2008
Trip 1
Day 1
After a more complicated than foreseen rail journey due to a rather circuitous route to cover a relatively short distance, I get off the train at my destination and find a hotel without any difficulty, which is particularly welcome as trooping around town looking for reasonably priced accommodation is no fun after a long journey. I check in, take a nap and go out to play.
The cut varies and my heads up game doesn’t last long. One guy comes to the table and surrenders more than I’ve ever seen anyone do so in the past, even against a 6. I don’t get a great deal of action but after a few hours the count goes up very quickly. I lose several hands in a row as the count increases and towards the end the other player leaves and I’m heads up. The counts starts to come in, I win a few and am nearly even when the cut card appears. I have 3-3 and 10-10 against a 5. I split the threes and catch a 5 on the first. The count justifies doubling so I do…. for a three. It’s always annoying to double when you normally wouldn’t and find yourself on 11, but the decision wasn’t even marginal as it was well in excess of the count needed. I get an ace on the next one and then an eight. I split the pictures: 4, picture. Again, picture, picture. 5, ace. Ace, 3. so I have 11, 12, 14, 15, 21,21,13. Dealer takes two pictures and I’m about $1000 up. I break for dinner and when I return the table is nearly full. I get a spot and hope that they open another table soon. No such luck. The players seem to take longer over their decisions. On a few occasions that I leave the table I return before the shoe has even finished, and I’m usually good at gauging how long it will be before the shuffle. I lose a few hundred back and leave.
Day 2
The casino seems fairly cool with the big bets. There’s another guy at the table tonight playing between 50 and 200 dollars so it’s not just the red chip bettors here, indicating that they are fairly relaxed with big action. It gets crowded again quite early on. Two young guys are playing, one is obviously fairly new to casinos, his friend less so, but quite adventurous in his play. Three times he doubled hard 12 and twice he drew a nine on it, amazing. Again the game is very slow, but the cut is reasonable. Then the dealer changes and I’m faced with a worse cut. With a full table this really is a grind. At this point I’m a few hundred behind on the day having suffered two bad shoes just before the conditions deteriorated. I play 3 shoes with the new dealer and after an upswing, finish 2000 up. I’m less timid now about putting out my regular maximum bet, especially with a bad cut or full table.
Day 3
A good day. I have a great shoe a couple of hours in. It’s then followed by another, prompting the dealer to day “I’ve never broken so much in my life before”. There are no other major swings for the rest of the session and I finish over $10000 ahead. Time to move on.
Day 4
My next destination doesn’t see me there long. I get in to the casino and immediately spot the CSMs. This was the kind of situation I’d been told I would find in this country. I suppose I was lucky I found the other game first as I may have presumed all casinos here had the shuffle machines. I go to the nearest big city, not far away, more in hope than expectation because I know the casino there is part of an international casino group which is notorious for restrictive rules and conditions. My pessimism is justified as every single blackjack table in this huge place has a CSM. I do have at least one more game in this country because I checked another casino the same time I found the game I played at the start. However they have a machine on the first table so I’ll have to get the other one open as soon as I can.
Day 5
This turns out to be something of a struggle. This place is open from the afternoon but the second table doesn’t open until late evening. The management here appear reluctant to open the shoe game until all spots on the machine game are occupied. I am surprised thn to see th second table fill up almost immediately after it is opened. It’s obviously not for lack of demand that they don’t open it earlier. On the first table most players had to play only one hand due to lack of space, since somebody playing more than one hand would be obliged to give one of thm up to a new player if there are no empty spots at the table. I later fall victim to this and for long periods am restricted to one hand on a full table. I finish slightly ahead.
Day 6 .
