How I Survive in Northern Nevada

I haven't posted in a while, but I wanted to give some of the part-timers who don't play blackjack for a living things I do to survive and thrive at the tables in Northern Nevada.

I honestly feel that attempting to hide that you may be counting is, for the most part, a waste of time. Blackjack is a difficult game to beat, no doubt, and using camoflauge, I feel, can often just eat up too much of your edge, and really doesn't benefit you all that much. The nice thing about Northen Nevada casinos is that they seem to rarely ban you from their casinos entirely. More often, a backoff, is generally what happens. A simple tap on the shoulder, and a statement of "Sir you are more than welcome to stay and play any of the other games in our casino, you just can't play blackjack anymore".

BIG DEAL! WHO CARES!

I've been backed off countless times at all of the following casinos over the last two years:

Fitzgeralds (when it was still open)
Eldorado
Silver Legacy
Boomtown
Rail City
JA Nugget
Monte Bleu (South Lake Tahoe)
Harrahs (South Lake Tahoe)
Sienna
Crystal Bay Club (North Lake Tahoe)

The following Casinos have yet to catch me:

Grand Sierra
Atlantis
Peppermill
Western Village
Fandango (Carson City)
Carson Valley Inn (Minden)
Nugget (Carson City)
Gold Dust West (Carson City)
Harrahs (Reno)
Lakeside Inn (South Lake Tahoe)
Horizon (South Lake Tahoe)
Cal Neva (Reno)
Sands Regency

Places I avoid like the plague because I don't feel the game is very good or they bring too much heat:

Alamo
Bonanza
Circus-Circus
Diamonds
Cal Neva (North Lake Tahoe)
Hyatt Regency( North Lake Tahoe)
Biltmore (North Lake Tahoe)
Topaz Lake Lodge

I still play at ALL the places that I've been backed off at, all be it, short sessions of 20 to 30 minutes, and I try to target the shifts that I haven't been backed off on yet and where the pit boss may not recognize me.

I use SW Hi-Lo for single deck with about 72 indices. For me, what works is hit them hard and hit them fast, and hit as many as 6 to 8 casinos over the course of one night or one day (this can involve some driving). I only play heads up or with one other player playing, and target single deck only. I usually start off with a fairly large bet, say about 1/3 the table max ($100 to $150), if the count goes good, I quickly get up to larger bets all the way up to the table max in order to maximize my hourly rate. If the count goes bad, I drop my bet drastically to what often amounts to the table minimum of $25. This limits my exposure when the house has an edge. It simply amazes me what you can get away with in the first 10 minutes in a playing session before a pit boss starts watching how you play. Often times, the dealers are oblivious to these huge bet swings when you first start out playing. Once I am up 2, 3, or 4 big bets I quickly grab my chips, never coloring up, and head for the door, often times bypassing the cage. I have several friends that cash out my chips for me when needed. And then it's off to the next place. They never see me coming and I am out of there before they even know that I've left with $600 to $1000 of the casinos money. Think of yourself like a thief, take it fast like a thief, and get the hell out before you get caught. I change my appearance frequently, hat, no hat, facial hair, beard, no beard , just a mustache, or just a goatee, short hair, long hair, slicked back hair with gel, glasses, no glases, fancy clothes (sport coat and slacks), all the way down to jeans and a t-shirt. I try to never look the same twice for the eye in the sky. For longer sessions of 45 to 60 minutes, I pretend to drink like a maniac at the tables, I often order martinis or gin and tonics, take a sip or two and then take a little walk to the restroom with my drink in hand. While in there I will pour out about my drink and replace it with water for martinis or sprite the for gin and tonics (I sneek in the sprite in a flask I carry in my inside coat pocket). When I return to the tables with my drink, I'll slam it down over the next couple of minutes and loudly hollar "Cocktails!". If the cocktail waitress seems to take a long time I will bring it to the pit bosses attention that I desperately need another drink. Sometimes I take my wife along with me and let here play the cards while I stand beside her and quietly give her instructions in her ear. This is very effective and rarely brings any heat. we have only been backed once when playing together as a team.

