Nightmare at Bellagio

IT was chronic all weekend of 7/23...Nothing but tourists sitting down and playing WRONG. 12 hands refusing to hit on a 2. People sitting on a 13 versus a face. Please tell me how to get out of tourist hell the next time. Advice? We did play some higher limit tables with very serious counters but the dealer called a deck shuffle mid-shoe as a result...

If everybody was playing as an advantage player, the casinos would shut down.

If everybody was playing perfect basic strategy, there wouldn't be enough money generated by the casinos for a counter to scrape off a profit.

From where do you think an advantage player's money comes?

The play of others does not affect your win rate. Dealers at Bellagio cannot shuffle early...they don't have the authority to break the deck early unless instructed to do so by the pit. If a dealer does this you should complain to the pitboss that the dealer shuffled the cards before the shuffle card came out when the table won a few hands in a row and you don't appreciate the dealer breaking the good flow or run early. High rollers and just plain regular players don't appreciate this move by casinos.

Also, if you need to avoid tourists, stay away from the Strip and downtown. I'm pretty sure that's primarily who they're there for.

Are you a counter? If so you shouldn't care what another player does with his hand. Them standing on stiff hands actually helps you since they do not eat the high cards. This is assuming you are not playing through very negative counts.

If you aren't a counter there is no way you could tell that serious counters were at the higher limit tables.

Have played the big B enough to say that the only time I witnessed them shuffling a shoe early was when some drunk SOB, with a good count, decided to trip and plop (is this where the word ploppy comes from) his drink right on top of the shoe. A strategy I might try someday on a neg. shoe.
You also need to learn to love those tourists. Their losses make your wins insignificant to the house, basically they fund us all.
Tables full of hard core counters? Never seen this and I think the only time this happened to my knowledge was the AC experiment that Ken Uston wrote about, are real counter convention.

Don't worry about what Johnny Noclue is playing and betting. I cheer them on and laugh to myself. It's great to have some ploppy stand on a + count, more + cards for me. Or hit a 13 vs a 2 up on a - count, eat those little cards up.