I'm heading to the area and would like to get a report on conditions/best places to play. I guess there are 3 casinos near Cincinatti now. Is that right? Arg, Grand Vic & Bel-Terra. Do they use continuous or automatic shufflers? Min bets? Pen? Friendliness? Crowds? Thank you.
Some pit personnel are rude and give you heat, some are half way decent, i.e., friendly. Crowded tables make it tougher to count and jump in and out of games, no? If you have some helpful info about table conditions, I'd appreciate it. Thank you.
ive been to the argosy and their pit bosses werent to friendly there. although i did ask one of the dealers if he's ever seen them ask someone to leave and he hadnt. ive been to the trump/majestic in gary and thier pit bosses were much friendlier, however i will admit the argosy is much nicer than those. when i was at the argosy i played with a grand and none of them even tried to make conversation.
I was there from 4pm to 8 pm on 8/13. Two $5 tables, one $10, and one $25. Didn't check the high roller pit. $5 table was called "Casino Surrender", whatever that is. No seats available at $5 tables. $25 table was posted "No midshoe entry" and had 2 players. $10 table was half full. All were seven spot tables, 6 or 8 deck shoes and S17. No CSM's. At 6pm I asked a female pit critter when more $5 tables would be opening, she looked into her schedule sheets and said "at 8 pm". I tried Wonging the $10 table, true count never got to one, but never went very far negative. Saw no obvious counters. Lost my money at craps.
I think that's like Casino War except there are no cards dealt. You simply place a bet and the casino takes half.
Seriously, all I could find out about Casino Surrender is that it's "blackjack with a guaranteed payback on 20". Anyone know more?
I believe there is a rule where you can take a 50% win if you have a 20. Not sure if it is limited to only certain dealer up cards.
Sounds like a horrible choice... UNLESS, you get to make the choice against a dealer Ace or 10 upcard, BEFORE he checks for BJ. But even then... I dunno?!?
the casino is giving you a great chance to pass on half your winnings.
"I believe there is a rule where you can take a 50% win if you have a 20. Not sure if it is limited to only certain dealer up cards."
It's clear that you should take the deal against 10 or ace and play the hand against any other upcard.
With no restrictions on upcards this rule is worth about 0.5% in EV and would probably put the BS-player at an edge!
Francis Salmon
against a ten or ace if you can't do it before they check for BJ. 10:10 vs 10 has an ev of .559 for standing. 10:10 vs Ace has an ev of .665. 50% is a big cut in either case overall. The decision would have to be count specific.
(Wong's Prof BJ, appendix E, pp 318-333)
Nobody mentioned any checking for Blackjack before you can collect your money. The rule should then be called "Late Casino Surrender". Of course this would render the rule totally worthless for the player.
I was assuming unconditional payouts when the threat of the dealer BJ is still there. In that case the gain against the ace would be 35% and against the ten 7%.
Francis Salmon
I played this game at Grand Sic and, before I was a GC member, posted a question on AP.com. The response was it would have to be a TC+10 or greater in order for the surrender to be advantageous. If I remember correctly, you're allowed to force the casino to surrender (hence the name of the game) their 10 vs. your 20 and get PAID half your bet. Yes, get paid! You don't actually surrender any of your original bet as is the norm. Your actually telling the house you would rather get paid half your bet instead of pushing your 20 against their potential 20.
Of course I didn't realize exactly what the TC should be at the time I played, but I had played enough to know the TC had to be fairly positive for this to be worth it. I actually won on the few times I forced their surrender. Needless to say, after being informed by the number crunchers, I never played it again. As usual, most casino ploys are there for them to make money, not us.
hello,,heres a brief summary of indy joints,,
bell?,,only two hand delt shoes usualy,,bj+3,,,two 6 deck shoes,,they use shuffle master,,,and,,usualy one eight deck shoe,,they hav many other shoegames,,but,,use only the csm. they withdrew the ddeck and single deck due to greed,,and decided to leave the paying people of indy nothe but the worst of games.The staff goes apeshit over small wins and one should consider it a shop of sweat.
the gv?,,nice atmosphere,,the dealers are friendly.even worse than the bell on sweatin money.THE GV DEALS HALF SHOES ON SIX AND EIGHT DECK GAMES.
the gv uss shuffle master two shoe machines which are cool.
never too much prb finding a table.
argosy?,dos the twerm projectile diarreah ring a bell?,,
nothing but eight deck crap.one can find decent pen here and there.the staff is unbelivably rude.Treat yourself to some free entertainment tho,,ask a floor critter when they are going to put in double deck action!!,,youll gt the show of your life!!
the reed at the argosy makes the place actualy smell.Eight deck shoes start at 10 and are usualy 15 to 25!,,they are desperate for the money.
