Caesar's Starbucks no longer honoring Free Drinks for Diamond Elite

Apparently in February, Starbucks went to Seven Stars only for honoring the four daily free drink comps.

I know that some people were getting severely limited or refused all together regardless of Tier Level depending on their specific play type, but this change apparently was made across the entire Rewards Program sometime in February. Despite living in Vegas, I don't make it there often so this is my first encounter with it. Strangely, I haven't seen anything written about this on any of the Reward's forums, but I was denied at Starbucks (as Diamond Elite) and confirmed with the Rewards Center on the way out, fwiw.

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Originally Posted by VegasSpider

I know this is the wrong Druff forum for this, but i only browse the other one.

In any case, apparently in February, Starbucks went to Seven Stars only for honoring the four daily free drink comps.

I know that some people were getting severely limited or refused all together regardless of Tier Level depending on their specific play type, but this change apparently was made across the entire Rewards Program sometime in February. Despite living in Vegas, I don't make it there often so this is my first encounter with it. Strangely, I haven't seen anything written about this on any of the Reward's forums, but I was denied at Starbucks (as Diamond Elite) and confirmed with the Rewards Center on the way out, fwiw.

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Ya the worst of the nickel & diming BS

I was one of the first to break this story last year, but it was on my other site: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...ltipliers-etc)

Then I posted another thread with a 2025 update back in February: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...e-Vegas-market


So yeah, the 4 free drink thing is a gonner for all Diamond levels. Honestly there's a huge law of diminishing returns now for earning Diamond Plus and Diamond Elite, at least in the Vegas market.

I earned base Diamond and stopped there.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

I was one of the first to break this story last year, but it was on my other site: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...ltipliers-etc)

Then I posted another thread with a 2025 update back in February: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...e-Vegas-market


So yeah, the 4 free drink thing is a gonner for all Diamond levels. Honestly there's a huge law of diminishing returns now for earning Diamond Plus and Diamond Elite, at least in the Vegas market.

I earned base Diamond and stopped there.

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Thanks for moving this.... sorry wrong forum. I know you broke this last year, and I checked the other site, but i totally missed the Feb 2025 update.

You're 100% right, i'm struggling with base Diamond v. Seven Stars. The middle isn't relevant. The problem is I earn Diamond Elite every year just from my WSOP.com tier credits.... so it really shouldn't be a massive deal to just use the multiplier windows to get to Seven Stars, but even that doesn't get me terribly excited, so I don't even wanna take the small +EV and massive variance on slots to get there. I think ill probably do it this year, but i could also just bail the same as i have last couple of years... cause im kinda indifferent about it.

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Originally Posted by VegasSpider

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

I was one of the first to break this story last year, but it was on my other site: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...ltipliers-etc)

Then I posted another thread with a 2025 update back in February: https://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/sh...e-Vegas-market


So yeah, the 4 free drink thing is a gonner for all Diamond levels. Honestly there's a huge law of diminishing returns now for earning Diamond Plus and Diamond Elite, at least in the Vegas market.

I earned base Diamond and stopped there.

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Thanks for moving this.... sorry wrong forum. I know you broke this last year, and I checked the other site, but i totally missed the Feb 2025 update.

You're 100% right, i'm struggling with base Diamond v. Seven Stars. The middle isn't relevant. The problem is I earn Diamond Elite every year just from my WSOP.com tier credits.... so it really shouldn't be a massive deal to just use the multiplier windows to get to Seven Stars, but even that doesn't get me terribly excited, so I don't even wanna take the small +EV and massive variance on slots to get there. I think ill probably do it this year, but i could also just bail the same as i have last couple of years... cause im kinda indifferent about it.

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Truthfully, Seven Stars is a law of diminishing returns, also.

This has been true since they killed the "five free nights with no blackout" room benefit in 2018. That's when I gave up on Seven Stars, and have just gone for base Diamond.

Your tier status has no impact on the offers you get -- only the base benefits.

