John C. Turmel, B. Eng. 8-37 Colborne E. Brantford, N3T 2G3 Tel: 519-753-0645 E: turmel@ncf.ca / johnturmel@yahoo.com Friday Feb 28 2004 Trish McIsaac, Table Games Manager, Brantford Charity Casino, 40 Icomm Dr., Brantford, N3S 7S9, Tel: 752-5004 E: tmcisaac@olgc.ca Dear Trish McIsaac: http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel is my web page detailing my political and legal activities while the page http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/credits details my credentials in Poker Systems Engineering. http://www.cyberclass.net/turmel/gambler details my 30-year career as an "exceptionally skilled professional gambler" (Ontario Court of Appeal) who got into the Great Canadian Character Anthology and the Guinness Book of Records (1997- 8) for contesting the most elections in history. I ran in the last Brant provincial election and the Expositor story can be found at my home page. I have recently taken an apartment where I can look out my window and see the Brantford Charity Casino right across the street where I've been playing poker since last September. The reason I mention my Guinness Record is that I would love to be able to boast that I play in the casino that holds the Guinness record for the very fastest, smoothest, cheapest live Holdem game in the world. My experiences as John "The Engineer" while running honest gaming houses in Canada and as "The Professor" while playing at the Taj Mahal poker room in Atlantic City have provided me with a unique viewpoint on how to organise a game from both the perspective of the player and the operator. Rules Systems Engineering if you will. My Turmel Poker Rules evolved over years of playing poker in my home and running tournaments so that I, a player, could enjoy the fastest, argument-free, game possible. Anytime I figured out a way to cut down on wasted time or eliminate strife and angst, I just changed the rule and saw the result. Out of that process came the Turmel Poker Rules I used when I ran the first legal public poker room in Ontario at Casino Turmel in Ottawa in 1993, later closed down due to Blackjack prohibition. My credentials list my submission to the Ontario Commission on Gambling in 1993. When Diamond Charity Casinos then submitted my poker rules for charity games, they were adopted by the Province of Ontario. The Ministry has shown itself to be quite pliant to good ideas in the past. Given I am known for my gambling expertise by the Premier and others in the new cabinet, I would think that improvements needing the approval of the Ministry government would be dealt with just as well. Many players remember the time when no one ever lost a beautiful hand to a "misdeal." No misdeals meant never wasting time reshuffling to get a new random distribution where there's no reason to prefer one random over another. The least delays, the least problems, the faster the game, the better the game. When the fastest rate has been obtained, you have provided the smoothest, the best, the cheapest possible game. "Misdeals and reshuffles" have now been permitted back into Ontario Poker Rules and it's another way Brantford can cut wasted time. I can pin-point where other such inefficiencies have crept in. Right now, the average number of live hands dealt by industry in an hour is close to 32-40; about 100 seconds per hand. Casino Turmel dealers could average 60 hands in an hour, a 50% faster rate, because certain inefficiencies had been eliminated. Dealers would try to out-do each other and one dealer once dealt an average 36 hands in half an hour. A 72-hand/hour rate. Another did 34 hands. So, in 1993, Casino Turmel's engineering permitted a record 60-hand/hour average in a world of 40-hand/hour casinos, the fastest live Holdem game in the world. But Casino Turmel is no more. And the industry is back on slow pace everywhere. And I have even shaved a few more seconds off the average time than were shaved at Casino Turmel with one final refinement to the mechanics. I have no doubt that my simple-to-implement already-tested recommendations would permit you to lay claim to the Guinness Record for the fastest live Holdem games in the world. I would like to act as Poker Systems Engineering consultant and prepare a report on how the Brantford Charity Casino can claim the Guinness Record fastest live Holdem game. Over these past months, I have interviewed players, dealers, floor-persons and have listed every recommendation I could think of on how to speed up and improve your game. Notwithstanding the need for certain rules of conduct to be better enforced during play, some suggestions are improvements in physical amenities that might make Brantford Charity Casino the most pleasant poker casino in the world too. - Install a TV on the fourth wall; - Install doors to shut out slot machine noise; - Install a pedestrian crossing to the parking garage elevator to the City Center before someone gets killed going over the median. - Install safety deposit boxes or accept deposits like in casino-hotels before some winners get robbed. Being first in the world with an online table seat reservation terminal would be neat. It's never been reported done and it's quite simple to engineer. Of course, as a player with a positive expectation playing 40-hands/hour, I benefit by a faster game too. A 60- hands/hour faster game lets me win 50% more than a 40- hands/hour game while getting 3 hours of action for what it used to cost to get 2 hours. An extra free hour's play every two that costs the house nothing. Dealers benefit by 50% more tips with 50% more hands and less physical exertion. Brantford Charity Casino benefits by laying claim to the fastest live Holdem game in the world. The Ontario casino industry later benefits by making the same claim everywhere. Though I have much to gain as a customer by your providing me with the fastest game in the world, I would deign to suggest that my report on getting the Brantford Charity Casino in the Guinness Record Book should be worth a standard consultant's fee for a hundred hours work. Perhaps a performance bonus upon the official entry into the Guinness Book of Records left up to your discretion. And perhaps the mere fact that the Guinness Record-winning TajProfessor plays Holdem poker in the Guinness Record fastest Brantford Charity Casino may someday be reference enough. If you can keep me happy, then you must be delivering a fast happy game, probably the Guinness record fastest, happiest game in the world. If you would like to discuss offering the fastest live Holdem poker best in the world, please call me and we can make an appointment to meet where I can explain how little really needs to be done for you to be the best. I will prod the whole industry to better service by eliminating easily-avoidable losses of time per hand by eventually posting my suggestions in p ublic USENET newsgroups. Someone will have to claim the record first and though lots of casinos may want the prestige of making the Record Book as the fastest casino in the world, having my Brantford Charity Casino right across the street being first would be the best evidence that I did my share towards engineering a better game for the whole world. And I don't want to have to move to where they will deal a 50% faster game. ands in an hour, a 50% faster rate, because certain inefficiencies had been eliminated. Dealers would try to out-do each other and one dealer once dealt an average 36 hands in half an hour. A 72-hand/hour rate. Another did