at 713 N. Las Vegas Boulevard, is still a working pawn shop, but it's NOTHING like it looks on TV. Most all day, there's a fairly long line that guests must stand in, outside, a sort of "waiting area." Best time to come down and try to beat the lines? Dinner time, between 5pm-to-7pm.

#2 -- We came down on Saturday, and found out (to no one's surprise) that none of the four Pawn Stars were there. The building WAS open (it's 24 hours), but was fully manned by some of the employees that you don't see on the show. Not even the regular bouncer was there the day we came down. Biggest non-surprise concerning the staff that WAS there? The employees are NOT interested in talking about the show, or any of the four stars. One can imagine all the questions that they must field each and every day. I understand. Didn't wanna talk to them, anyway.

#3 -- The interior looks a little different in person than it does on TV. On the show, there looks to be one area that Rick and the Old Man sit at quite a bit, and surprisingly, that area is not only blocked off, but no pictures of any kind are allowed to be shot in that area. No big loss.... Important sighting in the shop: If you're looking for souvenirs to purchase to commemorate your visit to the Pawn Stars location, you will NOT be disappointed. They'll sell you EVERYTHING here, courtesy of the Old Man, no doubt. T-Shirts, hats, bracelets, posters, and even their own Pawn Stars bottled water. I kid you not. The ol' man must be SMILING, wherever he is, right this second.

Souvenirs, anyone? (No, I didn't BUY anything!)

#4 -- How popular is the Gold and Silver Pawn as one of the latest tourist attractions in Glitter Gulch? Here's how popular -- The building has a Taxi Stand, manned with quite a few taxis outside. I don't know why this surprised me, but it did. Ahh, the fame of television. Interesting note: While we were there, a taxi was either arriving or departing from the Pawn Stars location every three or four minutes. I kid you not. On Saturday night. At 7pm.

#5 -- From the "Division of Alpha Males:" The interior is incredibly filthy. Remember the chair that Rick Harrison bought from the gentleman that brought in Senator Pat McCarren's official Senate seat? Two things....1) There's a price tag on the chair, for $60,000. SIXTY GRAND. 2) The chair, this piece of furniture that's selling for a cool sixty grand, is dustier than the Ark of the Covenant in the movie, "Raiders Of The Lost Ark." As a matter of fact, EVERYTHING'S dusty in there. One of our team members brought up the fact that everything has a price tag on it, including rare antiquities. Sticky, goofy-looking price tags. Upoin noticing this, she wondered out loud, "Wouldn't those sticky tags be tough to get off, and lower the values of the items?" Good question, Teresa.....

Well, folks, there you have it. Five quick, unflattering blurbs (hey, we still loved seeing all of it) about our official visit to the Pawn Stars. But, for those of you that are loyal blog followers of the Aces Casino Blog, and love to read this Orange County casino party company's goofy, irreverent blog twice a week, we have a special treat for you - A picture of our favorite item seen during our visit to the Pawn Stars location: In one of their many jewelry cases, we spotted it --

"Chumlee on toast."

First, the Runaway Bride, and now, THIS.

There it is, folks, something that you won't see ANYWHERE else. That's right, the Los Angeles casino party kingpin has done it again, bringing our readers the best in nonsense. Remember, you saw it here, first. Thanks for you time, we'll see you again on Friday with another scintillating blog entry. Have a good week!

Aces Casino Dept. Of Nonsense: Here's Five Things That You (Hopefully) Didn't Know About Dice

2011-08-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here at Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party leaders, we have always gone the extra mile to give our many readers a truly unique look at the casino games, people, and situations that we love. We do it not because our company pays for mileage (don't I wish), but because you, the paying customer, demand it. We wouldn't have it any other way. We've ASKED, but, well, you know the deal. Bottom line: we just LOVE games. Games of ALL kinds and varieties. It doesn't matter to us how nutty the game is. The nuttier, the better, I always say. (Ed. Note: One of his finer sayings, which isn't saying much.)

And, by FAR, one of the nuttiest games in the casino has to be the game of Craps. The noise, the casino-like sound of the chips in play, the stickman and his banter, the superstitions and rituals, the colorful slang, and, often, equally colorful swear words. You're just not a true Craps player if you haven't uttered one of the seven truly evil curse words. Yeah, I admit it. I'm a member of that clan, also.

At the center of any craps game are the most important pieces of the game - the dice. (That is, unless you're stuck at one of those California Indian casinos playing "Card Craps." We'll save THAT for another blog.) So, in true Aces Casino style, as only this Orange County casino night party kingpin (and a few others too numerous to mention) can provide, here are five useless things you probably didn’t know about those dice in your hand, in no particular order...

1. The pattern of the number five on standard casino dice (four spots in a square shape, with one spot in the middle) is called (are you ready?) a “quincunx.” Trust us, we proofread the supposed correct spelling 1,892 times. Next time you want to bet a "hard ten" at the Craps table, throw a nickel to the stick, and ask him to bet the "Double Quincunx." I dare ya. If he/she knows what you're talking about, I'm officially under-educated.

One problem - Finding the plural of "Quincunx." Don't ask.

2. Casino dice are three-quarters of an inch on each side and are perfect cubes. Unless I'M throwing them, you understand. Then, they turn from perfect cubes into the "quincunxes of death." (Gee, I hope that's the correct pluralization. If not, sue me.) Take my advice -- When I'M shootin', bet the "Don't." You know the old adage: Those that Can, Do, and those that CAN'T work for our Orange County casino party company.

3. Dice haven’t always gotten the love and respect they deserve. In fact, scholars uncovered a document from the 1500s titled, “A Manifest Detection of the Most Vile and Detestable Use of Dice Play.” Gee, I wish you'd quit beating around the bush and tell us what you REALLY think about those dice, Mr. Walker. I got an Aces Casino dollar that says HE'S uttered a few of those seven swear words at some 1500's-style Craps table.

4. Craps Engineering 101: The spots on those famous dice are drilled exactly 17/1,000th of an inch deep, then filled with paint that weighs exactly as much as the material removed from the spots. It's official: The "Boxman" has too much time on his hands. I'll probably get mail for this, but if the dice are off by another 1,000th of an inch here or there, is there REALLY an available betting bias to be exploited? (Ed. Note: I'm glad it's not MY e-mailbox. Good luck, but get that Tuesday blog ready, just in case your e-box is loaded with attacks from qualified mathematicians.)

5. Only three sides of casino dice are visible to you at any one time. No problem there. I've seen those other three sides at more than 2,000 Los Angeles casino party set-ups over the years, and they're just as ugly as the first three sides. Bonus useless trivia: They call it "the dark side of the moon" because the Moon NEVER has the rays of the sun illuminate it. Who says this Orange County casino night party company doesn't go the extra mile? We minored in the Solar System in college (at least, that's what the guy that I paid to attend my classes for 2 months tells me).

So much for the utter nonsense about dice. Hope you liked it.... It was suggested by one of our crack Aces Casino staff members. We'll be back on Tuesday with another "scintillating" blog that will chronicle our recent visit to the "set" of the "Pawn Stars." Have a good weekend, and we'll see ya later!

Aces Casino Blog "What's New in Vegas" Volume 1: IGT Debuts "Little Shop Of Horrors" Slot Machine

2011-08-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

To steal a line from the movie, "Poltergeist"......

"They're BA-AAACK."

That's right, my friends: The Aces Casino Blog team is finally back from their 13-day sabbatical in Idaho, and, if you ask the management of the Orange County casino party leaders, the return is not a moment too soon.   And, before we go any further, we'd like to give a shout-out of our heartfelt thanks to all of you out there that sent kind words and e-mails about how much you enjoy reading our irreverent, dopey blog each and every week while we were all on vacation.

You guys and gals are really fantastic, and we PROMISE you that your perseverance that got you through all of our blog re-runs in the last 14 days will be paid back "in spades" when we chronicle all of our wacky happenings while on the road to Idaho. You won't believe it, trust me. You KNOW that things happen when we're dragged out of our casino party comfort zone, and believe me, things happened. The BAD news?   All of that craziness will be covered in subsequent editions of the Aces Casino Blog, later.

Now, The GOOD news -- When you drive to Idaho, you just HAVE to drive through Las Vegas, don't you?    Uhhh, yep... And, if you're going to drag me to Mackay, Idaho for two weeks for some goofy fishing trip disguised as a family reunion, you KNOW that THIS orange county casino night guy is just going to HAVE to spend a little time in "Glitter Gulch" before I eventually move on to potato-land.

It's a given. Hey, I can write some of this off, can't I? I'm doing research for Aces Casino, the Los Angeles casino party company leaders. Some bloggers are takers. Not ME....I'm a giver. I'm stopping in Las Vegas to work, friends. Believe me. (Grin.) (Ed. Note: And, if you believe that, he has some desert property in Arizona to sell you.)

So, after dropping off the family at their hotel at the Orleans (they went to the movies, and didn't want me to go with. They say I add my own dialogue to the movie out loud, for all to hear. Guilty as charged.), I'm off to find some of the latest toys and games in Las Vegas. I sit down at one of the bars inside the hotel (the Alligator Bar, I believe), and quickly strike up a chat with a gentleman sitting next to me.

During this discussion, I discover he's a "local" (someone who lives in Vegas), so I ask him if he knows of any new additions to the casino gaming scene, and he informs me that there's a new slot machine over at Sam's Town called "Little Shop Of Horrors," a machine whose theme is directly based on the movie and/play of the same name. He tells me it's really something, so, upon hearing this, I down the rest of my drink, and head out to Sam's Town to see this new 3-D slot...

Wow.

If THIS is the future of casino slots, the future is VERY bright, indeed. Now, remember, this Orange County casino party guy is "stuck in the 70's." I have always liked the true three-or-four-reel traditional slots, the mechanical marvels of the 20th Century. But, for an electronic display-type of machine, this thig is really something.

IGT’s Little Shop of Horrors slot machine features three-dimensional, man-eating Venus flytraps that grow from the reels’ edges and base. The reel set is hexagonal, with five symbols in the middle reel, four on the second and fourth reels, and three on the outer reels. It is also has a "Tumbling Reels" feature, which adds to winning combinations as the winning symbols disappear and new reel spots tumble into place.

'Feed Me!"

The symbols are based on the play’s original characters; Seymour (the nerdy young florist shop assistant - Remember Rick Moranis in that movie role?) rolls his eyes and scratches his head; Audrey (a sweet, quiet, ditsy and insecure co-worker) winks and throws kisses; Orin (Audrey’s abusive and sadistic dentist boyfriend) smirks and waves his dental equipment around and Mr. Mushnik (the penny-pinching owner of the Flower Shop) throws money. I wish the owner of Aces Casino would throw money at us, but I digress. (Ed. Note: Didn't take long for the first digression to appear in the blog, did it?)

The Tumbling Reels game play occurs whenever the plant symbol appears on the center reel in a winning combination. All symbols that are in a winning combination disappear and new ones fall into place. The plant then tumbles to the bottom of the center reel and continues to grow larger each time it is part of a winning combination.

The plants say, "Feed me," accompanied by loud-crunching. If it gets to be full size (after four tumbles), you get the "Pick a Bud" bonus feature. During this bonus seven or eight "buds" appear and you choose one. The prizes can be more credits, a multiplier of the win, or a free games feature. In the free-spin round, extra symbols turn wild, and the Venus plants crunch away. Each time the plant grows to full size, the player gets more free games and additional symbols turn wild.

The 3-D graphics and sounds are great. This particular machine was of the 25c variety, with a five-coin maximum play. I got into the "Bonus" play quite a few times, and after playing for about 20 minutes, I ended up a winner of some $38, all of which was earned during a $45 jackpot round that occurred earlier in the session. Yeah, I never know when to quit, but once you learn how this game operates and displays the five reels, It's a heckuva lot of fun.

I saw quite a few machines on the casino floor that were also a blast to play (we'll touch on them in later blog editions), but for my money, "Little Shop Of Horrors" was a big hit and a HUGE surprise. Hey, even this Orange County casino night blogger that rarely approves of new gaming technology in the industry has to tip his ol' hat. For IGT's "Little Shop of Horrors" slot machine series, we give four stars out of five. (I'd give it five, but I didn't win the big jackpot during the testing. Hey, sue me. I'm shallow.)

That's all for now, blog-buddies. We'll be back on Friday with (hopefully) our first report of just how nutty a two-week car drive to Idaho can get. We must have at LEAST seven stories of our exploits on the road and the many colorful people we met and the situations we encountered along the way, and I'll give you a hint about one of them -- When we stayed in Idaho, we didn't stay in hotel rooms. We stayed in a TENT. IN IDAHO. IN THE RAIN. EVERY NIGHT. Oh, GEE, you KNOW how much I LOVE tents. (Bleh.)

Hilarity ensued, believe me. You'll get all the unedited poop on that trip, as well as other topics in later blog entries, like the trip our Orange County casino night party team took to Calabasas to see the Kardashians in their natural habitat some 3 months ago, a story we haven't shared yet. We've also got the upcoming 2011 Fantasy Football season to yak about, including our takes on our league's draft coming up in three weeks. Believe me, we've got a lot of meaningless info to report. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

Someone like me.

I love working for a company whose motto is, "This Beats Working."

It sure does, my friends. It sure does.

Aces Casino Blog Greatest Hits: Behind The Scenes of a (Not-So) Typical Casino Party Company

2011-08-05T01:36:00.000-07:00

(Ed. Note: The team at Aces Casino will be away from the Aces offices until the 9th of August, while necessary construction and renovation work is done at the main facility in Buena Park. We will return on Tuesday, August 9th, with new blog posts and re-charged management and staff. In the meantime, please enjoy one of our "Greatest Hits" blog posts, this one dealing with our favorite subject -- Las Vegas Night casino parties.)

It seems that, even though Aces Casino is considered one of the top orange county casino party companies in the southern California area, we still get a lot of questions that start with, "gee, how do you DO these events?" Well, after thinking about it for a while, we figured that WAS a good question. Let's take a look behind the curtain at three main Aces principles of prepping for an event, and see just how our casino events can move from the drawing board to reality....

Step One - Listen to the client

Invariably, Aces Casino is all about SERVICE. This top orange county casino night leader works tirelessly at giving each and every one of their clients the utmost in entertainment services. Most of the Aces Casino clients are long-time members of the team, and we help them put on their annual fund raiser, private party or corporate event. Most times, they know what they want or need to make their special event sing, but sometimes, it's the job of the corporate event planners here at Aces Casino to assist in all of the little details, additions to their particular event that give it that "special touch." It's that special touch that makes all the difference, year in and year out.

Step Two - Know the client's venue

This is where our design team comes in. Aces Casino has always spared no expense at painting the "big picture" for their client. If you're going to do a fantastic job at an event site, we feel you have to KNOW that event site, from top to bottom. After being brought on board, Aces Casino and their design team meet with not only the client, but the catering and special events teams at the proposed venue that will be used for the event. No one knows their own venue quite like the management and staff that are consistently around it. Paying attention to every detail is what makes Aces the top orange county casino night king. It's our constant attention to detail that sets us apart. Ask any of our many clients over the last 17 years.

Another Aces employee proving that NO stone is left unturned.

Step Three - Bring in the "pros"

Aces Casino prides itself on their top-notch professional staff, from the on-site casino dealers to their experienced event planners and designers. From the casino gaming reps to the casino-quality game tables and equipment, Aces Casino puts the perfect touch on EVERY orange county casino party. Aces takes pride in the fact that, because of all the pre-event itinerary work they do, EVERY Aces Casino client can fully picture each and every event in their mind, and watch as their event unfolds in front of them, just as planned in their itinerary meetings. It's just another way of Aces Casino proving to all of southern California that they truly ARE the top orange county casino night party company in the industry!