I play fast and furious like this for usually a month to a month and a half, five days a week, at all different times of the day. After playing like a crazy man for a month or so, the back offs start happening more frequently, I've had as many as 3 in one night, and that is when it is time to cool it for a while.

I've made as much as $20k in a month. A typical month yeilds about $8k to $10k. Then I shut down for usually about 3 to 4 months, and I head back to the poker tables where I grind out $3000 to $4000 a month playing about 30 to 40 hours a week. (Did I mention that I'm a pretty good poker player as well). Two years, I've been going like this and I have yet to have to get a regular job. Yes it can be done. I wish I could play BJ full time all year long, but it would simply be impossible because my face would just be showing up way too often in the same places all the time.

Bottom Line: being a perfect counter is important, but four other things are important as well:

1. playing the game agressively, never yeilding an edge to casino at any time, even if this means wide bet spreads or making unusual plays that may bring attention to you. (such as splitting 10-10 against 4, 5, or 6 when the count justifies it, or doubling A-9 against 4, 5, or 6 when the count justifies it). If it brings heat, SO WHAT!?! Maximize, maximize, maximize, at all times.

2. Constantly play at different times.

3. Constantly change your appearance and work on you act.

4. Keep sessions short - 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes. Never, ever longer than an hour - even if your stuck, walk, find another casino. When I have violated this rule is when I've been caught and backed off most frequently.

Good Luck!

Nice post, both interesting and informative. Please be encouraged to post more here.

One thing: You state several times that you're unwilling to offer up any edge to the casino, but you'll bet $150 (or other high bet) off the top of a deck? I can understand doing this for camo reasons, but aren't you giving up some substantial EV that way?

This is true, I am giving up some EV off the top of the deck (.18% to .44% depending on which single deck I am playing). Yes, this is primarily for camoflauge. by starting out at this level I am able to quickly and comfortable get up to $200 $300 $400 or $500 bets when the count goes positive and stays positive. This keeps you from having to face too many situations where you have to make drastic bet changes. If you are constantly making changes from $25 to $300 and $400 you are not going to last very long at any casino in Reno or Tahoe. You can get away with a lot, but you have to draw the line somewhere. I don't always do this off the top of the deck (sometimes I bet $50 or $75 and work my way up from there)as I get further into a session, but by doing this for sure on the very fisrt hand of the playing session (betting $100 or $150), it establishes you as a big bettor (black chip bettor)right from the beginning which leads to fewer instances where the dealer will anounce "Checks Play" later in the session even if you make a drastic bet change. When this happens, it, of course, alerts the pit to your your bet sizes. I don't think it is benificial for the pit boss to see that first bet at $25, and then three decks later, he hears the dealer yell out "checks play". Any pit boss, even the most inept ones who are asleep at the switch, will wonder why you've suddenly gone from $25 to $100 , $200, or $300 and will be watching you more closely, and be highly suspicious.

This sounds like somebody who has gathered all kinds of anecdotes from different books and is now living in a dream world.
The post contains many contradictions and exxagerations and is therefore not credible.
You start by saying that camouflage is unnecessary but the rest of your post is suggesting the contrary. You want to start the deck with 150$ which would seriously limit your spread and you want to run away as soon as you have won a few hundred bucks.Ridiculous! Visiting 8 casinos in one night would only inflate your travel expenses.
Then, you talk about disguise but posting here on an open forum about how and where you play makes this totally ineffective.And you will be particularly remembered for taking your drinks to the bathroom!
In Blackjack,there is no such thing as a typical month.With your stakes, results can range from +30k to -30k and you would actually need a bankroll of 100k.
If you have played for two years so intensively you could atually tell us how much you really earned (and how much fuel you burnt:-)). You do keep records,don't you?

