February 24, 2005

I don't think so!!

We were watching CSI tonight and they were discussing line bets at a sports book that resulted in someone's murder...cool plotline, but there is/was a big problem.

The story had Duke as a 17-23 point favorite over Louisville. Hey...I like a good story as much as the next person but don't...I said DON'T EVER have Duke over my Cards...nope...uh, uh. Yeah, I know it's fiction but still...c'mon...the Cards rule!

Posted by mrchipper at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

Thanks Pete

I wrote an article for Pete that was published by PokerPages.com. While wondering through his website, OldVegasChips.com, last night, I came across the article and another that was written for him. Pete paid me a very nice compliment regarding the article...It's nice to know that some folks appreciate what you do. I receive several compliments on my website, Jeff's Casino Chips, and as a result receive a bunch of requests for information. That's what it is all about...the sharing of what you know.

Here's the link if you want to read it:

Casino Chip Collecting

Posted by mrchipper at 07:02 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2005

O-VER-RA-TED

New Release

Palms Playboy Pamela Anderson Set
02-18-05
Limited to:
$5 set of 4- 3000 each
$25 set of 3- 1000 each
$100 setof 2- 500 each

Geez.

First off, Pam Anderson doesn't do a thing for me...she seems too superficial, fake, plastic (not that kind of plastic!). Like I titled this entry, she is OVERATED! However, many do like her. Playboy does without a doubt and she sells magazines for them so there is a love affair happening.

Add the Palms with an over-the-top chip release and what do you get? A lot of nothing in my opinion. Give the Palms credit for trying but to crank out a release featuring one person from a magazine that will set back the Palms collector $295 face to get them all makes little sense. At least in 2003 the Palms featured the entire magazine with a variety of cover shots. That was a great release, especially the $50 chip.

To be fair, not all of the chips are junk. The $5 pictured, in my opinion, is pretty nice. The $25 I'm showing is kinda cute and "kicky". Sorry to say, the $100s aren't much, in fact I think they are a bit trashy.

But hey!! I'm not the decision-maker here and I shouldn't complain too much because the entire Seattle Slew Palms set would have cost over $550 to obtain, and it's got a HORSE on it. I suppose "The Slew" contributed more to society than Pam (did I just say that? shame shame) and gave folks something to cheer about, and make a little history. Oh wait! Pam did make some history didn't she?? Heh, heh...I never saw it, just heard about it.

Enough for now.

Posted by mrchipper at 01:10 AM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2005

What can you do?

So here I am, fired up to get back to work and do my Leadership Test. Within 5 minutes of arriving at the store, I get a call from my District Manager and he pulls one of my employees to another store! So now I'm by myself for a couple of hours until my other help shows up at noon.

No Leadership Test for me and shorthanded for the day...!@#$%

I won't get to test again until who knows when...damn.

Posted by mrchipper at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

Fun Time's Over

After "resting" for the past week, it is now time to get back to work. I'll put in a couple of hours at the store then head over to Hwang's #1 for a Leadership test. I'm going for my Patch, then the next step is a new uniform.

I had great fun playing with the kids this past week. Games, games, and more games! Of course they p'wned me on all of them but that's ok, just spending time with them is worth it!

Posted by mrchipper at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

I promised...

...to scan some new stuff so here we go!

New Acquisitions

Cal Neva Lodge $100

This is one of 3 very similar $100 chips, the difference being the insert colors and the logo color. This particular chip is the most rare of the three. I love the colors on this chip, you just don't see that combination often.








Hard Rock Hotel $25 The Who

This completes the set of Who chips. This one came from Pete Rizzo for giving him an article about chip collecting. The whole set is awesome, just go to my website, Jeff's Casino Chips, and proceed to the Las Vegas A-M page. The Index page also has a scan of the $100, which is my favorite.

Posted by mrchipper at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

To my Love

Mary Beth...who puts up with me, my short-temperedness, my illogical way of looking at things, my Tae-kwon-do, my chip collecting, my lousy aim at the clothes hamper, my car with the uncomfortable seats, my constant yelling at the TV during sporting events(like it helps!), my always wanting chinese food, my/our bad cats, my complaining about my job...the list goes on and on.

Without you, my life would be nothing...empty...worthless.

Without me, your life would at least be...good or bad...less eventful.

I Love You

Posted by mrchipper at 06:40 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2005

Happy New Year, again!

New Release

Palms Chinese New Year of the Rooster $8, $25, and $100
02-05-05
Limited to $5-1208, $25-508, $100-508

While I'm not into the Chinese New year chips, they are quite popular with other collectors. Once again the Palms breaks loose with a pretty cool set of chips. Nice theme work throughout the set.

I'll bide my time waiting for the Derby chips to arrive and I'll celebrate the New Year with my TKD classes and maybe hit a buffet. Grandmaster usually has some kind of fiesta planned.

Posted by mrchipper at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)

Quite the week

Been very busy the last few days.

We were visited by the DM and Loss Prevention officer, and blew them away! The store is almost perfect now (thanks to Travis!!!) and all the paperwork is spot-on (thanks to me!!!). The visit reports were gushing with "atta-boys"...gotta love that!

Tae-kwon-do has been active as well. The boys and I made it to several classes this past week and got in some good sparring. The adult leadership is having another test on the 19th, this time for my patch. We are also begining work on our demo for the exhibition in March. Hopefully we'll get some good pics this time.

I have the week off and my "to-do" list is daunting. Many outdoor projects to take care of but Ma' Nature isn't cooperating. It's tough to rae leaves and repair gutters when it's raining. Oh well, I guess I'll have to hone my X-Box skills!

Chips? Did someone say chips?