Aces Blog Greatest Hits: Our Very Own Version of the "Sin City Training Camp" For The VERY Frugal

2011-08-02T01:27:00.000-07:00

(Ed. Note: The team at Aces Casino will be away from the Aces offices for one more week while necessary construction and renovation work is done at the main facility in Buena Park. We will return on Tuesday, August 9th, with new blog posts and re-charged management and staff. In the meantime, please enjoy one of our "Greatest Hits" blog posts, this one dealing with our favorite subject -- Las Vegas Night casino parties.)

Fasten your seat belts, my friends. The following announcement will come as no surprise to you; "Las Vegas Night casino parties are a LOT of FUN!" (See, I told you. Totally unbiased opinion from the orange county casino party leader.) Yes, no doubt, whether it's an in-home private affair of just a few tables, or a full-blown casino events of 20 tables or more at your next fund raiser or holiday gathering, Las Vegas night casino parties are a BLAST!

But, if you sit down and think about it, there's something ELSE that these casino parties can do. Not only do these Vegas-night events ENTERTAIN the masses, but they ALSO can do something that most guests find quite valuable; they can TEACH the various games.

I can't even begin to guess how many times I've heard the following statement, when it comes to Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Texas Hold-'Em Poker, and the like, when asked at the event whether they'd like to play...."I'd love to play, but I don't know the first thing about the game. I've never learned how."

Friends, THIS is your lucky day.

We're not the orange county casino night party leader for nothing, you guys. Our Aces Casino team loves to play the games, too. But it's even MORE fun to TEACH our guests how to play all these different casino games. Think about it - As the gaming industry moves into the 21st century, there are more places to PLAY the casino games offered than ever before. And, with the insatiable appetite that the consumer has for the "new and different" in all walks of life, the casinos are more than happy to keep up with this "appetite" by offering "new and different" casino games for all of us to play.

Sounds great. One problem, though. For most of us that AREN'T independently wealthy, we're just not going to walk into our favorite Las Vegas casino, sit down at the nearest gaming table of a game we've never played, and start betting REAL chips at the table, hoping to learn the game as we play it.

Uhhhhh, NO. That's not going to work for us. Think back to the time that you first sat down at a table in Vegas, under these circumstances. How'd that work out for you? Yeah, I THOUGHT so. Awful, wasn't it? Nothing like putting up your own money at a table, making mistake after mistake, losing said money at the table, and STILL not fully learning the game because the game moved too fast for you to pick up the necessary nuances.

Now, enter the hero of our story -- The Las Vegas night casino party company.

At Aces Casino, our team of orange county casino party experts learned something REALLY fast - Even if the casino chips we use at the events are fake, the PLAYERS play the games at the tables as if the games were REAL. We LOVE this, because we love it when the players are into the games. It's so much easier to TEACH the games, if the players are into the "action." It's our favorite thing to do at the event.

At a typical casino party, you'll see what we call "the big three;" Craps, Blackjack and Roulette, three casino games that appear at almost EVERY event. And, at this typical event, it seems that Craps is the game that most players "fear." Oh yes, they've SEEN Craps at the casino, heard all the yelling and celebrations at the table, but when the prospective player goes up and LOOKS at the Craps table layout, they feel like they're looking at the control panel for the Space Shuttle.

We can fix that.

Yes, we may be just a bit biased, but the next time you and your friends and family are thinking about having a party, especially if some or all of the guests are also planning a trip to Las Vegas in the very near future, a Vegas-night party is the perfect ticket. Bring a pro Las Vegas casino party company into your home, ask them to bring the games that you want to play AND learn, and have fun.

And, remember -- The best casino party company teams have many more games than just Blackjack, Craps and Roulette. They also have games like Texas Hold-'Em Poker, Let It Ride, 3-Card Poker, Pai-Gow Poker and Caribbean Stud Poker. And, not only THAT, but the best casino party companies can also offer you the brand NEW games that are just now appearing in casinos and on cruise ships around the world -- Games like 3 Way-Action and Four-Card Poker. Add this to the fact that new casino games seem to be coming out all the time (like a new game at the MGM called "One Up"), and it seems that the choice of games to play is endless.

Bottom line: There is a lot of fun to be had at your next Las Vegas night casino event. A lot of fun, and just maybe, a lot of WISDOM to be had as well. And what better way to actually LEARN all of your new and favorite games than by playing these games with fake chips? Hey, sounds good to us. Remember - The chips, cards and dice don't know that the games aren't real! Make sure to drop us a line at the Aces Casino link provided with questions about YOUR favorite games (especially any new games you may have seen lately) and we'll have our staff tear your game apart, and check out how it works. Take care, and have a good weekend!

Aces Blog Greatest Hits: Our Chance Meeting with Joan Rivers, AKA "When Celebrity Animals Attack"

2011-07-29T01:20:00.000-07:00

(Ed. Note: The team at Aces Casino will be away from the Aces offices for 11 more days while necessary construction and renovation work is done at the main facility in Buena Park. We will return on Tuesday, August 9th, with new blog posts and re-charged management and staff. In the meantime, please enjoy one of our "Greatest Hits" blog posts, this one dealing with what turned out to be another very interesting celebrity encounter or three.)

Recently, there was a manager's meeting held here at the offices of Aces Casino, the top orange county casino party rental giant. The reason for this "summit meeting" of our top six department heads was pretty simple; the team was there to come up with some suitable, yet witty content for the next few blog entries to post right here in our infamous Aces Casino blog. (You didn't think I thought all of this stuff up, did you? -- Grin) Yeah, that's right; It's "Casino Night Writer's Block." It happens....

What we found out was the answer to the riddle, "How many casino night managers does it take to come up with even ONE suitable topic?" Well, the answer appears to be six. They ALL came up with the SAME IDEA. So much for great minds think alike.

But...Wait, just a minute. First, they DID have a point. "Aces, you already blogged about our favorite celebrity casino event of all time!" (this event is the one they all thought of first.) But, just like the best think-tankers of these United States, they all thought of their second-favorite celebrity-laced casino night endeavor, and suggested that we use THAT one.

OK. I'm easy. It's not one of MY favorites (for reasons that you'll understand later), but yours truly only has one vote. Democracy wins out again, friends.

It's an event that was instantly dubbed, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." And, without question, it was ALL of the above, in spades, as you'll soon see.

The event was a celebrity fund raiser held at a studio warehouse in Culver City about 15 years ago, and as Jack Webb would have so eloquently put it, "What you about to read is true. The charities' names have been changed to protect the innocent." The CHARITIES, yes. The CELEBRITIES? Uh-uhh. Nope. We're going with THEIR names. We'd make a GREAT tell-all book author.

The day of the event, the entire Aces team was totally psyched; Because of the nature of the event, and all of the celebs that would be in attendance, it wasn't hard for the top orange county casino party juggernaut to fill the 30-some-odd dealers needed to properly staff this casino party.

All was well... The equipment was set up in perfect position for the casino floor, the dealer team was early as always, to receive their assignments for the evening, the casino floor staff (including me) was ready to go. Then, right before the event, the hostess for the evening came to talk to us about what she wanted most from us, to assist her in the event.

It was none other than Joan Rivers.

Ouch. Now, I hadn't ever met Ms. Rivers before, but obviously, today was going to be my unlucky day. As she shuffled toward us, I remember not actually recognizing her (In hindsight, I would estimate that she was, at that point, somewhere between face lifts 5-and-8), but, yep, although she was slightly contorted, there was no mistaking that voice.

I introduced myself, and her immediate response was "Nice to meet you, Stan." (Not my name.) And, even though I corrected her a number of times during this first get-together, it never took. I was "Stan" all night. Hey, what the heck, i've been called worse. I used to referee hockey games in Westminster, California. I WISHED that THOSE guys would call me Stan.

Anyway, she filled me in on what little she knew about the event, and went on her merry way. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the last I would see of Joan Rivers on this fateful evening. Oh, NOOOO, not by a long shot.

Reason? Well, Joan thought that it would be a hoot to follow me around and constantly quiz me about what I was doing during our Las Vegas night casino event, and never missing a trick when it came to interrupting my work with the dealers and clients, and harassing both me AND the clients with snide "comedic" innuendos that were being broadcast throughout the casino floor via her wireless microphone.

That face of hers still haunts me to this day. (I'm told this is a recurring nightmare for many people that watch her on television. Ask Annie Duke.) That was a long night. She repeatedly asked me questions like, "what do you think of my butt, Stan?" I finally answered her by telling her that I had seen more butt on a cigarette, a quip she didn't take to at all. She turned her "let's harass Stan" meter up to "10" at that point. Yikes...

Joan Rivers -- Definitely the "BAD."

In fairness, we HAVE to move right to the good. Steven Spielberg. Talk about a nice guy. Irically, he was playing at a Blackjack table with a dealer that has been notorious for being, shall we say, "merciless" when it comes to beating up our fake casino game players. Spielberg was unable to dodge this dealers' wrath as well, declaring at one point that, "If I lose one more hand, i'll be unable to afford to make my next picture.

Thank goodness the casino chips ARE fake, because the director of such blockbuster hits as "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park" lost an incredible 17 hands in a row. Stick to blockbusters, Steven... (Grin)

Well, I guess that only leaves us with our third of three parts. We've had the "good," we've talked about the "bad." Now, it's time for the "ugly." and BOY, was IT ugly. (Laugh) Take it from an orange county casino night party employee that looks in the mirror on a daily basis: I KNOW UGLY.

Same party, and almost immediately after having a few laughs with Mr. Spielberg, we get a call over our headset communications system... "Ummm, Aces, we need a little help on table #2."

OK, no problem. I know Table 2. It's right near the warehouse entrance, right next to ED-209, the robot from "Robocop." Can't miss it. I also note to myself that it has one of our all-time favorite blackjack dealers at that table, one of the nicest guys in the world. So, without hesitation, it's time to go over to T-#2, and talk to our dealer.

When I get there, the dealer waves me over, and quietly whispers to me something I thought i'd never hear from this dealer..... "If you don't get this guy away from me right now, i'm going to have to kill him."

I look over at the player he's pointing at, and it's ROBERT WAGNER.

Now, i've always LOVED Robert Wagner, all the shows he's done (Hart to Hart, Switch), and to top it all off, the dealer doesn't recognize or know who Wagner is. (Darned young dealers. Makes me feel old.) Besides, this is the SAME Robert Wagner that was oh-so-hospitable at the beginning of the event.

Funny what 9 glasses of wine will do to ya.

Well, he's totally out of control: boisterous, argumentative, consistently slurring his words, swearing at the dealer, accusing him of cheating. (Yeah, we always love cheating celebs out of fake chips at high-end charitable events.)

Luckily, one of Wagner's friends immediately comes to the rescue to assist him in getting away from the table, and it's a good thing -- Here comes Joan Rivers, looking for someone to verbally assault, and Robert Wagner would have been a prime target. Once she arrives at the table, it's time to harass the old "pit boss," yours truly.

Hey, it's better than Ol' "frozen face" getting into it with Alexander Mundy. THAT could have been REALLY ugly.

Wow....THAT was a night to remember. Or forget. I haven't decided which. What did I learn from all of our experience at what turned out to be a really fun event? Easy.

Next time we do a celeb event, i'm bringing ED-209 with me.

Aces Casino Greatest Hits: It Was More Like "Pirates Of The Caribbean" than "Die Hard W/A Vengeance"

2011-07-26T01:08:00.000-07:00

(Ed. Note: The team at Aces Casino will be away from the Aces offices for two weeks while necessary construction and renovation work is done at the main facility in Buena Park. We will return on Tuesday, August 9th, with new blog posts and re-charged management and staff. In the meantime, please enjoy one of our "Greatest Hits" blog posts, this one dealing with what turned out to be a very interesting celebrity encounter.)

It IS true.

Without QUESTION, we have the greatest job in the world.

I tell that to anyone that'll listen, and, after seeing the top los angeles casino rental company in the industry at work, 99.99 people wholeheartedly agree. (My wife's the lone dissenter, but there's a story for another blog....Grin)

Because of the industry we toil in, we here at Aces Casino get the chance on many occasions to mingle with the hoi-polloi of Hollywood, at one of the gazillion fund raising opportunities that the SoCal movie studios, actors, and directors put together every year. Great fun for a great cause, and NO ONE does it like Tinseltown.

So, when we do our thing at one of the many Vegas Night casino events each year, invariably, one of our attendees at the party always seems to ask the same question, when it comes to our many brushes with stardom: "Hey, Aces Casino, what's your favorite celebrity-driven story?" And my answer is always the same -- Hands down, it's the story of "The Wrap Party at the Queen."

Back in the mid-90's, we were contracted by Cinergi Pictures to put on a casino night on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, to celebrate the wrapping up of the soon-to-be-released flick, "Die Hard With A Vengeance," the third film of a series of pictures starring Bruce Willis as tough-guy-cop John McClane. Wow...Bruce WILLIS? Heck, it's a good thing that Cinergi Pics didn't know how big a fan I was of the "Die Hard" series: I would have done the event for nothing. Just let us know the date, I said, and we're there.

And, when you're the number one los angeles casino rental company in the biz, the studios know that sometimes, these events get, shall we say, "a little kooky." Hey, the more, the merrier. That's what we live for. Bring it on, and sure enough, Cinergi did.

Beautiful night, we've got about 30 tables on the ship for the event, some inside, some outside on the North deck of the ship. I'm the Pit Boss for the event (Gawd, I hate that title. I much rather prefer 'glorified chip caddy.') so I oversee all that is necessary to make the event run as smooth as our los angeles casino rental company can make it.

With events as big as this there are actually more than one "pit" for the evening, and i'm working the inside setup for Cinergi. Suddenly, in my communications headset, I hear the following request: "Uhh, Aces, you'd best come out to Pit Two."

No prob, it's only about 30 yards away, on the outside deck. Out the door I go, and as I near "Pit Two," I notice something that I didn't remember being there when the event began.

Or, should I say something NOT being there.

For, as I walk up to one of our dealers in our outside BJ team (I'll have to clear it with her to make sure she's cool with the re-telling of the tale), I notice that she's holding her chip tray in both hands. She HAS to do this, because the Blackjack table that she was assigned to work at ISN'T THERE ANY LONGER.

"Uhh, excuse me, "I ask her, calmly. "Umm, girl, what happened to your table?"

And, with a tear in her eye, she said those immortal words that made history at Aces Casino. "Bruce Willis threw it overboard!"

She points to an area over the side of the ship, as when I look over, yep, there it is. One of our gorgeous black gaming cloth beauties, floating to the bottom of Long Beach harbor. Well now, I say to myself....There's something you don't see every day.

My mind races with numerous thoughts, most dealing with what has to be the first question i'd dare to ask, like, "How did it happen." But, before I could turn and ask our table-less dealer about the flying BJ table, I receive a tap on the shoulder.

I turn around, and "Voila." I'm face to face with Officer John McClane himself, Bruce Willis. Unfortunately, this story doesn't need to elaborate much from this point, because, when I DID turn around from his tap, all he did was slowly slide what turned out to be seven $100 bills into my front shirt pocket, pat me on the shoulder with a grin on his face, turn around, and walk off.

Turns out, Willis had been having a horrible streak of luck at the table he was playing at (A.K.A. the "flying table"), and had warned our dealer that if she drew to 21 on him one more hand, he was going to take the blackjack table, and throw it overboard. She did, so HE did. Sploooosh.

Well, needless to say, Mr. Willis turned out to be a gracious loser (especially because the chips are fake), but, as luck would have it, I never got to ask HIM the one question that i've had for all these years.

"How did you get talked into making that AWFUL 'Hudson Hawk'?"

