2007 Trip 5 (Part Two)

Day 5

After a few days away I decide not to go back to where I was before but to try the some casinos a coupleof hours away from where I spent my break.. I’ve been told that at least one of them has a playable shuffle, though I know they use eight decks. I’ve also hear that anothre does have some 6 deck games but I don’t know what the rules are, so I’ll have to see. If there’s a reasonable shuffle in one or the other places then the game will be no worse than my current best prospects in the other place so I won’t have lost anything by coming here and perhaps I’ll find something better. I could always go back to the other city if I need to, though it will cost me a lost day due to having travel.

There are various travel options but I’ve chosen to take a ferry from where I am an a bus onwards to where the casinos are. I get dropped off by car at the port, it’s very early in the morning and the port ticket office isn’t yet open, but the waiting room is. I spot a notice offering reduced rate tickets for a combined crossing and bus journey to one of the casinos I intend to play. Bonus! I take a little walk around the quaint town, (I’m glad I travel light, luggage wise) grab a coffee and go back to the port. There is now a woman selling the combined ferry/bus tickets and I’m one of the few who hasn’t booked, but there’s no problem. The sun starts to shine, the crossing is very pleasant and passes quickly. Onto the bus with a mainly senior crowd on our way to the casino. Off the bus, I check my luggage in at the place by the bus station and. Go to the casino. It’s still morning and not too busy, so it seems quieter than the casinos in the city where I started this trip. The shuffle is as I was told, the same as the standard one in the other place. I’ll try it few a few days, at least I don’t have to turn tail and head back to the other place straight away.

After a lunch in the casino paid for by a voucher I got on arrival at the casino and money I won from the free keno ticket got along with it, I play for a few hours. It’s a bit of a grind and now the blackjack tables are begin to fill up as the afternoon goes on, but its’ a playable game and worth trying for a while. I finsh slightly down and set about finding a hotel room. There isn’t much availability nearby and it’s expensive, so I take a chance and take a bus away from the casino and hope for the best. I spot some hotels along the road about 20 minutes away from the casino and get off and check into one of them. I seem to be in the middle of nowhere here although there are a few tourist amenities besides the hotels so it must on the way to somewhere.

Day Eight

I didn’t get much play in during the previous couple of days as I wasn’t staying very near and I tried relying on the buses but now I’ve decided to hire a car and drive between the two casinos in the area. It has occurred to me that I have now used even more types of different transport than usual. I came on a ‘plane, got to my first destination by bus, and to my second (non casino) destination on a train, left on a boat and am now using a car to get around. Always on the run, as it were.

Both casinos are quite busy most of the time but it looks like graveyard is best for CASINO F and day good for CASINO E. In Casino E I can’t get the run. Big bet after big bet goes down, although the rest of the time the dealer busts quite happily, so the rest of the table are winning. In fact the pit boss remarks to a colleague that everyone on his tables is winning except me. So nice to know, I must be doing something right then. I’m however happy that the pit boss feels relaxed enough around me to be able to joke with me, he’s not worried by the big bets then. I hope this is the prevailing attitude in this place.

Day Nine

I have come to CASINO F on an early Saturday morning shift. I sit down at the six deck pit and count cards ( rather than tracking the shuffle ) for the first time in this country for over 3 years. Of course, the first shoe is just about as bad as you can get and I lose $4,000 in one shoe. I’m worried that they may have tracking software that can be used to analyse whether someone is an advantage player .I did intend to switch tables after a significant amount of action on any given table whilst counting, but with such an atrocious start I elect to remain where I am and hope the loss early on protects me from too much scrutiny. There is one other player at the table, betting 500 a hand but not playing too well. “you should always take ‘em” , he says when he sees me refuse even money when I have BJ against a dealer ace.

It’s a very busy weekend and the tables are starting to fill up. I get a breakfast comp and take a break aiming to return on this shift after they have opened up some more tables. I do so and play for a while until it gets really crowded. I haven’t made any headway into the deficit accumulated early on. I need to leave anyway as I have not yet booked a hotel room for the weekend and this is going to become more difficult as time goes on.

After about three hours of driving around, I finally get a place, not too far away from the casinos. By this time however I’m far too tired to contemplate playing and with a busy Saturday night to come I decide to take the night off and start early the next day.

Day Ten

Start early I do. It’s still dark when I haul myself out of bed and into the car. It’s too early to even feel hungry so I grab a coffee from the hotel reception to drink in the car. I’ve timed it so that the daily changing of the cards will already have been done on most tables by the time I get there, so that I won’t have an enforced break as they change over the cards and I have to either wait or find another table. I sit down at one, having ascertained that the new cards are already in play. There’s one other player already there. “Do you know how to play?” he asks me. I reply that I have a reasonable idea of how to play the game, to which he complains about having been with a guy who did various crazy things, including hitting 12 against a six. I hope that I don’t have to do that since it only needs to be slightly negative to justify that strategy change. In the event the table becomes croweded so I change. Later on the same guy sits down and says “So you do know how to play” after I pick up a few hundred on the session.

