11-8-11_colorado_gambler

GamblerCelebrating 20 Years Serving Colorado’s Gaming Communitywww.coloradogambler.com coloradogambler cogambler

yr

Volume 20 • Number 37

POKER NEWSBlack Hawk casino gets poker players’ opinions

Page 8

GILPIN COUNTYFamous mines & mills in Colorado gambling towns

Page 9

VETERANS DAYA tribute to Colorado

casinos’ veterans 3

TRAIL’S ENDThe song of

PuebloPage 20

C O U P O N S • C O L O R A D O H I S T O R Y • C A S I N O G U I D E • G A M I N G • M A P • E N T E R T A I N M E N T

November 8 - 21, 2011

See ValuableCoupons on page 11

Blizzards can’t be very good for the gam-ing business, but we might surmise that the folks already enjoying the casinos stay inside and just keep playing those games of chance and skill while the snow blows.

What better place to be on a cold winter day or evening than snuggled up in front of a slot machine with a cup of Starbucks coffee and plenty of quarters. Those machines just love to devour money.

I hated to see the big metal coins go, it was fun to hear them grinding and tinkling out of the machines. But, to load them in the cans, carry them to the casino cage, stand in line and watch them be counted in the barrel was just a waste of time. They also got your hands dirty, now it is just so easy to “cash out” and here comes the little piece of paper that can be inserted in the nearby money machine.

Kind of true about life in general; we fight change until we have to experience it one way or another, and then we find we actually like the change. As we age we need to accept some changes, not all, and especially health issues that we feel strongly about.

For example, I consume too much salt; most doctors discourage eating too much salt because it causes water retention and higher blood pressure.

Well, did you know that your blood and salty seawater have exactly the same salt content? Our bodies are made up almost entirely of water; retaining water can’t be all bad. Since our blood is as salty as seawater, it makes sense to me that eating salt replen-ishes our blood supply.

Now, that doesn’t mean to just cover your food until it is white with salt. Another mis-nomer is that sea salt is different from table salt, it isn’t, but it doesn’t have the Iodine added. Iodine stops people from getting goi-ters; that’s what they say anyway.

Now back to gambling: All entertainment is expensive – Broncos tickets range in the $100 area, four hours of fun and games, costs about $25 an hour. Concerts tickets, movie tickets - they all run about $25 an hour but that doesn’t include drinks. The point being as long as you play with some skill and patience, gambling costs something similar to other forms of entertainment.

We all want to win, and we do, but not all the time. When we lose we can chalk it up to entertainment expense and go home happy. When we win, we can brag a little bit about winning a jackpot.

From what I see it is largely a whole lot of people having a good time and enjoying themselves.

Those buffets are just great, and almost all the casinos are now offering chances to win cars, cruises, motorcycles and cash.

Read the ads, get a player’s card, accumu-late some points and enjoy a great compli-mentary buffet or steak dinner on the house.

Maybe it’s time to have some fun in your life!

PAGE 2 THE COLORADO GAMBLER – Celebrating 20 Years November 8 - 21, 2011

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Gambler

Publisher’s ColumnBy Robert Sweeney

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Gambling is a good form of entertainment

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THE COLORADO GAMBLER – Celebrating 20 Years November 8 - 21, 2011

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Lucky PluckPlay your favorite slots ev-

ery Saturday for a chance to play Lucky Pluck and win up to $2,500. Drawing Start ev-ery Saturday at 6 p.m., pluck a feather off Lucky the turkey and win up to 5 free spins for cash.

4X Points on Fridays and 2X Points on Sundays

Earn 4X Points every Friday and 2X Points every Sunday in November all slots and video poker, all day.

Game on GiveawayPlay table games every

day to earn entries to win a PlayStation 3 Move Bundle and Pro Hockey tickets. Drawings take place every Saturday night in Novem-ber. See Table Games for complete details.

Up to 100X Odds$1 craps at Canyon Ca-

sino, visit the table games at Canyon Casino for the No-vember special, $1 craps. Place multiple bets for only

$1. Promotion runs through-out November, see Table Games for details.

Canyon Grille is now serving Breakfast

The Canyon Grille is now open for Breakfast, served between 8:30 – 11 a.m. The Canyon Grille is also offering a new breakfast menu, which started Nov. 1. Enjoy a deli-cious breakfast burrito, three egg omelet’s or the Canyon breakfast that includes two eggs, hash browns and your choice of bacon, ham, or sausage patty. Make sure to check out the coupon section of the Gambler for your 50% off coupon.

Grille SpecialsEnjoy these specials in

the Canyon Grille for only $3.99 in November:•Mondays – Beef Stew•Wednesday – Lasagna•Friday – Cheese Enchiladas

Collectible Football Glasses

Enjoy your choice of draft beer in a Collectible Football glass for just $3. Ask your fa-vorite Cocktail Waitress how you can get yours.

black-hawk.isleofcapricasinos.com

$80K Mountains of Cash Be at the Isle ever Friday

and Saturday in November for the $80K Mountains of Cash Progressive drawings. Drawings will take place hourly from 6 – 10 p.m., with each increasing the cash amount from $500 to $5,000. Any hourly un-claimed cash prize will roll into the next drawing. If the 10 p.m. drawing winners are not present, the cash prizes will roll into the Grand Finale drawing on Saturday, Nov. 26, at 10 p.m. Isle guests will receive one free entry daily and can earn additional en-tries for every 15 unadjusted points on drawing days. Remember to activate all of your drawings on drawing days beginning at 4 p.m.

Wheel of WinnersTuesdays and Wednes-

days in November, guests will have the chance to spin the Wheel of Winners. All

I s l e O n e m e m b e r s will receive

one free swipe each pro-motional day and one in three will win. Then from 4 – 8 p.m., lucky members will have a chance to spin the Wheel of Winners.

Paradise 50 Plus All guests age 50 or better

can join the NEW Paradise 50 Plus club Sundays and Mondays. You will receive 3X points on all slots, a free soft serve ice cream and a Free Calypso’s Buffet after earn-ing five unadjusted points.For complete details, please visit the IsleOne club. Point multiplier is not valid on video poker games.

Honor Our TroopsThe Isle is proud to honor

our troops. All Veterans and Active Duty Military that present a valid military ID car and have an IsleOne card, will receive a free buffet at Calypso’s on Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11.

Calypso’s Buffet crab legs

Calypso’s dinner buffet serves up the biggest and best crab legs in all of Black Hawk, seven days a week. Enjoy the succulent buffet Sundays through Thursdays from 3:30 – 9:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 3:30 – 10 p.m.

Thanksgiving Day MenuLeave the cooking

Thanksgiving Day to the Chef’s at Calypso’s Buffet. A special holiday menu will be served, including your favor-ite Thanksgiving Day favor-ites from 11 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. for just $24.99. From 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., the buffet will also include brunch items.

Fantastic 40 Plus on Thursdays

All guests age 40 or better can participate in the Fantas-tic 40 Plus club. Guests will receive 4X points on their favorite slots, a free buffet afterearningfiveunadjustedpoints or earn 50 unadjusted points and receive $40 to Farraddays’. Point multiplier is not valid on video poker games.

Newest Poker Room in Black Hawk

Pull up a seat to experi-ence the comfort and all-in excitement at Black Hawk’s newest poker room. Win your share of $600 ev-ery Monday with the $600 Monday Night Football Blitz. Starting at noon, earn a square for every hour of play. Prizes will be awarded at the end of each quarter during the game. Visit the poker room to check out all of the tournaments coming in No-vember, as there will be three each weekday and two on Saturdays and Sundays Fol-low our poker room manager Matthew Dodd on Twitter @BlackHawkPoker.

New members receive $10 for 10 points

All new members of the IsleOne club will receive $10 instantly after earning 10 un-adjusted points. Simply re-deem at any of the cash re-demption machines to collect.

Play and stay Play 30 unadjusted points

on your IsleOne club card on Sundays through Thursdays between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and stay the night on us. Check with Guest Services

or the IsleOne club once you have earned your points to receive your hotel offer. This offer is valid only on the day the points are earned.

Bus Fare RefundDo you ride the bus to

Black Hawk? The Isle will now refund your bus fare up to $20. Simply earn 35 unadjusted points on your IsleOne card and present your return bus ticket to the guest service center or the IsleOne club. Table Games players will receive their bus fare back with four hours of consecutive play. This offer is available daily from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Play your favorite table games

The Isle has all your fa-vorite table games including blackjack, three card poker, let it ride, bonus 6, Texas Hold’em bonus, roulette and craps with 10 times odds. The Isle will always have at least one blackjack game with a $5 minimum bet.

Farraddays’ Farraddays’ has a new

menu that you simply must try. Many favorites from the old menu return this spring and Chef David Oliveri has added new original and deli-cious selections as well. Far-raddays’ offers exceptional quality for a great value. Far-raddays’ is open at 5 p.m. nightly. Reservations are recommended and can be made by phoning 303-998-7777.

New menu at TradewindsTradewinds at the Isle has

a new menu that features what we believe to be the best hamburgers in Black Hawk. Whether you try the classics, a green chile and chipotle, the black & blue or mushroom and Swiss burger you will not be disappointed. Tradewinds® even offers a mouthwatering cheeseburger burrito. So the next time you are hungry for a great burger, visit Tradewinds@ at the Isle Casino Hotel Black Hawk.

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kin’ 321 Gregory St., Central City • 303.582.0800

Fortune Valley Hotel Black Hawk

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Nov. 10: Comedian Sam Adams (doors open at 7 p.m.)Nov. 11: Live Music Nov. 12: UFC Fight 138 (doors open at 6 p.m.)Nov. 12: Message In A Bottle (Police Tribute Band) Nov. 17: Comedian Chris Voth (doors open at 7 p.m.)Nov. 18: Dave FriskeNov. 19: UFC Pay-For-View Fights 139 (doors open at 4

p.m.)Nov. 19: Romeo Delight (Van Halen Tribute Band)

Following UFC fightsNov. 25: Stinson Brothers (Brooks & Dunn Tribute)Nov. 26: Stinson Brothers (Jimmy Buffet Tribute)The Lava Room entertainment – all concerts are free, from 9 – 11 p.m. doors open at 8:30 p.m. (unless otherwise noted).

Isle Casino Hotel Black Hawk401 Main Street, Black Hawk, CO 80422 1-800-THE-ISLE

www.black-hawk.isleofcapricasinos.com

Nov. 11 – 12: Boogie Machine (1970s)Nov. 18 – 19: JV3 (Pop and Rock)Nov. 25 – 26: Wide Open (Variety)Relax to live entertainment on the Caribbean Cove bar stage Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. – 1 a.m. and Sunday from 5 – 9 p.m.

YOUR ENTERTAINMENT HEREAdvertise your entertainment in this space

the second and fourth issue of every month. Call Sharon at 303-503-1388 for pricing .


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SundayS Noon: $65 Ladies NLH with a $2,000 tourney Bad Beat

7:00pm: $90 NLH with a $100 tourney High Hand

MondayS 10:00am: $45 NLH Free Buffet tourney

3:00pm: $55 NLH with a $2,000 tourney Bad Beat 7:00pm: $90 NLH with $100 tourney High Hand

$600 Monday Night Football Blitz

TueSdayS 10:00am: $45 NLH Free Buffet tourney


WedneSdayS 10:00am: $45 NLH Free Buffet tourney


ThurSdayS 10:00am: $45 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo

3:00pm: $55 NLH with a $2,000 tourney Bad Beat 7:00pm: $90 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Only

FridayS 10:00am: $45 NLH Free Buffet tourney


SaTurdayS Noon: $150 NLH tourney with $2,000 tourney Bad Beat

7:00pm: $90 NLH with $100 tourney High Hand

noveMber evenTS

401 Main Street, PO Box 777 • Black Hawk, CO 80422 • 1-800-THE-ISLE • www.theisleblackhawk.com

© 2011 Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. There is an optional $10 Dealer’s Special for each tournament. All proceeds go toward the dealer’s gratuities for each event. Players will receive the specified amount of additional chips if they purchase the Dealer’s Special. Must be 21. Management reserves all rights. For complete details, please visit the poker podium. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-522-4700.