Francis Salmon

Wouldnt you turn more profit from getting more hands per hour? playing very short sessions and jumping from casino to casino would drasticly reduce the number of hands seen. Wouldnt you be wasting a lot of time by doing this? It all breaks down to how much we make an hour doesnt it?

I only ask these questions because i am a novice AP player trying to improve my skills. The things you stated in your post threw me off a bit.

Interesting ideas. I'm a person that always tends to take people at their word so I won't question the OP's veracity.

I'm not sure how some of the advice could be applied to a part-time novice such as myself. I have a profession, and it isn't gambling. I can go by the local casinos before or after I go to the office or on my day off or sometimes catch a couple hours on the weekend. If I'm traveling for work or pleasure I can drop in on a casino to catch some playing time. All of the non-Tribal casinos are small, intimate places where you quickly become recognized after a few visits. Changing my appearance is not only impractical from a business/social standpoint, but with the local casinos would be spotted in a hurry. The one casino where I was backed off will remember me for a long time so I probably can't go back there for at least a year I'm guessing.

The other thing I wonder about is in the local casinos here, being so small, the poker tables are often in the same area as the BJ tables. If you are playing poker 30-40 hours/week doesn't the management get to know you pretty well? Are you playing poker in a different place than you play BJ?

Finally, if you are getting in and getting out so quickly, why do you bother to continue to play at all if the count is negative on a SD or DD game?

the short sessions aspect of 2good's advise seems very reasonable to me. I play that way also. If you hit the same casinos over and over again, it is better to play short sessions, give up some hourly profits and be welcome back again. I play AC alot were there are only a handful of what I consider playable games, so I hit the same casinos over and over several times each in the same week. Short sessions is the only way to go in that situation.

Just seemed too much like a text book. I remember writing a sociology paper in college based on book written by Goffman. I was supposed to watch people in a public place and observe/write about their actions. I didn't do that but just made observations based on the book. The professor mentioned it was textbook and that's the same feeling I got from this post. No real harm in doing so. If it was true, I would think even an unsophisticated pit crew would catch on to the hit run after awhile, especially since he would be one of the bigger bettors in the place. No harm, no foul though.

i also play short sessions...for the reason simply that i do not live in vegas, where there are so many places to play. if i can get in, play under some decent conditions, and leave up a few hundred dollars, im happy with that. then i am allowed to come back as often as i like, usually once or twice a week. i think this is a legitimate playing style for anyone that is not in vegas or AC, where the options are almost endless. Profiting a feww hundred 2 times a week would turn out to be more beneficial than winning 5,6, or 7 hundred, once a month. the indian casinos, especially the smaller ones are more adept to keeping an eye on the big winners more than they are the smaller stakes winners.

I am real. I live in the reno area. Travel expenses - ie hotel, meals, rental cars - are non-existent. My only expenses is the gas I need to get around to all the places I listed. My only expense is the $80 a week in gas I spend when playing blackjack - far less when playing poker because I only play at one poker room. My post is the truth. If you read my post carefully you would see that I do not play the entire year 5 days a week, 40 hours a week. My total playing time occurs only about 3 to 4 months throughout the year. A typical 8-10 hour day (or evening)only yields about 3 hours of actual play. The rest of time is spent driving from casino to casino looking for ideal playing conditions. (singledeck heads-up play or at most one other player). That means I only get in a 40 to 50 hour work week, I get in only about 15 hours a week of actual play, about 60 hours a month, before I shut down and take a break for two to three months. You are correct in saying that the level I am playing at requires a large bankroll. Mine is over 300k (no, I didn't build this up over time playing blackjack - it was through other legitimate means over the years). Once I felt I had enough cash to sustain myself through the invariable ups and donws of poker and blackjack, I quite my job back in June of 2007 and have never looked back.