It’s Saturday night so I don’t hold out much hope that the conditions will be any less crowded than last night. Surprisingly I takes even longer to get the second table open. And Just like the previous night, it fills up straight away. I also get a blast from the past. One old guy moans at me for hitting my 15s and 16s. He looks a lot like a player from a casino in a different country I played several years ago. He stuck in my mind then because he started off telling me I was the worst player he’d ever seen but became one of my biggest fans by the end because word had got around the casino that I was one of the foreign professionals who had found the great game that was there. H doesn’t recognise me though, or appear to have learned much about blackjack in the interim. At one point I ask him where he’s from since his accent sounds different from everyone else there abd sure enough he tells me he’s from the country I suspected. Aside from the continuous griping I have to fight for any free spots that become available. After a few hours and $1000 up I tire of the struggle and the overcrowded conditions. I’ve called one of the casinos elsewhere in the country and found out there is a shoe game and with a reasonable expectation of good rules I decide to check out the games in that region rather than persevere with the grind here.
Day 7
A long journey north, I check in to a hotel and check out the game. No machines and quiet in the afternoon. I rest up in my hotel room for a few hours and return in the evening. It’s busier then but still better than the last place. This casino seems to have wuit a lot of action so I may be able to stay and play for a while. I win $2000. This trip has started well just the run I needed after a bad end to last year.
Day 8
I get in early to open up the table. Surprisingly for midweek there are already a few players at the table. They don’t all stay too long though and after a while there is just one other player, who berates me every time I hit 15 or 16. After a bad start I rally to a few hundred ahead. The table starts to fill up and I think about braking for dinner. By the time more people have arrived at the table 2 shoes later I have lost $2500 on the day so far.
After dinner it gets worse and turns into a nightmare. High count after high count, and even though the cut is only fair the count goes back to level almost every time, but it’s the dealer getting the 20s and blackjacks all the time. I also have to tolerate moaning from one of the other players. Unusually, she doesn’t just tell me when staying on my 15 or 16 would have made the dealer bust but even when my decision to take a card has no effect on the dealer hand, she tells me when this has resulted in the dealer receiving a high card on the following hand as opposed to a 5 or or a 6 if I had refused a card. By the time I finish I have lost $10,000.
Day 9
As seems to have been the way in the last few months, really bad nights seldom come alone. The difference today is that the counts don’t seem to come in as much and the shoe often ends with the count still high. It’s crowded on the table too, and like the other casinos I’ve seen in this country, they are particularly reluctant to open another table, even when all boxes are being played on the first table. More than once I lose my second spot since you have to give other spots up to others who aren’t playing any. However I manage to befriend another player and if I play behind her she defers to my decision. Not that it helps much. Playing against a ten almost all the time, on those few occasions where it’s a different up card, the dealer always seem to find the right combination to make a high hand. Typical example: I have 10 and 9 against a dealer 7. I double the 10 for a picture and the count justifies doubling the 9 as well and receive another picture. Of course on nights like these, the dealer finds the small card to go in front of the picture and such is the case here, 3, picture to make 20, to beat one of my doubled hands and tie the other. Difference between dealer 17 and dealer 20: $1200. I lose over $8000 on the day. Another stunning reversal of fortune for me and from what was a great start to a trip, I’m behind again.
Day 10
After a second disastrous session and a loss so far on this trip, these past few trips must now represent the worst run I’ve ever had. Five months of play show and there’s still a minus figure in my results. Granted, the loss is not great, but I’m so far off where I should be for the last few trips and every time I seem to get some momentum, I run into a brick wall and I’m back where I was.
Today however I have a welcome run of luck in my direction. I get a solo game for most of the early part of the day (although I do get some interesting players occasionally-I’ve never seen a surrender on 12 v10 followed almost immediately by a refusal on 16 to do so against the same card). I get $6000 back early on and don’t drop back. I do however and up feeling sick by the end of the session, since I end up with half a shoe by the end. I would have thought that my previous losses and enduring deficit would project me from such treatment, so I’m surprises to say the least. I do however get a glimpse into the mentality of some casinos. The manager comes over to the pit boss, obviously looking in my direction and says something to the effect that he hadn’t had chance to assess my play over the previous two days because he was off work on day 8 and I was in the restaurant when he was in the pit yesterday. So to recap: Even after a swing of over $18000 against me over two days, the casino was still worried enough by play to want to check me out! And still with a win of $12000 they don’t want to risk anything against me. The other thing the pit boss says is “At the least he’s an advantage player”. So they’ve taken this action against me without knowing exactly what I’m up to, or knowing whether I’ve sufficient bankroll to enable to me to play these stakes and after a massive win against me! And people think casinos are in the gambling business. When I tell people I am often excluded or treated differently for no reason other than perceived skill or knowledge, they can’t believe it and most disagree that it’s at all justified. There are some in the gaming industry that have been in it so long they have become inured to the objective point of view. Anyhow my decision now will have to be to change casinos or stick it out here.