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K

Famous Bonanza, Easy Street offer best slot odds, promos galore


Cover Story

By Jeffrey V. Smith

K nown as “Colorado’s classic casinos,” Central City’s Famous Bonanza and Easy

Street casinos offer the state’s best odds on slots, classic coin machines, the best new games and one of the most comfortable card rooms in the region. The two properties also offer some of the best food in town with the popular Millie’s at Easy Street and Stella’s Café at Famous Bonanza. In November, the casinos also offer an abundance of popular promotions to allow your gaming dollars to go further.

The two casinos are owned and managed by members of the Grimes family who have worked in the Famous Bonanza’s building at 107 Main St. since Ross and Nancy Grimes purchased it in 1959. The couple opened a gift shop named the Famous Bonanza popular with summer tourists. When gaming was legalized in October 1991, the family – including Ross’ son Reed, daughters Ann and Sue, and other extended family members – renovated the historic block of buildings and opened a casino.

In 2000, the Grimes family purchased the two buildings that contain the Easy Street Casino. The Gold Coin, a Victorian landmark and the state’s oldest

bar, is located in one of the b u i l d i n g s and remains v i r t u a l l y u n c h a n g e d from gaming renovations. The casino also offers an arcade that is the only kid-friendly place in town and is accessible by a separate entrance. Ann Dodson now manages both casinos.

Today, the Famous Bonanza and Easy Street are known for offering “fewer gimmicks and more fun” and as casinos where your “hard-earned cash goes further.” In November, the properties live up to those slogans with the “Spin-2-Win” promotion. Prizes include cash back, 3X points, two-for-one certificates to Millie’s and Stella’s Café in addition to five finalists who will be selected for a chance to win $100,000. Players must be 21 or older to enter and can try to win once a day throughout the month.

Entries can be obtained in two ways. Guests earn entries with every 100 points played,

up to five per day, for the first finalist selection party on Nov. 17. Players in The Parlour may earn an entry each day with two hours of tracked play. From 6-9 p.m., the casino will have cash and prize drawings, and select one finalist for the “big money roll” schedule for Dec. 1. From Nov. 18 – Dec. 1, guests may earn an entry with every 50 points played, up to five per day.

Another way to enter “Spin 2 Win” is to go online to www.kdvr.com or www.famousbonanza.com to spin the prize wheel where great prizes and a chance to become a finalist to win $100,000 can be won. One

entry per day may be obtained for the Dec. 1 party through the website contest, if another prize is not won.

The final party for the promotion is Dec. 1 from 6-9 p.m. with a fifth finalist selected at 7:30 p.m. Food, cash and prize giveaways will be included at the party. T h r o u g h o u t the event, the casino will select 25 players and assigning five of

them to each finalist roller. These fans will win money based on the outcome of their assigned player’s roll. The five finalists will then roll for their chance to win. The first guest to spell “FAMOUS” in one roll will win $100,000; each finalist has five chances.

In addition to the “Spin 2 Win” events, the two casinos offer something special for players every day of the week.

On Sundays, each time the Broncos score, and after each quarter, a random winner is drawn for a Game Day Multiplier and Hot Seat prize. A point multiplier is also obtained based on the number of touchdowns up to 4X for the next week. There will be no drawings for the game on Nov. 17, but game will determine next weeks point multiplier. The casinos then offer 2X points all day on all machines on Mondays, and 3X points on all nickel and penny machines on Tuesday.

Each Wednesday, guests 40+ earn 2X points on all machines and get half off at Millie’s with 200 points played. Bingo is also offered each hour from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. On Thursdays, patrons can get 3X points on all quarter and dollar machines and on Fridays the “World Series of Bonanza Baseball,” a dice game which offers a guaranteed $2,000 in prizes, is played at the Famous Bonanza through Nov. 18. Then, an “After-Thanksgiving Hot Seat

Drawing” will be held on Friday, Nov. 25.

Apart from the November events, the two casinos offer 400 machines and some of the best food in town. Millie’s is open Monday - Friday for breakfast, lunch and dinner and Stella’s Café is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday for lunch and dinner. The Famous Bonanza also offers The Parlour, a unique card and game room. Located on the second floor of the Famous Bonanza, the room offers two-deck pitch blackjack with a $5 minimum to $50 maximum, roulette and three-card poker along with pool and darts.

The casinos also offer new players the opportunity to earn a cash coupon based on how many points are played up to $20 back for up to 60 days. Points earned on a first visit will lead to benefits on the next visit. Also, on their birthday, guests 55+ get 800 points added to their player’s card instantly. All other guests get 500 points.

Both the Famous Bonanza and Easy Street are open 365 days a year at 8 a.m. daily and offer free parking in a historic, Victorian setting. Players can’t go wrong at Famous Bonanza and Easy Street any time of the year, but November offers even more advantages than usual.

Famous Bonanza, Easy Street offer best slot odds, promos galore

East Street CasinoPhotos by Jeffrey V. Smith

Famous Bonanza Casino

“Prospector Pete” has been popular with tourists since the Famous Bonanza was a gift shop.

November 8 - 21, 2011 THE COLORADO GAMBLER – Celebrating 20 Years PAGE 7

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Wheel of Fortune Valley is backWin up to $4,000 in cash each weekend in November.• Start earning entries now through the

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Slots • $7,000 in cash prizes will be awarded

• Free qualifying every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 2-8 p.m.

• Final slot tournament will be on Friday, Dec. 2

Blackjack • $7,000 in cash prizes will be awarded• Free qualifying every Tuesday, Thursday

and Friday from 2-8 p.m.• Final blackjack tournament will be held

on Saturday, Dec. 3

Video Poker • $7,000 in cash prizes will be awarded• Free qualifying Monday, Wednesday

and Friday from 2-8 p.m.• Final video poker tournament will be

held on Sunday, Dec. 4

Free BingoFree Bingo in the Lava Room ev-

ery Monday and Wednesday in November at 2 p.m.

EntertainmentThe Lava Room entertainment – all

concerts are free, from 9 – 11 p.m., doors open at 8:30 p.m. (unless other-wise noted).

Nov. 10: Comedian Sam Adams (doors open at 7 p.m.)

Nov. 11: Live Music Nov. 12: UFC Fight 138 (doors open

at 6 p.m.)Nov. 12: Message In A Bottle (Police

Tribute Band) Nov. 17: Comedian Chris Voth (doors

open at 7 p.m.)Nov. 18: Dave FriskeNov. 19: UFC Pay-For-View Fights

139 (doors open at 4 p.m.)Nov. 19: Romeo Delight (Van Halen

Tribute Band) Following UFC fightsNov. 25: Stinson Brothers (Brooks &

Dunn Tribute)Nov. 26: Stinson Brothers (Jimmy

Buffet Tribute)

New Market StreetWe will soon be home to Java

Express, Chef’s Kitchen and Pizza Pub, where you can get “The Big Slice” – a slice of pizza and ice cold beer for $2.99 with a players card.

www.famousbonanza.com

2X MondaysEarn 2X points all day on all ma-

chines, including video poker. $1 = 1 Point

40 & Getting BetterFor those guests 40 and older, earn

2X points all day on all machines every Wednesday. $1 = 1 Point. Earn 200 base points and receive half off one menu item at Millie’s Restaurant.

Join us on your BirthdayCome celebrate your birthday with

the Famous Bonanza and Easy Street Casinos and receive 500 free points. Players older than 55 years of age will receive 800 free points.

New PlayersPoints earned on your first visit will

lead to great benefits on your next visit:• 125 Points Earned = $5 Cash Back• 250 Points Earned = $10 Cash Back• 500 Points Earned = $15 Cash Back• 1000 Points Earned = $20 Cash Back

\The ParlourLocated on the second floor of the

Famous Bonanza Casino, we offer 2 deck pitch blackjack, roulette and 3-card poker. $5 minimum to $50 maximum on 2 deck pitch Blackjack and $3 minimum and all shoe games. The Parlour also offers pool and darts!

2X MondaysEarn 2X points

all day on all ma-chines, including video poker. $1 = 1 Point

40 & Getting BetterFor those guests 40 and older, earn

2X points all day on all machines every Wednesday. $1 = 1 Point. Earn 200 base points and receive half off one menu item at Millie’s Restaurant.

Join us on your BirthdayCome celebrate your birthday with

the Famous Bonanza and Easy Street Casinos and receive 500 free points. Players older than 55 years of age will receive 800 free points.

New PlayersPoints earned on your first visit will

lead to great benefits on your next visit:• 125 Points Earned = $5 Cash Back• 250 Points Earned = $10 Cash Back• 500 Points Earned = $15 Cash Back• 1000 Points Earned = $20 Cash Back

Fun for KidsBring your children to the lower level

of the casino to enjoy a wide variety of arcade games for our younger than 21 guests.

Central City Nuggets

http://www.fortunevalleycasino.com

http://www.famousbonanza.com



Poker News

By Larry Johnson

T he other day I was invited to partici-pate in a “Player Forum” held by the management of a local Poker Room in

Black Hawk. WOW – what a great idea / getting players and management together to brainstorm ways to improve the speed, accuracy and procedures of the game.

There have been many rooms over the past 20 years (has it really been that long) that, as one player in the forum said “had it all” but lost the game due to bad service, bad management or better management somewhere else. In some cases those rooms had some type of forum near the end … they just didn’t listen.

It was good to observe three layers of management and a mixture of players from all limits and skill levels working together – no attacks, no recriminations and everyone listening.

Three main points came out of the fo-rum:

First: Player responsibilitiesSurprisingly this term came from the

players and included monitoring for ex-cessive absences, simply not allowing rude players and overall keeping an eye open.

The clear consensus was that with alert and knowledgeable players who keep deal-er (and floor person when necessary) in-formed, the game would run smoother.

Why should players keep an eye on the game and help control it – because there are 10 players, only one dealer and it’s your money.

Both management and the players brought up concerns about dealers who so-cialize or gab to the detriment of the game. Many dealers have the ability to deal and interact with players - many do not. When a dealer can’t do both, it slows the game down, allows mistakes – finally costing the room and the players money due to less hands being dealt.

The players can help here by not social-izing with the dealers “too much.” I am one of the main culprits here (talking and dis-tracting) – time for me to make a bit of a change and let dealers do their job.

Second: Operational issuesOne idea from the players is to have only

chips on the table play – no cash. This is de-signed to speed up the game, keeping play-ers from tossing in cash and causing dealer or floor person to change it constantly.

Another operational idea would be to re-instate the “play over” rule, which had been eliminated earlier this year. A play over is a player’s spot where there is a missed blind

(they are up from the table) and another player can play their spot until they get back.

This was eliminated due to players ma-nipulating the process and coming in just after a blind and getting up just before hav-ing to post. Per players’ suggestion, this will be solved by having a player post the blind immediately when playing over – thus eliminating the chance for free hands. This will be great because “play over’s” really help keep the games full – especially during busy periods. Looks like it will happen.

Comps Comps were also discussed but this is a

tender area and the end result was manage-ment ensuring the players they would be taken care of. They were convincing and the conversation did move on – it will be interesting to see if it works “just asking.” It would seem a more consistent policy here such as a free hotel room after so many hours, a buffet after so many hours or splashing the pot with some sort of comp such as free food on a scheduled basis might be a suggestion. Also discussed was a tiered comp system depending on limits.

Two thoughts for managementFirst – change out the players who at-

tend / not every time but maybe every three forums so you get fresh views. Get the en-tire rooms view throughout the year.

Second – While a large part of the dis-cussion was how to take care of the “main players” who play lots of hours and keep the games going during slow revenue pe-riods (very important), management must remember it’s the multitude of recreational players who come up occasionally or just on the weekends who make up the majority of the games.

It’s critical these players are taken care of and feel valued. All they want is a good game and atmosphere when they come up the hill.

Other ideas that came up in the forum included splashing the pot with a comp once in a while (maybe schedule it once an hour), put poker players on the same comp system as other casino patrons (result would be more comps), and continuing to eliminate the congestion at the podium. All agree that the main key is to keep the play-ers coming up the mountain and the games going.

Remember … Play your game and keep an eye on the game – it’s your responsibil-ity too.