Well,,hope it helps some,,slightly ashamed,i must say,"welcome to indiana",,,
The idiots are lucky enough to be granted a liscence for gameing here in Indy,and this is how they choose to say thank you.
Agreed. Here is an example of how Argosy treats its customers and how much it appreciates their business:
Flew into Cincy, and had a considerable layover. Took cab from airport to AGY since it is the closest casino. Only had $100 dollar bills on me, which cabby could not break, so he followed me in for change for the fare.
Went to bar/lounge to break $100 (cashier cage is closed on the land side, you have to board the boat to get to a cage), bar maid said she didn't have any cash, couldn't break my bill. I told her if she didn't have any cash, she might as well close bar, and go home, how could she make change and sell drinks? LOL. But it sounded believable, maybe they dropped money into safe out of the register, I don't know.
Went over to snack bar to break $100. Snack bar said they didn't have cash to break $100. Picked up .50 cent candy bar, paid for it with $100 bill, they magically were now able to provide change. Told girl I changed my mind, didn't want candy bar, give me my .50 cents back.
Paid cabby, and then had to stand in line for 15 minutes, to obtain boarding pass to enter boat. Amazing. AGY still requires a seperate line for boarding passes, and tries to charge ADMISSION to board the boat. Since INDY passed open boarding, all the other boats just give you a ticket when you walk on. Got pass, after waiting in long line, since they only had one position open (it was a slow Wednesday night, I wonder what the lines are like when they are actually busy), then went to wait in line to actually board boat.
Bought in for $200 at $10 table. Requested all red. Dealer said no, I can only give you half and half, $100 red - $100 green. (I guess he wanted to protect that whole rack of red in front of him). Okay, I took back $100 and just bought in for $100, since you can only spare $100 red. Dealer then proceeded to give me half and half - $50 red, $50 green. Didn't want to press the matter and see if I bought in for $50 if I would get 5 red, 1 green. (I guess the customer is always wrong - if you want all red, you will get half and half). So I played a few hands, immediately broke the 2 green for red in change, and then with about $140 in red chips, got up from the table. "Color up sir?", "Naw I'll just take these with me!" LOL.
Later, while waiting for a cab back, noticed the ladies restroom right as you leave for the parking garage was closed and out of order. Spent my wait amused as couple after couple stopped for the lady to use restroom, find it closed, and then either had to go elsewhere or just hold it for the drive. Either way, this was the main floor, main exit restroom, and customers were inconvienced. Just a minor annoyance as you leave the place.
Stopped by the AGY a couple of days later, to cash out. Same long line to board boat, land cashier cage still closed. On leaving, noticed Ladies Restroom still out of order. Amazing that with a 10 million dollar facility, or whatever it costs, they can't get a toliet fixed for several days. But then, restrooms are just a service you provide to customers.
Left Cincy, called broker, sold AGY stock, spread it into STN, ASCA, and a little WYNN (very little).
...because the customers keep coming anyway. They only care about slot players, who come in droves. They can charge boarding passes because people are to lazy to drive a little farther to the Grand Vic�not that it's much better. They can get away from disfunctional restrooms, horrible BJ conditions, mediocre comps and the like because they are effectively the only game in town. Belterra? Yeah, right.
Caesars is by far the class of the river, even though they have a stranglehold on the Louisville market. They engage in honest-to-gosh competition, because they are trying to lure the Indy players away from Argosy et al. Therefore, you get a nice boat, friendly staff, good dice games (yeah, I know, but I like craps anyway), the best video poker paytables on the river ($1 and 25c 9/6 Jacks, $1 NSUD) and the same cash-back percentage for VP as other slots�some casinos pay back less on VP. Nice buffet, great hotel, good comps. The BJ could be better, though, and they go a bit overboard on the carnival games. But I still like it much better than Argosy.
As I live and breathe, it's kyhick. Good to see a post from you. I thought you'd gone off the edge of the earth, or maybe to McKee.
...though my visits are infrequent, for technical reasons. (You can tell by how long it took me to reply.)