Back when I was Seven Stars, I did take advantage of the heavily discounted NCL cruise, and used the annual trip as a starting point for various road trips. But you're still not saving huge money, so I really didn't lose out on much by dropping Seven Stars.

Of course, as I always point out, no matter what status you earn, you have it until TWO calendar years later on January 31. So if you earn Diamond in January (as I did in 2025), you have it for 2 years without needing to re-earn it. It's far better to earn status at the beginning of the year, for this reason.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

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Originally Posted by VegasSpider

Thanks for moving this.... sorry wrong forum. I know you broke this last year, and I checked the other site, but i totally missed the Feb 2025 update.

You're 100% right, i'm struggling with base Diamond v. Seven Stars. The middle isn't relevant. The problem is I earn Diamond Elite every year just from my WSOP.com tier credits.... so it really shouldn't be a massive deal to just use the multiplier windows to get to Seven Stars, but even that doesn't get me terribly excited, so I don't even wanna take the small +EV and massive variance on slots to get there. I think ill probably do it this year, but i could also just bail the same as i have last couple of years... cause im kinda indifferent about it.

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Truthfully, Seven Stars is a law of diminishing returns, also.

This has been true since they killed the "five free nights with no blackout" room benefit in 2018. That's when I gave up on Seven Stars, and have just gone for base Diamond.

Your tier status has no impact on the offers you get -- only the base benefits.

Back when I was Seven Stars, I did take advantage of the heavily discounted NCL cruise, and used the annual trip as a starting point for various road trips. But you're still not saving huge money, so I really didn't lose out on much by dropping Seven Stars.

Of course, as I always point out, no matter what status you earn, you have it until TWO calendar years later on January 31. So if you earn Diamond in January (as I did in 2025), you have it for 2 years without needing to re-earn it. It's far better to earn status at the beginning of the year, for this reason.

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Yeah agree with all of this, obviously. And IF it was relevant and important to me, I would absolutely just earn it in January, as you suggest.

That being said, the base benefits aren't irrelevant to me so i do take them into consideration, but yeah I appreciate the feedback on the offers v. base benefits.

There's a free sports bet every month that's not insignificant also but its not that much more at Seven Stars v. Diamond Elite. However, adding that in (and using it properly), Seven Stars is still probably worth some manner of several thousand more to me than Diamond Elite, but again, the variance that I'd endure over the multiplier windows playing even a variety of +EV slots is likely not worth it.

That being said, I'll probably do it this year anyway. I'm pretty bored. But they sure make it hard to care. It's crazy how disincentivizing they have become.

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Originally Posted by VegasSpider

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Truthfully, Seven Stars is a law of diminishing returns, also.

This has been true since they killed the "five free nights with no blackout" room benefit in 2018. That's when I gave up on Seven Stars, and have just gone for base Diamond.

Your tier status has no impact on the offers you get -- only the base benefits.

Back when I was Seven Stars, I did take advantage of the heavily discounted NCL cruise, and used the annual trip as a starting point for various road trips. But you're still not saving huge money, so I really didn't lose out on much by dropping Seven Stars.

Of course, as I always point out, no matter what status you earn, you have it until TWO calendar years later on January 31. So if you earn Diamond in January (as I did in 2025), you have it for 2 years without needing to re-earn it. It's far better to earn status at the beginning of the year, for this reason.

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Yeah agree with all of this, obviously. And IF it was relevant and important to me, I would absolutely just earn it in January, as you suggest.

That being said, the base benefits aren't irrelevant to me so i do take them into consideration, but yeah I appreciate the feedback on the offers v. base benefits.

There's a free sports bet every month that's not insignificant also but its not that much more at Seven Stars v. Diamond Elite. However, adding that in (and using it properly), Seven Stars is still probably worth some manner of several thousand more to me than Diamond Elite, but again, the variance that I'd endure over the multiplier windows playing even a variety of +EV slots is likely not worth it.

That being said, I'll probably do it this year anyway. I'm pretty bored. But they sure make it hard to care. It's crazy how disincentivizing they have become.

