new "form" of cover

Happened a while back to avoid drawing attention.

Was playing in a DD game, and for whatever reason, things were going better than usual (on the far right side of the curve). Had been playing about 30 minutes, with the pit critter coming over to chat (just me at the table, DD game). He began to notice my pile of chips had grown quite significantly, and had noticed my bets bouncing around with me winning more on the big bets, etc. He once commented about this in fact, which was enough to make me decide to leave at the next shuffle. Count tanked (TC = -5 and dropped farther over the next four rounds) but interestingly I hit 4 snappers in a row, with 4 minimum bets out. He said something like "I had thought you might be counting cards based on your win rate only, but after seeing you get 4 blackjacks in an obviously big + count, with a table min bet out, that's not what you are doing... So what kind of system are you using?" I gave him some gobbledygook about a progression scheme and he walked away (I had lots of boring details to explain to him, naturally. :) )

I particularly liked the comment about "the big + count" which I assume came from seeing all the A/10's showing up for me, when, in fact, the count was terrible.

Of course, mentally I was cursing those 21's since I was winning a grand total of $7.50 per round, rather than the $75 had I had a big bet out.

This is way over a year old so there's little worry about identifying anything. I found it in some old computer notes I was trying to consolidate, and thought I'd pass it on. I won't say for certain, but I don't remember hitting 4 or more 21s in a row at any other time, but it is possible, particularly if they spanned a shuffle where I'd likely not think about it.

The only thing I need to work on in my "act" is that when I get a 21 with a $5 bet out, I should appear to be "happy" when in reality, it sucks with two straws. :)

SSR, your oldie is entertaining. I also get an oldie for you. My best cover was the BetPro's bad-spot strategy, in which the player increases or decreases the # of hands, based on where the bad spot (BS) is. For example, at an 1on1 table, if the player thinks that the #3 spot is bad, then he plays 2 hands, and let the dealer gets the spot#3 (the bad spot.) On the other hand, if BS=2, he drops a hand & plays only 1 hand, and let the dealer play on the bad spot #2. Do you get the idea? If so, let's move onto my old trip report (more or less :-)):

6am: I headed out to JFK airport to catch a flight to Turning Stone Casino.

11am: I arrived at TSC (Some holdups/delays at JFK), settled down a bit and played its doubledeckers (see the pic below). I added or dropped hands according to the BetPro's strategy.

12noon: I finally found the bad spot for the dealer, and my winning streak started to run. Pitcritter H admired my strategy and my lucky hands after hands.

12:15: To protect his ess & job, H burnt the old double-deckers and inserted the brand new 2deckers in attempt to break my streak.

12:25 My streak continued.

01:00: New cards were inserted again, and the cards turned against me (TC went down to the deepsouth), so I broke for some Italian lunch with a Godfather.

02:15: I returned to the doubledeckers, & the lady luck pitied me and smiled at me again after I pinpointed where the bad spot was (at least at the eyes of pitcritter---that's what he thought I was doing). Of course I added or dropped a hand to put the dealer on that bad spot again.

02:45 New cards were inserted again, but I still got great run with the BetPro's strategy (that's what the pitcritter thought).

03:15 New cards again... but the BetPro's strategy still worked.

04:45 New cards again... but the BetPro's strategy still worked.

05:15 New cards again... Luckily for TSC, the BetPro's strategy failed to work (at the eyes of the pitcritter.) I broke for dinner, and thereafter I caught a flight back to JFK airport, and laughed all the way to Citibank :-)

Disclaimer: The BetPro's bad spot strategy had worked well for about 14,000 simulated hands. It's just being lucky during the testing stage! Unfortunately, it did not work well thereafter from 14,001 to 2,000,000 simulated hands. It seems like a loser's system by itself, but it's a great system if used as a cover, as per the above trip report. Thanks BetPro, wherever you're. Now the cat is out of the bag, I'll find another cover if I ever fly up to TSC again :-).

You can only play one hand now?

but if you got the dealers who gave good pen, you will see that they are all gone too

Question (tongue-in-cheek): why has a beautiful lady gambler (such as yourself, for example :-) ) a tough time to find a soulmate?

Please scroll down below to see a "picky" lady gambler's answer:

talk to Bestamongsttheworst about the spacing between the words? It is making it hard to read ;)
Besides, the dealers haven't worn those shirts in years. The TSC used to have ~20 two deck tables, now there are 2 with $100 min dealing 50% pen :(

It's no surprise to me about TSC's playing conditions. The drop of 2deckers from many tables to a few tables has been expected. It's a part of the growing pain for any casino, just like the AC Resorts back in 1978, which had been gone from the best to almost the worst casino because of management's greediness.

Those were the good old happy days which had been gone forever. The TSC was a candy store first when it was open. Its games were so good that some Boardwalk Guys moved their apartments from AC to TSC's neighborhood. After several months, they killed the games & got kicked out of there. Oh well, they moved back to AC after the massive barrings. As to dealers' uniforms on the pic, yes, they're old. That's why I called them oldies ("my old story with the old picture"=oldies, get it?)!

By your request, I enlarge the wordings for your perusal:

A few years back, playing heads up single deck at LVC before they turned crazy, I hit 4 snappers in a row playing 2 hands, all in positive counts. Didn't pay for kids tuition but I'll never forget it!
Try it today and you'd probably get tapped!