The players get a voice at Black Hawk casino forum

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Gilpin County

By Linda Jones

Some historic ruins of mines and mills continue to punctuate the land-scape in Black Hawk and

Central City, but many more have disappeared becoming victims of vandals and weather. During the years that an alternative high school was housed in a storefront in Central City, all the students knew well the labyrinth of un-derground mining tunnels run-ning in every direction. It wasn’t unusual in the 20th century for a previously un-known tunnel under a street or parking area to suddenly collapse and swallow a ve-hicle.

Bobtail Tunnel & MineOn the opposite side of Grego-

ry Street, the Bobtail Tunnel and blacksmith shop continue to at-tract tourists’ interest. Norman Blake, owner of the Bobtail Tun-nel prior to his death, once told the author that the tunnel con-nected with so many other tun-nels and mines that it was possi-ble to walk 46 miles underground from the Bobtail entrance. The 2,200-foot-long tunnel was built for access to several mines that wound their way under Bobtail Hill, but the greatest mine was the Bobtail itself.

Author William McNeill in Gathering Gold said, “The riches pouring from this enterprise were of paramount importance to the early economy of the Ter-ritory of Colorado. The Bobtail Tunnel was the first tunnel of any

magnitude ever driven in Colora-do for the purpose of intersecting and operating ore bodies at great depth in the earth.”

The mine was located in 1859 and the tunnel was built in 1873. Anyone who lived in our state pri-or to gaming probably toured the Bobtail Tunnel, riding on a long wagon bed pulled by burros. The biggest mining tragedy in Gilpin County’s history centers on the tunnel.

Polar Star MillBuilt in 1860 of stone, the Po-

lar Star was one of the earliest mills. Ore from the many mines in Chase Gulch was brought here for processing, first by wagon and later by the unique 2-foot-wide railroad, the Gilpin Tram.

One of the popular tourist at-tractions in Black Hawk in the 20th century was the Little Colo-nel mine along Gregory Street. When Lily Belle’s Casino was created, the mine entrance was sealed and the former gift shop became part of the casino.

Bates-Hunter MineThe Bates-Hunter mine is quite

visible along Gregory Street in Cen-tral City. It was discovered in 1859

by John Gregory himself, working for $200 a day to locate veins for others. In the late 20th century the mine was reopened, a new head-frame was added and the mine was worked until a few years ago. Water from Gregory Creek now flows into the mine and the pumping costs caused the closure.

Coeur d’Alene Mine

The “Sentinel on the Hill” above Central City was dis-covered in 1884 and the pat-ent number was issued to a woman, Catharine Cam-eron. The mine was worked periodically from its begin-ning into the 1940s when the federal government or-dered all gold mines closed. Tunnels from the main shaft were dug at depths of 200, 400, 450, 550, 600 and 700 feet. The shaft housed two compartments, one used for a ladder-way and one for a bucket-way says a USGS report in 1915. Through all its years of production, the Coeur d’Alene had never been the scene of a fatal ac-cident until 1940, when an explosion in the shaft house killed the mayor of the town below; Charles Richards was serving his second term as mayor and was the super-intendent of the mine. Even for a mine, the accident was unusual. Richards was trim-ming blasting caps while sit-ting on the workbench, with a box of blasting caps yet to trim on the floor in front of him. Another miner began sharpening a shovel on a grindstone nearby when a spark fell into the box of caps. The resulting blast

blew countless holes in Richard’s face and throat and he lived only a few days.

Buell MillBela Buell had the

Midas touch in the early halcyon Gold Rush and built this mill to handle ore from his Leavitt mine. When Buell and his partner John Kip

built this mill in 1864 for $15,000, it housed 60 stamps as well as the

mine hoist. The Leavitt mine em-ployed 40 men underground and 12 on the surface in the early 1870s.

Some of the Leavitt’s best ore was shipped to Swansea, Wales, where the ore which cost Buell between $6 - $12 per ton to pro-duce and transport earned him $300 per ton for the gold, silver and other metals it yielded.

Many of our readers will re-member the Lost Gold Mine on Eureka Street in Central City. In the 1990s the tourist attraction was still thriving until a section

of the tunnel’s ceiling caved in and blocked the tunnel. State mine in-spectors deemed the mine unsafe unless a large sum of money was spent on shoring it up, and the pop-ular destination closed. The attrac-tive gift shop/entrance to the mine has been transformed into a home.

Gregory MineWithin the current business district of Black Hawk, two prominent mines were lo-cated nearly opposite each other. The original discovery of lode gold by John Gregory, on May 6, 1859, started the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. His Gregory Mine left a collapsed fissure in the rock on the west side of Gregory Street, not far below the clinic. Not coinci-dentally, the small creek in that gulch, Gregory Gulch, is called Gregory Creek. This rich discovery impressed Ovando Hollister enough to declare Gregory’s discovery on a par with that of Ma-gellan. Gregory’s discovery changed him overnight from a common man into a wealthy man. When he left this area on Sept. 8 of that year, he car-ried $30,000 worth of dust with him, an amount that would bring millions today. Prior to gaming, the tailings of the Gregory mine spilled down the hill behind what is now Bullwhackers casino. In the 19th century the Gregory Mill processed 350 tons of ore daily. Today the Gregory and the Bobtail mine are part of the 50 Gold Mines Com-pany and two of the three owners of that company live in Gilpin County.

The Seen & The Unseen Famous mines & mills in the gambling towns

Bates-Hunter Mine

Bobtail Tunnel& Mine

Polar Star Mill

Coeur d’Alene Mine

Sleepy HollowMine disaster

Gilpin County’s worst mine disaster came with no warning on Aug. 29, 1895; 14 miners drowned in the Americus and Sleepy Hollow mines.

The underlying cause for this disaster lay in a dispute between the owners of five connecting mines over their share of the costs for pumping the water that inevitably collects in any underground opening. The five mines were the Gregory, Bobtail, Fiske, Americus and Sleepy Hollow; the last three actually shared the same vein of gold. Be-cause of the dispute, pumping had been halted and the Gregory, Bobtail and Fiske were closed in their lower levels and allowed to fill with water. In the Fiske mine the water was just below the 300 foot level and only levels above that had been worked in the previous three years. Because the Fiske was higher on the mountainside, its levels were higher by 300 feet than the adjoining mines. In the Ameri-cus 400 foot level, miners had removed ore almost to the shared wall with the Fiske.

On Aug. 29 at 3:15 p.m. the stored water burst through the ore wall with a tremendous force and filled the Ameri-cus and soon the Sleepy Hollow in their lower levels. The Americus was 600 feet deep, the Sleepy Hollow, 700 feet. Most of the miners in the Americus were fortunately work-ing on higher levels and escaped by climbing up timbers and ladders to the surface. Of the 11 men in the mine, only two drowned. But in the Sleepy Hollow, 12 of the 18 min-ers lost their lives below the fatal fourth level. Eight of the dead miners were married and a total of 16 children lost their fathers. The youngest miners killed were Will Prisk, only 17, and Stephen Vallero, 20.

Buell Mine


WESTERN FOOTPRINTS

By Anna Lee Ames FrohlichResearcher, Western His-torian, Writer, Presenter / Speaker

Before the West was “the West,” before steamboats and Mark Twain, Saint Louis sat on the western bank of the Mississippi River and was crossed by ferry from the east. In 1804 when my great-great-great grandfa-ther William Russell trav-eled there from Tennessee, and for years afterwards, St. Louis was the launching spot for ventures westward. The great unsettled frontier lay just to the West.

When William Russell (1778-1857) ar-rived there, the roughly 900 inhabitants were mostly Spanish, French and Ameri-can. The great Louisiana Purchase had been purchased from France on April 30, 1803. Napoleon had given up his dream of a North American empire. Louisiana had been ceded to Spain by France in 1762. The government was still Spanish when Rus-sell crossed the Mississippi River on Feb. 8, 1804, on Calvin Adams’ ferry which was made of “two pirogues tied together with planks laid across the top.” Within a month everything had changed. On March 9, 1804, Spain surrendered upper Louisiana, which included St. Louis, to the French, and on March 10 the documents were signed transferring upper Louisiana from the French to the United States.

Russell became the deputy surveyor for the new American territorial govern-ment under Thomas Jefferson. His ex-tensive travels around the area, survey-ing both private and public lands, gave him a judgment regarding land matters that was rarely equaled. Through his per-

sonal investments in land, he became one of the wealthiest men in St. Louis, though not the most public spirited. In an area where gambling on land purchases was

extremely common, he was considered “the most auda-cious land pirate of all.”

Along the way he had his scrapes with the law. These articles are from Saint Louis Courthouse papers in 1812 when he was about 33-years-old:

R U S S E L L , W I L L I A M , 1812/Nov. 3

“Having thus seen William Russell...Draw a pistol on Robert Wash and the said Robert...was in the act of drawing a pistol on said Russell until prevented and the said par-ties exhibit-ing thereby determina-tion to take each others lives, I there-fore com-mand you...take the said Robert and the said William and them safely keep....until they can be tried.”

RUSSELL/WILLIAM, 1812/ Nov. term of Grand Jury.

“Grand jury returned indictment. (R.Wash, Atty.Genl) against William Russell “late of the district aforesaid (Gentlemen) “who on June 6, 1812, in St. Louis “with force and arms in and upon one Mary Crosby (Spinster) there and then did beat, wound and ill-treat, so that her life was greatly despaired of,...against her will, there and then feloniously to ravish and carnally know...”

Tried, got verdict of “not guilty.”Settling disputes by way of a duel was

not uncommon at that time. Even Thomas Hart Benton [noted westward expansion-ist, father-in-law of the famed western explorer John C. Fremont, and Missouri’s U.S. Senator from 1821 to 1851] killed an opponent in a duel. (They stood 10 feet apart.) But attacking a woman ....?! A spin-ster lady might have been little protected, and, with her attacker being wealthy and a prominent member of the community, her chances for justice would be poor in a case like this. It was still rough and raw on the frontier.

But, wait! Looking more closely, there could be more to this story. William Rus-sell’s opponent in the duel was one Robert Wash. Then note that the Atty. General in

the other case was R. Wash. Is “R. Wash” the same per-son as Robert Wash? One can only sur-mise what the whole story might be. The exact dates of

the two cases are not available, and the story could differ depending on in what order these took place.

Russell, “the master land speculator of the territorial period,” had widespread holdings. He influenced the choice of the site for Little Rock, Ark., and helped to lay out the plan for the city. With others he got the territorial legislature to have it declared the capital of the territory. De-spite his extensive land holdings there, his home was always in St. Louis.

William Russell never married. In 1823 he had an illegitimate daughter (he referred

to her as his “natural daughter”), Ann Cle-mentine Russell, “by association” with Cle-mentine Stillwell Peeler. (Clementine, who had two sons by her marriage, was divorced because of her relationship with Russell.) He saw that his daughter got the best possi-ble education and made her heir to his con-siderable fortune. The stipulation was that it remain hers and that it would go directly to her descendants.

On July 12, 1842, Ann Clementine Rus-sell married Thomas Allen, an up-and-coming young man of St. Louis and Pitts-field, Mass. Ann had met Thomas when she was spending a “season” in Washing-ton and he was working there. This mar-riage turned out to be very beneficial to the city of St. Louis and further influenced western expansion.

That is another story, or stories.

Saint Louis – a frontier town

“The first time I ever saw St. Louis, I could have bought it for six million dollars, and it was the mistake of my

life that I did not do it.” – Mark Twain

William Russell’s mansion in Saint Louis

Russell William’s daughter married Thom-as Allen in 1842. This portrait by Chester Harding in 1838 belongs to Thomas Allen Lombard in California.

William Russell arrived after the great Louisiana Purchase had been pur-chased from France on April 30, 1803.

Photos courtesy of Anna Lee Ames Frohlich


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By Margaret MalsamAs America celebrates Veter-

ans Day, it is fitting that we Colora-dans recall the story of a miraculous American flag that survived the Chal-lenger shuttle’s fatal explosion and the per-sistence of a Colorado Boy Scout troop.

“It’s a story all Americans ought to know,” said retired U.S. Air Force Major Bill Tolbert, who told the deeply moving sto-ry of this miraculous flag – a symbol of free-dom and democracy – at a Scout flag cer-emony recently at Ave Maria Parish Center in Parker. Major Tolbert was scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 514 of Monument when the national disaster occurred on Jan. 28, 1986.