Day 11
I decide to check out a nearby casino. It’s galling to think about leaving a place after only a few days and a big loss but it’s a question of finding the best game. This new one is of the same group as the one I’ve just left but I’m not sure how much they communicate. Therefore I’ve chosen to try it here now rather than playing the other one a bit more and perhaps getting barred, at which point they may feel obliged to pass that information to the sister establishment. Straight in, I realise that such considerations are now academic since this casino has all shuffle machines. It’s strange that casinos of the same group can have such different conditions. Not even all the rules are the same.
I go back to the other casino. I still get a bad cut but the rules are still good so still worth playing. I don’t get a heads-up game despite the cut but usually have to contend with only one or two other players. It’s a while since I’ve been moaned at this much on a trip or seen such bad players. (the two often coming together). Of course stupid moves by others won’t in the long term affect whether I win or not but you do get a bit bemused when the guy at the end decides to hit his soft 19 against a picture and takes the card that would have made the dealer bust. $2500 behind today.
Day 12
So often my hands are the only ones on the table that lose, so often the dealer beats my 20s with blackjack and only busts when I’ve already bust or surrendered. Such at least it seems when things aren’t going your way. Finding a heads up game I have the best conditions I’ve had all week only to have 4 hands where the dealer makes 20 or better to put me 2000 behind on this new table. Even the cut has drifted back to almost as good as it was at the start of the week. Annoyingly, I don’t get many high counts and end up playing longer than I’d intended to take advantage of the rare solo game but after getting even on that table I’m too tired to carry on and finish 4000 down on the day.
I learn that this place previously had shuffle machines, but that both machines they had are currently being repaired. If this I true and they will soon be reintroduced, it is unlikely that I’ll regain the money I’ve lost here if I don’t do it before I finish this trip, which is itself a long shot now. How irritating given the way that they have treated me here. This does though explain the casino’s paranoid actions in cutting me down while I was losing a lot of money. Casinos that rely on the CSMs are nervous about the shoe games, regard them as a weak link, in the same way that casinos that use 8 decks are wary of 6 deck games, when they really have little reason to be that way.
Day 14
After the weekend off, I’m back to put in some heavy hours before I have to leave in order to recover some of my losses at this casino and leave on some kind of a win. It’s unlikely I’ll get back to the position I was in a week ago, so badly did the cards run last week but a decent win is still possible for the trip. When I open the table it fills up quickly but after an hour empties again and for most of the time I’m either alone or with one other player. As has been the trend for the last week, the dealer finds a picture an astonishing proportion of the time when I have big money out. I go down but then recover a little to break for lunch only a few hundred down. After lunch the tables is busy. I get there just as the dealer is shuffling so I decide to back count for a shoe, leave and return later when there should be more space.
The table is fuller than I expected when I return, but I manage to get two spots so I sit down. Unfortunately, the change of dealer brings one of the two guys who always give me a poor cut. However, people power improves the situation. The guy on first base sees how few cards we are given to play with and gets up, complaining of the cut, saying he’s going to the casino in a nearby town. He was playing pretty big too, so that’s one in the eye of the casino! Too often casinos give a bad cut without pausing to realise that they may actually be costing themselves money, in terms that even losing players (which this guy certainly was) often resent a poor cut and may refuse to play, and also that a larger cut means fewer hands per shoe and thus more shuffling and a reduction in the casinos win rate towards most players. Certainly, given the way many of them play, the disadvantage of some players must be much larger than my edge against the casino, so if others are playing big enough, the reduction in my advantage achieved by the casino management would be largely negated by their loss of turnover. In this present situation, the dealer does actually react by improving the cut on subsequent shoes, even though the big player who complained has now left. The drawback to the guy’s statement however, is that despite complaining about the cut, his objection was based more on the speed of the game and the casino to which he has now gone has shuffle machines so this will do little to encourage this place to keep the shoes, if indeed it is a question of a change of policy rather that both machines apparently being in need of repair. Of course, the machines are the answer for the casinos in terms of protecting the game and maximising hands per hour. However, in my experience, blackjack tables with machines are much less busy than those without, all other things being equal. The casino I checked out last week was a case in point. Midnight and nobody playing, whereas the casino I left always had others playing on it from mid-afternoon at the latest, whilst the two casinos seemed to have around the same numbers of customers for the other games.