Look, I don't get rich doing what I do. Last year playing blackjack, I only cleared a little over 27k total. My best month came last July where I made a little over 20k over 55 hours of play. I had two other decent winning months where I made 8k and 14k, and I had one really bad month where I lost 15k. I have yet to experience a 30k +/- swing, although I am well aware that it could happen at any time. (Although, this would mean I would have to lose around 60 big bets - that doesn't happen every day of the week). My goals are pretty simple - to make 50k-60k a year combined poker and and blackjack and not have to go back to work at a regular job.
For all of you non-believers, fly or drive up to Reno, and meet me. I still am able to use a comp card at a few places around town, so I would be more than happy to use one of those free coupons in the mail they send me for free rooms and put you up for a couple of nights free of charge. Then you can follow me around town and stand behind me as my sidekick buddy, back count and see for yourself how I play. I've got nothing to hide. You'll have to pay for your own plane ticket and meals though (I'd be happy to provide a couple of comped dinners as well). Look at it as a research trip. You won't regret it. This is a serious offer. I'd be more than happy to pick you up at the airport if necessary. I don't now what else I can say except come see for yourself, and then when you get home write your response on this blog page.

I don't claim to be the most sophisticated counter there ever was, nor am I a mathmatician. But I do have a college degree from a prestigious U.C. school, I am intelligent, and I've proven to myself that I can win at this game. In the end I suppose that is all that counts. (nevver mind the pun) Let me know if anyone is interested.

Ok,let's take your word although I find it a bit suspicious that you don't state your entire BJ-results since you quit your job.You say that you won 27k over last year.Your BJ-related activities covered 800 hours concentrated on 4 months.They consisted of 560 hours driving and 240 hours of playing.(I dedicate just as many hours to Blackjack over the whole year with the difference that it's 600 hours for playing and only 200 hours for driving).
Now,if we consider your actual playing time you get a bit over 100$ per hour which is ok but if we consider the whole 800 hours your win rate drops to $34/h which is of course not enough when you consider the high risk involved.
Fuel is only a small part of the cost of driving a car.You have to think of maintenance,depreciation, insurance,taxes and fines.
All in all, if we calculate a modest 0.5$ per mile, your weekly expectation drops from 1500$ to a net value of $1100.
If I may give you an advice: Since you are also a good poker player, why don't you combine the two. You start with Blackjack and when conditions deteriorate, you move to the poker room. Since you contribute to their rake, they will be more tolerant with you at BJ. This would also put an end to this unproductive driving around.

Francis Salmon

240 hours in way short of the long run. So far you have had 3 winning months and 1 losing. If you are going to post about "How I make a living playing blackjack" and base it on 3 or 4 months play a year, you need more than 1 year of success to back you up. talk to me in 5 years when you have played 1200 hours.

And report back. I'd do this myself, but have too many day to day commitments, plus my family.

Ian

I made only 8k over 115 hours in the second half of 2007 after I moved to Reno. I guess you could say I was was still learning the ropes those first six months, even though I had been counting cards recreationally (15-20 hours a year) on vacation trips since the early 1990's. Prior to starting full time in June of 2007 I'd never bothered keeping records since I played so few hours and I viewed it at the time as just something fun to do. Back then, I guess I felt like I was going to gamble anyway because I enjoyed it while on vacation a couple of times a year, so I might as well count cards and at least improve my chances of winning in the long run. This year I've only played poker thus far. That about sums up all my hours and dollars over the last 20 months.