Well, now that it's all said and done, i'm actually pretty happy that I DIDN'T get my fifteen seconds of fame with Bruce Willis. He might have thrown ME overboard as well. Oh, and we actually DID try to to retrieve the most famous Blackjack table in Hollywood the next day, but the QM security team informed us that retrieval of our table would be impossible, because of the "Moat Monsters."

I kid you not. True story, but when it comes to the Moat Monsters, we'll have to tell THAT part another time. Suddenly, I have a hankering for a "Die Hard DVD Marathon." So says the owner of the wettest BJ table in the los angeles casino rental industry.

Aces Blog: "Oh, NO, Here Comes That 'Christmas In July' Rant Again." You Are Correct, My Friend...

2011-07-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here at Aces Casino, Southern California's Orange County casino party leader, we strive to achieve stardom when it comes to customer service, "even when it hurts." One good example of this is what we call our "Miracle On 34th Street Mentality." Simply stated, if Aces Casino can't help you with your event, for whatever reason, we know of two other casino party companies in our service area that can also do a fine job, when a client we love is in a real bind. (Ed. Note: Not as good as Aces Casino when it comes to Orange County casino night parties, of course, but the author digresses. AGAIN.)

We bring this lil' factoid up for one specific reason. The month of December.

At Aces Casino, our December is usually something like taking a $500 steak dinner, placing it in a blender, and turning it on to the Frappe' setting for about three minutes. It's CRAZY. When you're the best Orange County casino party company in Southern California, and HAVE been for the last 17 years, you tend to build up a VERY large and exclusive client base. And we HAVE. The good news is, we're ALSO the second-LARGEST Orange County casino night party crew in the southland, so we can "handle the load."

We can take on this daunting "crazy" December task because WE'RE crazy, as well. Kinda works hand in hand. But -- Even though our official company motto is "this beats working," there's ALWAYS one thing that makes our job SOOOO much easier.

And that is.... Having our valued client base plan ahead.

Every December, the same thing happens. A client comes to us with a request for a Holiday casino night party, "just a small affair, mind you, only about 100 people. Can you help us?"

GAWD, we HATE to say "No."

But sometimes, we must, especially when it comes to our December holiday event calendar. As you can imagine, when you're the top Orange County casino party crew in the "biz," you tend to be in great demand during the holidays. And, consequently, when we reach our capacity on any date in December, we have to put up the "sold out" sign. There are only so many top-flight staff members in our industry, and we have them ALL here at Aces Casino.

That's why we're doing our annual "Christmas in July" Blog-A-Thon.

The Aces Casino version of "Christmas in July,"sans casino tables.

We do this for one specific reason -- We LOVE all of our clients, ESPECIALLY NEW CLIENTS. We love showing off our talents for new clients that had no idea that holiday casino night parties can be so much fun. (Small note: They're fun for US, too.)

So, starting this weekend, and going thru most of August, Aces Casino will be contacting every one of our holiday casino night clients, and finding out what date they've selected for their event, so we may place it on OUR events calendar, and hold the date for them.

Here's a small tidbit of info for those of you that are thinking about joining the Aces Casino party bandwagon -- When you've had a holiday party with Aces Casino, you're guaranteed availability for your next years' event date, whatever date that might be. If you're part of our family, you NEVER get the "sold out" sign. It's just another way that Aces Casino has ALWAYS gone the extra mile for our many satisfied clients over the years. You clients know who you are. You're SO special and we treasure your business, each and every season. You are what has made us what we are today, and we'll never forget it.

OK, so much for the soapbox speech-making. It's Christmas in July, my friends. For all of our prospective new clients, the time is now. Currently, we only have one date in December that is already sold out, but I guarantee you that will change in the next 30 days, so PLEASE, give us a call and let us know you're thinking about jumping on the Aces Casino bandwagon on this upcoming holiday season. We would LOVE to have you! We'll prepare a quote that won't break your budget bank, and put on another of the events that has made us the top Orange County casino party company around.

Also, just a reminder: This infamous blog post will be our last live blog entry for some two weeks as a result of necessary equipment renovation work at our main storage facility, as well as handing out some well-deserved summer vacations for all of our valued team members. We'll run some of the Aces Casino Blog's "greatest Blog hits" during our down-time, then we'll return with another new and different blog entry on Tuesday, August 9th, when we look at some of the brand-new, soon to be released casino table games of the future. Thanks for looking in, and we'll see you next week with the "Aces Casino (kinda-sorta) Greatest Blog Hits!"

Aces Casino asks The Top 3 Questions About Pai Gow Poker, A.K.A. "Beer Pong With Playing Cards"

2011-07-19T01:16:00.000-07:00

A while back on this infamous Blog, the crew from Aces Casino (the Orange County casino party leaders) took on the task of analyzing the game of Baccarat, a casino game that some experts feel is a game that has favorable gaming odds, but not much in the way of "playability." (Ed. Note: You'll find that riveting blog article link here.) And, when we DID, that choice of "casino game of the week" came under some serious scrutiny, especially from a large fan base of a fairly popular game called "Pai-Gow Poker."

Now, right off the bat, here's a disclaimer: Pai-Gow Poker is one of my favorite games to play, when visiting "Sin City," for one simple reason -It "plays by itself." I used to think Baccarat was a game that "plays by itself," until I saw Pai-Gow Poker. If you walk up to any self-respecting casino dealer, floor man, shift boss or casino manager and ask him," which of all of these casino games is the easiest to play when you're three sheets to the wind," they'll invariably tell you the answer is Pai-Gow Poker.

That's good enough for THIS Aces Casino party crew member. Remember, if you're considered the top Orange County casino party company in Southern California, you need a game that people can have a BLAST playing, while playing with valueless chips. It's INSTANTLY going to be a staple of your lineup, right up there with Blackjack and the eternally-noisy Wheel Of Fortune. (Ed. Note: The one with the upright wheel, not the one with Vanna White and Pat Sajak.)

I remember my first foray into the wild and wonderful world of Pai-Gow Poker - At least, I remember SOME of it. What I DO remember was winning quite a lot of dollars at the Barbary Coast casino on a perfect three-team baseball parlay and wanting to celebrate my winnings by playing some casino game that wouldn't tear me a new one, while enjoying my favorite alcoholic beverage (Light beer).

Yeah, I know, HERE it comes. "Stop right there, Aces. LIGHT BEER???" Hey, so, I LOVE light beer. Sue me. I've got someone that I consider a good friend (Dennis Hamblin of San Diego Charger fandom) who rides me like an old mule because I love what HE calls "horse piss." Hey, it tastes good to me, but that's his whole point - I have no taste. I also love Godzilla movies, "Hardcore Pawn" and "Human Tetris."

Yeah, maybe he's right.

OK, where was I? Oh, yeah, My first exposure to Pai-Gow..... I'm at the Barbary (Now Known as "Bill's"), and I sit down at the Pai-Gow table. I tell the dealer that I've never even SEEN this game, and he responds with, "Don't worry, it doesn't matter. I'll help you." Yeah, I BET that you'll help me, I thought to myself, you work for the CASINO. That's when he explained just how Pai-Gow Poker works......

1. Each player gets seven cards, including the dealer, from a 53-card deck.

2. The "Joker" is the extra card in the deck, good for "Aces, Straights and Flushes."

3. Pure poker rules apply when it comes to rank of hands, like "what beats what." You know, high card, then one pair, then two pair, then 3 of a kind, Straight, yada-yada-yada the bisque....

4. When you receive your seven-card hand, you have to separate it into TWO parts - A five-card poker hand, and a two-card poker hand.

5. Your five-card hand MUST beat your two-card hand, when you apply poker rules to it. Let's say you open your 7-card hand, and you have K-K-Q-9-6-3-3. You place the pair of threes "up front" for your two-card hand, and the rest of the cards, including the 2 Kings, in your five-card hand.

6. When all the players have separated their hands, the dealer opens up HIS hand, and separates HIS hand.

7. For you to beat the dealer (normally, the only player you play against), your five card hand must beat HIS, and your TWO-CARD hand must ALSO beat his. If one of them does, and one of them doesn't, it's a tie, a push. No winner. If both of HIS hands beat both of YOURS, you lose your wager.

It's as simple as that. AND...HERE'S the best part of ALL -- In THIS game, you can show your cards to not only the dealer, but to all the other players at the table, and ask for help. The dealer has to play every hand like what is called "the HOUSE way," meaning there are certain rules for when he can split pairs, and other little scenarios.

Find a GREAT Pai-Gow Poker trainer here.

As one of the more trusted members of Aces Casino, the Orange Casino casino party company that strives for casino night party excellence, I'm here to tell you -- THIS game plays itself. There aren't multiple bets like Let It Ride or Three-Card Poker, and there aren't complicated strategy sessions that you need to follow. All you have to do is place the one bet in the lil' circle, get your cards, and ask for help. It's like Beer Pong with playing cards, only you don't have to be accurate as to where you place your two hands of cards.

When I found this out, I was instantly hooked on Pai Gow Poker. The first nine hands, I had two wins, one loss, and six ties. I was up a little less than one win (you DO have to pay a 5% vig on all winnings - That's how the casino obtains it's edge), but better yet, I was up TWO beers on the HOUSE. I can EASILY beat the house out of it's 5% vig when I'm drinkin' LIGHT beer. You dangle free beer in front of THIS Aces Casino Orange County casino party guy, and you're in trouble.

And they were. And so was I.

I played that game for about four hours, or so I'm told. I had enough Light Beer to put me to sleep right next to Rip Van Winkle for 20 years, so I left my rental car at the Barbary, caught a taxi back over to my hotel, staggered back to my room, and when I woke up the next day, I discovered $440 in Barbary Coast chips in my pants' pocket on the floor of my room.

Is THIS a great game, or WHAT?

Pai-Gow Poker was cemented into my Las Vegas "must-play" list forever. Any time I'm looking for action, while also looking to put on my "buzz," I know where I'M headed.

One problem with Pai-Gow, though. (Well, actually, TWO.) When the game's fan base asked for a ten-question "College of Casino Game Knowledge" test regarding the game, we couldn't come up with one. We tried, but this game makes Baccarat look like trigonometry. WE couldn't even come up with three good questions. We DID try, but you wouldn't have liked them.

The OTHER problem with Pai-Gow? I once accidentally sat down at a Pai-Gow table at Caesar's Palace that was using these gigantic tiles instead of playing cards. I've since found out that this is the traditional Asian was of playing the game. MY problem was, I didn't know what the tiles MEANT. I do, NOW, but that doesn't matter. Reason?

Easy. Take it from Aces Casino, the Orange County casino night leaders...

NOTHING kills your light beer buzz worse than those Pai-Gow tiles.

Words to live by, right, Dennis?

Aces Casino Blog: Top 3 New (to Us) TV Shows That Have Just Made Our "We Just Can't Turn It Off" List

2011-07-14T23:51:00.000-07:00

Guilty as charged.

That's what we tell our many clients who tell us after they've visited the offices of Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party leader, that they've never seen anything like the fun atmosphere and camaraderie that exists inside the Aces casino night party complex. The Orange County Register labeled us as "Professionally Irreverent," and Card Player Magazine called us "Pixar South."

(Sigh) Yes, there's no one else quite like Aces Casino. Every year, a new batch of truly wonderful clients discover the worst-kept secret in the orange county casino night business. Guilty as charged, we're good at what we do, AND we're a lot of fun.

When you ask the Aces team just what makes them different, they'll usually tell you that it's BECAUSE they're different in the first place. Every January, the Aces Casino management takes the top dealers and staff out for a day of total fun, away from the tables and events. six months ago, the Aces crew was taken to K-1 Speed in Orange County, where they competed in what is now the First Annual "Aces Casino 500" Indoor Go-Kart Race. (Yes, the building is still standing, AFTER they left.) You can find the link to the video that caught all the 2011 action on the Blog's vid page.

Not too shabby for a company whose motto is, "This Beats Working."

When you have an Orange county casino night party company with a motto like that, you KNOW you're leaving the wallflowers at home. "Eclectic" should be mentioned in the business name. And, to that end, this Friday's blog takes a look at the top vote-getters from our staff when it comes to the best new and different TV shows currently making the rounds on the satellite and cable systems on the dial.

So, without further fanfare, here are the top 3 new TV shows that the Aces Crew, in their words, "Just can't turn off, once it's on...."

Here's a little hint as who's #1.

#3 -- Hardcore Pawn

Those of you that know the Aces Casino staff know that we LOVE Pawn Stars, the History Channel show o/o/Las Vegas, with Rick, the Old Man, Hoss, and the infamous Chumlee. That's why it surprised me when I started hearing about "that other Pawn Shop show." Got a chance to check THIS show out, over on truTV.

Whoa.

Yeah, compared to the other aforementioned Pawn Shop show, this one IS "Hardcore." The show's based out of the Pawn Shop located in the "8 Mile" district in Detroit. It's got a little bit too much drama coming from the owner and staff for my taste, but when it's on the TV at the Aces Casino offices, no one EVER turns it off. Three stars, we definitely recommend Les Gold and his hardcore pawn shop show - Check it out.

#2 -- Storage Hunters

Boy, if imitation isn't the sincerest form of flattery, I guess nothing IS. We used to get a little bent when we'd find rival casino party companies stealing our ideas, until we figured out that the thefts were ultimately good for the industry as a whole. It looks to us like "Storage Hunters," a knock-off of the wildly popular "Storage WARS" TV show, has hit the airwaves. If I'm not mistaken, this one is ANOTHER truTV idea-theft, but it's pretty good, too.

Yeah, pretty good. Not great, but pretty good.

I've only seen two shows, but both of them were about the same. There appears to be one main auction bid team o/o/California that goes anywhere to bid on a certain auction guy's offerings. I do have to say that the storage units on THIS show seem to be STUFFED with goodies, including one show that had a 1936 Mills "War Eagle" slot machine. Damn, I always wanted one of those.

Some of the verbal give-and-take between some of the bidders looks a little forced, but the show has that "hardcore-ish" feeling to it. I'll check it out some more. Two stars.

#1 -- 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show

Oh-My-GAWD. My INSTANT new favorite game show. I'm not going to ruin this one for you, except for the fact that when contestants get eliminated from THIS game show, I'm tellin' ya, THEY get ELIMINATED!

The last show I had the chance to take in looked like it was filmed out in the Irwindale rock quarry. You know, Al Davis' new stadium site. Anyway, one gal got knocked out of the game, and when she lost, they stuck her inside a metal cage and rolled her down what looked like a mile-long dirt-and-gravel road. Didn't look like a lot of fun to me.

Then, at the end of the game, when they're down to four players, three of the four contestants (as they're eliminated one-by-one) are dangled over a giant pool of water that looks like it's ten stories off the ground. You get the question wrong, and off the diving board you go. Walk the plank, me matey. Spa-lassssh. One of my sons signed me up to be a possible contestant on this show when it was first announced and were taking applications.

I'm guessing he doesn't like me very much.

Well, so much for our obvious lack of taste in television shows. Hey, sue me, the shows are all pretty entertaining, especially that #1 show. Take if from the orange county casino night party kingpins - If it's goofy, it's for Aces Casino.

Next Tuesday, we wander back into the Aces Casino "College of Casino Game Knowledge" with a closer look and 10-question quiz on the game of Pai-Gow Poker. Bring your textbooks, and we'll see you next week!

Aces Blog: Tuesday's Topic - "The Rush," A. K. A. "The Single Most Incredible Feeling In The World"

2011-07-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a statement that shouldn't surprise anyone - Here at Aces Casino, A.K.A. the Orange County casino party leader since our inception way back in the early '90's, well, there's no other way to say it -- We just LOVE parties. All KINDS of parties -- Grad nights, holiday events, birthday celebrations, charitable fundraisers, Bat/Bar Mitzvah's, you name it. If the client is looking for the perfect virtual casino party, Aces Casino is SoCal's one choice, period.