This Colorado Boy Scout troop had their American flag aboard the Challenger mission when the space shuttle tragically exploded and all seven crewmembers died. This was a tragedy for all Americans, but it was especially painful for these Scouts and their scoutmaster. This had been the troop’s third attempt to get their American flag on a space mission.

In 1985, Tolbert was directing the new Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, and he was also was serving as the scoutmaster of this brand new Boy Scout Troop.

“I had an idea that I thought would give them something to build their pride around. I would get the new troop an American flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol. Then to make it some-thing no other troop would have, I planned to get it flown on a space shuttle. It seemed like a good idea at the time,” recalls Tolbert. “I never imagined what jour-ney we all would have.”

Repeatedly the troop and their scoutmaster tried to obtain flight clear-ance for their flag on a shuttle mission but were met with disap-pointments, setbacks

and delays. Finally their persistence paid off when their flag was sched-uled to fly on the Challenger.

Eagerly the troop had gathered in the home of Tolbert and his wife

to watch the Chal-lenger launch on TV since they had the day off from school to celebrate the flight of Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher scheduled to fly into space. The boys watched the slow rotation of the space shuttle as it blasted off. Then suddenly something went terribly wrong, and it exploded, scattering debris wildly through the sky.

“The troop real-ized the magnitude of what had hap-

pened, and we wept together at the loss of the crew,” said Tolbert. “For a long time none of us were the same. Our troop had lost its spirit in that explosion.”

Tolbert later inquired about the possibility of recovering the flag or whatever remnants of their prized flag remained, but NASA officials gave him little hope of finding any-thing of the flag. He was stunned to learn in September 1986 the flag had been recovered and would be returned to the troop. Even more amazing was the fact that the plas-tic packet containing the flag and the flag itself, which had rested on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for many months, was still intact.

Word of the flag’s amazing jour-ney and recovery quickly spread

and soon reached U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger’s office. Burger designated this flag as the official flag of the bicentennial of the ratification of the U.S. Constitu-tion.

Tolbert told how their flag soon became a touchstone of the courage of the Challenger astronauts and a symbol of hope for a grieving nation. The troop was invited to go to Phila-delphia to present the flag to the na-tion in a nationally televised We The People 2000 Constitutional Gala cel-ebration on Sept. 17, 1987.

Explaining to the audience in Parker how he felt on that joyous Sep-tember day, the retired major said,

“It struck me that I had never stood this tall before – that after 20 years in a military uniform, the proudest moment of my life had come while wearing a scoutmaster’s uniform, standing beside that flag. I recalled the words of Lord Baden Powell when he founded the Boy Scouts: ‘On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty, to God and my country...’ The meaning of these words became truly clear to me.

“I also realized for the first time why it is that we pledge allegiance to the flag. It is more than colored cloth. It is the symbol of our nation, and the principles upon which it is founded.”

In the words of Henry Ward Beecher: “A thoughtful mind when it sees a nation’s flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself.”

Later the troop also was invited to tour the White House and Congress. Tolbert also made a special stop to take the Challenger Flag to the U.S. Capitol building to have it re-flown. Thus the flag’s journey went full circle from our nation’s Capitol, to the Rocky Mountains, to the edge of space, to the ocean depths, and back to the Capitol. The flag now resides with Troop 514 under the careful watch of its Eagle scouts and its first scoutmaster who continue to protect it with respect and reverence.

U.S. flag goes full circle for local Boy Scout troop Veterans Day

From U.S. Capitol to Rocky Mountains, to the edge of space to the ocean depths, and back

U.S. Air Force Major Bill Tolbert stands beside the flag that flew with the Challenger space shuttle. The flag was found months later in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and returned to the Monument Boy Scout troop.

The flight crew who were aboard the Challenger with the disaster occurred on Jan. 28, 1986.

After recovering the flag, NASA gave it back to Boy Scout Troop 514.

Monument Boy Scout Troop 514 members stand beside the flag that would fly aboard the Challenger space shuttle that would be eventually recovered in the Atlantic Ocean after the tragic expolsion in 1986.

Photos courtesy of Bill Tolbert


Veterans Day

By Linda JonesThe gaming business employs a

high percentage of former service-men and women, which benefits both the employer and employee. Casinos appreciate the work ethic and integrity of those who served our country. Former servicemen and women find that their military training in security, engineering and other fields has prepared them well for casino jobs that are more specialized.

Through many years of inter-viewing them, the men and women who staff our Colorado casinos have impressed me. They are a credit to the gaming business and our com-munity, and it was a privilege to meet the men interviewed for this issue.

Don MontroyMardi Gras – Engineering Supervisor

The military provided basic train-ing for Don Montroy’s later career. He served in the Navy for eight years, and five of those years were in ad-vanced electronic training. He liked the military, “enjoyed it in fact,” but he mustered out and headed “home” – the area where he was raised around Detroit. He began working as an electrician but moved up quickly to a general contractor. For 22 years he built and remodeled structures, mostly restaurants, and said “a lot of my contracts were to build Wendy’s.” He knew and liked Dave Thomas and reminisced about what a down-to-earth guy Thomas was.

Don has a classic illustration of what happened when the Great

Recession hit. After making mil-lions annually, he retired at 50 with his money safely invested, or so he thought. While he was enjoying the good life in Fort Lauderdale, his bank crashed and his life’s earnings were gone. Don’s a survivor and he’s mastered any bitterness he once felt and is savoring his life here in Gilpin County.

While visiting a friend in Colora-do, Don discovered Gilpin County. He stayed. One of his five children joined him; the other four are in Florida, Detroit and Chicago. Don loves hiking in the mountains and most of all, snowshoeing. The Gil-pin recreational center is state-of-the art and Don is there nearly daily, lifting weights; in the summers, he plays in the softball league.

During his five years here, Don has worked in the Engineering De-partment of the Mardi Gras and was promoted to supervisor early this year. Seven men are under him in the department “and we’re al-ways busy.” This is the department that repairs everything in the casino other than the slots themselves, and they do repairs of the electrical connections to the machines. They maintain and repair the HVAC sys-tem and the kitchen equipment. They tile, paint and laminate, main-tain the grounds, set up the barbe-cues, remove snow. As Don says, they do everything.

ED PErEzRiviera – Director of Security & Surveillance

Ed Perez proudly showed me the

photos of Junior riding with him on motorcycle runs. He’s made replicas of the military rib-bons and medals on his leather jacket for Junior to wear on his matching jacket.

Ed is the kind of person who thinks he should give back to the community and one of the paths he chooses to do that is through CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocacy. Vol-unteers in this program represent the interests of the child in court cases. It was in this capacity that Ed heard of the 4-year-old boy up for adop-tion. Ed and his wife Heather adopted Antonio Fitzgerald “Junior” Perez, now 8 years old. Junior’s favorite thing to do is to ride with his dad in his three-wheel motorcycle. The two rode with the American Le-gion in the Fallen Heroes run and with Junior’s Gilpin School teach-er on the recent Emily’s Run.

Ed received a lot of awards and medals in his 20 years with the Navy and the Marines. As a Navy medic, he served with the Marines also and earned medals from both branches of service. During his two tours in Vietnam he earned the Sil-ver Star, awarded for “conspicuous gallantry” from the Marines. His final assignment was as Barracks Chief with the Marines at the Em-bassy in Madagascar, and he retired in 1990.

When he retired, he was sta-tioned in Gulfport, Miss., and start-ed working for the Grand Casino in town in security. He’s also worked in security in Henderson, Nev., for the Reserve Casino, the Monte Carlo in Vegas, the Stratosphere on the Strip and the Seminole Tribe in Florida. His next move brought him to Black Hawk to the Ameristar. He helped open the Red Hawk near Sacramento, Calif., and worked for Lakes Entertainment in Min-nesota. But he returned here a few years ago to his current job with the Riviera and is glad to be home; his wife of 11 years is the administrative manager for the Ameristar.

Monarch Gaming recently purchased the Black Hawk Riv-iera and Ed can’t say enough good

words about the new owners. He says Monarch has made the Black Hawk team feel very much an im-portant part of the family, which also includes the Atlantis in Reno. Monarch was wholeheartedly be-hind The Riv’s longtime support of Heather Grove, a home for home-less vets.

Gus swartzCentury Casino – Slot Tech

Gus Swartz said, “I wish I’d stayed in [the Marines], but I got out to follow a girl.” One thing led to another and that girl is history, but another girl led him to Colorado – and that’s a good thing.

Gus was in the Marines for five years but didn’t see any action. He

grins, “I earned my National De-fense Medal on television.” That was an accident of timing. After training in San Diego, he was stationed in Virginia, North Carolina and Yuma, Ariz., where he was mustered out with a sergeant’s rank. The only times he left our country in the ser-vice were when he was deployed in Norway and Turkey. His expertise was in Logistics and Embarkation –“getting everything from Point A to Point B.”

In 1997, a year after mustering out, Gus began his career in the gaming business, first with Bull Dur-ham, then with Mountain Gaming Distributors for 10 ½ years. Moun-tain Gaming was the distributor for Bally slot machines, but when the parent company purchased Moun-tain Gaming three years ago, Gus moved to Century Casino.

His leisure-time passions are golf and skiing, but they’re both on the shelf for the moment. “My hob-by is being a dad right now.” He and his wife have a 2-year-old daughter and expect a second child on Veter-ans Day – yes, on 11/11/11. They’re waiting to be surprised by the gen-der. Gus says his wife is also from Michigan and she’s a snowboarder, not a skier like him, and she plays ice hockey and enters triathlons. This active family lives in Morrison.

Celebrating Veterans Day – Nov. 11Casino work attracts veterans

Don Montroy

Ed Perez

Gus Swartz


5th C, lab created, has been added

By Ray Lundin - GemologistThe diamond, hardest and most

brilliant of minerals, is known throughout the world as the chief among precious stones. Diamond is made of pure carbon, the same as a lump of coal, but under certain

pressure and heat if forms into a clear brilliant gemstone. The qual-ity, and thus price, of a diamond is determined by the four “Cs,” color, clarity, cut and carat. Now a fifth C has emerged: the lab created dia-mond. First, a little about the 4 Cs.

Color: Fine color in a diamond usually means the absence of col-or, or a pure, clean or colorless or “white” transparency.

Clarity: Clarity is graded based on the number, location, size and type of inclusions, scratches, trace minerals found in a diamond.

Cut: The cut of a diamond has a tremendous affect on its brilliance. Even if the diamond has perfect color and clarity, one with a poor cut will have dulled brilliance.

Carat: The weight of a dia-mond is measured in “carats” and “points.” There are 100 points to the carat, so that a quarter of a car-at is 25 points.

Now the 5th C: Lab created diamonds. The term Russian dia-monds brings up romantic images of the fabulously rich and wealthy

and impressions of passion and power. In fact, the term Russian diamond can have two different meanings: lab created diamonds and also those referring to Cubic Zirconia, a popular diamond simu-lant.

Around the time of the ‘40s and early ‘50s at the start of the cold war, Russia realized that a source of diamonds was needed that was independent of western control. Diamonds are very important for industrial and military manufac-turing and if the supply was inter-rupted, this would have harmed Russia’s manufacturing capability.

Joint efforts were made to dis-cover natural sources of diamonds, as well as investigate whether in-dustrial grade diamonds could be manufactured. Both efforts were met with success, and around the time that the first Russian dia-mond mine started production, synthetic diamonds were also be-ing produced using the High Pres-sure High Temperature method. It was quickly realized that the new

material could have jewelry appli-cations. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, new manufacturing technology, which used microwaves to melt the min-eral used to make Cubic Zirconia, meant that large scale production could begin. These gems are now so popular that almost every clear or colored imitation gemstone on the market is likely to be a CZ.

A footnote to this story is that the present volume of Chemical Vapor Deposition diamonds that are be-ing produced in the U.S. owe their technology to Russia. Diamonds that are produced by the CVD method are much cheaper than HPHT diamonds. We may never know exactly when the Soviets

perfected the CVD technology. It’s fascinating to speculate how many of the sparkling diamonds on the fingers of European socialites over the last 50 years were actually made in a Russian lab.

