I haven't been back to Hollywood Park Casino in months... since the initial management change... but I keep getting emails form them.

They have some new promotions including no fee Blackjack. I haven't seen this but at most of the card clubs there is a $1 per hand collection that is used to pay the casino and players play against a "banker" who can be another player or a "corporation" which banks the games.

Under California law the casino cannot bank its own games so often one casino will bank the games of another.

And at the lower level poker games, if your pocket aces are cracked you get $100 from the casino.

Several years ago I played at a casino with an Aces cracked promotion and I was at a $40 buy in game. Cracked aces was worth $100. This was at the Normandie Casino. I was first to act after the deal, so I only called the big blind hoping that everyone at the table would call and that would increase my chances to have my AA cracked. Sure enough almost all of the 9 players at the table called.

I thought I stood a good chance to get my AA cracked with so many players in the hand. And then the flop came:

AAJ. I had flopped quads. Well I kept checking and checking. No one had a jackpot hand (pair getting a qualifying full house) and no one bet anything.

So I won about $18... a far cry from AA for getting my aces cracked, a farther cry from beating another player with an all in, and a distant cry from a bad beat jackpot share.