Yes, I know, the Aces Casino "propaganda ministry" is already running on all cylinders today, but hold on; there's a method to our madness. There IS one thing that this Orange County casino night party team HATES to see at their many events each year. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it just breaks our heart.

It's something we call "The Rush."

Those players that have seen one; or better yet, have been lucky enough to have participated in one, know just what we mean. The casino game scholars here that make up the brain trust from our Los Angeles casino party team define "The Rush" as: an unspecified moment in time at a casino table when you and the players at your table can do no wrong.

I harken back to the last "Rush" that I took part in; It was at the 2011 WSOP, just two weeks ago. I had just arrived in Las Vegas, and before going to check into my room for what was about to turn into a four-day marathon, I decided to wander down the strip for a bit, and check out the action at the World Series Of Poker, the "nirvana" of poker tournaments, currently taking place at the Rio Suite Hotel in Sin City. It's Aces Casino's "Poker piece of heaven," just made for this Orange County casino party poker-lover.

My first stop at the WSOP is always the Satellite room, where you can play 1-table "SnG's" Sit-And-Go's or MTT's (Multi-Table Tournaments) that, should you "cash," would net you tournament chips that you can use to buy into one of the many events held at the WSOP. And, if you fancy the tourney action, but don't want to necessarily buy into the WSOP, you cn always sell the tournament chips you've won to the players that will be buying into the various events later on. No sweat. So, I walk up to the satellite tourney desk, pick a card for the level that I wish to play at, pay the entry fee at the cage, and play.

Then, it started.

Now, I know this reporter constantly toots the "Aces Casino" horn on these blogs. Hey, It's my job. But when it comes to the WSOP, well, this Orange County casino party reporter has personally done quite well over the years. However - those past years pale in comparison to THIS year. THIS year, "The Rush" hit. Won my first STT for $1250. Got in another one, got to heads-up w/the chip lead, chopped that STT for 90% of the pot. Got in ANOTHER one right away, and won THAT STT to the tune of $1750. Was catching cards like NEVER before. (Ed. Note: we remember one other time, but you'll have to bring THAT one up. I'm not going to.)

"The Rush" was on, and I knew it. Moved to a no-limit cash-game table, played for three hours, added another $3200 to the ol' bankroll. Then, the next day, went ahead and entered the $1500 NLHE event that started at noon, played a total of two-plus days, finished 83rd, another $4700. Later that night, I hopped onto a NLHE cash game back at my hotel, and found "The Rush" was over. Cards got scarce, opponents hitting three-outers to suck out on me time and time again, barely broke even at a soft table. Yep, it was over. But WHAT A RUSH... "Now, THAT was FUN."

Made over $16K in 72 hours. Casino cages all over Las Vegas were throwing cash at me. That's what It's all about, my friends - Riding out "The Rush." I've had a few similar "rushes" in the casino over the years; I remember a Craps session that only lasted about an hour and a half, but turned into the wildest and most profitable Craps session I ever had. I'll never forget THAT feeling, EVER.

That's our owner, in yellow. Is he smiling? CRAPS RUSH.

So, why bring up this "Rush" thing? What does it all mean? Why does seeing a player on a rush at one of our Orange County casino party events just KILL us to watch it? Simple. We have a saying here at Aces Casino.

"The cards and the dice don't know that the game is fake."

True, we put on quite a show with our casino parties, but that's all it is - A SHOW. The chips are valueless. Yeah, you MIGHT get a raffle ticket or two in order to have a chance to win a nice prize, but you aren't EVER guaranteed ANYTHING when amassing that mountain of fake chips. The good news is, at our Orange County casino party set-ups, "The Rush" is as rare HERE as it is in Las Vegas.

The BAD news? They still happen. Four weeks ago, at one of our Craps tables during one of our many fundraisers, I witnessed a guy and his family go one one of the most AMAZING Craps rushes I had EVER seen. Now, we MUST state this now - When it comes to fundraisers, we deal the games STRAIGHT here at Aces Casino. No cheating, no "getting loose with the chips." No lie - This guy held the dice at our table for 55 minutes, and when HE finally sevened-out, the NEXT player held the dice for another 30 minutes.

INCREDIBLE rush. Two players, almost an hour-and-a-half of pure shooting. They made over $11,000 each playing $5/$10, while starting with a bankroll of about $400.

Wow.

Without QUESTION, this just KILLS me when it happens. It rarely does, but WHEN it does, it's a KILLER. It's the only bad part of being a member of the Aces Casino team -- You get a 50-yard-line seat at a table, and get to watch some poor guy waste one of his "rushes" at one of OUR games, when he SHOULD be doing this at one of the tables in Las Vegas.

Wait, it gets worse. This group of people that have just learned Craps here at our table for the very first time NOW think they can re-create this "rush" in Las Vegas, when they go on their vacation two weeks later. THEY think the game is EASY, that they have the "system" to beat the casino.

There's no way to warn them, there's no way to try to stop it. Half-way thru their "rush," we KNOW that they're ALREADY thinking "Vegas." It's too late, then. When It's over, we tell the player(s) involved, "Wow, that was one of the greatest rushes we've EVER seen!" And it's the truth, too.

We CAN'T tell them they just spent one of their "rushes" on a fake gaming table. Unfortunately, the dice didn't know the game was fake. Even worse, the dice they pick up in Vegas won't know the game is REAL.

At least, I don't think so.

Moral of the story: When your "Rush" hits, enjoy it, and ride it out for all that It's worth. Oh, and come to our Aces Casino parties to have fun, but PLEASE - DON'T spend one of your precious "Rushes" at one of our tables. Yes, they're SO much fun to watch, but believe me - They're few and far between. BELIEVE me.

I ought to know. I'm a San Diego Charger fan. It's been 17 years between rushes. Super Bowl 29 felt like we were playing with fake chips. I hate THAT part, too.

Aces Blog: Answers to Our Top 10 Not-So-Tough Test Questions on Our Aces Casino Baccarat Quiz

2011-07-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

Time for a tip of the cap to all of our many hard-working students enrolled in the virtual version of the Aces Casino "College of Casino Game Knowledge," as well as to all of our many faithful blog readers of southern California's Orange County casino party leader - Welcome back to the sometimes-informative, most-often irreverent Aces Casino Blog!

We're sure that most of you have returned for the answers to our 10 not-so-tough questions concerning the game that some call mysterious, and others call intriguing - Baccarat. Last Tuesday, we dropped the 10 questions on you (If you didn't have the chance to take the test, you can find the link here) - Today, we supply the answers. Hope you did well, since it was an open-book test, which is this Orange County casino party company's favorite type of test. Good luck, and let us know how you did!

1) How many decks of cards does a shoe hold?

Answer - A. 8Decks are held in the shoe.

2) Winning in the game means coming closest towhat number?

Answer - B.The answer is Number 9. It's the Blackjack's version of "21."

3) If you are dealt a Jack and 7, what is thecount?

Answer - C. -7. Cards, 2 through 9 count as their face value. 10’s and face cards count as10. Aces count as 1. If the count is more than 9, the last digit of thetotal is used. So, if the hand has a Jack (10) and a 7, then it totals not 17, but 7. Forget your Blackjack tendencies at THIS table, my friends.

4) If you bet the Banker hand and win, thecommission rate paid is ?

Answer - A.5%. Remember, when you are finished playing, this commission is payable. No "dine-and-dash" action here. Pai-Gow hits you at the time of the win. This one holds a grudge. Check the casino's rules at the table first.

5) Besides Banker and Player, you canwager on a Tie Bet. The casino advantage is ?

Answer - C. Ata whopping 14% Casino Advantage, this bet is NOT recommended. (It's kinda fun, though, especially if you love long-shots.)

Come on, you KNOW you wanna TRY it.

6) Average shoe will deal about 82 hands.How many are Bank wins?

Answer - B.Bank will win approx. 38 times, Player: 36 wins, and 8 ties. I know what you're thinking, all of you "Martingale" players out there. Do the math first, and talk to me later.

7) Cards more favorable to the Bank Hand are...

Answer - B. Cards more favorable to the bank hand are King,Queen and Jack.

8) Cards more favorable to the Player Hand are?

Answer - A.Cards more favorable to the player hand are 2, 3, and 4. Ace, 6 and 8 areneutral. Bank hands win more because the bank stands on a 7, 8 or 9, whileplayer stands on 6, 7, 8 and 9. Bank can draw on a 6 where player cannot.Ahh, now, there’s the rub.

9) What does the term ‘Punto’ refer to?

Answer - C.Punto means Player—that’s you.

10) La Grande refers to what card number?

Answer - B. The French term La Grande means a Natural Nine. It's like catching an Ace-Jack combo in the first two cards in Blackjack. A natural's a natural, my friends.

So, there you have it, my friends -- from Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party juggernaut -- Baccarat in a nutshell. As we mentioned before, the game has similar tendencies to Pai-Gow Poker, as Baccarat has rules that basically cause the game to "play itself." If you're looking for a game that you can suck down a brew or two, yet still be sharp enough to handle the favorable action, maybe you should try Baccarat. Take it from Aces Casino, the Orange County casino night party leader - You MAY just LIKE it!

Aces Casino "College Of Casino Game Knowledge:" 10 Not-So-Tough Mid-Term Questions Re: Baccarat

2011-07-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

Here at Aces Casino, we take pride in the fact that we are truly interested as being the one Los Angeles casino party company that goes the extra mile when it comes to teaching the games. I mean, come ON: when all the chips are fake, what ELSE can you do at the tables? Yep, that's right. Just like the old saying goes; "If you can't bet, teach." (Ed. Note: Uhh, yeah, something like that.)

So, you ask..."Just how did the staff at Aces Casino decide on choosing the oft-maligned game known as Baccarat as it's topic of choice this time around?" Answer? Simple. We threw a dart at the board. I said we were great TEACHERS, not great decision-makers. We always throw darts to decide EVERYTHING around here, from lunch to vacation times. I know, we're goofy. Again, you HAVE to be goofy, if there's no real gambling. Agh, digressing again...

OK...Yep, It's Baccarat. Here's something you may not know about the game of Baccarat - It offers some of the best odds available in the casino. That, and it has some interesting game play involved. Those of you that love Pai-Gow Poker might LOVE Baccarat, as well. It tends to play itself. But, you'll find that out soon enough. First a modest introduction into the often-fascinating game of Baccarat, from your friends at Aces Casino, the Orange County casino night party leaders.... (Ed. Note: And KING of the shameless plug.)

Baccarat is the French spelling of the Italian word ‘Baccara,’ or zero, denoting the point values of the face cards used in the game. The game that we now know as Baccarat dates back in history to 1489, when the Italian “Baccara” was introduced into France and was beloved by nobles during the reign of King Charles VIII. Baccarat first appeared in Las Vegas in 1959, about 18 months after Chemin De Fer (a game that we consider “Baccarat’s older brother”) was introduced. Both games already were thriving in illegal casinos in the East, something that the casinos in the West immediately took note of. (And so did the staff here at Aces Casino. We're not known as Southern California's top Orange County casino night party company for nothing.)

The straight ancestor of Baccarat as played in the United States (Chemin De Fer) is comparable in play. The one major discrepancy is that the customers bet among themselves rather than against the casino, with the house taking a commission from the customer holding the bank. Chemin De Fer made Its’ debut in Las Vegas around 1957, but it was rapidly replaced by Baccarat, which remains the only version of the game still available there today.

Oh, forgot to mention something - The table's as big as a 747.

Well, there’s your short (?) history lesson of the day, my students. It appears that It’s time to begin the test. Don’t worry: It’s an “open book” test, which means that we’ll be happy to allow you the ability to look up any internet gaming info database that you’d be comfortable using for the test (We might suggest “The Wizard of Odds,” but It’s your choice). After all, we here at Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party leaders, wouldn’t have it any other way. What better way to learn the game than to cheat on the test? See, we thought so, too. OK, ready? Begin…..

1) How many decks of cards does a shoe hold?
A. 8 Decks.
B. 6 Decks.
C. 4 Decks.

2) Winning in the game means coming closest to what number?
A. Number 10.
B. Number 9.
C. Number 8.

3) If you are dealt a Jack and 7, what is the count?
A. Total count is 17.
B. Total count is 10.
C. Total count is   7.

4) If you bet the Banker hand and win, the commission rate paid is ?
A. Commission is 5%.
B. Commission is   8%.
C. Commission is 10%.

5) Besides Banker and Player, you can wager on a Tie Bet. The casino advantage is ?
A. Tie Bet Casino Advantage is 10%.
B. Tie Bet Casino Advantage is 12 ½%.
C. Tie Bet Casino Advantage is 14 %.

Five questions down, and five to go, my Orange County casino party friends. Here come the next five, courtesy of the one and only Aces Casino Entertainment....

6) Average shoe will deal about 82 hands. How many are Bank wins?
A. Bank will win 36 times.
B. Bank will win 38 times.
C. Bank will win 40 times.

7) Cards more favorable to the Bank Hand are ?
A. Ace and 8.
B. King, Queen and Jack.
C. 2, 3, and 4.

8) Cards more favorable to the Player Hand are ?
A. 2, 3, and 4.
B. 8, 9 and 10.
C. Ace and 6

9) What does the term ‘Punto’ refer to?
A. Dealer.
B. Bank.
C. Player.

10) La Grande refers to what card number?
A. Ace.
B. Nine.
C. King.

OK, pencils down, my friends. How did you do? Oh, yeah, that's right, It's an open book test. I'm sure you all did fabulous...Or DID YOU? Well, either way, check the Friday Blog from your fave Orange County casino night party guys for the answers, and should you have very little in the way of constructive work to do on Wednesday, check out the Aces Casino blog tomorrow, as we'll have the blow-by-blow rundown on how the Aces Casino team did in Las Vegas during their "End Of June" visit. See you tomorrow!

Aces Casino Blog: 3 Common Mistakes That "Rookie" Casino Night Party Coordinators Consistently Make

2011-07-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

As the old saying around this Orange County casino party company goes -- "If you've got a big hit, make sure everyone knows about it!" (There's also another old saying, one that goes something like, "If It's July 4th weekend, we're going to be closed.")

So, taking this fact into account, we'd like to bring back the top blog post from the 18-month-old Aces Casino blog, as determined by the number of hits that this entry has received over the short life span of the Blog. We'll be back on Tuesday with our usual blather and drivel, so before we go, we'd like to wish everybody in the Aces Casino family a happy, safe and sane 4th of July weekend!

Here at Aces Casino, the orange county casino night equipment rental leader, we take pride in giving each and every client of ours the most entertaining, unique, and imaginative casino night parties possible. It's just what we do. And, we do it VERY well. 17 years in the business means quite a lot of practice.

As a matter of fact, Aces ALSO does something that no other casino party company in the industry would EVER do: We also will go the extra mile to help out someone in dire straits that ISN'T a client of Aces Casino; some poor party coordinator or fund raising group that has found out too late that rock-bottom pricing and promises that are too good to be true usually are, and all their hard work to put on their party for their guests is going to be ruined by an unscrupulous casino "business."

There's nothing we hate more than hearing that an event has been ruined this way.

So, we were sitting around the offices the other day, when one such telephone call came in; someone that had called us originally, then found a "company" on the internet that beat our price by $25, and booked with them sight unseen, because of the "savings." Alas, you DO end up getting what you pay for. The company they ended up hiring didn't show up for their fund raiser, because (we found out later) they got another party from another client that PAID THEM more, and they ditched their first client so they could make more money for themselves.

Boy, we've grown SO incredibly tired of hearing results like this.

So, we thought, if we really ARE the orange county casino night industry leader, we need to do something about this. Hence, the meat of our blog post today. It seems that we we keep hearing the same three complaints from highly unsatisfied people and groups, people that were unhappy with the service from their "cut-rate" casino companies. So, it would seem totally logical to take these same three recurring complaints, and broadcast them to the casino party throwing community.