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There's the other issue of potentially being denied 7 stars if you make it too easily (through poker, sports, or multipliers).

That's a real thing that most people won't acknowledge is even happening, but it is. Depends which host you get who reviews it.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

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Originally Posted by VegasSpider

Yeah agree with all of this, obviously. And IF it was relevant and important to me, I would absolutely just earn it in January, as you suggest.

That being said, the base benefits aren't irrelevant to me so i do take them into consideration, but yeah I appreciate the feedback on the offers v. base benefits.

There's a free sports bet every month that's not insignificant also but its not that much more at Seven Stars v. Diamond Elite. However, adding that in (and using it properly), Seven Stars is still probably worth some manner of several thousand more to me than Diamond Elite, but again, the variance that I'd endure over the multiplier windows playing even a variety of +EV slots is likely not worth it.

That being said, I'll probably do it this year anyway. I'm pretty bored. But they sure make it hard to care. It's crazy how disincentivizing they have become.

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There's the other issue of potentially being denied 7 stars if you make it too easily (through poker, sports, or multipliers).

That's a real thing that most people won't acknowledge is even happening, but it is. Depends which host you get who reviews it.

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Yes, 100%. I was talking to my wife about this exact thing last night... and after rambling on about what I thought I might do and how much it was likely worth to us and whether it was even worth it or not.... I said, "and then of course, there's a chance after all of that, they'll deny it anyway".

So yeah, im aware of it, but nothing much more I can do then earn the points the way I'm gonna earn them and see what happens. For me, im stuck with Caesar's program because of the massive head start I have as a result of the WSOP play. I'm not really out tier hunting elsewhere. All of my play is +EV within a foundational framework mainly based off of the fact that I'm basically starting at high Diamond Elite because of the poker.... and sportsbetting.

Obviously, if it gets denied, i'll do what you do with every grievance you have.... try to get it escalated.... and if it doesn't get properly addressed then never give them literally a single dollar of -EV action ever again.

With that said, my play is a bit different... and I don't anticipate any problems. There's enough sports/tables/slots in there, that there shouldn't be an issue, but if there is I won't know til i complete it and try to get it approved and go from there. But yeah, I appreciate you mentioning it... and if they were to deny it, i'll make it my mission to give them as little action as i possibly can without spiting myself.

They robbed me in 2005 at the WSOP at the RIO for 3k (and robbed a very good friend of mine for 5k the same year)... and I never played another WSOP tourney ever again... so im about as principled as you are with stuff, and if it happens to go wrongly sideways, ill take appropriate action with my future business.

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Originally Posted by VegasSpider

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

There's the other issue of potentially being denied 7 stars if you make it too easily (through poker, sports, or multipliers).

That's a real thing that most people won't acknowledge is even happening, but it is. Depends which host you get who reviews it.

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Yes, 100%. I was talking to my wife about this exact thing last night... and after rambling on about what I thought I might do and how much it was likely worth to us and whether it was even worth it or not.... I said, "and then of course, there's a chance after all of that, they'll deny it anyway".

So yeah, im aware of it, but nothing much more I can do then earn the points the way I'm gonna earn them and see what happens. For me, im stuck with Caesar's program because of the massive head start I have as a result of the WSOP play. I'm not really out tier hunting elsewhere. All of my play is +EV within a foundational framework mainly based off of the fact that I'm basically starting at high Diamond Elite because of the poker.... and sportsbetting.

Obviously, if it gets denied, i'll do what you do with every grievance you have.... try to get it escalated.... and if it doesn't get properly addressed then never give them literally a single dollar of -EV action ever again.

With that said, my play is a bit different... and I don't anticipate any problems. There's enough sports/tables/slots in there, that there shouldn't be an issue, but if there is I won't know til i complete it and try to get it approved and go from there. But yeah, I appreciate you mentioning it... and if they were to deny it, i'll make it my mission to give them as little action as i possibly can without spiting myself.