Identifying Lab Made Dia-monds: Good quality lab created diamonds can be hard to identify using normal jewelers equipment, although they can easily be iden-tified in a lab using a device that shines ultraviolet light through the diamond. With ever improv-ing technology, created diamonds are improving in quality, as well as cost, and are still a very afford-able alternative to the real thing. It is easy to become confused by the terminology used by unscrupu-lous retailers, particularly online. Watch out for people advertis-ing ‘simulated diamonds’ as cre-ated diamonds. A simulant is more likely to be a different type of cre-ated gem rather than a true created diamond. Beware of the term “au-thentic replica” when someone is referring to a gemstone; it means “real imitation.”

By Ray Lundin - GemologistTourmaline was known for cen-

turies by the name schrol. Colored crystals were imported from Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 18th century. Tourmaline was known to be mined in many of the Ori-ental countries that yielded other precious stones for the gem-loving Romans. There are no definite de-scriptions of it by the gem writers of the early periods.

During the 17th century, Bra-zil exported long prisms of dark-green tourmaline to Europe but called them “Brazilian emeralds,” stating incorrectly that they were harder than true emeralds. It was not until the early part of the 18th century, however, that an incident led to the discovery that these beautiful crystals had a strange property not possessed by the em-erald.

According to the story, one warm summer day some children in Amsterdam, Holland, were playing with tourmaline “stones” that had been brought home by Dutch navigators and noticed the odd effect produced on them by the sun rays. They were astonished to find that the stones could at-tract or repel, with decided force, such light weight substances as ashes and straws. Because of this, the Dutchmen call them “aschen-trackers” or “ash drawers.”

Tourmaline’s name came from the Sinhalese word “turmali,” which means “mixed.” Bright rain-bow collections of gemstone vari-eties were called “turmali” parcels.

Tourmaline occurs in more colors and combinations of colors than any other gemstone variety. There is a tourmaline that looks like al-most any other gemstone. Perhaps this is why this gemstone is said to encourage artistic intuition: it has many faces and expresses every mood.

Many stones in the Russian Crown jewels from the 17th cen-tury once thought to be rubies are actually tourmalines. The Chinese Empress Dowager Tz’u His, the last Empress of China, loved pink tourmaline and literally bought

almost a ton of it from the New Himalayan

Mine, located in California. The Himalayan Mine is still producing tourmaline today, but the Dowa-ger went to rest eternally on a carved tourmaline pillow.

Tourmaline alternates with opal as the birthstone for the month of October.

During the medieval days, tour-maline was thought to heal physi-cal and mental disorders as well as to prevent death. Tourmaline is said to calm nerves, regulate hormones, fight against genetic disorders and induce a tranquil sleep. It’s also supposed to relieve arthritis pain and help fight heart disease. According to legend, tour-maline is said to dispel fear, nega-

tivity and grief. Tourmaline of any color is supposed to protect the wearer against many dangers and misfortune.

Southern California is a world-recognized source of high quality tourmalines. Fine examples of red, pink, blue, green and watermelon gemstones come from mines in Riverside and San Diego counties. Tourmaline is also found in Sri Lanka, Brazil, Baja, Calif., Maine, New York, Connecticut, Afghani-stan and Russia.

For the care and treatment of tourmaline, as with all gems, pro-tect tourmaline from scratches and sharp blows. Avoid drastic temperature changes. Do not clean tourmaline in a home ultra-sonic cleaner.

The 4 Cs determine diamond quality, price

Now, a fifth C has emerged, created. Cubic Zirconia is one of the most popular lab cre-ated diamonds made today.

A diamond’s quality and price is determined by the four Cs: color, clarity, cut and carat.

The many colors of tourmalineGemstones & Minerals


Many players refer to Bad Beat Jackpots as “Urban Legends” or point out, “They always happen to someone else.”

Don’t you believe it - as Bill Murray yells in the movie Scrooged, “It can happen to you.”

They can be life-changing / $100,000 or more on a single hand. It’s always fun to watch the room wheel out the champagne, watch the suits come out from the offices, and finally watch them distribute the bun-dles of cash.

First - a definition: A Poker Room Bad Beat Jackpot is a “prize” that is usually player funded through a small (usually $1) rake from every pot. There are different qualifiers, conditions and sizes of jack-pots room to room but in all cases it is a HUGE hand beat by a HUGE hand / such as quads over quads beat with both cards from a player’s hand playing.

Currently the Bad Beat Jackpots in the larger local rooms are:

• Ameristar Poker Room: $200,000 level 1 with 2 backups over $100,000. Qualifier is Quads over Quads beat. No room share.

• Fortune Valley Poker Room: Lots of progressive jackpots.

• Golden Gates Poker Room: $30,000. Qualifier is Ace’s full of Kings.

• Isle Poker Room: $206,000. Creative qualifiers and options (too many for space allowed) on hitting all or part of jackpot.

• Lodge Poker Room: $309,000 with a huge room share. Qualifier is Quads over Quads.

I have been involved in 6 bad beat jack-pots (4 table & 2 room shares) but never as a large or small end. I was also in the room when the huge $684,000 Jackpot hit (by a husband /wife) and since there was a room share took home over $600.

On Super Bowl Sunday a few years ago we hit the jackpot on the 6th hand of the day sending me home with a $4,000 table share of $100,000 – just because a player stayed for 2 running cards. Another time I actually raised with a flush thinking I had the best hand and a local regular pulled his ID out, put it on the table looking at me saying “you should fold” – I did and pulled

in a $4,500 table share.That’s the key – a player simply never

knows when it’s coming. The last few that have hit in town were long shots all the way: A player flops a Royal Flush with an-other player having some pair and hitting running quads; or a player flopping a set against another set and hitting both quads on the turn and river; or a player flopping a gut shot draw for a straight flush against a set and hitting both perfect cards. Always pay attention – you never know.

Chuck, a long-time local player has been in an amazing 19 Jackpots; another local, Lang, has been involved in over 10. I also know of many players who have never even been in the room when one hit.

Sadly, I have also been at the table when a player has laid down a Jackpot hand due to betting. On one occasion a player laid down Q – 10 to a $25 bet and would have hit quads with a kicker (at that time played) and taken home over $60,000 (and I would have won over $4,000 for be-ing at the table.)

In another recent miss at The Ameris-tar poker room a player laid down a pocket pair on the flop because a player bet his quads. The player who laid down the pair would have hit the jackpot when his cards hit on the turn and river / costing that ta-ble $200,000. You just never know.

I have been at the table when we were one card off (straight flush misses by one card) or the card was just under the card turned (one card off.)

A few years ago two friends sat down, not knowing about the Jackpot and turned an unbeatable bad beat never betting it – nullifying the win due to not having enough in the pot (ensure you know the minimums.)

I am an advocate of the room share (10 percent of total divided by room) idea when a jackpot gets over a certain amount, say something like $200, 000 – $300,000. This is because it is large enough so it makes a difference to all the players in the room but will barely touch the overall amount for the main player’s thus driving interest and thus more games.

Many players have “shares” with play-ers at other tables – thus doubling or tri-pling the chances to hit even a small piece of a jackpot. It’s a good idea to only do this with someone you trust – if they hit you have to trust them to pay you.

Remember, play your game…and be ready for that one big hand that could change your life.

Bad Beat Jackpots – they do happenpokertalk

BYLARRY

JOHNSON

6350 SHERIDAN BLVD ARVADA 800039731 W 58TH AVE ARVADA 800021575 W 84TH AVE FEDERAL HEIGHTS 8022112350 W 64TH AVE ARVADA 8000415200 W 64TH AVE ARVADA 800078055 SHERIDAN BLVD ARVADA 800033400 YOUNGFIELD ST WHEAT RIDGE 800331555 QUAIL ST LAKEWOOD 8021517171 S GOLDEN RD GOLDEN 8040111747 W KEN CARYL AVE LITTLETON 801271927 S WADSWORTH BLVD LAKEWOOD 8022712043 W ALAMEDA PKWY LAKEWOOD 802286760 S PIERCE ST LITTLETON 801289800 W BELLEVIEW AVE LITTLETON 801231545 S KIPLING ST LAKEWOOD 802321173 BERGEN PARK EVERGREEN 804398126 S WADSWORTH BLVD LITTLETON 8012825637 CONIFER RD CONIFER 804337984 W ALAMEDA AVE LAKEWOOD 802265050 S FEDERAL BLVD ENGLEWOOD 801102205 WILDCAT RESERVE PKWY HIGHLANDS RANCH 801299551 S UNIVERSITY BLVD HIGHLANDS RANCH 801265050 E ARAPAHOE RD CENTENNIAL 801227575 S UNIVERSITY BLVD CENTENNIAL 801228200 S HOLLY ST CENTENNIAL 80122101 ENGLEWOOD PKWY ENGLEWOOD 80110100 W LITTLETON BLVD LITTLETON 801204000 RED CEDAR DR HIGHLANDS RANCH 801268673 S QUEBEC ST HIGHLANDS RANCH 801267901 S BROADWAY LITTLETON 80122

CRIPPLE CREEK

Casino•Guide

CENTRAL CITY

BLACK HAWK

This information is subject to change without notice.

Ameristar - 24/7 BJ, P, C, R, VP over 1400 536 rooms B, D, SD, Starbucks free valet and self parking 720-946-4000/.ameristar.com/Black_Hawk.aspx

Black Hawk Station VP 120 No SD,SB city lot 303-582-5582/ blackhawkstationcasino.net

Bull Durham VP 188 No SB city lot 303-582-0810/.bulldurhamcasino.com

Bullwhackers - 24/7 Fri/Sat VP 400 No SD free valet and self parking 1-800-GAM-BULL/bullwhackers.com

Canyon - 24/7 Fri/Sat BJ, C, R, VP 415 No SD, SB free valet and self parking 303-777-1111/canyoncasino.com

Fitzgeralds - 24/7 Fri/Sat BJ, C, R, VP 700 No SD, SB on weekends free covered valet 303-582-6100 (1-800-538-LUCK)/fitzgeraldsbh.com

Gilpin - 24/7 BJ, C, R, P, VP 460 No SD free valet across the street 303-582-1133/thegilpincasino.com

Golden Gates - 24/7 BJ, P, C, VP 280 No D free valet and covered self parking 303-582-5600/thegoldengatescasino.com

Golden Gulch VP 140 No V free self/free valet 303-582-5600/thegoldengatescasino.com

Golden Mardi Gras - 24/7 BJ, C, R, VP 680 No SD,SB,D free valet and covered self parking 303-582-5600/goldenmardigras.com

Isle Casino Hotel Black Hawk - 24/7 BJ, C, P, R, VP 1308 238 B,D,SD free valet and self parking 1-800-The-Isle/theisleblackhawk.com

Lady Luck - 24/7 BJ, P,C, R, VP 500 164 SD,SB free covered valet and self parking 1-888-Lady-Luck/ladyluckblackhawk.com

Lodge - 24/7 BJ, C, R, P, VP 975 50 B, D, SD, SB free valet parking 303-582-1771/thelodgecasino.com

Red Dolly VP 149 No SD free self parking 303-582-1100/reddollycasino.net

Riviera - 24/7 BJ, C, R, VP 766 No B free valet and self parking 303-582-1000/rivierablackhawk.com

Sasquatch No 70 No D No 720-880-1616

Wildcard VP 220 No D city lot 303-582-3412/thewildcardsaloon.com

Century Casino - 24/7 BJ, P, C, R, VP 520 26 SD,D free covered self parking 303-582-5050/cnty.com

Crystal Palace VP 101 No D free city lot 720-253-1669

Doc Holliday VP 178 No SD free city lot 303-582-1400/dochollidaycasino.net

Dostal Alley - 24/7 VP 64 No SD free self parking 303-582-1610/dostalalley.net

Easy Street VP 205 No SD free self parking 303-582-5914/famousbonanza.com

Famous Bonanza BJ, P, R, VP 244 No SD , D free self parking 303-582-5914/famousbonanza.com

Fortune Valley - 24/7 BJ, P, C, R, VP 665 118 SD free valet and self parking 1-800-924-6646/fortunevalleycasino.com

Johnny Z’s BJ, C, R, VP 288 No SD, D free covered parking 303-582-5623/johnnyzscasino.com