So, without further fanfare, here are three biggest complaints that event planners and fund raising chairs have, after they decided that saving an extra $25 was more important than going with Aces Casino, the orange county casino night industry leader for Southern California;

#3 -- The casino company's "Management, Pit Boss and Staff" don't have any clue about how to help their client

-- Usually, this particular situation DOES begin to show itself early on in the beginning itinerary meetings you'll have with your casino party company -- They don't have ANY suggestions on how to maximize profits at the fundraiser, how the fund raiser even WORKS, how much equipment that the client should have at their event to make sure that there isn't too much or too little casino power, what the chips are worth, how much chip power to start each guest with....Sometimes, we've found that the client knew more about the overall operations of the casino event than the CASINO COMPANY did.

Red Flag. Reputable casino party companies WELCOME all of your questions, and are FULL of great ideas and scenarios to help YOUR next party or fund raiser become an instant hit. Don't go with the cheapest company to save a buck, then end up losing money or killing the ambience of your event because you got a casino company that doesn't know what they're doing.

#2 -- The equipment that the casino company brought to the event was substandard, and not up to the quality promised by the casino company

-- This is a BIG one, but it's not even the number one problem with some disreputable casino companies. We can't say this enough: NOT ALL CASINO EQUIPMENT IS THE SAME. CHECK OUT what your casino party company plans to bring to your event. Ask for references, and USE them.

I wish I had $5 for every time that I heard a client tell us that their LAST casino company literally brought TOYS to their party, and pawned them off as "Casino tables." There are some companies out there that will literally show up with plywood sheets, and wrap cheap Blackjack layouts around them that are half the size of the size of normal BJ tables, fasten the layout on with tape, and put them on spindly cheap legs that wobble like hula dancers when touched.

Other companies will promise a Craps table at your event, then show up with a plywood box, a "tub," if you will, that's a miniature table at BEST, THEN tell you that you only purchased the "discounted model," and that the REAL casino size and quality Craps tables cost more. By THEN, it's too late; your party is about to start. You're stuck. Ask for pictures, or better yet, visit the casino company at an event that they're hosting for another client. If they refuse to give you this kind of info, RUN AWAY, as fast as you can.

But, the most blatant equipment problems that we've heard about seem to center around the Roulette tables. Two words. "TOYS ABOUND." You'll know that you got the wrong casino party company when they show up at your next event with a 12" plastic toy wheel, and call it a "Roulette Wheel." Friends, here's the straight dope -- Casino size and quality Roulette Wheels are 32 inches in diameter (from one end across to the other).

There's NOTHING worse than trying to play Roulette on a cheap, toy wheel. If they send you pictures of toy Roulette wheels upon request, find another company. Take it from Aces Casino; NEVER settle for toy tables at your casino event, especially toy Roulette tables. You want to see what the real things look like, go to www.acescasinoentertainment.com.

#1 -- The casino party game dealers are morons, and don't know a thing about the game they're dealing

Yes, as hard to believe as this sounds, there are disreputable casino companies that will just bring "bodies" to your event, and try to bluff their way through the games they've been assigned to. Sometimes, this happens because the casino company is just too busy for their own good, and have spread themselves too thin. Sometimes, they're just small companies that don't even ASK their staff if they can actually DEAL.

We've even heard of dealers that are brought to events, especially in Southern California, and they DON'T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH. I'm not kidding. There's a company out here in SoCal that will stop off over at the local Home Depot on their way to their party, pick up the necessary people to fill their party, and off they go. Can you imagine not being able to even CONVERSE with your dealer during your party?

Other problems abound with sub-standard dealers, too. They don't know the game they've been assigned to. They can't help you with your game -- They're too busy asking YOU about how the game is played. Oh, my word.... Unfortunately, this happens all the time. There's nothing worse than playing casino-style games for fun only, and finding out the fun itself has been lost, because the dealers are IDIOTS, and can't deal games like Blackjack, 3-Card Poker, 3 Way-Action, Tournament Texas Hold-'Em, Craps, Roulette, or Let It Ride. They've got a better chance of piloting the Space Shuttle, then creating a split-pot at the Hold-'Em table.

Aces Casino has always prided itself on having top-flight casino-quality dealers, tables, and staff at each and every casino event they perform at. We're not the only company that does -- That's why, again, it's important to CHECK THOSE REFERENCES. Go and SEE your casino party company in action, at another event, see how the fund raising event works for THEM. Call your prospective company, and ask questions. LOTS of them. Hey, if they're any good, they WELCOME the questions.

Bottom line -- Aces Casino is here to help all of our clients have fun, and raise funds for their favorite charities. We aren't the orange county casino night leader for nuthin'. Give us (or your local casino party company) a call, and find out everything you ever wanted to know about how much fun these casino events can be.

Oh, one more thing -- Check out the casino company's chips. If they're plastic chips, run away. It's one of my personal pet-peeves. Can't stand plastic chips. If I wanted plastic, i'd go to Hollywood.

Aces Blog: Time Sure Flies at the World Series Of Poker at the Rio Hotel In Las Vegas, Believe Me

2011-07-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

Oops. I KNEW that I had forgotten something.

Here at Aces Casino, also known as the top Orange County casino party company in Southern California, we have always been known at being the absolute BEST when "paying attention to detail." We're sticklers for accuracy with each and every itinerary supplied by our clients and event coordinators, and strive for AND achieve perfection in every event we touch.

That's why it pains me to say that it looks like that "perfect performance record" has taken a small hit when it comes to our famous Aces Casino Blog that you're now perusing: A small hit that was delivered (or more accurately stated, a small hit that was NOT delivered) concerning Tuesday's blog entry.

Stop right where you are. There's no payoff if you decide to go and look for the Tuesday, June 28, 2011 Blog entry. It ain't there.

I forgot to post it. The Aces Casino night party blog guy fumbles the ball.

I KNEW that I forgot SOMETHING....

Actually, that's not quite factually correct. I DID write it, and put it in the blog's "scheduling" area so it would post last Tuesday. Unfortunately, yours truly must not know how to properly OPERATE the "scheduling" part of our blog for future articles, which means only one thing for this reporter.

I'll never get another vacation from Aces Casino, the Orange County casino night leader, EVER AGAIN.

OK, no problem. When your company motto is "This Beats Working," you're not normally in too bad a shape when it comes to attending to the job at hand. And, it WAS a GREAT vacation: We all went to the 42nd annual World Series of Poker, currently being staged at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

So...What to do....OK, here is what we've determined would be the best way to handle the snafu caused by my internet blogging incompetence: Next week, we'll post THREE blog entries next week: Tuesday, we'll have the regularly-scheduled Blog article that will offer up a "not=so-tough" ten-question quiz on the game of Baccarat, followed by our soon-to-be written Wednesday article on the many great adventures of the Aces Casino staff at the WSOP in Las Vegas, followed by our usual Friday blog entry that will give the answers to the Tuesday quiz on Baccarat.

Whew. Glad THAT'S over. There's that "Attention To Detail" thingie that this Orange County casino party leader prides itself on coming back to life, thank goodness.

So, to all of our steadfast, loyal readers of the Aces Casino Blog drivel, we sincerely apologize for the gaffe, and hope that you thoroughly enjoy NEXT week's blog. Rest assured that my vacation-taking days from this Los Angeles casino party giant are OVER.

Until next year. Rumor is we're goin' BACK to see the WSOP in 2012. (Yessssss.....)

Aces Blog: Answers to Our Top 10 Not-So-Tough Test Questions on Our Aces Casino Roulette Quiz

2011-06-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the Aces Casino infamous "College of Casino Game Knowledge," my lil' casino-game test-takers! It's Friday, which means It's time to reveal the answers to our spectacular orange county casino party quiz on the fabulous game of Roulette.

Now, any of you that may be tuning in to our Aces Casino blog for the first time, or have been away for a while and didn't see the Roulette test questions, well, stop reading this blog immediately (my boss just fell over when he read that, I just know it), and check out the link shown here for the 10 test questions on el-Roulette-o.

OK, everybody on the same page, now? Good. Pencils down, and let's grade the tests. You're on the honor system here (but we know how good you are, if you're a regular here at the Aces Blog), so here's how the scoring works...Give yourself one point for each correct answer that you got. Doesn't get any easier than that, my friends. OK...Ready? Here we go.

1. Roulette in its modern form dates back to:

B. Paris in the 1700s.

Modern roulette wheels, complete with alternate red and black slots with numbers, have been traced to Paris in 1796. If you answered "Baden-Baden," you were reaching just a tad. deduct one point from your final score.

2. The most important difference between American and European roulette is:

C. The European wheel does not have 00.

The standard European wheel has only a 0, with no 00. They know how tough the game is to beat already, without jacking up the odds for the house even further.

3. An American roulette wheel has:

C. 38 numbers.

The standard American wheel has numbers 1 through 36, plus 0 and 00. THat's 38 numbers. If you tried to say "but Aces, 0-and-00 aren't really numbers," dock yourself one point for being an "internet casino game bully."

4. The wheel has numbers arranged:

A. So that consecutive numbers are approximately opposite each other.

It's not perfect, but the attempt was made to place consecutive numbers opposite each other. Check out the numbers around 0 and 00. Zero is flanked by 2 and 28; on either side of 00 are 1 and 27. Fascinating, yes, I know. Hey, YOU play the game, not me.

5. English engineer Joseph Jagger is famous for:

A. Breaking the bank at Monte Carlo.

True story. Back in 1873, Joseph Jagger found a biased wheel--a wheel on which some numbers turned up more often than by random chance. His $325,000 in winnings would be a tidy sum today, but they were astronomical in 1873. (Somewhere around $2.6Mil.) Now, THIS is a fascinating story. Cliff notes: Jagger discovered that a certain Roulette wheel had nine numbers that kept repeating fairly often. Interested in more info? Here's the link to the man that broke Monte Carlo. Oh, one more thing: Mr. Jagger appears to be related to the ol' Rolling Stone lead singer himself, Mick Jagger. See? We're not just a pretty Orange County casino party company here.... You're welcome.

6. At the roulette table, roulette chips have a value:

C. Determined when you buy them.

One color of roulette chip can have several different values over the course of a day. I might buy in for $10, and tell the dealer I want 25-cent chips. After I leave, another player might buy in for $50 and request $1 chips, and another might buy in for $500 and want $10 chips. The dealer keeps track with a marker placed atop a chip of the designated color. Look for that placed chip somewhere on the wheel next time. Another Aces Casino tidbit, straight from the top Orange County casino party company in SoCal.

7. At the cashier's cage, roulette chips have a value of:

A. Zero.

Since roulette chips may have several different values over the course of the day, they may not be redeemed at the cashier's cage. Redeem for regular casino chips before you leave the table. No worries, I never have any chips left over when I play this game, anyway.

8. The house edge at American roulette:

A. Is higher than at most table games.

The house edge on most bets at American roulette is 5.26 percent. That's much higher than the 0.5 percent against a blackjack basic strategy player, 2.5 percent against an average blackjack player, 1.17 on baccarat bets on banker on 1.41 percent on the pass line at craps. If you've played Roulette these many years, and thought that the house edge on the game was the best in the casino, dock yourself one point.

9. Bets on the numbers themselves, whether single-number bets, or two-, three-, four-, five- or six-number combinations, are called:

A. Inside bets

The numbers are inside bets. Red-black, even-odd, first 18-last 18, dozens and columns are outside bets. There are limits to the amounts players can wager inside, compared to outside. Another Aces Casino tidbit.

10. A player betting on red/black, first 18/last 18, even/odd, dozens or columns:

C. Must bet at least the table minimum on each of those propositions.

Little-known fact, based on the house rules at your casino of choice. At a $5 minimum table, if you decide to bet black and the first column, you must bet at least $5 on black and at least $5 more on the first column. On inside bets, you may meet the minimum by spreading bets totaling $5 on several numbers. If this actually makes sense to you, give yourself one extra bonus point.

OK, how did you do? Here's where you can check your results --

11 points - You're a Roulette genius, and probably don't play the game for real money because of the house edge. We call this "Casino Counter-Productivity."

10 points - You're still a Roulette genius, and play the game without the need for bonus points to win, which means you're not a cheater, you're a goody-two-shoes.

6-to-9 points - You're still pretty smart when it comes to Roulette. If you think you're not, deduct one point from your final score.

2-to-5 points - You've got the basics, but the game still eats you alive in Vegas.

0-1 point - I've contacted the Nevada / California state line. They won't let you in.

-1 to -3 points - I've contacted the people that the state line wouldn't let in. They're authorized to flatten your tires when YOU get there.

Hope you enjoyed this lil' Aces Casino "Romp down Roulette Lane," courtesy of the top orange county casino night party company in Southern California. Need practice on a REAL Roulette wheel and table? Call us. The chips are fake, and you can see how tough the game is to beat, for the price of a table rental. If you think you'd like to call us today, give yourself one bonus point.

We'll see you next week with two more blog-blasts on our usual Tuesday and Friday......Take care... P.S. : If you like these casino-game tests, let us know. We'll provide one for your favorite game!

Aces Casino Blog: What do an Alligator, the Fire Department, and the WSOP All Have In Common?

2011-06-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

When we took on the job of creating and maintaining this Aces Casino Blog, we were told by our superiors a long time ago that the main thing to remember was that "we were an Orange County Casino party company - There's ALWAYS something interesting to write about!" No lie there, my friends. I'm here to tell ya, through all these many years here at Aces Casino, we can honestly say that "We have seen It ALL" when it comes to our most outrageous casino parties.

Until the NEXT weekend of events comes and goes, that is.

Working with the crazies around here, you find out fast - Something's ALWAYS happening here at Aces Casino, but let me state right up front that, when it comes to this Orange County casino night company discussing the craziest weekend of events in our companies' history, NOTHING can top what took place exactly one year ago today, on the weekend of June 18-19-20, 2010.

Friday, June 18, 2010 - Graduation event, Irvine. Multi-school event, WAY too much alcohol flowing, and LOADS of attendees, including the one that was spotted sitting in a trucked-in "kiddie pool" with a large (spiked) punch bowl sitting right next to 'it' -- A three-foot alligator (which, I was told, was the school's 'new mascot') that had what appeared to be a pretty nasty attitude.

The good news was that there was one poor sap that was assigned the task of making sure that "Rosie" (named after Rosie O'Donnell, I'm told) would stay in the kiddie pool for the evening. The bad news was that same poor sap left the party at half-time, and the darned alligator bit thru the lining of the kiddie pool, and was spotted heading straight for the Roulette table. You KNOW that there's too much alcohol at a party when a freaking ALLIGATOR is walking around at your event, and I'm the only one that seems to care.

True story - Some kid that HAD to be about 6-4/275 simply walked up to the alligator right in the middle of the party, told him, "You're Luggage," put some trench coat lookin' thing over it, bundled it up, dragged it right outside, LET IT LOOSE, of all things, and closed the door. Oh, gee, thanks, NOW, I feel SO much better. We never saw the kid or "Rosie" again, but every time we took equipment outside after the event, we watched for "Rosie," just in case. Two days later, the O. C. Register had a story about someone finding an alligator in their pool. Gee, I wonder where THAT came from.

"Uhh, can I come back in, now?"

Saturday, June 19, 2010 -- Another high school graduation event held at a home in La Mirada. Two tables inside the home, and two tables OUTSIDE, including one of the Aces Casino poker tables. Now, I didn't actually attend this event, so we'll pick up the story from the lead operations director at the party... "Two hours into the event, a commotion of some sort becomes apparent, immediately followed by shrieks and random yelling.