They robbed me in 2005 at the WSOP at the RIO for 3k (and robbed a very good friend of mine for 5k the same year)... and I never played another WSOP tourney ever again... so im about as principled as you are with stuff, and if it happens to go wrongly sideways, ill take appropriate action with my future business.

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Apologies if you have posted these before and I missed it but can we hear the 3k/5k robbery stories?

I was willing to give them enough action to get Diamond Plus, but when they closed the Laurel Lounges in Vegas and Tahoe (which has 2 decent ones), I said fuck it. Basic Diamond and Seven Stars seem to be the best bang for your buck.

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Originally Posted by Jayjami

I was willing to give them enough action to get Diamond Plus, but when they closed the Laurel Lounges in Vegas and Tahoe (which has 2 decent ones), I said fuck it. Basic Diamond and Seven Stars seem to be the best bang for your buck.

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Yeah closing the lounges is such a cluster obviously. I wish I wasn't at Diamond Elite by accident. It makes my decision so much harder, lol.

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Originally Posted by go_buccos

Apologies if you have posted these before and I missed it but can we hear the 3k/5k robbery stories?

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I’ve never posted about them before. These all occurred within a two year span in the early 2000s at the Rio.

The 5k robbery:

One of my friends was an older, southern gentleman who used to play mid/high limit omaha/8 and mixed with us. He came to town during the summer and had become infirmed. He had some heart issues and used a motorized cart (similar to Doyle/Mike Matusow). So they used to keep his cart at Valet and he used to Valet park and tip the valet guys two white chips ($1 each) every day and they used to get his cart for him and he would take the cart to play… and then the same on the way out… return the cart.. give the guys two white chips ($1 each) and they would store the cart until the next day. Rinse and repeat. One day on his way out, he tipped the valet guys two white chips … only one was a Rio white ($1) and the other was a Bellagio Flag ($5k). He got home and realized he was short a Flag and got in touch with the valet guys/dept and Jack Effel. The valet guys confirmed the 5k tip… and wouldn’t voluntarily give it back. Jack told him that there was nothing that he could do, couldn’t force them to give the money back.. as it was now an HR issue and my friend’s mistake. After weeks of back and forth and Jack being zero help, not offering him ANY restitution AT ALL in the form of rewards or comps etc. and the Rio not budging on compensating him either, my friend threatened to sue … and launch a massive negative PR campaign against the Rio… as his son, I believe, was an attorney in town and had some pretty reasonable PR connections. And they absolutely wouldn’t do a thing for him at all. Jack basically told him to go scratch. This guy was super nice and super integral to a lot of the games that we played at the time. He wouldn’t step foot back in the Rio after that… and as long as he was in town during the summer we played at the Bellagio and not at the Rio. He died a few short years later.

The 3k robbery:

I’m not a tournament guy but I used to play bigger mixed games and played a handful of the mixed type game tournaments when I was bored. They used to have a 2,5k combo stud/8 and omaha/8 tournament (this was the only year it happened to be 3k, I think) and the lines for registration the day of the tournament were fairly terrible even for the non-NL. I was playing at the Rio every day that summer (in part because of the guy mentioned above) and always playing pretty late into the early morning hours. So with those things in mind and attempting to allow myself the most possible sleep the next day, I registered for the tourney the night prior, before I drove home that night. The next morning my wife (who was pregnant at the time) had some random medical emergency at like 8am. The tourney started, I think around 2pm. So, understanding that I likely wasn’t gonna make it in time, I called down to the Rio and talked to like three different people and asked them if it was possible to unregister me. Ultimately, got in touch with the right person and they said it was no issue… that they would simply ensure that my chips weren’t put into play and the next time I was there to simply stop into the tournament office and get my refund. I thanked them profusely and asked them… before we got off the phone, if there was anything else I needed to do or anyone else I needed to talk to… to ensure that I didn’t run into an issue with my refund. They said no, I was good to go. So, the next day, I went down to play as I had every day that summer (I wasn’t a Phil or a Daniel, but I played fairly big at the time and wasn’t a random and knew everyone down there associated with the tournament in almost every department) and went to the tournament office and they told me that they didn’t have any record of a refund for me. I eventually got back in touch with the individuals’ responsible for resolving this that I had spoken with initially and they told me that after looking into it… my chips had been put into play and they couldn’t refund me. I talked to Jack Effel, a handful of other higher ups that I was friendly with at the time…. and a few of the guys on the then newly formed “Player Council” to address it and talk to Jack about it….. and ultimately Jack said, “tough luck buddy, your chips were put into play and your money wasn’t removed from the prize pool, so there’s nothing we can do”. I said, listen, you guys fucked up. You can’t give me cash back, cause someone else has it. Fair enough. But with the knowledge that I wasn’t gonna get refunded as you guys assured me was no issue, I could’ve very well figured out a way to get down there to play. So, with all of that in mind, how about giving me 3k in room comps or reward credits. It’ll cost you practically nothing, but at least you’ll handle this properly. He basically told me again to go scratch. At that point I contacted the head media director/PR guy for the WSOP who I had known for years and said look…. Im not the guy you want to do this to… Im a Vegas high limit reg who plays every day… and has played every day for ten years and will play every day for the next thirty. Im not Hellmuth or Daniel I get it, but this would NEVER have been handled this way with them. And he went to talk to Jack about it also and Jack told him to again tell me to go scratch. I boycotted them for years. I played Ultimate Poker (the Vegas one, not UB) online and refused to play WSOP.com until Ultimate folded and I had no other options. I never ate there, I never stepped foot into a Caesar’s property after that summer for close to fifteen years until I had no choice when Ultimate folded.

Both of these stories have one main central theme outside of them being completely corrupt… and that’s the fact that if either of these two things had occurred to Phil or Daniel or a handful of any number of other guys at the time, none of this would’ve been handled the same way.

The sickest part about both of these stories is that they’re not even the worst of it. The same summer I witnessed something that I’ve never witnessed before or since.

The 300k robbery that thankfully never happened:

I was sweating one of my closest friends at the time play HU for the 10k PLO Championship bracelet. It was the biggest tournament at the time outside of the main event. There were no bigger tourneys. For some reason, they had instituted a rule clamping down on cursing at the table. I think it was the first year they had something akin to a profanity clause in the rules.. and it wasn’t terribly well defined so it was at the floor’s discretion. So sure enough my friend curses (not at anyone, just in general)… and says like “what the fuck?” Or something like that and Jack was announcing the action at the time given the size of the tourney… and gave him a ten minute penalty. No warning. Heads up for the bracelet. Made him stand outside the ropes for ten minutes as his opponent raised every pot, imploring the dealer to deal faster… while Jack laughed the whole time. He had a pretty large chip lead at the time. Jack was literally standing behind the dealer imploring the dealer to not stop dealing as his opponent took the chip lead (one of the more unsavory guys in poker at the time) and raised as quickly as possible every hand. My friend went on to win anyway, but he certainly didn’t have to… and it would’ve been close to a 300k dollar difference and IMO the biggest scandal in the history of the series up til then … if he didn’t end up winning anyway.

Of course, this is all against the backdrop of… at the time…. Hellmuth absolutely berating people and cursing at people and threatening to burn the building to the ground and not being given even a warning. These are real world tangible decisions that cost people significant money made against the backdrop of the Phil’s and Daniel’s acting however they want. So look, Jack is corrupt. Caesar’s is corrupt. Anyone who’s been around for any length of time knows this and it’s not some major revelation or anything. I never rehash this stuff.... It’s a long time gone…. And for a long time now, I just do what benefits me… and not a whole lot else… and glad when I watch the WSOP streams that ive made the choice not to immerse myself in it anymore. But yeah, you asked, lol…. So those are the incidents I was talking about..... Sorry for the length of the post.

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Originally Posted by VegasSpider

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Originally Posted by go_buccos

Apologies if you have posted these before and I missed it but can we hear the 3k/5k robbery stories?

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I’ve never posted about them before. These all occurred within a two year span in the early 2000s at the Rio.

