Visitreno

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

Stan, I don't know if you've already seen 'em, but in response to your request I posted some Virginia City pics into my early November trip report. http://www.visitreno.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1265 Just scroll down past Reno pics and you'll be transported to the ole west!

If you saw them already, then my apologies. My motivation here was at least partly to kick start our message board. No posts in five days. That can't be good for a message board. She'll seize up I tell's ya.

remano · Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 717

Dave,

I enjoyed the pics when they were first posted and they are just as enjoyable this time around. Just to keep the thread going I'll add a comment about the Suicide Table which is mentioned on the Delta Saloon's sign in one of your pictures.

The Suicide Table is a Faro game, an early precursor to modern day blackjack. It seems to have been invented by someone with a poor understanding of the mathematics of probabilities, because it did not provide the guaranteed house advantage of modern casino games. If the game was honestly dealt (apparently a rare occasion in the old west) the odds between the banker and player were just about even. Since it was basically a game of matching cards and only one deck was used and dealt right to the last card, an observant player could identify situations when the player was actually favored. This might be the Suicide Table's fate, since the three people who took their own lives as a result of huge losses at the table were all owners/dealers, not the gamblers on the other side. This is also no doubt the reason that modern casinos don't offer Faro anymore.

More on the Suicide Table from VC's web site:

http://www.visitvirginiacity.org/saloons/delta_saloon.html

Interesting article on Faro:

http://www.desertusa.com/mag06/nov/faro.html

stan_allen · Joined: 19 Dec 2005 Posts: 1129

Thanks, BC, for the reminder! I believe I did check 'em out when you posted 'em, but failed to properly acknowledge your accomplishment.

Frankly, your photos seem even better than the images I saw with my own eyes, which probably says more about my eyes than it does about your camera.

But anyway, very nice! I really need to pop in again, and perhaps actually spend a couple of hours, instead of just blasting through.

I'm going to hoist one for the Bucket of Blood Saloon when I get home, I think.

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1594

Thanks Remano and Stan

Stan, I wasn't sure if you'd had seen the VC photos. I probably should have put them into a separate post. Anyway glad you liked them. They may look better than reality because I run almost all them through Paint Shop Pro (poor man's Photoshop) to spruce them up.

Remano, your links proved very interesting. I read about the Suicide table years ago while in the Delta Saloon. I had forgotten about the game of Faro until reading about it, earlier this year, in Harold Smith Sr.'s autobiography. A quote from his book, " Faro is an absolutely even money game and the only one in which there's no percentage against you. Yet you still don't win." He tells of several people who ruined their lives while addicted to that game.

But I guess there were three Faro winners, though, in Virginia City....with tragic results. Now I'm gonna have to worry about the casino owners if I ever win big in Reno.

LilyJDragonfly · Joined: 03 Mar 2009 Posts: 425

Thanks for the really cool articles on Faro - I vaguely remember reading about it at some point years ago, but these articles were concise and interesting....

Speaking of the Ramada in Reno (the last Faro table in the US - closed in '85), I noticed it last night from Harrah's.... the Ramada has this really cool waterfall effect of lights running down the building.

Anyone ever play at the Ramada?