2007 Trip Five

I'm back at the same place as trip one of this year. Given the heat I got last time I wouldn't normally be back so soon but I have other affairs to attend to in this country so I may as well see if the game is as good as it was before and whether I am persona non grata on all the shifts, or whether I can still play day shift at my best game. Without it, this trip will be something of a grind. I'm still kicking myself for overplaying it last time, especially since I knew I'd be back in the country again soon. However there's no point dwelling on it now, I just have to see what lies in store tomorrow. After a tiring flight in, I get the bus to my destination from the airport and crash out in my hotel room.

Day One

I’m up early. I can’t play the best game until lunchtime (if at all- I’ll find that out soon enough) since the graveyard shift is where all the heat started, so I go to another one. An early setback greets me, the main pit has gone to shuffle machines. Only a few tables in a different pit are still hand shuffled. This is worrying as this was to be my fallback casino. A decent shuffle and cool management, I had intended this to be my main place if the other one shuffled up on me on all three shifts. Now I’ll have to find somewhere else to go outside of the day shift and perhaps even then too, depending on whether I'm able to play that shift at my best game.

I try the next casino along. It has a reasonable shuffle but I’ve heard big bets attract heat very quickly. It’s still only 6.30am but all the tables have at least four players on them except for those that have just had their cards changed. I sit down at one of these in the hope that I may get a solo game or at least am only with on or two players. However the phrase “Open it and they will come” seems to hold here as three others join me before the end of the first shoe. I decide anyway to stay a while to see if the cards I track come out often enough, and they do, although with the crowded table (two more players sit down at the table before I leave) I rarely get chance to bet on them. Still, it shows that with certain dealers and at quieter tables it could be a good game. Maybe they’ll open up a few more tables before the end of the shift. I decide to take my breakfast and drop by again later.

In the afternoon I go to the Casino A, my number one game here, with my fingers crossed. The other place was still busy after breakfast so I went back to my hotel for a sleep, ready for what I hope to be as good a game as before. Since they shuffled up on me in each of the other two shifts on the last trip, this is now the only possible time I’ll be able to play in this casino and this shift is in doubt since the trouble on swing shift right at the end of that trip. Anyhow, here’s hoping swing haven’t communicated with day about me. I won’t show my rating card, just in case.

I’m glad to find a table with only one other player on it and I sit down. The cards are coming out but not in a way that I can bet on them. It’s a long time before I finally get a bet and by then I’ve noticed that a pit boss is loitering near my table rather too often for comfort. I’ve not seen him before so if he knows something it’s because the eye in the sky has told him. When the shuffle comes he leaves to watch another table but is soon back at mine once the shoe starts. Sure enough, I put out my big bet only to see the pit boss lean in to the dealer and tell her to shuffle up immediately, in a replica of grave shift on the last trip. What is different however, is that the pit boss then orders the dealer to wash the cards before shuffling. This to my mind is paranoia and shows that they don’t really know what I’m doing. They merely have a suspicion that I may be playing a winning game and a prepared to act on that alone. Such a big, multi-million dollar place, scared of little old me and what are, by their terms, rather small bets. I also find it interesting that each shift has taken different measures against me.

That’s that for me then, as far as casino A goes. It will have to be guerilla tactics from now on, sneaking in, possibly when it’s busy, and playing a few shoes before they recognise me. On this showing I won’t be able to stay and play like I did the last trip. Once again I inwardly berate myself for having overplayed this place last time- by the time I lost the graveyard shift I knew I was coming back here and once I had ascertained that I was ok in the afternoon I should have played elsewhere for the last couple of days. Instead I played on and caught major heat on my last evening, whether they had known about me from grave I don’t know, since that was the first time I’d played swing since my de facto exclusion from graveyard and I’d lost on that shift and on day in the previous ten days. If it was just a case of one pit boss taking a particular dislike to me on the basis of that night’s play it was especially unlucky (particularly since I lost on that final session!). Ah well, hindsight is a marvellous thing and the temptation to play your best game available is strong. Perhaps they’d have had me anyway. I’ll never know, but the majority of my play on this trip will now take place at another establishment, that I do know.

Day Three

So another casino to find. Yesterday I persevered with the other two I played on day one but the conditions weren’t good at all, in terms of the shuffle or uncrowded tables, thus it’s worth checking out a few other places in more detail. I go to the Casino D, near to Casino A. The shuffle is fairly standard for this city but I notice a few rather sloppy dealers. I get a spot on one table and lose solidly, though not heavily, after a good start. The shuffle is good though. Then it gets busy so I leave. Friday night has started and it won’t be worth playing until Sunday afternoon, especially now the best game has all but disappeared for me.

Day Four

All but…It’s the weekend and I’m off to another city not too far away for some quality leisure time. No point paying weekend prices here for my hotel, now I’ve come to realise that the tables get completely full at the weekend so there’s just time for a sneaky Saturday graveyard session before I leave. This session is perhaps the best situation you can get here- it’s graveyard so plenty of space, but being the weekend there are more tables open so you are less exposed since the place is busier. I sit down at an empty table. The first shoe ends and no loitering pit bosses. The second shoe starts and I get a big bet. No pit bosses, no alarm bells, no shuffling up, the coast is clear for now. And I win the bet. The next shoe comes and I think my morning is already over. “Dennis”, the Pit boss who was there when they first shuffled up on me on grave is now in the pit. He’s bound to remember me. He looks straight at me. And then away again, having seen nothing unusual. I’m surprised to say the least.

I get another good situation soon afterwards. No shuffle here either. This one however goes rather less fortuitously, I get 7-7 and 7-7 against a 5. I split the first pair and I receive an ace on the first one, which I double for a two to make 20. A two falls on the other 7, which I double for yet another ace. Onto the second pair of sevens and the dealer gives me a picture on the first and an ace on the second. I double the soft 18 for a picture. Dealer draws….picture, six. All seven bets are lost. What’s particularly annoying is that I had good hands on them all. $2100 down on that hand. Even the difference between a 5 and a 6 for that last card was big as I had two twenty doubles. Even a four would have made me money. However 6 it was and that’s a $4,200 swing on that hand between the 6 that came and anything higher (excepting an ace for a difference of 3,900). A female pit boss sees all this, “Unbelievable” is her comment. If they shuffle upon me now this shift I will be annoyed. This pit boss evidently believes herself to be very sharp to spot professionals however, as I overhear her telling a colleague “I can tell” if one is playing nearby. I have a little smile to myself. Admittedly, losing such a big hand will serve as camouflage.

In the event they don’t shuffle up on me, but I don’t make much headway either. Now people are waking up and beginning to fill the tables and I just have time to take breakfast before I leave for my weekend destination. Time to get out of Dodge, for a few days at least.