The 5k robbery:

One of my friends was an older, southern gentleman who used to play mid/high limit omaha/8 and mixed with us. He came to town during the summer and had become infirmed. He had some heart issues and used a motorized cart (similar to Doyle/Mike Matusow). So they used to keep his cart at Valet and he used to Valet park and tip the valet guys two white chips ($1 each) every day and they used to get his cart for him and he would take the cart to play… and then the same on the way out… return the cart.. give the guys two white chips ($1 each) and they would store the cart until the next day. Rinse and repeat. One day on his way out, he tipped the valet guys two white chips … only one was a Rio white ($1) and the other was a Bellagio Flag ($5k). He got home and realized he was short a Flag and got in touch with the valet guys/dept and Jack Effel. The valet guys confirmed the 5k tip… and wouldn’t voluntarily give it back. Jack told him that there was nothing that he could do, couldn’t force them to give the money back.. as it was now an HR issue and my friend’s mistake. After weeks of back and forth and Jack being zero help, not offering him ANY restitution AT ALL in the form of rewards or comps etc. and the Rio not budging on compensating him either, my friend threatened to sue … and launch a massive negative PR campaign against the Rio… as his son, I believe, was an attorney in town and had some pretty reasonable PR connections. And they absolutely wouldn’t do a thing for him at all. Jack basically told him to go scratch. This guy was super nice and super integral to a lot of the games that we played at the time. He wouldn’t step foot back in the Rio after that… and as long as he was in town during the summer we played at the Bellagio and not at the Rio. He died a few short years later.

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Wow… and to think these were the days before CET as a whole descended into the morass of greed and incompetence that it’s become today. Thanks very much for sharing.

As an aside it’s funny you mention the issue with the flag… my Vegas days are long behind me (I will never voluntarily set foot there again for reasons discussed ad nauseam in another thread here) but there was a time when I also occasionally found myself in some mid/higher-stakes O8 games at Bellagio. I always wondered why their 5k chips where white and how many issues that caused with players mistaking them for $1 chips (where white is the generally accepted standard) from other properties. Now I have at least one concrete example.

Thanks again for posting in such detail.

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Originally Posted by go_buccos

Wow… and to think these were the days before CET as a whole descended into the morass of greed and incompetence that it’s become today. Thanks very much for sharing.

As an aside it’s funny you mention the issue with the flag… my Vegas days are long behind me (I will never voluntarily set foot there again for reasons discussed ad nauseam in another thread here) but there was a time when I also occasionally found myself in some mid/higher-stakes O8 games at Bellagio. I always wondered why their 5k chips where white and how many issues that caused with players mistaking them for $1 chips (where white is the generally accepted standard) from other properties. Now I have at least one concrete example.

Thanks again for posting in such detail.

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For sure :). Nothing like reliving this stuff to fire myself up, lol. They're such utter thieves, but it's a long time ago now, and they've found better ways to rob everyone like charging locals for parking :).

Anyway, I went back and read some of your posts cause your Vegas days comment intrigued me..... we're in the same age range, but im guessing you were in Vegas and played somewhat regularly? after i had basically already stopped.

I played the biggest non-Bobby's room mixed games and omaha/8 at Bellagio (and then aria for a few years when it first opened) but stopped playing live probably a handful of years after that (my memory isn't what it used to be with dates... it all merges together after a while). The game texture changed a lot and one of the main guys that I started the game with for years got very sick and passed away in late 2011/early 2012... and we had basically stopped playing even a bit before that... and I was mainly just sportsbetting and playing online at that point.

That being said, the posts that interested me the most were the sportsbetting posts about Cutter. I was a frequent poster on SSB back in the day and then less so on BettingTalk.com? Ed-RAS? (Goats was the main mod?) after SSB folded. I was in frequent contact/friendly with StevieY and Colin Caster (Fez less so).

Anyway, plenty more to share im sure, but I'll stop there in case none of this means anything to you and predates you a bit, but I assume maybe you at least have some familiarity with it.... if you were referencing Cutter.