2008 Trip 3

Day1
This trip is in a new location for me. I’ve known about this place for some time thanks to more than one card counter of my acquaintance but it hasn’t been a priority until now. It so happens a friend of mine is on a business trip there so I thought I’d take the opportunity to come long for just a week. The area where the casinos are is not easy to get to and involves more expense than normal, so it’s good to be with someone for company during the trip and to defray some of the expenses as regards hiring a car. From my information, hit and run is the nature of the game as there are many casinos in a concentrated area, some big, some small. I get a good start at casino 1: $3000 up after 30 minutes. I go to next and have a small win after an hour. In the third place I find something interesting: a rule that I’ve heard about but never played. This rule may be new as I was given to understand that the rules were standard across all the casinos, the only variation being whether resplits of aces were allowed. I go down $5000 early on then I get a massive swing to my benefit and finish $5000 up. One manager takes an interest but seems not too worried. I played bigger off the top as my instinct is that this game has an edge just with basic strategy due to the one rare rule. I go casino 4 open a table and ask for fresh decks. The pit boss moans that they check the days every day but appears to accept my request. After around 15 minutes of waiting at the table it is evident that I was mistaken in this assumption and leave.

Day 2
I go back to casino 4 as soon as they open to see the cards spread and am told that I am barred. Reference is made to the fact that they check the cards every day, so it appears that someone has been offended by my legitimate request to see the decks spread and has barred me for no other reason. Well, this is a trip full of firsts: the rare rule at casino 3, now a barring without any prior information on me before I’ve even played a hand. Somebody is obviously a bit touchy. At casino 2 I post a small loss, before I assess that it is time to go. Back to casino 3 with the great rule. I’ve run some simulations on this and it seems my gut feeling was correct: it’s an edge off the top. This being the case I have decided to play this place longer than the others and risk any attention I get. I am lucky to get in as the guy on the door tells me it is “for hotel guests only”, but his colleague gives me the Ok- perhaps he knows I’m a big player and has waived the requirement. In for 8k, win $1,300. Is it time to play this casino longer than the others or even exclusively? This game is so much better than the others that it may justify staying there and trying to extract the maximum win I can and runnuinh the risk of being barred sooner than normal.
In the event, the decision is made for me. Back to casino 1 I find an empty table and sit down, only to be told that they are closing that table. I move around the pit to another table but am intercepted by a manager who asks my name. I tell him and he replies “We don’t want you to play” . I drive out to one that I haven’t yet played, get 5 minutes before being barred, mid shoe, on a profitable situation, whilst losing. I point out this latter fact to the management and they say “We think you’ll win in the end”. Flattering but annoying all the same. They seem to have received some information on me from somewhere, perhaps casino 1, but they claim one of their surveillance staff spotted me from a country I played some years ago. I did play in the country mentioned, but whether it was this casino that recognised me from there is another matter, since it’s my second barring of the night and they were very quick to do it.


Day 3
Rebuffed at casino2. I barely get through the door before being confronted by a security guard who asks my name. Once I give it, he calls the manager, who comes out tells me I can’t come in and goes on 3 or 4 times to stress the fact that I’m not to come back. Will casino 3 still take me in? Yes- I get through but am given half a shoe inside an hour. No problem, it’s still a great game but it shows they are now wary of me, whether from information received from another casino or from their own observations of my wins here I don’t know. I switch tables to one that has been opened in another pit as I’ve lost the heads-up situation on my first table. I play this happily for a while and the manager comes over. Friendly as ever, he tells me that from now on I can play only this table and will always get half a shoe. I accept this. I finish the session only a just over $1000 behind.

Day 4
Well at least everything is out in the open and I can now relax at the one casino, without fear of being barred and can just play blackjack. Or so I think. Walking up to casino 3, one of the doormen stops me even before I pass the threshold, with a piece of paper on which it is written that the casino is for hotel guests only on the weekend. Since I nearly got prevented from entering the other day for the same reason I can almost take it at face value, but for the fact that the doorman seemed to recognise me before he presented me with the message, so was obviously told to keep a look out for me. From his broken English I manage to ascertain that I will be allowed in on Monday (Today is Saturday). Of course there are no guarantees of this, maybe the manager I was dealing with has been overruled by someone more senior within the casino. We’ll have to see. A weekend off for me then to enjoy the sunshine. My flight is for Tuesday so if I am allowed in I’ll have a decision to make as to whether to stay or not after just one more session. Given the difficulty in arranging transportation I will risk staying on, being barred and than having to kick my heels for several days before I can leave. I'll give it some thought over the weekend, now I find myself at enforced leisure asI can't get another decent game anyhwere near here.

Day 6
I get in a few hours after the casino opens in the hope that the mananger who has been dealing with me most of the time will be in by then, so if I get stopped at the door with the same excuse as before I’ll be able to ask to speak to the manager and ask him straight out if they still want me to play or whether it’s another pretext. No such problem. The doorman in fact smiles, says hello and shakes my hand. The cards are already spread on my “naughty table” with a dealer waiting. Perhaps I should have got in for opeing after all. The staff are all friendly and the manager comes over and asks how I am soon after play has begun. He doesn’t speak to me much after that but does come over occasionally to check the state of play. Once again I go behind early on but a good recovery during the middle of the day puts me within sight of even and a shoe where the dealer could only bust puts me over $4000 ahead on the day. Leaving the casino I have a dilemma, which I consider over dinner: to stay or go. I could stay and play until I get barred since this is my only viable casino in the area, so I wouldn’t plan another trip here with the possibility that I could get barred early on at the expense of the time and money involved in taking a new trip here. However, other commitments mean that I can only stay for a few more days without incurring major inconvenience and if I leave now, especially having won a large sum on my first trip here, I may prevent a barring that would perhaps come even after one more big win. By contrast by leaving now and giving the casino a bit of time to forget about me, I may get several more days of play next time even if I have another winning start. Plus the effort and expense in changing my travel arrangements will be saved and I can start early on my next trip so that there shouldn’t be too much lost EV, if any. The risk though is that the good rules will be changed by my return (and they have a particular rule that makes it a great game even with the bad cut) or I may get barred within a few days anyhow on my next trip here. I decide I would like to come back here on a fresh trip and hope leaving at this point will extend my longevity at this casino. [I later check available flights home for a few days later and there weren’t the flights I thought so I feel even happier with my decision].