The Brass Ass - 24/7 BJ, P, C, R, VP 250 No SD free covered self parking 800-635-LUCK/triplecrowncasino.com

Bronco & Buffalo Billy’s - 24/7 BJ, P, C, R, VP 750 23 SD free self parking 877-989-2142/broncobillyscasino.com

Century Casino - 24/7 BJ, C, R, VP 437 21 SD free self parking 719-689-0333/cnty.com/casinos/cripplecreek

Colorado Grande - 24/7 BJ, R, VP 211 5 SD, SB free self parking 877-244-9469/coloradogrande.com

Double Eagle & Gold Creek - 24/7 BJ, P ,C, R, VP 700+ 158 SD, SB free valet and covered self parking 800-711-7234/decasino.com

Johnny Nolon’s - 24/7 VP 255 No SD free self parking w/validation 719-689-2080/johnnynolons.com

J.P. McGill’s - 24/7 Fri/Sat VP 300 40 SD validated self parking 800-635-LUCK/triplecrowncasinos.com

Midnight Rose - 24/7 P, VP 400 19 SD, B validated self parking 800-635-LUCK/triplecrowncasinos.com

Wildwood Casino- 24/7 BJ, P, C, R, VP, TH 530 68 SD, D Climate controlled self parking 877-945-3963/playwildwood.com

Casino Table Slots Lodging Food Parking Contact Games

Table Games Key

BJ - Blackjack, P-Poker, C-Craps, R-Roulette, TH - Texas Holdem’, VP-Video Poker

Food Key

B-Buffet, D-Deli, SD-Sitdown, SB-Snackbar, V-Vending Machine

Having spent more time than I would have wished at work, I wandered down to the local Pokertorium last Sunday for some tournament action. An hour prior I sat outside in the mountain sun enjoying the view as I came up with a plan* for the coming fracas. What that was I hesitate to mention, for everyone must see their own weaknesses and develop ways to strengthen their play. Everyone must re-alistically assess their own strengths and determine ways to capitalize on them. I came up with my own. And then the tournament began…*

Things went well through the first break [four rounds] with me adding about 50 percent to my starting stack. The next segment found me at the sec-ond break with a little over double my starting stack. Then the following hand occurred: As the small blind [SB] in an unraised pot looking down at Q-6 of clubs, I completed the bet and four of us saw the flop. Pretty good for my hand…A-10-8 of clubs; I had flopped the second-nut flush. I made a probing bet of half the pot to see where I was and got two callers. The turn brought the 8 of spades; not a good card but still, after my next bet of half the pot again, receiv-ing no resistance or aggression from the others. One opponent mucked his cards and one called. The river card was the deuce of spades – now how, I ask, could that possibly hurt me?

I made a pot-sized bet, the opponent went all-in and I called: He turned over a pair of red twos for runner-runner full house. As this ‘Gee-nee-yus’ is pulling in the chips, I couldn’t help wondering just what he saw on the flop that kept him in the hand? Even the turn where he made two pair – in the face of a flush or even full house on the board – would not have me excited to call the last bet. He needed one of the two remaining eights or one of the two other twos to win; four cards out of 46 to win. The phrase we’ve all heard, that of a ‘blind dog finds a bone once in a while’ certainly applies here, but makes taking the loss no easier to bear.

And to top things off, a fellow I’ve played with for years began repeating “Quack-Quack” for the next 10 minutes, thinking he was being funny. Now, I re-alize you can’t take things like this per-sonally in poker, but you surely would like to see them get their come-upance.

Sometimes it occurs sooner, sometimes later, and sometimes you’re not around to witness it when it does. As the events unfolded, I was there to witness it; it happened sooner than later and I was the one to deal out the retribution. I had Pocket Kings, made a medium-sized raise and he called. The flop was K-Q-6 offsuit: I bet about half the pot, he raised, I went all-in and he just about beat me into the pot. His K-Q for two pair did not improve and my trips put me back close to where I was before Mr. ‘Gee-nee-yus’ zapped me. Mr. ‘Quack-Quack’ was crip-pled and departed shortly thereafter.

There is a slogan in one of my favorite films “Galaxy Quest” [a fun take-off on the original ‘Star Trek’ television series] whereby, faced with difficulties and op-position, the group says to themselves and each other: “Never give up. Never surrender.” That was now my mantra for this tournament; I had played well not making a single mistake, had taken a bad beat and yet had stayed alert enough to overcome those horrible feelings of ‘Tiltedness’ to regain my original posi-tion in the game. An Up, a Down, then Up again.

As we know, Mother Nature does not like imbalances and in the sentence above there are two Ups but only one Down. [You know what’s coming, don’t you?] With three partial tables remain-ing and the money just down the way apiece, I found myself in the small blind again against a friend with whom I’ve played for years. He said “Hey Drew, we haven’t had a walk at this table all day.” Looking down at Pocket Rockets I couldn’t help myself; friend or no friend, he was another player standing between me and the prize. When I raised, the dealer said the chip touched the table before I said raise and therefore was merely a call of the BB. OK, OK…what harm, right?

My friend turned over Q-2 and stood up to leave when he saw my hand. A Queen on the flop and a Queen on the river crippled me once again. I was blown out of the tournament a few hands later when my pocket 6’s fell to pocket Kings. What a ride. I think I played every hand the way I should have [except per-haps the flopped flush, perhaps I should have played it more aggressively] and yet was eliminated due to pure, dumb luck. Recalling the mantra from ‘Galaxy Quest’ however, were it not for the fickle finger of fate I likely would have ended the tournament with more to show than ideas for an article. Poker has its ups and downs – one must accept the fact these will happen. But until you are out: Never give up. Never surrender.

* Keep in mind one of the laws of combat: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.


Gaming

FULLHOUSEBy Drew Chitiea

Tournament Tales: Ups & Downs

Breaking away from the slots is a dif-ficult transition for a majority of casino players, but a very necessary one if you wish to enjoy the total casino experience and attempt to derive the most bang for your gambling dollar.

We’ve already explored the opportuni-ties that await table games neophytes at the roulette wheel. Today let’s take a look at Pai Gow Poker.

Pai Gow Poker is a great way to stay in action for a long period of time without subjecting your bankroll to the volatil-ity of big short-term losses. Perfect basic playing strategy keeps the house edge to about 2.5 percent.

It’s an easy game to learn and pro-gresses at such a leisurely pace that I’m sure you’ll enjoy the playing experience, especially if you like kitchen table pok-er but are intimidated by casino poker rooms.

Pai Gow Poker is a casino “hybrid”, a game that’s a cross between Chinese dominos (pai gow) and American 7-card poker. It’s played at a blackjack-style ta-ble using a 52-card deck plus one joker.

The joker is not wild in Pai Gow Poker.

Rather it can be used only as an ace or as a card to complete a straight, flush, straight flush, or royal flush. A game consists of a dealer and up to six players, each of whom is dealt seven cards face down for each round of betting.

The object of the game is for each player to arrange his cards into a 2-card poker hand and a 5-card poker hand. The dealer sets his hands according to es-tablished house rules. Your 2-card hand cannot outrank your 5-card hand or you automatically lose your bet. Beginners may even request that the dealer set your hands for you.

When all the hands are set, the deal-er compares his hands with those of the players. The player wins his bet if both of his hands outrank both of the dealer’s hands. If one is higher and one is lower, it’s a push. You lose your bet if the dealer beats your hands or his hands are identi-cal in rank to yours.

All winning bets are paid off at even money, however, every time you win, the casino collects a five percent commission, or 25 cents on a five-dollar hand.

There is definitely a skill factor in-volved in setting your hands. Computer studies have shown there are optimum ways to play, the precepts of which keep the house edge down and increase your chances of winning.

A report I saw last week embattled poker site, Full Tilt Poker, and re-

ported that it has signed an agreement to be acquired by the French investment firm owned by Bernard Tapie.

Under the agreement Tapie would repay Full Tilt players the millions of dol-lars they have been unable to collect. Federal prosecu-tors accused the site and two other offshore poker web-sites of fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors shut down access to Americans. Then, last month, prosecutors separately filed civil charges against Full Tilt, asserting that the site’s owners and managers had siphoned off hundreds of millions of dol-lars that were supposed to be held in the accounts of individual players.

Under the terms of the agreement between Tapie and the management of Full Tilt , the acquisition would not go through unless the civil suit is resolved.

Full tilt players may recover funds after all

A look at Pai Gow Poker


Gaming

One-roll bets at craps are re-solved whenever the dice are thrown. Because the game is fast-paced, wagers of this type may in-duce steep bankroll climbs and falls during runs of good and bad luck, respectively. Usually, however, wins and loses occur in roughly the theoretical proportions, and frequent decisions in a given time period means that the house advan-tage or edge takes its toll.

The Field is a bet of this type. Novices, especially, like it for sev-eral reasons. First, it’s easy to un-derstand because the seven win-ning totals are clearly printed on the layout: 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Second, although most results pay

1-to-1, 2 and 12 have bonuses – usu-ally 2-to-1 on each but sometimes 2-to-1 on one and 3-to-1 on the other. Third, it’s located on the layout for self-service, a plus for players daunted by deal-ers. Fourth, it gives the impression of being easy to win because seven totals lead to victory while only four – 5, 6, 7, and 8 – by elimination, to defeat.

Everyone knows that appear-ances can be deceiving – and no-where more than in palaces of smoke and mirrors, aka casinos. Seven propitious and four adverse totals don’t favor players by 7-to-4. The dice can land 36, not 11, ways. As the nearby table shows, 16 com-binations bring joy and 20 sorrow on the Field, so five losses are ex-pected for every four wins. In con-sequence, with 2s and 12s paying 2-to-1, edge is (2/36)x2 + (14/36)x1 - (20/36)x1 = -5.56 percent – the minus sign indicating the house is in the catbird seat. When either 2 or 12 pays 3-to-1 and the other 2-to-1, edge drops to (1/36)x3 + (1/36)x2 + (14/36)x1 -(20/36) x 1 = -2.78 percent.

Numbers of winning and losing combinations of the dice for bets on the Field at craps

Maybe you don’t think -5.56 and -2.78 percent edge are exorbitant. After all, it’s -6.67 percent Placing the four or 10 and -4.00 percent the five or nine. And experienced play-ers often make these bets rather than drive edge below 1 percent on Pass, Don’t Pass, Come, and Don’t Come with Odds. The fly in the ointment is decision rate. On the average, in 36 throws, Field bets are resolved 36 times while wagers on 4 or 10 have nine, and those on 5 or 9 have 10 decisions. What happens when $5 is risked on each of these propositions for 36 statistically-correct throws?

• 4s and 10s pay $9, winning three for a $9x3 = $27 gain and los-ing six for a $5x6 = $30 setback – a net $3 deficit (note that 6.67 percent of $5x9 is $3);

• 5s and 9s pay $7, winning four for a $7x4 = $28 gain and losing six for a $5x6 = $30 setback – a net $2 deficit (note that 4.00

percent of $5x10 is $2);• The Field with 2-to-1 bonuses

on both 2 and 12 pay $5 on 14 out-comes and $10 on two results for a

$5x14 + $10x2 = $90 gain, and lose $5 on 20 throws for a $5x$20 = $100 setback – a $10 net loss (note that 5.56 percent of $5x36 is $10);

• The Field with bonuses of 3-to-1 on either 2 or 12 and 2-to-1 on the other pay $5 on 14 outcomes, $10 on one re-sult, and $15 on one reso-lution for a $5x14 + $15x1 + $10x1 = $95 gain and lose $5 on 20 decisions for a $5x20 = $100 set-back – a $5 net loss (note that 2.78 percent of $5x36 is $5).

Of course, casino aficionados don’t plan to finish a series of rolls losing precisely the amount corre-sponding to the edge. That’s where volatility, a measure of actual bank-roll swings per decision, enters the picture. Losses cost $5 in all these cases. Wins yield $5, $7, $9, $10, or $15 depending on the particulars. Over huge numbers of coups, edge proves to be a reliable indicator of where players will finish. After rela-tively short stretches, the cumula-tive effect of individual jumps up and down can push solid citizens

well below the loss due to edge, or can put them in the profit column. Assuming bettors have the dough to ride through 36 throws without busting out, the nearby table shows the chance they’ll be even or ahead at the end of such a series.

