Bottom line

Have been playing small, west coast Indian casinos for several years. 6 decks, $5 minimum, usual rules. Wife and I play at same table. Use KO. I count and maintain a chip tell. Wife plays off my tell. We each use $5 flat bet, one pad.

We have maintained detailed records for 21 months. 62 sessions, two people, average 2 hours. Total of 248 people hours. Minimum each bet $5, maximum $40 with $20 each on two pads. Totals $10-$80 in play, more with splits, doubles. Folks, that is a lot of play if you have any other life.

Results: We are up net $74, 3 t-shirts, 87 decks of cards (suited BJ), 3 silver medallions (3 BJ in a row), 27 free meals (worth min $12, max $87). We have been overpayed (one hand) $37.50, coloring up an extra $50, many pushed ,and even some losses payed off. (inexperienced dealers)

Do the bosses know us? Sure. They know that we are "good", but they like our play. We maintain a happy table that others like to be at. Is it a living? No, just afternoon entertainment for a couple of retired RV folks.

BTW, this is my first post. I thought that there might be many out there with time and play similar to ours.

If your going to be putting this much time into it, why not refine your efforts, do everything with precision acuracy and start making some significant extra cash for your RV trips.
You're almost there!

Stealth Bomber

My wife and I went to LV recently and gambled the 2 Deck game $5.00 min at Imperial Palace and after 2.5 hrs of play for me (KO) I was up $30.00. My wife was using me for BS and she had some luck and she was up $100.00.

Felt that this was not bad for 2.5 HRS play.

BTW neither my wife or I spread more than 1-3.

We HAVE put a lot of preparation into our game. Read all the books, and use several computer simulators...

Please don't miss the point. Since we are older and retired, lifestyle is much more impotant than capital appreciation. Matter of fact, since our lifestyle expenses are covered, negative cash flow is our only economic concern. Our real "gambling" is in the stock market. We play the game for recreation, and having fun is paramount.

I am convinced that we play a precision game. Well, not always, because of distractions..ie: got to talk to the pit boss when they want to talk to you. What we do is $10-$80 bet spread. 75% of the game depends upon flat bet size and bet spread. Much of the rest depends upon deck penetration. Hopping tables doesn't work in a small casino.When the count is grim, we go to the bathroom.

If we were to raise our flat bet to $25, with a spread of 5:1, the game would cease to be fun and more of a business. Furthermore, I am sure that it would draw heat from the bosses.. whereas we now have a good relationship with them.

All the publications and forums seem to dwell on the BIG player. I suggest that there is another class of player, and that we are representative. Unfortunatly, the folks that we see don't hold the same level of play that we do. They loose. Often and big. Then they ask us when we color up, why do we always seem to win or break-even. We tell them to read a book and learn the basic strategy and use money management.

The game take soooo long to converge to the true statistics, that for any given 100 sessions, it is mostly a flip of coin whether you win or loose. And how much. I think that more people should realize that, and not expect more than the game will give them.

Sounds like you have the pit crew in the palm of your hand. Even if they started to wonder why your playing larger $ with larger spreads, tell them you just came into some extra $ somehow and now just have more $ than you know what to do with. They'll get so excited, they may even wet their pants. Also, it's not the end of the world if you get barred once in a while from a small casino. It's like golf, you can never master the sport, but at least you can find out just how far you can push the limits.

Good luck. Oops, good variance to you and the Mrs.

Stealth Bomber