Going to a charity casino night this weekend (2 Viewers)

dennis63

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I'm heading to a charity casino night in Exton, PA this Saturday evening at Brian's House Inc.

Brian's House is a non-profit assisting children and adults with developmental disabilities. They provide housing and run a day program where people can do activities, receive training, find jobs in the community, or work inside the program doing simple jobs for pay. My wife is the staff nurse at the day program, and is helping to organize and set up the event.

They're bringing in a caterer and a casino party company to set up poker, blackjack, craps and roulette. Tickets are $40 each or $75 per couple, which includes dinner, the bar, and a live band. (I'm guessing there's a limit at the bar. )

You receive chips, play games for more, then bid your chips on prizes donated by area, regional and national businesses. (North Face kicked in a lot of gear, as did several other large companies.)

The three top prizes will be auctioned silently, while others are open bidding. From what I hear, the top prizes are pretty serious.

Hoping to post pictures here of the actual event, which runs from 6 to 10 pm.

If anyone in the Greater Philadelphia / Southern New Jersey / Delaware area is interested in playing casino games for a great cause, PM me, as we have a few family tickets due to a last minute cancellation.

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My recommendation for casino nights. Hit the roulette table and use the Martingale strategy. Every casino night I have been to has failed to defend against it.
 
First, photos:

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The chips they were using:

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The event:

I wish more of the pictures came out well, but the lighting inside was flourescent, and even the best ones were a bit blurred. My wife bought the life-size, skinny young Elvis online and set up a "selfie with Elvis" thing near the front door.

The good news: More than 250 people showed up to play blackjack, craps and roulette. and all their money went to the non-profit. Essentially, you were playing casino games for chips, then cashing your chips for tickets, like playing Ski Ball at the beach. When you finished playing, you put tickets into a little bag in front of a prize for a chance to win that prize. The more you played and won, the more tickets you'd have to put into prize drawing bags, increasing your chance to win. They had around 30 prize baskets -- a weekend at a beach house in one, two tickets to the Pocono 400 and some Nascar stuff in another, and the like.

For $40, you got $60 in chips, dinner and open beer and wine bar. All the prizes and the beer and wine were donated, so the charity only had to cover food and the casino party company cost.

I got in before the event, so I had a chance to talk to the owner of the casino party company about the equipment. They set up seven blackjack tables, two nice 8-foot craps tables, a double layout roulette table with a pretty nice wheel, and a Wheel of Fortune prize wheel. The owner told me he had a full size roulette wheel at the shop from England. I asked him the brand name and he said it started with an "H." I should have offered to buy it right there. I told him what a Huxley wheel would be worth. He was stunned and said "I thought it was worth maybe a few hundred bucks."

The dealers used Chipco Unicorn Series chips -- red, green and black at the blackjack tables, with lots of other colors at the roulette table. Solids, no inlay. He bought them when they were less than $0.25 per chip, but said he loses about 20 chips at every event. I showed him a Key West chip, which he liked. When I told him what we pay for high-end custom chips, he looked like he just bit into a lemon.

Lots of people played blackjack, and a surprising number played craps. There was much cheering at the craps table. I tried to play roulette for a bit, but stood next to a guy who thought one whole layout was his personal property, put chips down on about 32 numbers every time, and used his elbows a little too much.

I mostly played blackjack. (Go figure). The dealers were really friendly, and the play very relaxed. Winning was pretty easy. (Isn't it always when it's not real money?) With just the most basic strategy, I went from a starting stack of $60 to a little over $400. I got lots of tickets. No prizes, but lots of tickets.

One surprise was the older dealer in the photo above. He used a cane to walk in slowly. Then he picked up the cards and lightning struck. He was very fast and accurate. It turns out this retired gentleman dealt in Atlantic City for about 30 years.

Overall, the organizers said the night was a great success, and they're already planning for next year. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out where we keep young Elvis for the next year.
 
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