"By the time I get out on the patio, I immediately see what the problem is - The poker table is on fire. The fire's pretty high and by that time is licking at the wooden structure of the patio overhang, and the smoke from the blaze is setting off every smoke alarm INSIDE the house. Everybody's OK, though, no one hurt - Some quick-thinking poker savants douse the table with water from an outside hose, and when the La Mirada Fire Department arrives, they're convinced that the worst is over, as well as the party. Poof - One Orange County casino night party goes up in smoke.

"The kicker, however, is just how the blaze got started. Once the commotion had died down, one of the players at the poker table confided in me just what had happened - One of the players had spilled red wine all over the table after winning a pot, and some idiot player at the table exclaimed, "No worries, you guys - the best way to get that off the table is to burn off the excess alcohol." This 'Wonderlick' then proceeds to activate his lighter, and do just that, which, in mere seconds, obliterates most of the table, the chip tray, the cards, the chips, and one or two eyebrows. What's left of the table is on display in the Aces Casino Hall of Shame, along with all of the other "interesting moments in Aces History."

Yeah, that pretty much says it all.

Sunday, June 20, 2010 -- A poker party in Aliso Viejo. The table that WAS to be at this event had to (obviously) be replaced, but we have a hundred or more at our disposal, so no prob there. This event turned into the "King of the Overtime Champion." This party was for a guy celebrating his birthday, along with nine of his buddies, and they decided to have an STT (a single table tournament).

Unfortunately for us, they used what HAD to be the slowest blind/ante system known to tourney directors, causing this event to go from a four-hour party to almost NINE hours. The tournament finally ended around 4am, and the champion was crowned. And, surprisingly, at 4am, there were still five players sitting around and watching the action, including the birthday guy.

Suddenly, the suggestion was made to the winner, "hey, the World Series Of Poker is currently going on out in Vegas. Why don't you go out and play? You're pretty good, you'd have a chance!" And, after a few minutes of discussion, four of these players, including the tournament champion, hopped in their car and drove to Las Vegas. Bottom line? They arrived around 7:45am, got a room, caught 3 hours sleep, got up, when to the Rio to play poker, entered the tourney winner into a No-Limit Hold - 'Em event, and watched him play.

For THREE DAYS.

When it was all said and done, the guy made final table, finished 6th, and these four good friends ended up splitting a nice payout check. And the best part of all? There wasn't an alligator of Fire Marshal in sight. Now THAT'S what we call a happy ending. Post-script: They're having another tournament this Sunday. I'm going with them, if they do this again. Stay tuned. Either way, we'll have our normal Friday blog, with the answers to the pop Roulette quiz we hit you with last week. See you then!

Aces "College Of Casino Game Knowledge:" Ten Not-So-Tough Mid-Term Questions About Roulette

2011-06-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Aces Casino has always taken pride in being the number one Orange County casino party company, a fact we don't take for granted. Besides putting on fabulous casino parties in the Southern California area for over 17 years, Aces Casino Entertainment has also taken on the task of training would-be casino gaming enthusiasts in the area of what we call, "The How-To's" of the games themselves. Hey, when you're playing with fake chips, you better have a fall-back option.

Yes, It's true - We LOVE teaching players these casino games we love so much. It's so much easier giving classes on just how the games work when you can give your students "Hands-On Experience" at casino-quality tables with phony, valueless chips. They get the real "feel" of the game's play and speed, without feeling the "pinch" of losing their hard-earned cash. "Win-Win."

However - Once we started the Aces Casino Blog, we discovered one interesting factoid: Our faithful Blog-readers normally can't attend our Orange County casino party happenings here in SoCal. Solution? Why, It's the Aces Casino Blog's own "Mid-Term College of Casino Game Knowledge," of course! Last year we published our blog's Mid-Term on Blackjack in true/false form (the link can be found here), and THIS year, It's Roulette's turn.

OK, here's the only hint we'll give you.

OK, students. Sharpen those #2 pencils, and open the Roulette test booklet. Inside, you'll find ten questions concerning the fun, yet frustrating game of Roulette. Each question will have three possible answers - Mark your paper from 1-to-10, and answer each question with an "A," a "B," or "C." We'll give the quiz today, and the answers next Friday, one week from today, in this same Aces Casino Orange County casino party blog. Ready? Begin.

1. Roulette in its modern form dates back to:

Baden-Baden in the 1500s.
Paris in the 1700s.
Las Vegas in the 1900s.

2. The most important difference between American and European roulette is:

There are more bets available in Europe.
The U.S. wheel is more finely balanced.
The European wheel does not have 00.

3. An American roulette wheel has:

36 numbers.
37 numbers.
38 numbers.

4. The wheel has numbers arranged:

So that consecutive numbers are approximately opposite each other.
In numerical order.
In numerical order, except that 0 and 00 are opposite each other.

5. English engineer Joseph Jaggers is famous for:

Breaking the bank at Monte Carlo.
Inventing the roulette wheel.
Introducing roulette to the United States.

6. At the roulette table, roulette chips have a value:

Of $1 each.
Of $5 each.
Determined when you buy them.

7. At the cashier's cage, roulette chips have a value of:

Zero.
$1 each.
$5 each.

8. The house edge at American roulette:

Is higher than at most table games.
Is lower than at most table games
Is about the same as at most table games.

9. Bets on the numbers themselves, whether single-number bets, or two-, three-, four-, five- or six-number combinations, are called"

Inside bets
Outside bets
Number bets.

10. A player betting on red/back, first 18/last 18, even/odd, dozens or columns:

May satisfy the minimum bet requirement by spreading smaller bets among several of those options.
May make several bets smaller than the table minimum provided they add up to at least twice the posted minimum.
Must bet at least the table minimum on each of those propositions.

All right, students. Put your pencils down. We here at Aces Casino, the Los Angeles Casino Party Kingpins, wish you good luck on your test. We'll see you back here next Friday with the answers!

Aces Blog: 3 Places in Vegas that you Didn't Know Existed, but Should be on Your "Must-See" List

2011-06-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

It's true that Aces Casino, being the "virtual" orange county casino party company that we are, gets a lot of questions at each and every event we host that have something to do with the REAL casinos, specifically, the ones in Las Vegas, Nevada. After all, what better time is there to ask questions about "Vegas" than playing the games they PLAY in the city they call "Glitter Gulch" than actually being AROUND the casino games themselves? It kinda gets one in the "Vegas" mood, especially when the games WE provide are played with fake chips. (All the fun, without the "sting.")

Yes, questions abound about Las Vegas, but sometimes, those questions from our clients and their guests don't have anything to do with Aces Casino, SoCal's top orange county casino night company, OR the games that Aces Casino OR the Las Vegas casinos have to offer. Sometimes, people just ask questions like, "Hey, Aces, tell us about some of the places in Las Vegas that we don't know about, places that aren't necessarily gambling spots, but might be fun to visit."

Your wish is my command, my friends. Here's a list of three out-of-the-way, inexpensive (or free) places that we'd put on anyone's "Must-See" list when heading out to Las Vegas on your next visit. For most of these, you'll need a sense of 'nostalgia interest,' or else, you're in the wrong place...

#1 -- The Neon Museum (A.K.A. "The Neon Boneyard")

The Neon Museum, located at 821 Las Vegas Blvd. North (Downtown Las Vegas), but, as you can tell by giving their web site linked here a quick perusal, they're NOT big on what we'd call, "surprise appearances." Translation: contact the working office at the museum as far in advance as possible (they recommend a two-week notice, most times) at 702-387-6366, and schedule an appointment. You WON'T be sorry.

Look, they even have Rosie O'Donnell's Shoes on display.

The staff over at the Neon Museum gives guided tours and provides mucho info on the history of some of the old neon signs that most of you might recognize from the past of Vegas. Not a lot of people even know the museum exists, but it's out there, and it's a must-see for ANYONE with interest in the past of this great city. Extra info -Ask about the locations of some of the other individual sites that the museum has used to display other pieces of the neon/sign history of Las Vegas. They're all OVER the city.

#2 -- The Sci-Fi Center

Located in the eclectic and low rent Commercial Center (large strip mall on the 900 block of East Sahara), The "Sci Fi Center" is run on the cheap, But they've done a lot with a little. They converted the spacious back room of a comic book shop into a small theater, complete with old theater chairs. And in the evenings on weekend days, they sell cheap tickets ($5 when I went) to watch classic science fiction television shows and movies, as well as the best and worst horror films ever made. It's fun, it's cheap and usually filled with welcoming staff and theatergoers.

If this type of film is your thing (and who DOESN'T like a campy horror classic every once in a while), the Sci-Fi Center is another of tyhe Aces Casino "Must-See" spots. You can link up to these guys and gals here, which is their Facebook page. Love Sci-Fi classics and comic books? This is the place for you, my friends. Don't miss it, courtesy of the top Orange County casino party company in SoCal. (We love being the Los Angeles casino party giant, too.)

It even LOOKS cool. A MUST-See.

#3 -- The Las Vegas Pinball Hall Of Fame

Now, I KNOW you haven't heard of THIS place. Come on, now...Who HASN'T played a few games of pinball, or better yet -- Who'd like to take another shot at one of the older pinball games that you USED to play, but can't find that particular game anywhere? I bet you thought that you were out of luck, that time had passed you by... Well, the staff here at Aces Casino is here to tell you that you're WRONG.

Not only is there a "Pinball Hall Of Fame," but ALL, and I mean ALL of the games in this pinball Mecca are operational, and available to play for pennies on the dollar. The PHOF is located at 1610 Tropicana Avenue in Vegas, right across from the Liberace Museum, and is a total throw-back to the past, and a blast for pinball addicts from ages 8 to 108. ALL of your old faves are there, it's "Pinball Nirvana."

Gimme a roll of quarters, and get out of my way.

You can find the Pinball Hall Of Fame website here, and don't worry about bringing enough quarters - They'll gladly make change for you on site. Last time I was there, the hours were 11am-to-11pm, 7 days a week. Full-blown nostalgia is inside this 10,000 square foot homage to flipper-itis. Does this look like fun, or what? You're welcome, just another way that our orange county casino party company can give back to the masses.

As you can probably tell, we're all about games here at Aces Casino, as you can tell with this entry. That last one's our favorite, the Pinball museum. I've always wanted a place where I could go and touch the "artifacts." Try touching those mummies over at Bowers Museum and watch what happens. (I did. Long story, for some other blog.) Great Blog suggestion by the staff here to kick off the week -- We'll be back on Friday with another entry in the Aces Casino Blog, A.K.A. "The Parakeet Page." Have a good week, and we'll see you on Friday!

Tuesday ALREADY? It MUST be Time For Our Top 3 Random "In The News" Observations 4 This Week

2011-06-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here at Aces Casino, the top orange county casino party company in the southland, we take pride in putting on simply the best casino parties in the industry. And, without question, it's no secret how we accomplish this amazing feat - It's our staff. Someone should be using the Aces Casino team members in a reality show. They're eclectic, hilarious, and highly professional. In short, they're SO good at what they do.

We bring this well-known fact up here is the blog for one reason - Out staff always helps me out of a writer's block" prob. (Just like today.) All I need to do is ask a few of our 'crazies' what has their attention when it comes to the latest news that's making headlines here locally, or even nationally, and 'Voila!' Instant blog column.

The following is a list of Aces Casino's "Top 5 news items making news here at the Aces Casino Entertainment facility in beautiful downtown Whittier....." - You'll soon find out why these goofballs belong HERE, and not working for CNN or Fox....

1. ABC's "The Bachelorette" causes panic in the Aces Casino hallways

Damn...I hate it when I'm not in the loop, but this lil' ditty is causing a full-fledged ruckus in the break room. I must admit that I haven't seen an episode of this "Bachelorette" show, but it sounds like I should. Word is that Ashley Hebert, the 2011 "Bachelorette" herself, has had her heart broken by some dope after only 3 episodes of the show. How is that POSSIBLE? (Ed. note: watch it and see, you twit!)

Come to find out that some guy she really liked (A man named Bentley Williams, I'm told) told her that he was hoping for ANOTHER girl to be the Bachelorette, some chick that appeared on LAST year's show. Which makes me pose the question, "Uhh, dude, what made you think LAST year's girl would be on THIS year?" Anyway, this guy supposedly leads her on, comforting her when some other dope starts taking pot-shots at her, and then drops this nuke on her later. Cue the sobbing Bachelorette.

Shoulda slapped him right about now.

Holy smokes, I gotta check this out. Here's the link that may explain my rambling synopsis. I'll be checkin' it out, too, right after posting this drivel. I'm moving this to my "Must-See" list. Like I said, I haven't seen any of this yet, but I hope she's OK. That guy sounds like a real low-life. Stay tuned....

2. Chloe Kardashian has "Nip-Slip" on Fox-TV (?)

Damn, I missed THIS one, too! I must be watching the wrong shows.

Huge props to a friend of mine, Carter Ellis, for calling this one three weeks ago. I'm sorry, but these Kardashian chicks are starting to get on my nerves. They obviously will do ANYTHING to get on TV. What next? Whoa, hold on, I don't really care what's next. Ellis told me that this Chloe girl and that Laker player ain't even married. (Like I care.) That, and she looks like a guy. Every time I hear about this woman, that song, "Dude looks like a lady" gets into my head. (THAT, I care about.) Stop the madness, the 15 minutes are UP, already.

3. Tiger Woods to miss 2011 U. S. Open

I knew from the very first moment I picked up a golf club (and then threw it into the lake 8 minutes later) that golf was 99% mental. From the standpoint of Woods being one of the most dominant forces in the golf world, this collapse bothers me. It looks like not only his mental game has unraveled, but his physical game is beginning to do the same.

This is a shame, it really is. He may never return to the great golfer that he once was. v. Note to all athletes-to-be: Stay on task, and keep all aspects of your game together, including your personal life. Don't think that this can't happen to you, too.

Short blog article this Tuesday....Reason? We have a LOT of events taking place, starting with this Thursday. We'll get some new pictures, and maybe even some new video. Here's a hint as just where Aces Casino, the los angeles casino party company kingpin, is going this weekend - We'll be on the 44th floor. We're also reminded that we've never blogged about our meeting up with "Team Kardashian" last March, during an event in Calabasas. We may just have to get that story written: it was actually pretty bizarre. (Gee, what a surprise.)

We'll see you later in the week. Have a good Tuesday, and call Aces Casino if you need help with your next casino party. We're here to help!

Aces Casino Blog: All The News That's Fit To Print, Straight From Our Own Aces Casino "News" Desk

2011-06-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

You just HAVE to love the entertainment business.

It seems like every time you open up the newspaper or check the latest "celebrity gossip magazines" on the internet like TMZ or The Smoking Gun (yes, we love those, too), there's ALWAYS something happening. "Who's turn is it to goof up in Hollywood," it seems....

Here at Aces Casino, I think It's some sort of rule that you DO have to love the entertainment biz (and we do). When it comes to one of the Orange County casino party leaders, well, we're BIG on entertainment - And fortunately, we're SMALL on goof-ups. (Hopefully, someone at our main office has finally forgotten about my moment of amnesia last month, when I forgot to tie down one of our free-play slot machines last weekend. Oops. Sorry about that.)

Thank goodness that the world of entertainment has this never-ending list of dopey people and celebs that can't wait to show off their ability to screw up and get "busted" while doing the stupidest things imaginable. And because of this unending supply of zingers, we've decided that today's "Aces News" segment should be dedicated to the latest goof-ups, malaprops and current events happening in the "entertainment" industry, courtesy of the Orange County casino party leaders, Aces Casino Entertainment. (That, and we couldn't think of anything else.)