Chance of being even or ahead after 36 throws, flat betting the indicated propositions

The Field with the 2-to-1 payouts on 2s and 12s is the worst of the lot. If the chances of being ahead don’t look much lower for the Field than they do for Place bets on the 4, 5, 9, or 10, remember that the most sophisticated craps buffs don’t wa-ger on these either. They opt for Pass, Come, Don’t pass, or Don’t Come with as much in Odds as the bosses allow and they can afford. The celebrated songster, Sumner A Ingmark, may have said it best in his catchy couplet:

Casino bets that don’t seem scary,Are often traps for the unwary.

Three big mistakes perpetu-ated by the Old School blackjack writers and players:

That the Hi-Lo card counting system (which counts 2s-6s as +1 each as they hit the table and 10s and Aces as -1 each as they hit the table) is close to perfect in analyz-ing the cards. (The MIT teams of the early 1990s used this system,

invented by Harvey Dubner in 1963.)

That Aces, in card counting and analyzing the cards, should be considered High cards (equiva-lent to the effect the 10s have, for instance).

And that card imbalances that favor the dealing of Aces in a fu-ture round are good for the player.

All wrong.First, consider the inconve-

nient truth that the dealer will never bust in tak-ing an extra card if that card is an Ace. Perhaps that’s why the deal-er’s busting rate is at its lowest when receiving Aces.

And when Aces are overdue, does the dealer not have an equal chance of getting one of those Aces, perhaps for a blackjack?

Second, consider the card situ-ation here. What does the Hi-Lo card counting system tell you? If you’re not certain, look at the graphic below, from a portion of my Imbalances and Probabilities Calculator’s assessment of this situation.

According to the Hi-Lo system, there are an equal number of High

and Low cards on the table and among the undealt mix. So there’s no need to worry. We’re in a nor-mal situation.

But are we? My assessments show instead that a majority of the undealt cards favor the dealer achieving a good score. Most of the undealt cards are Low cards and Aces!

Furthermore, look at the graphic above, also from my Cal-culator.

The 2s through the 9s and the Aces would help the dealer’s 2 avoid busting. What is the to-tal percentage of these cards in the undealt mix? (I’ll let you add

this up. Hint: The percent-age of cards that would help the dealer avoid busting is HUGE!)

So...if you were the play-er in third base, would you

double down?(NO! You’re most likely to get a

card that would give you an inade-quate score (do the math with the Calculator!) whereas the dealer is highly likely to get a good score!)

This dramatically shows you why you’d do poorly using the Hi-Lo and Old School methods.

Richard Harvey is the acclaimed blackjack strategies innovator, ex-pert player, blackjack coach and bestselling author of Blackjack The SMART Way (the NEW Gold Edi-tion), Cutting Edge Blackjack (the NEW Third Edition), NEW Ways To Win MORE at Blackjack and the audio book Richard Harvey’s Blackjack PowerPrep Session. Have blackjack questions? Send them to [email protected]. For more info see http://www.blackjacktoday.com.

Should you bet on the Field at craps?

Why the Hi-Lo and Old School methods fail

Proposition % ahead Field (two and 12 each pay 2-to-1) 37.9% Field (two or 12 pay 2-to-1, the other pays 3-to-1) 44.2% Place the nine 46.1% Place the 10 43.4%

win losetotal 2 3 4 9 10 11 12 5 6 7 8ways 1 2 3 4 3 2 1 4 5 6 5

total ways 16 20

By Richard Harvey

THE COLORADO GAMBLER – Celebrating 20 Years November 8-21, 2011

Trail’s End

The Pueblo Flood of 1921 devastated the city’s economy. It closed forever 30 percent of the businesses and destroyed dozens of buildings. At least 150 people were dead or missing and $33 mil-lion in property was lost. Photos by Louis McClure,

courtesy of Denver Public Library – Western History Collection

By Cathleen [email protected]

The steel mills were the vital economic force of Pueblo for nearly a century. Photo by Louis McClure,

ourtesy of Denver Public Library – Western History Collection

The song of PuebloThe story

of Pueblo, the largest community in southern C o l o r a d o and a lead-ing indus-trial city since its very beginning, is an interest-

ing one. With a population of 107,000, Pueblo is the state’s seventh largest city. Hispanic/Latino citizens make up 44 percent of the residents, a legacy of both abundant agricultural activity in the Lower Arkansas Valley downriver from Pueblo as well as the work force demands at the city’s steel mills and manufacturing plants.

Multinational immigrants from dozens of countries arrived at the turn-of-the-19th century to work at Pueblo’s many industrial sites. In the past half century, the number of Hispanics has grown considerably.

Pueblo sits in the high desert where Fountain Creek flows into the Arkansas River, 100 miles south of Denver and 45 miles south of Colo-rado Springs. Before the city grew here, the location had a brief and ill-fated function as Fort Pueblo. George Simpson, Mathew Kinkead and other traders and trappers built an adobe structure in 1842. The fortified trading post encouraged settlement and trade in the Arkan-

sas River Valley, at that time U.S.-Mexican borderlands. On Christmas Eve 1854, Utes and Jicarilla Apaches raided Fort Pueblo, killing or kid-napping half of the 30 or so inhab-itants. Fort Pueblo was abandoned.

The area grew again 15 years later with 1859 Colorado gold rush. Pres-ent Pueblo originated as a ranch-ing center and a stop on the famed Goodnight-Loving cattle trail, ac-cording to Pueblo, A Pictorial His-tory, by Joanne West Dodds. The Pueblo Chieftain newspaper ob-served, “The cowboy is apt to spend his money liberally when he gets paid after his long [cattle] drive from Texas.” The city of Pueblo was incor-porated in 1870 and immediately be-came the major industrial center of southern Colorado.

The railroad arrived in 1871 – the Denver & Rio Grande (D&RG) built south from Colorado Springs by Gen. Henry Jackson Palmer. It launched Pueblo as a transportation hub and industrial center. The rail-road hauled gold and silver ore down from Colorado’s mighty mountain districts, like Leadville, to the Pueb-lo’s awaiting mills and smelters.

Railroad construction also fueled the steel-milling industry: Palmer’s CF&I Steel Corporation erected enormous mills to produce gigantic quantities of “rail steel,” metal train tracks. Pueblo became the largest steel-producing city in the West.

Commerce and finance flour-

ished as well. Two brothers, Mahlen D. and John A. Thatcher, opened Pueblo’s first bank and expanded their banking empire expanded into nearly a score banks throughout southern Colorado, including the rich San Juan mining districts. Stock raising and agriculture remained prime industries, and Pueblo be-came the largest saddle-making cen-ter in the world.

This economic activity saw sev-eral challenges, including business recessions and labor union strikes. However, the Great Flood of 1921 struck Pueblo the worst. The unruly Arkansas had jumped its banks sev-eral times, but in June 1921 the cata-strophic flood devastated the com-mercial district, inundating stock-yards and saddle making operations, closing forever one-third of the city’s businesses and destroying dozens of downtown buildings. At least 150 people were dead or missing and $33 million in property was lost.

It took the city several decades to recover. Pueblo Reservoir, con-structed 6 miles upriver in 1970-75, provided flood control and a prime recreational attraction. During the past decade, the Arkansas River has emerged as a landscaped centerpiece flowing past the historic red-brick downtown district.

Meanwhile, the steel industry did not burgeon forever. Pueblo steel mills produced an array of metal products: rail, rod, bar, and seam-less tube, as well as wire, fencing and nails. But the city’s economic profile changes in the early 1980s when the market for domestic steel crashed and thousands of jobs were lost. Juggernaut C&FI Steel, after a series of bankruptcies and takeovers morphed into Rocky Mountain Steel, a subsidiary of Russia-based steel giant Evraz. Today, it consists of specialty mill employing as many as 1,000 workers.

Although the industry is just a shadow of its former self, Pueblo’s Steel City nickname defines the Union Avenue Historic district. Art galleries, coffee shops, Internet cafes, beauty salons, clothing bou-tiques, music taverns and tattoo par-lors thrive in the beautifully restored

old buildings in this National Regis-ter Historic District.

Meanwhile, the steel mills still loom as a vacant visual reminder of the city’s industrial past: towering rusting structures visible from I-25 and elsewhere in the city. The main blast furnace was torn down in 1989, but stoves and furnace foundations remain. Part of the industrial com-plex was reborn as the Steelworks Museum of Industry and Culture and that contains the Bessemer Ar-chives Center.

There is more to Pueblo than the steel industry. Remnant of its agricultural roots, Pueblo hosts the Colorado State Fair. The state’s larg-est single event attracts a half mil-lion people during its 10-day stretch and has been a Pueblo tradition since 1886. Another major influence and main employer is the State Hos-pital, established in 1879 and now renamed Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo. Colorado State University has had a major campus in Pueblo for 60 years.

All year round, Pueblo is a place of exciting activities and festivals, in a climate 10 degrees warmer than its northern urban neighbors. The Pro-fessional Bull Riders moved their corporate headquarters to Pueblo in 2008, where they occupy a brand-new red-brick building beside the Arkansas. Reaching back to the city’s stockyard and round-up history, the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce launched the annual Wild Wild West Fest three years ago, a mid-May extravaganza offering every-thing from all types of roping events to blacksmithing and chainsaw art and a golf tournament.

The Rocky Mountain Street Rod Nationals have been held at the State

Fairgrounds for more than 20 years. The Chile & Frijoles Festival in late September celebrates with vigor the pungent pepper. Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead that coincides with the Halloween season and spir-it, sees various festivities.

Pueblo’s mellower side includes the inviting riverwalk. The Historic Arkansas River Project reclaimed the mighty and murderous water way to create a concert plaza and an attractive waterway complete with boat rides. The site where Zebulon Pike first spied his namesake peak on Nov. 4, 1806, is commemorated in sculpture. Upriver, at the Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo, Blue-grass On the River entertains thou-sands of music lovers every first weekend in June.

The original 1850’s adobe fort has been reconstructed as El Pueblo Mu-seum and the Sangre de Cristo Art Center is the focal point for a bub-bling cultural community. The John Thatcher residence, now the Rose-mount Mansion, is an architectural centerpiece. The city’s numerous historic districts deserve their own separate article. El Pueblo Museum

regularly hosts the “Song of Pueblo,” a musi-

cal that celebrates the brightly col-

ored stories surrounding

this spicy city.


Trail’s End

By Linda Wommack

He came from humble begin-nings and became a colo-nel. He lost his wife in an

Apache raid, yet became an adopted member of the Utes. He served in the Civil War and later under Col. Christopher “Kit” Carson. He was a man for his time, and left as a Colo-rado legendary hero.

The son of a Lutheran pastor, Albert Hinrich, was born on Oct. 7, 1822, in East Friesland, Germany, to Hinricus and Wilhelmina Pfei-ffer. At age 22, young Pfeiffer im-migrated to America, settling in St. Louis, Mo., in 1844. Caught up with the adventure of Western migra-tion, as many young men in St. Louis were at the time, he ventured west. Arriv-ing in the Territory of New Mexico, he found work as a clerk in a mer-cantile oper-ated by Joseph Hersch. He lat-er moved on to the settlement of Abiquiu, north of Santa Fe, where he married into an influential Mexi-can family. A few years later, he be-came the sub-agent for the Ute tribes when Abiquiu became a trading post.

It was in October 1859 that Carson met with Pfeiffer regarding the dif-ficulties with the Tabeguache Utes. Following their meeting, Carson wrote to his superior, James Col-lins, superintendent of Indian af-fairs in New Mexico, “Give to me and Pfeiffer authority to give good and peaceable talks.” While these talks did indeed prove peaceful with the Utes, and form a lifelong friend-ship with Ute Chief Ouray, the Navajo were an entirely different matter. The following year, Pfeiffer, in his capacity as an Indian agent, along with Ute leader Kaniache, participated in a raid against the Navajo. This was the first of several controversial actions Pfeiffer would be involved in.

When the Civil War broke out,

Pfeiffer enlisted with the New Mex-ico Volunteers, serving under Col. Carson. While their regiment stayed primarily in New Mexico Territory, there were reconnaissance mis-sions, often involving Indians raids. During this time, Pfeiffer and Car-son forged a friendship that would remain throughout their lives.