The 560 hours you atribute to driving hours is not quite accurate. All of those hours I spent seeking out playable games were not spent entirely behind the wheel of my car. When I work downtown Reno or South Lake Tahoe, I walk from casino to casino - my car stays parked the entire time, and sometimes when I am at one of the further out casinos that are isolated and alone by themselves, I will wait inside the casino if it appears that conditions may improve at the table at which I want to play. I'll sit at the bar and sip a soda waiting for one of the two players that are playing the $25 table to bust out or get up and leave before sliding into a seat. If the bar is not close enough to get a good view of the table, I'll hang around the craps table pretending to watch the dice game, all the while keeping an eye on the BJ table I want to play. Or position myself at a video poker machine (prefereable a nickel machine, but a quarter machine will do) put two to five bucks in, play one nickel or one quarter at a time, and play really, really slowly, again keeping a watch on changing conditions at the BJ table at which I want to play. Parking, walking, and waiting eat up a considerable amount of the time that you've atributed to driving. I do keep driving records (I use to be an outside sales rep. so I got in the habit of keeping a driving log over the years - gas/maintenance/repairs/miles driven. My total auto expenses for 2007 averaged $614.00 per month (gas/repairs/maintenance/insurance). I drive a late model American car (2003) that only has a value of about $4000. I usualy replace my car about every three years and I spend about $8000 to $9000 on another late model American car usually two to three years old with about 25k to 30k in miles on it at time of purchase. When I dump my old car at trade in I usually only get about $1000 to $2000, which usually does nothing except cover the cost of the the sales tax/doc fees/liscensing the vehicle, so I am usually out 9k in cash (I don't finance) at the dealership every 3 years or so. That works out an additional auto expense of $250 per month. So my total auto expenses are roughly $864 per month. Now we could just atribute all of this cost to Blackjack and poker, but the realilty is thats not quite fair since: 1.)I would own a car irregardless of what I did for a living. 2.) All of these expenses also include my personal miles - trips to the grocery store/movies/whatever - all be it, these miles only account for about 20% of the car's total use. the long and short of it is, I am not spending nearly as much in travel expenses as you may think.

In regards to moving back and forth from poker to Blackjack on a daily basis, I tryed that when I first moved up here, but for me I found it diffucult to do well at both when going back and forth. I don't know if it is the way my brain works, but I seem to do better at both games when I put all of my energy, focus, and concentration into one game at a time and focus just on that one game and the skill set necessary to beat that one game. This is something hard to explain, and it is definitely one of my faults that I need to work on.
I see were you are coming from in relation to risk versus reward, saying that what I make for my time invested may not be worth it. But this is a risk I am worth taking. You see, I was an outside sales rep for almost 15 years. When I quit 20 months ago, I absolutely hated my job. I hated my boss, and I was just flat out done. I now have the freedom to work for myself, keep all that I make rather than sharing with a company (as on outside sales rep. out of every dollar I made in gross profit for the company I worked for, I only kept about 22%). I always felt like I was making somebody else wealthy. My successes and/or failures are all my own.I enjoy what I do now and I am a much happier person. It is hard to put a price on personal freedom and happiness. I do appreciate you responding to my posts and please do feel free to follow up, because I am interested in what you have to say. Thanks.

I do not find your playing method to be at all unusual for those who are familiar with the Reno area. I have long said that short sessions and big bet spreads are necessary to consistently get the money from northern Nevada stores over an extended period of time.

However, I respectfully question the wisdom of bothering with some of the tiny max bet sweatshops such as Gold Dust, Crystal Bay Club, Western Village, et al. With a 300K bank, it seems a waste of your time to bother with these dumps.

I am surprised and impressed that you have found playable conditions at Horizon. I gave up on it long ago. I recently visited it again for an article I wrote, linked below, and still found it unplayable. Good for you if you found something there I have overlooked.

For all of you non-believers, fly or drive up to Reno, and meet me.

I urge you to reconsider this offer. Those familiar with Reno understand that what you have written is entirely plausible, though some of the things you wrote may, in my humble opinion, be sub-optimal. Those unfamiliar with Reno-area conditions probably live too far away to take the time to make such a trip just to meet up with a stranger for no worthwhile purpose. If they lived close by or made regular Reno-area visits, they would already understand.

You might just meet up with a gung-ho casino person masquerading as a legitimate player. Or worse, someone that would like to separate you from the cash you have on your person by whatever means necessary. I am concerned with my personal safety and security, particularly in the Reno area, and would never meet up with a total stranger as you have offered to do.

I agree with you, I am in no way attempting to say that I have hit the long run yet. I can't help the amount of hours that I've played, but irregardless, my success thus far is what it is. Thanks for your post.