-- "Snooki Crashes into Italian Police Car" -- I'm guessing that the Polizzi probably avoided "The Snook's" first five attempts at this pub-stunt before she finally succeeded and rammed into the vehicle. You could throw the Italian book at her, I suppose, but she can't read it, anyway. I bet the country can't WAIT until those "Jersey Snores" get the el-deport-o.

"American Grenade detained in Italy."

-- "Couple hiding baby's gender from media" -- I must be missing something here. Who CARES? The kid's four months old. I'm sure that this "breaking news story" from Canada will hit us someday, when the gender of this couple's baby is finally known. "Gosh, I can't WAIT." I mean, seriously -- Who in Hades CARES about this? How did this become a story? It's like all of those Hollywood-types that make it their habit to let you know that they're gay. I mean, come ON, now. Do I go around telling everyone that I'm straight? No. Reason? NOBODY CARES. Keep all of this to yourself, people. Puh-LEEEASE..

-- "Father at Dodgers' Game Drops his own KID to get a Foul Ball" -- Nice goin', Dad. That reminds me -- Father's Day is what, June 19th? I know a father that'll get super-glue for a present. Notice he dropped the BALL, too. One rule that we have at Aces Casino -- If you're going to throw your own child under the bud for a foul ball, at least CATCH it. Our orange county casino night dealers have sure hands, they never drop ANYTHING (except one-liners).

-- "California Medical Board revokes license of OctoMom doctor" -- Gee, THERE'S a surprise. This lady lives about six blocks from me. There USED to be a stream of traffic going over to her place. Not any more. Must be another circus in town. I know there's a lot of animosity in regards to what she's done, but I can't help but wish her well. She has a tough road ahead, now that the looky-lo's and the social media are tired of the tale. She's running out of stuff to sell to get by, unless she starts having garage sales to sell off the extra kids. (Gawd, I hope I'm wrong.)

PLEASE don't sell this tape, Nadya. PLEASE don't.

That's all for now, ladies and germs. Remember, Aces Casino is handing out SERIOUS deals ALL SUMMER LONG thru August of 2011, so anyone planning that fantastic casino night in-home party or organizational fundraiser should immediately call the top orange county casino party leaders, Aces Casino, for a low, LOW quote, and let's have some casino party FUN!

Aces Casino Blog: The Staff Gives Their Top 3 List Regarding Various Topics (Some Good, Some Bad)

2011-05-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

The staff at Aces Casino was sittin' around the ol' water cooler the other day, when the subject of "Bad News can come in all sorts of ways" came up. That suggestion was all it took to get this orange county casino party crew riffing on an endless supply of muse and hilarity.

And, since all conversations that take place inside these Aces Casino walls are the property of Aces Casino Entertainment, Inc., we thought that we'd be shirking our duties if we DIDN'T bring these same ramblings to the Aces Casino Blog. (The owner of the company told me, 'It's good to be the King,' when he heard about this Blog entry. That's his way of saying he'll compensate the staffers with his usual 'Continental Breakfast' next week -- Two rolls, and a cup of coffee. Told you we're cheap.)

So, courtesy of the orange county casino party leader, here's what's on the mind of the Aces Casino team when it comes to the subject of "Bad News," along with other helpful hints to recognize the signs of oncoming problems in all walks of life...

--Three people you don't want knocking at your front door --

1. Chris Hansen. If HE'S at the front door, don't let your wife answer. That "Dateline" guy's interested in your latest online date with someone that's younger than that "Big Mac" on your plate.

Uhh, yeah, this is not a good thing.

2. The Jehovah's Witnesses. They hit our "Bad" list when we found out they don't celebrate ANY holidays. What's up with that? There goes all of our events! Uhh, no. Get that watchtower out of here.

3. The neighbor that's always borrowing something. "Seinfeld's" Kramer was funny. My cheap neighbor isn't. My next-door neighbor can open up his own Home Depot store with all the tools he's borrowed from me. Never seems to return them....I'll send the Jehovah's witnesses over there next time.

--Three quick ways to ruin an orange county casino night --

1. Spill a drink at the table. Have a great time, but be CAREFUL, people! You knock a drink over at the Blackjack table, and it's a big mess. Gets all over the cards, the chips, everything. Slows down the night when you have to clean up. And we're still surprised that some people put down their drink INSIDE the Craps table, then are truly shocked when the motion of throwing the dice knocks the drink over. Duh! Use the drink holders, you guys!

2. Cheat. They're FAKE CHIPS, people! The raffle tickets at the end aren't worth forever tarnishing whatever is left of your dignity and reputation. The "pit bosses" see what you're doing at the tables. We can fix your "net worth" later with the tickets, and usually do. Any reputable los angeles casino party company knows the deal. Don't do it, ain't worth it.

3. Throw one of the tables overboard. See this link. 'Nuff said. Didn't ruin the party, and actually became Aces Casino legend, but we'd rather this not become a habit. Most of our delivery team can't swim.

--Three signs that your favorite sports team isn't doing so well --

1. Your favorite team's owner gives your manager the dreaded "vote of confidence." Translation: Your baseball team's dead, and the manager has one week to clean out his desk. Hop out of the oven, babe. You're done.

2. The P.A. announcer only needed six minutes to personally count all the people inside the stadium watching the game to announce the attendance. I went to a Padres' game last month that only had about 8,000 people at Petco Park, but the announced attendance was given at something like 29,000+. Don't you actually have to GO to be in attendance?

3. Your son is using your favorite team shirt to wash his car, and told you that since the team's in last place, that you wouldn't be wanting it any more. Yeah, thanks, kid. I'll get you back when you introduce your new girlfriend to the family, and I show up with my teeth blacked out, and talkin' like a hillbilly. Leave my shirt alone, next time.

--Three sure-fire ways to tell you're about to be fired

1. Your long-time cubicle has been moved somewhere else in the building over the weekend, and no one seems to know where it is now. Bonus tip - No one wants to make eye contact with you when you ask them where your cubicle went.

2. Do you suddenly feel uncomfortable at work? Is the boss giving vital biz information to your co-workers instead of you? Do you suddenly have very little to do at work? As the Ex-Gov would say, "Asta La Vista, Bay-Bee."

3. The man that everyone knows by the nickname "The Turk," the guy that is the one that has consistently handed out bad news for other ex-employees in the past, comes into your now-relocated cubicle and says, "Boss wants to see you. Bring your playbook." Nah, that's not good.

--Three things that are tougher than they look to get done

1. Planting a new lawn in your front yard. Hell, I thought it was just, 'throw the grass plots out there, it's just like putting in a new rug. WRONG. Just wait until the Home Depot guy tells you that you'll need to rent a roto-tiller and a big roller-thingie. Jeez, I just wanted some new grass. HARD work, my friends. Take it from me - Pick up "mucho hombres" from outside the 'Depot' before headin' back with all the rental equipment. You'll thank me later.

2. Going to the DMV to take care of a simple paperwork snafu. When you look in the DMV dictionary under the word, "simple," it has a picture of a Rubix Cube. If you belong to "Triple-A," go over THERE, first. You'll live longer. But, if you DO have to go into the DMV 'Black Hole,' take the time to watch the people in the written testing area. They're cheating like CRAZY in there. It's like playing poker in the Old West. The only thing missing is the cards and the guns. Oops, I take that back -- There's a guy with a gun in his back pocket taking a test in there. I'm thinkin' he's going to pass his test.

This is the line you stand in just to get in line somewhere else.

3. Finding those weird items on the supermarket shelves that your wife needs to fix that holiday meal for the family. We're talking about stuff that you NEVER normally buy. Now I know WHY the wife sends ME to the store to get this stuff - SHE doesn't know where the stuff is inside that store, either. Knorr vegetable mix, water chestnuts, lady fingers? I must have been at the store for three hours looking for that crap. Then, I got chastised by this asian lady for "racial profiling" when I asked her where the water chestnuts were. Oh, sure, Happy Easter. Right back at'cha.

Boy, it's a good thing I know something about the orange county casino party business, because after writing THIS piece for the Aces Casino Blog, it sure looks like I don't know jack about anything else. So, give us a call and let us help you with your next casino night party. We do los angeles casino party events, too. We just don't do the DMV, grocery shopping, or lawn work any more. Now THAT'S hard work...

Aces Casino Blog: The GRAD NIGHTS Are Coming!!

2011-05-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here's some breaking news from Aces Casino, the Orange County casino night party leaders - The GRAD NIGHTS ARE COMING!

Yeah, I know, stop the presses.... I'm sure that most of you that own a current calendar (I guess that leaves Harold Camping out) can pretty much figure out that the month of June means junior high and high school graduation parties.

Important event calendar tip #1: If you haven't already booked your 2011 "Grad Night Party" with Aces Casino, you're out of luck. The parties start in about three weeks, and we're sold out for 2011. Important event calendar tip #2: Book NOW for 2012. We're not the #1 Orange County casino party leader for nothing. We're good, and better yet, we're cheap! We love new grad night clients.

By the way, If you've been let down by your old company that brings mere toys to your kids, dump 'em. Get someone new. There are three really good casino party companies in southern California, and we're one of them. We'll even tell you who the other two are, if you ask us. Around Aces Casino, it's all about serving the client. We can't do ALL of the parties, but we know who's good, and who "ain't." New clients are always surprised at what we call our "Miracle on 34th Street mindset," but frequent clients aren't. You'll see... (Grin)

Now, since our casino night company has been around so long, people always ask us, "just what do we DO with a Grad Night?" Funny you should ask.... If you look in the Aces Casino dictionary under "Grad Nights," here's what you might find.....

Definition: Grad Night - The Grad Night trend was originally spurred by concerns about teens drinking and driving on graduation night. Some high schools began putting seniors on a bus and sending them to Disneyland, for example, or another amusement park to play all night in a safe, alcohol-free environment. But a little over two decades ago, parents in Orange County, CA and other areas began hosting their own Grad Night celebrations on campus.

I bet THESE centerpieces cost Disney a pretty penny.

These extremely popular parties can be as elaborate - a re-creation of Pirates of the Caribbean, ships and all, for example (shameless Disney plug there, I know. LOVE Disney.), or a fully realized Hogwarts and Hogsmeade for Harry Potter fans - as creative parent volunteers desire. At some schools, Grad Night preparation begins the day after the previous year's celebration is taken down. (This is important. But, It's a labor of love. I promise.) Others bring in professional companies (like us) to mount an elaborate interactive event for the kids, or team up with other schools in the area to pool resources and creativity.

Grad Night Food, Fun & Games

A typical Grad Night includes buffets and breakfast, as well as casino games, dancing, and themed or dorm crafts. There may be hair salons and a "tattoo" parlor, climbing walls and big inflatable games and bouncy houses. Live entertainment may include fortune tellers, hypnotists, hip hip dance lessons, and so on. It's a very popular graduation celebration and participation can run as high as 98% at some schools. (Low income students are usually offered free or reduced price tickets to ensure that every student has the opportunity to participate.)

It's expensive and time consuming to mount one of these events, but many parents see it as a final gift to the graduating class. And more than a few parents say spending all those senior year weekends painting pirate ships with friends helps them deal with the emotions of watching their child grow up, graduate and leave for college.

Yep, there's some good advice from the event planning staff at Aces Casino, the orange county casino party giant. Remember... If you need ANY assistance in locating a niche type of entertainment, or just have questions about putting on ANY type of event, just call your favorite orange county casino rental company at 562-943-5693, and have your pencil ready. And for those of you that have your "Grad Night" already in place and ready to go -- Good luck, enjoy it, and have fun! I know that WE will! At Aces Casino, fun is mandatory. When your company motto is, "This Beats Working," ya kinda have a tendency to go that way!

Tag: los angeles casino rental, los angeles casino party, los angeles casino night

Aces Casino Blog: Top 5 "News" Stories That Come Straight Out Of The "Are YOU Kidding Me?" File

2011-05-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Aces Casino Entertainment has ALWAYS been known for it's fantastic Orange County Casino Night parties and events, and one of the main reasons for that is simple -- Aces isn't just a casino party company, It's a treasure-trove of some of the brightest, wittiest, and most entertaining personalities on the planet. It just so happens that they're ALSO the top casino party staffers in the business, a team that loves to play casino-based games. For us, It's the PERFECT marriage, a casino party "synergy," if you will.

Now, the reason we bring up this self-serving, useless fact here in the Aces Casino Blog is ALSO simple -- Our staff is the guiding force behind this lil' drivel sheet that we "try" to post twice a week. Someone should be recording their "B.S." sessions here in the offices, they're THAT funny. If Conan, Jay or David need a fresh team of comedy writers, they should contact us. We'll share, we promise.

Any time yours truly needs to end another Aces Casino Blog marathon "writers' block" session, all I need to do is wander over to the lounge, and take in the latest conversation about life in general. BOOM. End of writers' block. This week, the topic at the ol' water cooler was "stories in the news that drive us crazy." So, courtesy of the best staff in the Orange County casino party business, here are the Aces Casino "Top 5 news stories that belong in the 'Are YOU Kidding ME' file".....

#5 -- "Situation suing father in attempt to stop internet exploitation"

I suppose that there are two ways to look at the recent 'situation' between the "Jersey Shore" star and his father. #1 -- "Come on, Dad! I only have fifteen minutes of fame. There's no DOUBT the money's going to dry up soon. I already have an entourage to feed, I can't afford med insurance, too!" Or, #2 -- Anyone surprised that "The Situation" has turned on his father over money obviously hasn't been paying attention. It shouldn't shock anyone when you finally find out extremely shallow this guy is.

One more thing -- The father wants his own reality show. Oh. Never mind. Wow, what a family. Thank your lucky stars, people. Time to go and give a family member a hug..... Unless they want to be PAID for it.

Pretty much says it all.

#4 -- "Big Five Oil Companies Profits Approach $1T For Decade"

That's "T," as in "Trillion." We're not talking "Crude Oil Pricing" any more. It's more like "Obscene Oil Pricing." The story linked to the headline talks about the United States government considering rolling back subsidies that we are taxed for to "assist the oil companies to find new places and ways to get oil." Phhh... A Trillion-Dollar profit over the last ten years, and you need the taxpayers to subsidize your "explorations?"

The price of gas is strangling our industry, among many others. The greed with these oil companies is staggering.... I was chagrined to find out that my attempt to locate Doc Brown's DeLorean that he used in the movie, "Back To The Future," had been removed from the Universal Studios back-lot recently and stored away somewhere. It's probably sitting next to the Arc of the Covenant.

Damn.... Just when you were hoping for a car that ran on banana peels, THIS happens. Hey, "Big Five" -- KNOCK IT OFF. I'll pay $2.50/gallon, that's fair. Go and do your OWN exploring. Last time I was in Vegas, I accidentally ran into an Exxon party at Caesar's Palace. I THEN knew why I was paying $4/per. Enough's enough. Cut 'em off, Barack.

#3 -- Schwarzenegger admits to fathering 10-year-old Love Child"

Holy MOLY. The minute that the "Terminator" leaves the Governor's mansion in California, we find out he's handing out pardons to murderous sons of political insiders. (Ed. Note: The San Diego D.A. is attempting to nullify the pardon.) THEN, word leaks out that Arnie has a LOVE CHILD thru one of his recently-retired staffers? What did she retire from, the JOB, or the "Terminator?" THAT girl's going to be SWARMED by the Cali media machine.

Sad. Just. SAD. Makes me want to run for office, to try and stem the tide of smarmy, slithering political cretins. Then, I'm told that no one else around here would write the Aces Casino Blog. So much for my political career. It feels good to be needed by the top orange county casino party company in SoCal.

#2 -- "Two-Headed Turtle To Predict World Hockey Championships"

You KNOW the world has a gambling problem when people asre turning to some mutant tow-headed ninja turtle to help them bet on games. And not just GAMES -- World Championship HOCKEY games. What the hell does a turtle know about hockey? Now, CURLING, I could understand. They LOOK like curling stones, turtles do. But Hockey?