Anyhow, I play on until the end, a few other people drift off but there are still two others at the table, one playing multiple hands. Again, no headway is made and I lose again, to hit a new low for this trip.
Day 15
A full table again early on, then just as I look to have a solo game, the old woman arrives. It’s amazing how such players always seem to come to the table in the middle of a high count. I ask her to wait for the next shoe and she does stay out for a few hands but then I lose one and she jumps in, evidently believing that it’s ok to open a spot as my run is apparently over. She is one of the worst types of player as she moans at anyone she thinks is playing wrongly and firmly believes she has the ability to influence what the dealer gets, always placing herself on 3rd base if possible. Of course as is the way with this type of player, your decisions with which she disagrees and which, for example take away a card which would have bust the dealer are always remembered and commented on but those which save the table are not. I grind out a win of $1500 before lunch.
Afterwards, following a quick nap, I’m back for the last few hours. Amazingly, Moaning Old Woman is still there, so unless she left and came back, she must have been at the table for about eight hours straight. She stays there until the end too. The table is full again, with a group of four people in their mid-20s playing. I get one spot and sit down. If I can’t get another spot soon, it may have to be an early night for me. The group seem to be fairly new to blackjack as they are all quite unsure of their decisions. This is ripe for MOW, who is even more intent on telling other players what to do than she normally is, calling out what she thinks they should do even before they have chance to decide. Admittedly, they don’t know how to play but this unsolicited hectoring is just bad manners.
The guy next to me asks my advice on one hand and I give it to him. When the count next goes up, I play behind him in the hope that he will defer to me. He does. I continue to play behind him and he follows my prompting every time, so I effectively have two spots on the table. It helps that the hands are winning, but he does seem to think I’ve helped him so we’re both happy. After a couple of hours I’m slightly up on where I was at lunch and the guy that gives me less than half a shoe comes to the table. With a full table it’s going to be a real grind and since it’s less than an hour from the time when they usually close the table I’m happy to leave when the count goes negative at the end on the same shoe. Another step in the right direction though, in the exercise in damage limitation that this trip has now become. Strictly speaking this isn’t true, since I am now only slightly down on this trip, but it feels like it due to the large swing I have suffered and the fact that I’m highly unlikely to recover my losses from this particular casino, even if I do manage to make some profit on this trip. This feeling of going backwards, which arises from the swings inherent in playing blackjack and the fact that you’ll only be at your highest ever point a small proportion of the time, is a major reason why few play blackjack full-time for very long.
Day 16
It’s my final session on this trip and in all likelihood, at this casino, since they’ll probably have the CSMs back by the time I return. I don’t get a heads up game but most of the time there are not more than two other players with me, so the game is fairly fast. Talking to one of the dealers I get an indication that the management are keen to get the machines back, as she says that blackjack has made significantly less money since the shoes have been brought back. I mention that my losses might fill some of the gap. So this casino has taken money from me and I’ll probably never get it back. That’s irritating but part of the game sometimes. As it turns out, I manage to reduce that deficit further. I finish over $5000 up which puts me slightly ahead on the trip. If I had left after the second day would have achieved almost exactly the same result, without another 2 weeks of effort and expenses, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. On the other hand, it looked pretty dire few days ago so and if I’d been offered such a result then I’d have accepted gladly. I have a late evening departure so I just have time to get dinner before I have to go. A rare beer with dinner tastes that bit sweeter on a good finish.
posted by The Jugador at 6:13 PM
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