I did!

A most sweet Cal Neva $100 is on its way and I'll have time to scan some stuff this week. A new book is due out in the next couple of weeks. My buddy James Campiglia is releasing his new Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide. It's a wonderful book full of chip scans, postcard scans, and short histories. I can't wait for my autographed copy.

I also got to go to my first U of L basketball game in a loooooooonnngg time. A fellow TKD student gave me tickets, and what tickets they were! Center Court, 5 rows up! Ten feet to the left and we would have been on TV the whole time! Mary Beth wasn't feeling well enough to go so I asked my brother, George, if he wanted to sit with me. It worked perfectly as he already has 3 tickets in another section. That enabled his daughter, wife, and mother-in-law to sit together while George and I experienced Basketball Nirvana. When the game was over and we were leaving, we saw the immortal coach Denny Crum sitting a few rows behind us with nobody else around...unreal! George went up to talk to Coach's wife (another story there regarding his Christmas present from his daughter) while I approached Coach Crum for an autograph. Coach shopped my store in St. Matthews several times while I was there and it was quite cool for him to sign my program. I think I'll give it to Mr. Aberson in thanks for letting me have his tickets.

What a week!

Posted by mrchipper at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2005

I'm so old

Well, today marked another one of those milestones that just lets you know that you're getting old. Trevor got his driving permit today. Man, it wasn't that long ago that he was playing T-ball, finding worms and bugs under 2nd base.

We have his preschool pictures on the wall of the kitchen, what a cute little kid! Now he's a 6'1", full of attitude and probably is no better at T-ball than he was 10 years ago! But he's tough on an X-box!

Happy 16th Birthday Trevor!!

Posted by mrchipper at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2005

Again??

Landry's to Buy Golden Nugget Casino

By ADAM GOLDMAN
Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Landry's Restaurants Inc., whose operations include Rainforest Cafe and The Crab House, is buying the Golden Nugget hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas, a first step in a strategy to get a slice of the lucrative gambling business and expand its profit pipeline. Landry's shares surged more than 12 percent on the news.

Houston-based Landry's announced Friday it struck a deal with Poster Financial Group Inc., owners of the Golden Nugget, under which it would pay $140 million in cash and assume $155 million in debt for the Golden Nugget.

The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is considered the jewel of a faded downtown with 1,907 hotel rooms and 2,800 employees. Built in 1946, it's the largest of the 14 hotel-casinos in the downtown area.

When the Poster Group initially purchased the GN, I stated that I hoped they would keep the Old Time Charm of the place. What did they do?

Ripped up the pool area for a poker room
"The Casino"...ugh! enough said

The image of a grand old lady has been tarnished, thanks to couple of rich guys treating it like a new toy. Try a different venture fellas, you really screwed this one up!

The GN won't/can't compete with the mega-resorts of the Strip, but it can dominate downtown, with the right people at the top. These knuckleheads tried to turn it into another Palms, that isn't going to happen.

Good bye...and good riddance!

Landry's owns and operates more than 300 restaurants, and the brands also include Landry's Seafood House, Joe's Crab Shack, Willie G's Seafood & Steakhouse and The Chart House. It employs more than 30,000 people and had more than $1.1 billion in revenue in 2003.

"The Golden Nugget is the premier property in downtown Las Vegas, has outstanding brand recognition across the country, and is a perfect fit for us," Landry's chairman and president, Tilman Fertitta, said in a statement.

"Landry's operating skill and steady leadership will help boost the Golden Nugget to a new level of performance and satisfaction."

Its shares rose $3.54, or 12.5 percent, to close at $31.95 in Friday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares are up from a 52-week low of $24.75 in late October.

This is the company's first foray in the casino business and a short-lived one for the current owners of the storied property that was once owned by developer Steve Wynn.

Poster Financial Group is owned by Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling, the founders of travel Web site Travelscape.com, which was later sold to Expedia.

Poster and Breitling bought Golden Nugget properties in downtown Las Vegas and Laughlin in June 2003 for $215 million from MGM Mirage Inc. They later sold the Laughlin property to Barrick Gaming Corp. for $31 million.

Last year, the downtown property suffered from poor cash flow, a measure of a casino's profitability.

Gambling analysts said it had been underperforming because the pair had embarked on a risky strategy of luring high rollers who could expose the casino to serious losses.

Analysts said the bet didn't pay off and the casino's bottom-line took a big hit.

"We would not consider the poor operational performance of Golden Nugget under Poster Financial as the basis for Landry's valuation," said John Mulkey, a Bear Stearns Co. gambling analyst in New York. "We believe this acquisition would be a very favorable outcome for Poster and its bondholders."

Fertitta called it unlikely that Landry's would cater to high-rollers unless enough would play so that averages could work in the casino's favor. "Our philosophy will be a little bit different," he told The Associated Press.

Fertitta said he'd like to expand the property; said Landry's was happy with management currently in place; and said he thought the Golden Nugget could generate cash flow of $40 million a year.

Poster and Breitling also decided to take part in the Fox reality television show, "The Casino." Created by Mark Burnett, the program turned out to be a bust and portrayed the casino in an unflattering light. The show was not renewed.

Now the two are getting out at a time when casinos are being valued at record amounts.

"This sale is designed to capitalize on the tremendous demand for casino properties in Las Vegas and to enhance the ability of our company to participate in various business opportunities," Poster said in a news release.

Tilman Fertitta is the cousin of Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta of Station Casinos Inc. in Las Vegas. Before taking control of the casino, Tilman Fertitta will have to get approval from Nevada gambling regulators.

---

Posted by mrchipper at 07:03 PM | Comments (0)