In 1863, Fort McRae was estab-lished 3 miles east of the Rio Grande River, near present day Truth or Con-sequences, in the New Mexico territo-ry. (The Elephant Butte Reservoir has since swallowed the site.) Intended to protect settlers and stop Indian raids, the fort got off to a bad start. Pfeiffer, now a colonel, was put in charge of

the new fort. On a seemingly quiet, uneventful day, the

Mescalero Apache sud-denly attacked the

fort. Pfeiffer, bath-ing in the local hot springs, was ob-viously caught off guard. In the attack, he was seriously w o u n d e d , while his preg-nant wife, An-tonia, daughter Maria and a

woman named Mercardo were

captured. During the raid, five people were

killed. Pfeiffer and a troop of soldiers set out in pursuit of the kid-nappers and the res-cue of the women,

who ultimately were found. It must have been a horrendous

scene, as all three women were found shot, and barely alive. They were immediately taken to Fort McRae for medical treatment. All three women died of their wounds and were buried at the cemetery at Fort McRae. Later, a grieving Pfei-ffer had the bodies reburied at the military cemetery of Fort Leaven-worth, Kan.

Meanwhile, Carson had been leading the New Mexico Volunteers successfully in fighting the Mescale-ro Apache throughout that summer of 1863. When Carson received or-ders from Gen. James H. Carleton to end the campaign by winter, with military forces through the Navajo

stronghold of Canyon de Chelly, he called on his old friend, Pfeiffer.

Col. Dixon S. Miles had traveled through the canyon in 1858 and recommended that no command ever enter again. However, on Jan. 6, 1864, Carson led a troop of 375 men from the 1st New Mexico Cav-alry toward the Canyon de Chelly. The command split, with Pfeiffer leading 100 men to the east end of the canyon, and Carson and the

remaining troops marched to the west entrance. As the military en-tered the most forbidding Navajo citadel, they were immediately at-tacked with shooting arrows from the high rock rim canyon walls. Proceeding east through the sticky sandy canyon bottom, Carson be-came alarmed when he did not meet Pfeiffer’s command. Sure his friend had not survived the onslaught of piercing arrows that Carson’s men

went through, he was soon over-come with shock and joy when Pfeiffer and his men emerged. They had been delayed by a skirmish, but remained victorious. The campaign was a success and the Navajos came into Fort Canby in surrender. Later that year, Pfeiffer, along with others under the command of Carleton, conducted the Navajos on their Long Walk to the ill-fated social ex-periment of Bosque Redondo.

Pfeiffer was without a doubt in-volved in controversial situations, yet often at risk of his own life. In all the many battles he engaged in, he is perhaps most known in Colo-rado history for an alleged duel with a Navajo warrior. In contrast to his adversarial relations with the Nava-jos, who had been just about every-one’s enemy for generations, Pfei-ffer had made many friends with the Utes, including Chief Ouray.

In late 1866, a war was raging between the Utes and the Nava-jos over the hot springs of Pagosa in southwestern Colorado. Both tribes had considered the waters sacred, and so the Utes, who had lived in the area for generations, allowed the Navajo access to the spring waters. The Navajo soon waged a war for control of the springs, fighting for several days, ending in a stalemate. In such in-stances, the issue was often settled by personal combat. The Utes sought assistance from Pfeiffer. The Navajos sent out their largest, seasoned young warrior. The duel to the death was fought with Bow-ie knifes at Pfeiffer’s insistence. It wasn’t much of a fight, Pfeiffer killed his enemy and the Utes re-tained possession of the sacred hot springs.

Pfeiffer left for Fort Garland, where Carson was in command. He roamed the San Luis Valley for many years, finally homesteading on land west of Del Norte in 1872. Working with local livestock opera-tors, he gained permission to graze their animals on Ute land southwest of Pagosa Springs.

Amazingly, Pfeiffer, at the age of 57, his body worn out and covered with scars from numerous wounds, died in bed.

Pfeiffer’s grave is located west of Del Norte, just off Colorado High-way 160.

Col. Albert H. Pfeiffer – The Man & The Legend

This wooden sign directs travelers along Highway 160 to the grave of Col. Pfeiffer.

Col. Albert H. Pfeiffer’s gravePhotos courtesy of Denver Public Library, Western History Collection

One of the few known photographs of Col. Albert

H. Pfeiffer.

B e honest. Have you ever tapped your brakes

when you saw a highway patrolman parked by the road – even though you WEREN’T speed-ing? Me too! It’s my Guilty-Conscience-E v e n - T h o u g h - I -Haven’t-Done-Any-t h ing -Wrong - Y e t Syndrome, the nag-ging sense that if they’re looking at me like that, I ei-ther messed up or I was just about to. I think it stems from a child-hood when that was often the case.

I’ve had the feeling a lot lately, most recently when I had to go through random drug testing at my other job. In case you haven’t had the ... uh ... opportunity yourself, let me tell you how it works. Your su-pervisor tells you that you must get yourself to the testing site within a specified amount of time and not a minute more, giving whole new meaning to the term “gotta go.” The nice, but highly professional drug testing people go through a series of steps all in order to ensure that

your ... uh ... speci-men isn’t tampered with. I don’t mean to be judgmental, but it seems to me you’d have to be pretty desperate to tamper with a specimen.

Accurate as the process apparently is, I still got that Guilty-Conscience-E v e n - T h o u g h - I -Haven’t-Done-Any-thing-Wrong-Yet

feeling. I wondered if it’s true what they say about poppy seed muf-fins causing false positives. And if so, when was the last time I ate one? Or what if my multi-vitamin contains a banned substance? I’ll put an end to the suspense right now and tell you that apparently it doesn’t, because I still have a job.

I was fingerprinted a couple weeks ago too, further adding to my Guilty-Conscience-Even-Though-blah-blah-blah Syndrome. No, I was NOT arrested. And I’m hurt that you would even think that.

It was actually part of a back-ground check I needed to volunteer for an organization my son belongs

to. And in case you›re wondering, I passed. But I was nervous! I kept wondering if there might be some-thing in my past I’ve forgotten about – a bank robbery or grand theft – though you’d think I’d re-member that.

Getting screened at the airport is another time when I feel instant guilt. I go through the screening line wondering if, without thinking, I somehow slipped a butter knife into my purse after breakfast. Or what if I absentmindedly utter the word “bomb” and get pulled out of line for interrogation. I’m not sure why I would do that. Months go by without me ever having reason to say “bomb,” though not without me bombing. But that’s another story.

But standing there in the line

at the airport, I have to choke back the word. You know how you would never be tempted to stick your tongue to a frozen flag pole if no one ever told you not to. May-be you aren’t anyway, but it’s the same idea. Fortunately, I have nev-er succumbed to either temptation, maybe because I’ve learned to keep my distance from frosty flagpoles. And I’ve started say-ing “bomb, bomb, bomb” repeatedly in the car on the way to the airport, just to get it out of my system.

G u i l t y - C o n -s c i e n c e - E v e n -Though-I-Haven’t-

D o n e - A n y t h i n g - W r o n g - Y e t Syndrome is part of modern life, thanks to the miscreants and rep-robates who hijack airplanes and drive company vehicles after in-gesting illegal substances. You know that old saying: One bad apple spoils the cider for everyone. Or something like that.

Confident, self-righteous types tell us we have nothing to fear from these sorts of screenings if we haven›t done anything wrong. And that is true, but I bet they check their speedometer when they drive by a highway patrolman.

Contact [email protected] or see www.dorothyrosby.com.


Horoscope

Contact Mary Nightstar at [email protected] and type “horoscope” in the subject line.

SCORPIO - (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22) You present goal may be swiftly accomplished by working with a group or with a partner. This may not be the best time to be a loner. Team action is the focus over the next few weeks. Personal gratification comes from knowing where you are in the pecking order. Strong feelings arise from a close romantic bond. You could move this to the next level if you choose. Lucky Numbers: 6, 13, 44, 45, 46, 59 SAGITTARIUS - (Nov. 23 - Dec. 21)Your immediate needs in life, in general, take a priority. It is in your best interest to take care of yourself first. Though, you have a great desire to relate to others, you could be willing to make compromises. Be OK with partaking in pleasure before work duties. You deserve some time off. You are inclined to spend your time with others, but not necessarily looking for love. Lucky Numbers: 3, 9, 12, 30, 33, 39 CAPRICORN - (Dec. 22 - Jan. 20)It may be hard to conceal your feelings from others, and you shouldn’t try to. Female relationships improve and a general feeling of protectiveness arises. You may need to take care of someone at least for the present time. A connection with groups finds a kindred sense of spirit. Thoughts of someone from the past return and you wonder what direction to take. Lucky Numbers: 1, 5, 7, 14, 15, 17

AQUARIUS - (Jan. 21 - Feb. 19)Maybe it is time to dwell in your cave and recharge. If you don’t quite feel like you have a comfy place or that your place is disorganized, make it the way you want. Take a look at your present attitude and feelings toward the world in general. Have you let something from the past dictate who you are today? Let it go and begin again with a fresh start.Lucky Numbers: 4, 6, 12, 44, 46, 38

PISCES (Feb. 20 - March 20)You have a gut feeling about something and you shouldn’t ignore it. You may not have all the facts just yet, but within time you get all the pieces of the puzzle. Reacting automatically instead of thinking about it could lead to a bad impression. Physical energies may be low. Keep ahead of the game with good nutrition and restful sleep.Lucky Numbers: 3, 7, 10, 12, 33, 37

ARIES - (March 21 - April 20)Feelings about what you have or what you own could leave you paging through an old photo album or reminiscing with an old friend. Someone may want to borrow something from you, which is OK as long as they return it. You may need to confront an old relationship issue that you have already dealt with. You are willing to work things out. Good health in general. Lucky Numbers: 1, 11, 12, 17, 31, 32

TAURUS - (April 21 - May 21)You may be feeling very sensitive to the feelings and moods of those around you. Feeling emotionally giving but at the same time may be emotionally demanding. Keep an open point of view and remain objective. Any romantic involvement that happens now can move with great intensity. You can learn a great deal about human nature now.Lucky Numbers: 13, 15, 18, 30, 31, 38

GEMINI - (May 22 - June 21)Though the week may start out in a somewhat withdrawn or moody tone, it doesn’t last long. You quickly realize there is no better time than now to explain and clarify your deepest concerns with your partner. Discuss any difficulties that have come up. Seek out intellectual conversation and stimulation. Mysticism and the spiritual side of life draw interest. Lucky Numbers: 12, 22, 25, 26, 38, 40

CANCER - (June 22 - July 22)You may have something very personal to say. Someone may touch you on an emotional level and it would be nice to let them know how you feel. You will probably feel more supportive now and will to lend a helping hand. An outgoing attitude soon turns into a more of a quiet phase. You think deeply about those you can trust and what you share with them. Lucky Numbers: 2, 10, 18, 22, 32, 53 LEO - (July 23 - Aug 22)Professional and business concerns come into play. Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions in order to achieve the best results with all concerned. You may want to help someone in someway make a better life for themselves, but keep things professional or keep them personal. Do not blur the two. Avoid being possessive. Past conditions may arise. Lucky Numbers: 10, 44, 46, 48, 58, 61

VIRGO - (Aug. 23 - Sept. 23)A strong urge to get away from your daily routine occurs from a restlessness that has been building. A mental journey will suffice if time does not allow a true vacation. Meeting new friends is highly likely. This is a good time to reflect on what has been going on lately. Your connection with your innermost thoughts and feelings comes easily. Lucky Numbers: 8, 12, 15, 18, 35, 38

LIBRA - (Sept. 24 - Oct. 23)A close encounter of the most intense kind could happen because of your sensitivity this week. You don’t want to be taken the wrong way by not thinking something through enough. The 2nd week, your social life picks up tremendously and you are back to your carefree self full of light, love and laughter. A love of sharing who you are returns.Lucky Numbers: 9, 22, 23, 26, 34, 56

Driving around with a guilty conscience

By Dorothy [email protected]

Humor

November 8 - 21 , 2011 THE COLORADO GAMBLER – Celebrating 20 Years PAGE 23

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