We'll keep you posted on this turtles' record in picking games. Good thing the site's called "Free Soccer Picks Dot Com," or something like that. I'd hate to have to think I'm buying lettuce for that dopey terrapin to feed me winners. Hope the turtle's heads don't argue about the picks. If one likes the USA, and one likes Canada, we're in trouble. Rocky's manager says they make good soup. One wrong pick, and I'm all for it.

Interesting Side Note -- (And I am NOT kidding) -- Did you ALSO know that there used to be an octopus that people used to pick World Cup Soccer results in 2010, and that the octopus had almost a perfect record in picking winners, including the finals? True story, I kid you not. Epilogue -- Don't bother calling the octopus for Super Bowl predictions. It died of old age last year. Either that, or it was cooked by British soccer hooligans, I can't remember which.

"We're likin' the Russians this year!"

#1 -- "Something Went Wrong In Jet Crash, Expert Says"

Gee, ya think?

This story proves that our Orange County Casino Night Party company has too much time on it's hands. Either that, or you can easily entertain yourself by typing in requests for "stupid news stories." Our staff was trading idiotic but true news headlines all day. Yes, just another day at the Aces Casino offices.

Aces Casino Blog: Random Thoughts In Hodgepodge Form, A.K.A. Our Latest Top 3 "Love/Hate" Lists

2011-05-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

Here at Aces Casino, the Orange County casino party leader, there are six words that instill total FEAR in this reporter: "Who forgot to post the Blog?" (Sigh) Uhh, yeah, that would be ME. OK, I got this.....Hey, it's not so bad: While I create this bi-weekly drivel, they give me all the Diet Pepsi I can drink while I work on the Blog. Yep, that's me, the top negotiator in the Aces Casino offices. I drive a HARD bargain, my friends. Corner office, here I come.... (Ed. Note: keep your day job.)

Here's a peek behind the Aces Casino curtain on just how we "create the Magic:" When it's time to decide just what goes into the blog for any particular publishing date, we use a very scientific method -- We have someone throw a dart at our "Master Blog Board." Wherever the dart lands, that's the topic for the day.

Today, we asked the mailman to toss the dart. Wow, that guy should pitch for the Angels, he throws hard. One problem, though: His 105-MPH toss landed right smack dab on the line between "Things we LOVE," and "Things we HATE." So, without further fanfare, here's a lil' Blog-Hybrid that we'll call "The Latest from our Top 3 Love/Hate Lists."

"Aces Casino Top 3 Movies that we can't WAIT to see this year."

#1 -- "Super 8." Spielberg and J. J. Abrams, two of our fave directors, collaborating on ONE film? Gimme. #2 -- "Captain America, First Avenger." Marvel's got it goin' ON. They've made so many good films lately, too many to count. They're approaching "Pixar" status around here. LOVED 'Thor,' and THIS movie looks spectacular. That "Avengers" film in 2012's gonna be the bomb. #3 -- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2." My kids got me hooked on this franchise last year. I've seen 'em all, and can't wait for the last one. (Already read the book. It's fabulous.)

"Aces Casino Top 3 Event Venues"

#1 -- Phoenix Club, Anaheim. It's where the Orange County casino night party kingpins were born in '94. GREAT place for events, and they don't pay us to say that. #2 -- K. Hovnanian 'Lodge,' Beaumont / Hemet / Palm Springs / Bakersfield. GREAT people, super staff to work with, the buildings are all immaculate, couldn't ask for anything more. #3 --a 452-way tie for third. We're not THAT dumb.

"Aces Casino Top 3 places we wish were still around"

#1 -- Amada, Buena Park. Beautiful facility, but Amada's first love is their fabrication machinery. They eliminated their catering facility in 2009, to concentrate on their cash-cow products. We miss it. #2 -- Sequoia Athletic Club, Buena Park. Easiest facility to set up our Orange County casino party equipment EVER. It's a Target, now. Boy, we sure miss THIS one, too. #3 -- Movieland Wax Museum, Buena Park. When the wax figures left, so did the catering venue. Nice place to put on events, fine staff.

"Aces Casino 3 toughest venues to put on casino parties"

#1 -- Queen Mary, Long Beach. 70-year-old elevators and uneven floors make this venue the all-time toughest in the biz to work. Staff is great, very professional, but that ship is TOUGH. It's easier to set up inside the sub, than the QM. A one-hour set-up at a normal venue takes 3.5 hours there. #2 -- Bonaventure Hotel, L.A. Loading dock the size of a postage stamp, and every elevator's an adventure. #3 -- Crowne Plaza Hotel, Commerce. A story in itself. When the elevators broke down before the delivery team could get the equipment out after another fine Aces Casino event, the four-person extraction team had to stay the night, until the repairmen could come and fix the problem. They'll never get to #1 with the "Queen" around, though. Close, but no cigar.

Well, that's all for an abbreviated Aces Casino Blog post this week. We still owe our faithful readers that Kardashian story from an event last month, and we promise to get it in print, as soon as we determine that they won't sue us. One way or the other, we'll be back next week with another of the blog postings that helped Aces Casino achieve what the Orange County Register labeled, "professionally irreverent" status a few months ago. Hey: Casino parties are our game, and entertainment is in our name. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think it's time to deal with that six-pack of Diet Pepsi's I've "rented." Have a good weekend!

Aces Casino Blog: Top 3 Things We've Known For a LONG time, That Others Never Seem to Figure Out

2011-05-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, It's SO good to be back here and situated at the Blogger desk of Aces Casino, the Orange County casino night party leader. When you've been dubbed the official "propaganda minister" of the company, you MUST be in the right place.

And, as the official liaison to the Aces Casino Entertainment "Department of Useless Information," we thought that it might be time to remind our throng of some 14 subscribers of some seemingly little-known facts when it comes to the art of casino gaming.

OK, actually, the boss suggested the topic for today's entry. Everybody's a Blog critic. But, it IS a pretty good idea, and yours truly has never shied away from stealing someone else's good idea, so, let's do it. Courtesy of the Orange County casino party leaders, here is Aces Casino's "Top 3 Things We've Known For a LONG time, That Others Never Seem to Figure Out."

#3 -- The "Odds" bet is the best bet on the Craps Table

I thought THIS one was a gimme, but, apparently not, if you go by the countless numbers of players that consistently skip the chance to place this bet behind their original "pass line" bet. In 2010, the Aces Casino Blog touched on how to begin playing the game of Craps in this link, and followed up with Part Two of the series with THIS link, but didn't mention the "Odds Bet." That's coming in Part 3 of the Craps saga, coming soon to a Blog near you.

We're ALWAYS teaching players to place the "Odds Bet," a bet that has no actual decal on the Craps layout to show it's there, but take our word for it - It's there. Placing your Odds Bet right behind your Pass Line bet on the layout is the right place to put it.

This bet shows "laying odds" on the "Don't Pass." That's Craps 201.

It ends up looking like two bets, one right behind the other, and it's the best bet on the Craps table, by FAR. Why? Well, I'll tell you; It's the only bet on the entire table that the house has NO MATHEMATICAL ADVANTAGE over the player.

Here's an example. On a "point" of six, the odds against a player shooting a six before a seven on the dice are 6-to-5. But, should you SHOOT a six before a seven, the dealers will pay off any "odds bet" at what is called "true dice odds." Therefore, any winning odds bet is paid at "true dice odds," or $6 for every $5 wagered.

The odds against the six or eight coming up on the dice are 6/5 against; against the five and nine? 3/2. Against the four and ten? 2/1. ANY time you get a chance to place an odds bet, TAKE IT. The house has no advantage. That's a good thing.

Say that you placed a $5 pass line bet, and the point came up four. Then, you placed a $10 "odds bet" behind your pass line bet. (That's called taking 'double odds,' or placing twice your original bet on the table for the odds bet.) Should a four come up before a seven, you'd win $5 for the pass line bet, PLUS $20 for the ODDS bet (2/1 odds against the four).

I know, it sounds complicated. You'll get it after about 30 minutes of play on a Craps table. ome to an Aces Casino party. We'll teach you. We're not the Orange County casino party leaders for nuthin'. Plus, when your company motto is "this beats working," well, you LOVE putting on casino parties. Trust me. (grin) Bottom line: TAKE the ODDS BET. We promise, it's the best bet at the table. We're changing America's mind on this, one player at a time.

#2 -- ALWAYS split Aces at the Blackjack table

We just saw this at a table at last weekend's Rancho Niguel Little League gala over at the Aliso Viejo Golf Course. I must have seen players avoiding the splitting of two aces time and time again. Here is a great Blackjack trainer when it comes to practicing your skill at "21," but the linked web site from our friends over at the Wizard of Odds ALSO has GREAT techniques at teaching the strategy behind the games.

Bottom line: Take advantage of this GREAT web site, and take advantage of the ability to split Aces at the table when you play Blackjack for keeps. Check out the "Wiz." Look it up, splitting Aces is the play.

#1 -- Soldiers, tanks and planes have NEVER had ANY effect against Godzilla

Yeah, I know, this doesn't have much to do with casino gaming, but as far as I'M concerned, this is THE number one thing that we've known for a while now, that the Japanese army seems to constantly ignore, time after time.

The Toho Film Company has made some 28 Godzilla films since 1954... We were watching one called "Godzilla, Tokyo S.O.S," which came out some 5 years ago. (Ed. Note: the film came out in 2003.) We watched this film after one of the Aces Casino events last week, a film that is something like #26 in the series. (And YOU thought "Rocky" made too many movies.)

Yep, it's the tried and true format; Godzilla comes poppin' out of the Sea Of Japan, and who's on shore waiting for him? That's right; It's none other than the Japanese army, armed with all kinds of guns, tanks, fighter jets, and even some magic-wand-looking laser-thingy's that shoot lightning bolts at out favorite 20-story buddy.

Does THIS guy look like planes, guns and tanks bother him?

Yep. I kid you not. The Japanese army is out on the front lines, AGAIN. Twenty-Five times, they've come face-to-face with Godzilla, and twenty-five times, Godzilla has mopped the floor with them. It's like the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Generals, only the Globetrotters shoot three-pointers at their opponent, instead of a nuclear blast that incinerates whatever it touches.

After 25 consecutive butt-kickings, you'd think that SOMEBODY in the Japanese Government would figure out by now that those soldiers and their lil' toys ain't gettin' the job done against Godzilla. Heck, in ONE movie, I saw the Japanese built a Godzilla-like robot, to pull a WWE - type thing on Godzilla. Didn't work, he just ripped the robot's head off, and rolled it down the alley for a strike.

Bottom line: Take it from Aces Casino, the Los Angeles County casino party leader. After 28 movies, you guys have to get the hint. No more tanks, guns, and planes. THey don't work, trust me. Hey - We've got some "Raid Pest-Be-Gone" somewhere in the back offices that looks like it kills ANYTHING we spray it on. We'll come out and spray him, if you want us to. That oughta do the trick.

And, if it doesn't? Someone go find that flying turtle with the flames coming out of his feetie-holes that I saw in a movie last year. He's probably not doing anything, and he'll probably let you pay him in lettuce.

Aces Casino Blog: After So Many Horrible Memories of 9/11, Finally, A Piece Of "Very Good News" Hits

2011-05-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

The Offices here at Aces Casino seem to have been having a tough time recently. Oh, not because the Orange County casino party leader has been having troubles with their casino events; far from it. When it comes to the day-to-day operations here at Aces Casino, things couldn't be better. The 2011 casino equipment has arrived and is beautiful, the Aces event calendar is packed with a slew of upcoming parties, and our 2011 events have all gone spectacularly.

No, no trouble there. The trouble WE'RE having is OUTSIDE the offices. It's local news, national news, what we here at Aces Casino call "The Real World." First, we have that terrible situation with Bryan Stow, the baseball fan that was attacked at Dodger Stadium and the plight of he and his family as Mr. Stow fights for his life in a California hospital...

And then, THIS. Word that a United States military operation has confirmed that Al-Queda's figurehead leader, Osama Bin Laden, had been killed sometime last week in a raid on his affluent living compound in Pakistan.

Welcome back to the Real World, Aces Casino.

Around here, if you mention the name, "Bin Laden," you just can't HELP but NOT think about that tragic day in 2001, when Osama Bin Laden's Al-Queda forces carried out their nefarious plan that culminated in the destruction of the World Trade Center, an attack on the Pentagon, and the foiled plans of the hijackers that had commandeered United Flight 93 but were foiled by the bravest airline passengers the world has ever known.

And now comes word that the leader of the terrorist group that carried out "9/11" has himself been murdered.

This is a tough one for this reporter. "9/11" struck me VERY hard, just like it did so many people. It's changed how we do things, how we travel. It's caused us to "keep our guard up." Here at Aces Casino, as the Orange County Register so eloquently put it during a rave review of our services, we've been branded as "professionally irreverent," something we wear as a badge of honor. We're all about supplying fun to our many clients in the most professional manner available in the industry something we do VERY well.

Then, out of the blue, ANOTHER reminder of that tragic occurrence on 9/11.

Real life rears it's ugly head again. Yes, I suppose it's par for the course. This is huge world news, and I'm sure that some parts of the world will view this as a tragedy, this Al-Queda leader being murdered.

Not THIS part of the world.

Yes, someone losing their life is sad, and there are those that will undoubtedly say that this military operation "won't bring back the lives of those killed on 9/11."

To that, I say this -- Just like every other day of my life, I am so proud of the United States Military -- ALL of them, from JSOC to the Marines, the Army, Navy, Air Force, all the servicemen of the National Guard, EVERYONE that lays down or HAS laid down their own life EVERY DAY in their service to the USA. They are the BEST, every darned one of them, and they always HEAR that from your truly, every time I see one.

My friends sometimes think I'm nuts (Ed. Note: They don't THINK you're nuts - They KNOW it.)...One moment I'll be walking along conversing with them, and the next, I bolt off to shake the hand(s) of a serviceman I spot in a store, at a game, wherever. The military was a job that I could NEVER have done, so I'm darned proud and fully supportive of the men and women that DO that job, without fail, day after day in this crazy world we live in.

Bottom line -- On global television almost ten years ago, The President of the United States in 2001 told me they would NEVER stop until the perpetrators of that horrible attack were brought to justice. Today, the next POTUS stood at the podium to report to me and the rest of the world that the deed has been done.

Mission accomplished. Yes, I know that Bin Laden, because of him being so radioactive, wasn't near as active or a big factor in the terrorism business these many years, and there are a lot of splinter terrorist groups to be concerned about, but I don't care. Bin Laden did the deed, and now he paid for it, just like any other snot-nose that wants to sit in Bin Laden's seat, and steer the terrorism ship will down the road. You sit in that seat, and you'll get a visit from JSOC, too, bud. Don't EVER think you can hide from honor, truth, and justice.

Those 9/11 memories will never leave me, just like a lot of other people. I don't know why.... I had no known relatives that perished in the attacks. It just struck at my inner patriotism, I suppose. I remember going out and buying a flag to hang on the flagpole that fateful day. I wasn't the only one, either -- The first five or six stores that I went to, in order to BUY a flag, were sold out. The American people were WAY ahead of me.....

Yes, those memories WILL never leave me. But, thanks to a group of incredibly courageous operatives given the task of carrying out this mission, I now have ANOTHER memory to place beside the horror of those towers coming down. Justice HAS been done. God Bless our military, and God Bless America.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm guessing that the staff here in the office has the news on. The media is probably showing what has to be massive crowds flocking to "Ground Zero."

That's what I want to see. I'll be back doing the Orange County Casino Night Party thing for Aces Casino tomorrow, just like every Monday morning. But Tonight, I think I'd like to spend time with some of the citizens of New York.

Flip on the tube, and join me, will you?