Hi All,
I'm heading out to Reno for three days this holiday. I have never played Single Deck before, but this time I like to try it out in Boom Town. Any advise?
I'm used to playing 2D at my local casino for a few months now. Any great 2D games around Silver Legacy, where I am staying?
Thank to you all! I'm absolutely appreciative to interact with this community!
If you are a red chipper you'll find the games great everywhere. If you are a green chipper you will need to play short sessions as the SD games are fiercly protected.
The SL is one of the best ones in terms of tolerance. IMO it is the only tolerant store downtown for green chip play.
Reno is a very difficult place to accumulate much daily EV.
. . . Steve Job's (biological) father.
It is difficult to accumulate enough EV to cover your trip costs in Reno, much less make any net profit. However, there is some EV for the taking.
Good red chip SD games are plentiful, and you can snag some EV, just play hit and run, keep your sessions to 30 minutes (45 at the absolute extreme), play anon, and limit it to one session per shift for the visit. Hit the following casinos with red chip action ($60 max bet or less):
> Western Village
> Alamo
> Rail City
> JA Nugget (but can get better rules at their $25 min game)
> Boomtown
> Peppermill
> Atlantis
> Siena
That's 8 casinos times 3 shifts = 24 sessions = 12 to 18 hours of playing time. Should be more than enough to keep you busy for a weekend of hit and run sessions. Just know that you will be spending a fair amount of time driving between casinos.
If you want to play at the Green chip level, then Reno is not ideal, but JA Nugget, and Atlantis will tolerate bigger bets alot better than most places.
Oh, and you WILL need a car in Reno.
One last tip - Reno casino's accept each others chips (both at the cage and at the table). Don't waste time cashing chips at every place.
I have been backed off in 28 minutes at the Nugget and 20 minutes at Atlantis playing light green. Both these backoffs came while playing a second session on a different shift a day later than my first session which was of similar length and spread.
I can/could play endlessly at the red chip level virtually anywhere.
Really once you get to about a ~$100 bet you really have to manage your exposure everywhere in Reno. You will watched closely everywhere playing green.
For educational purposes go play at Cal Neva and see how long you last. I expect they will even backoff red chippers very rapidly!
of whether it is even worthwhile to play at the Green Chip level in Reno.
Let's say there is a counter with sufficient bankroll to play Green on Reno's SD games. That person may still be better off limiting themselves to a $80 - $90 max bet. I'm partial to a $20 to $80 spread personally since every bet is 4 chips and there is always a red chip on top. The spread just seems less obvious for whatever reason. Same counter could probably get away with dropping the bet down to $10 in negative counts after a loss, etc.
I'm thinking that the increase in playing time might more than compensate for the loss in EV from using smaller than normal bets.
Then again, you lose at least one good game (DOA at JA is $25 min). Also, if you are only in town for the weekend (Friday night to Sunday afternoon), then you can probably pound away at Green with very short sessions (20 - 30 minutes, maybe more with a good act).
So I guess the correct answer is "it depends". If you plan to visit Reno frequently, you may want to stick to Red. Green might work if your visits are few and far between (once or twice a year). Either way, limit your trip to the weekend. Reno mid-week is dead, which makes your play stick out too much.
I was there recently from Tuesday to Saturday and the tables were virtually deserted mid week even at the big places. What few patrons they had, like a handful in total, were playing red chips.
I was stunned that Reno was a ghost town during the week. IMO Reno is dying as a gaming destination. I have been making trips there for many years and I had never seen it so devoid of patrons.
I got virtually no hours in until Friday which was a HUGE disapointment.
I took one full day off to play elsewhere at venues where I didn't care if I got backed off and I spent a good chunk of another day playing politely under a new identity to establish my new home base for subsequent trips.
From now on Reno is a weekend destination.
Your point about playing at tiny stakes to grind out some EV is valid but very unappealing to me.
A 4:1 spread on the D10 games is very weak especially at those stakes.
I used to only be able to play the DOA games but as my BR grew the D10
games became playable but they require a more aggressive spread.
I did find excellent conditions on the weekend but I still had to play very short sessions at many places.