Day 13

I’ve been nibbling back at my deficit and am closing in on break even. I win $1500 on graveyard at CASINO F, mainly tracking, then head over to CASINO E for the afternoon. By mid afternoon more tables are open and midweek it isn’t too busy. There is only a tracking game here and I find a sloppy dealer I noticed a few days ago. The cards come out beautifully and I start to win. It’s a shame when the table fills up and I have to change. However there is an empty table nearby so I give it a try. It turns out to be in the custody of a great dealer to play against. Not only is he sloppy, but also rather opinionated and generally a bit unpleasant. The latter may not sound particularly advantageous, but in my position this is a boon. A bad attitude means that players are likely to switch tables before too long, especially good in this casino where tables are often so crowded. The opposite phenomenon is also well established and I’ve already seen it this week. If a dealer is friendly, people will stay at their table, so people are more likely to arrive at the table than leave and thus most if not all spots at the table are likely to be in play at any given time.

In this present instance players leave at a faster rate than new ones come. I even get a heads up situation for long periods, very rare in this place at this time of day. Another plus with a grumpy dealer is that I feel under absolutely no pressure to tip regardless of how much I win. Indeed, such dealers often are resigned to not getting any as few people want to reward such a demeanour so even a big swing in your favour may not even bring any tip hustling at all. It does seem unfair in these circumstances that tips are shared, since the unpleasant dealers are effectively being subsidised by their more sympathetic colleagues. I play until the shift change with a small win.

Day 15

I start on the graveyard shift, find what I think is a decent shuffle and track it. I don’t hit the cards but get I lucky and win more of the big hands than I lose. It’s the weekend and I need a hotel room. At lunchtime I finish playing and see if I can get a comp. I go to the player rewards desk to arrange this but am told that they are fully booked. I’m surprised at this because I know I have more than enough reward points for a room. I decide to try at CASINO E when I play there in the afternoon.

So I go back to my hotel, load up the car, check out and drive to CASINO E. Once there, they tell me at the rewards desk to find a host. I can’t find one, but then it occurs to me to call CASINO F and ask to speak to a casino host there. I’m surprised I didn’t think of this before, surely they’ll have a few rooCasino Fheld back for big players. I call, speak to the host, am told am not big enough for a room comp but need to use my comp points. After I explain, that I tried to do that but was told all rooms were booked she puts me on hold and comes back a few minutes later and tells me I’m booked in for the weekend. The moral of the story: if in doubt, speak to a host!

I play a session at CASINO E and win $1500 before more players start to arrive. This win now puts me slightly ahead on the trip. I go over to CASINO F to check in. For the weekend the rate is very good and still leaves me with plenty of reward points. The room is really nice too, with a touch I’ve never seen before- a little switch that lights up a “Do not Disturb” illumination outside the door. Those signs you hang on the handle are evidently not modern enough here!

I go downstairs to put in some more play before the Friday night crowd clogs up the tables. Like this morning here the tracking doesn’t really work but I win the hands I bet big on. With this shuffle it’s borderline so its playability is very dependent on the dealer. This one looked profitable but this hasn’t proved to be the case, so I switch back to counting by the end of the session.

Day 16

The weekend is very busy again. I play for three hours in morning and win $2000 before more players come and after that there is very little space on any tables at CASINO F. It isn’t much better at CASINO E either and I don’t play for long. Back at CASINO F, I play briefly in the evening and drop back a little from the earlier trip high point.

Day 17

It’s still crowded. I don’t start play until mid-morning and it’s already difficult to find a free spot at a table. I go to CASINO E but it’s the same so I change up what chips I have left, spend the last of my comp points on dinner and leave. Back at CASINO F, I manage to find a spot at a table and play for a short time. I thought that the crowds would begin to thin out from Sunday afternoon but that’s not the case here. In fact it just gets busier, probably because they’ve got a concert on tonight. I mention this to another player, who seems to live locally and he appears surprised I though this. “Yeah, they don’t go on Sunday, more people come in!” he says. This means that it would be a struggle to get a decent game a lot of the time if I ever came back.

Day 18

I had intended to get in an hour or two of play before I left but in the event getting ready to leave takes longer than I thought and even without playing

I drop off the rental car and I only get to the station about 10 minutes before my train leaves. It will take me about 3 and a half hours in all to get to the airport but with the margin of error you have to build in to this type of journey I’ll have over an hour to look round the city if the train runs to schedule before I need to catch the connection to the airport itself. This is what happens. I leave my bags at the let luggage at the station before taking in the sight and sounds of the city one last time. The way things have turned out I can’t see myself coming back here for the foreseeable future, which is a shame, as I really like the place.

So, it’s been a winning trip but not particularly successful one on any count. In terms of the blackjack, the effective loss of my best game in this country substantially reduced my win rate and with one thing and another I didn’t put in all that many hours. Therefore, with the fact that I’m significantly behind where I should be I’ve just about covered my expenses for the trip. Other developments now mean that I don’t have a reason to come here other than for the game, which doesn’t justify a trip when compared to other games currently open to me. Thus I don’t expect to be here again any time soon, although as they say “Never Say Never”.