offbeat cardroom list/don't-ain't

First, anybody, name an offbeat cardroom you've played at. Commerce, LC's, Bellagio, Taj, Foxwoods, no. Me, Bullwhackers, yes.


Now, explain to me if you can, how a scientist, if he were so inclined, would go about determining that ain't is slang, but don't isn't.


Thank you,


eLROY

Ron & Judy's Hot Aces Relaxation Lounge.


"don't is a contraction of "do not." "Isn't" is a contraction of "is not." What could "ain't" be a contraction of? I dunno.

How about the Nevada Hotel in Ely, NV. I don't believe they offer poker anymore. The game was $1-$5 hold 'em with one blind of $1.


MM

OK eLROY, you might have been to this place. Not a full time card room, but the first poker tournament I played was at the Stadium Inn on East Evans and Gilpin. (I think the cross street is Gilpin.) Played in the back booths by the pool table. I finished in the money. Nothing very interesting happened, unlike the time I was playing a guy pool in there for a small bet and he put his glass eye on the table to shark me. I thought it was the foot spot starting to peel up for a second and almost smushed it back down. Glad I didn't touch it, but I managed to hang on to win against a one-eyed drunk. Nice to have a dump like the Stadium within walking distance after a blizzard. Bullwhackers is too easy. You must have been to a real out of the way room on Colfax or in Commerce City or something.

Did you go to the Pat Nixon museum when you were in Ely?


P.S. I never have, for those of you thinking I'm a conservative nut. Las Vegas is only 4 more hours from there, and McDonald's is more time than I want to spend there. Maybe someday if I breakdown though.

How about the "Catfish Bend" riverboat.


Real picture of a catfish on their chips.

This boat serves the entire "Tri-City" area. Thats right--it used to cruise to Burlington, Fort Madison, AND Keokuk.


Poker "room" right next to the roulette table.

ai not. obviously.

a small bar cardroom in wiilamina oregon in the early 70's. i was playing and noticed that i was the only one at the table with all my fingers. so i asked them if they all dealt off the bottom of the deck and had their fingers cutoff. they had a laugh and said,no, we work at the mill and lose fingers especially pulling the green chain.

There was one up the street from Bullwhackers called Lilly Belle's. Went bankrupt.


My place was called The Office (as in, Honey, I'm going to the office.

IOf you aren't adverse to a game of pool for a small wager, I'm curious if you ever came across a road player named Tangle Eye. Your story reminded me of him.

No. But I did ride the ghost train which I found disappointing.


MM

There is one in the Manteca, CA (northern) called Casino Real. Every night they spread a different game...e.g. Monday is Hold'em, Tuesday is Omaha, Wednesday is Pineapple, etc. All games are must move; 3-6 and 4-8. Pretty good game for a card room in a strip mall.


Alan

I think that's what it was called. They don't have poker there anymore.


But more interesting, they had a bent slot machine, which you could kind of look inside.


In there was a printed receipt, saying the total amount played was $520,000, and the total amount paid out was like $31,000.


Anyway, I'll always be The King, for having Casino Royal San Bruno on my resume.


eLROY

There used to always be all these guys playing a very serious and heated game of poker in the back of the Bus Stop, for little pink pieces of paper called Bus Stop Bucks.


When you came in, if you were new, they gave you like 5 Bus Stop Bucks to get you started. My friend though that was so funny, he stole the entire stack of Bucks.


We got chased across the parking lot, in a flurry of shouting and ground-slapping footfalls, but managed to get away. We were rich but, for some reason, never went back.


eLROY

Yes, played at the Gilpin. But that was way more normal than the dump on Gilpin Street. Good games.

I was beneath the road players' radar. Small wagers were just that. I couldn't beat any competent road player. Tangle Eye is a good name though.

part of the log processing at the saw mill. If I remember correctly it's the step where fresh logs are stripped of bark and what not before being sent to the peeler or the saw (depending on what the trees were to be used for) When I was in college I worked in the glue room on weekend graveyard shift. Don't ask me about that.

It is also the worst poker room in the country. They have rule book that is only 3 pages long...double spaced. All other decisions are, "at the discretion of the supervisor." Therefore the decisions are different from hour to hour. Have to love it...NOT.

Certainly, today, "ain't" marks those who use it as lower class, but it's not quite "slang" in a true sense. (My skin crawls much more when I hear people speak, for example, of all those dangers "out there" or anything else "out there." As Gertrud Stein once said, "There is no there there." I absolutely recoil from the various atheletes, politicians, writers, or others who have "something to bring to the table." Here's a typical example: "Colon would be a nice addition to the Red Sox. He brings a lot to the table." Please, bring me some roast turkey to the table!)


If we go back only 150 years ago, "ain't" was a marker of upper class speech. In Ken Burns's film on the Civil War, this is clearly seen in a political cartoon from this time. Then, for three hundred dollars, a rich man could "buy" the services of someone else, who would then fight in his place, sparing the wealthy from military involvement. The cartoon read: "He's going to the War, I ain't."


And, don't is, of course, a contraction, as is ain't. I'm not sure if speakers in other parts of the U.S. use don't in this way, but here in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, "don't" can signal affirmation, as in when someone says, "I like pizza." The response, "So don't I."


John

in a lime plant...hey now that's fun..lol..gl

Haha... it's funny you mention the "brings a lot to the table" line because the one that drives me nuts that they say all the time where I work is "has a lot on his plate" to mean has a lot to think about/work on. Maybe if all these people weren't bringing so much to the table, I wouldn't have so much on my plate.


What you say about don't is strange, though... I went to school in Boston for five years and I do not recall ever hearing that usage. Though, I admit that it might just not have processed because it sounded so weird to me. In a town where trash cans are "barrels," shopping carts are "carriages," and water fountains are "bubblers," I don't put using don't that way past them.

Consider the following contractions:


"He is, is he not?" = "He is, isn't he?"

"You are, are you not?" = "You are, aren't you?"

"I am, am I not?" = "I am, ...."


following the rules, you'd get "amn't I?" which as you can see, is pretty much unpronouncable, so it started out as "an't", then became "ain't", but has since been butchered in slang for decades thence.


So, it would certainly be grammatically correct to say "I am, ain't I?" and this very fact won me a nice bet with my Grade 12 English teacher /images/smile.gif


M.