Player Cards

How much risk is there in signing up for and using player's cards at the various casinos? Does it give the casino's too much information about you? On the other hand, is it too conspicuous if you DON'T get one?

Also, can someone tell me how to register my name here - does it require signing up for CBJN?

Finally, are there ways (for the average person) of tracing posts on this website to the originating computer? How much do you think casino's review these posts trying to make connections with actual players?

Any insights appreciated.

because they did not have a players card until this year. If you
don't live there, the PC is a source of comps, discounts and freebies.
Unless you are paranoid don't play without one.

frank won't play the top-ranked blackjack game in las vegas, cause they won't give him a free breakfast.

wilfo

You should have a players card. Without one you are an immediate object of suspicion. Not to mention that comps will probably be more than 20% of your total ev over the long haul. For those people who are net losers, it is the only thing they ever get.

Easy way to avoid getting a players card is just say you currently live in The Netherlands or Spain or England for work.

I currently live overseas and on my vegas trips that comment immediatly gets the PC off my back.....you have to withstand a few questions about the country you live in ...put otherwise they understand your just "passing through" and leave you in peace.

The main thing is that people talk about not getting a card as a cover tactic. It has exactly the opposite effect. You don't want to have to explain anything.

It is not always necessary to get a players card, some of us have a pad to crash at or have already been comped a room at another casino. Many casinos will give you a meal ticket without having a players card. I'm not too crazy about getting rated and giving out my name,rank and serial number to every casino I visit in order to get a few comps.

By getting a players card, you are only inviting the pit to observe your bets in order to get rated and wonging in and out of tables may lead to some strange actions. Of course in your situation, where a counter bets crazy and does not care about getting barred or future blackjack, getting a players card could have some benefits if they think you're a foolish ploppy, however the serious long term counters will not benefit as much as you would think.

But at those places you don't need to worry anyway. They are not going to even ask a red chipper if he has a rating card and if you are betting only light green you will probably have to beg someone to notice you and take it. Virtually all cover discussion is pointless for lower stakes players anyway since you have to go out of your way to get noticed rather than go out of your way to not get noticed. Once your buyins are generally over $1000, and over $500 at smaller places, you should be turning in a players card with your buyin. Otherwise a call is probably being placed upstairs to watch this new unknown player.

If the casino is willing to give you back up to 40% of your "theoretical" loss in the form of comps or cash, why not take advantage of their comp program?

I'm sorry that "BC" doesn not immediately ring a bell with me.

But it is really hard to find the exact type of individual for whom this is a good idea. For light green bettors comps are the most important. They are at the level where they can actually qualify to have most of their expenses covered, and those expenses actually add up to some significance relative to their win rate. Nobody who really wants to make money can afford to spend 3 to 5 units per day on meals and lodging. That's insane. It is actually less important for a blackchipper, for whom expenses are much smaller relative to his win rate and bank. Sometimes it is good to have one or two casinos where you earn comps and others where you play hit and run without being rated.

But even for the hit and run table hoppers, here is how you do it. You don't get rated immediately. But when you have a really bad shoe, and you keep pulling out money just to see it go down the shoot, you make sure they get your name and address afterwards. Take what ever comps you can get right then. Lots more comps will be coming in the mail for years to come, even if you never play another hand there. At those places where you are lucky, just hit the door. This is how I do it when I'm in table hopping, hit and run mode.

Where I work, players refusing to be rated are watched very closely, and doing it day after day is even worse. Sometimes when i wong shoes in the same pit, i give my card after a big shoe loss, or at the end of my session, because it is likely that if you stay in the same pit the PC will have remember that you have been playing a while. Otherwise when you wong a shoe and use a players card you wont be playing long enough to even have your rating card turned in.

Shotkaller

Where you work the pit thinks everybody is "suspicious." :-)

under your real name. If you do, it'll be a disaster waiting to
happen. I don't care what they offer in terms of comps it's not
worth it in the long run. If you play a winning game you should be
able to pay for the items which would have been comped without
jeapordizing your identity.

At one time, I took advantage of every comp that was offered,
limo's, week long stays with full RFB, shopping trips in their clothing shops, Gormet restraunts etc. In short, I was greedy both
on the tables as well as off the tables. Life was good, or so I thought until they began hassling me.

One club even flew my wife and I out to a super bowl game in Calif on
their commuter plane with free tickets for the game and then flew us
back to the casino where I was supposed to be their guest for a week,
but after 2 days of play, I was read the trespass law, asked to leave the casino and check out of the hotel. The shift manager didn't even
let out a smile when I asked if they were still going to comp my
airfare to get home. He acted like I stole something from him personally .....No sense of humor I guess.

Now 20 years later and 10's of thousands of playing hours later, I can't get most of the casino's in my area to validate my parking when I'm recognized. So whenever I can obtain a player's card under a phony name without showing a phony drivers license, I grab it. Not for the comps but rather just to remove the air of suspicion of a player without a comp card.

As the singer Cher's song goes "If I could turn back time"......
things would be different as I'm much wiser now and know which pitfalls to avoid such as never use the same name more than 2 or 3
times in any casino......use it twice and then chuck the card.

It doesn't matter what name the casino associates with you. Once you've got a few winning sessions recorded in their computor and you get rated under that name again you'll be watched by either the pit
or by the eye. At that point winning or not, they'll bust you the first time they see a pattern of betting or varying your play with the count. In fact they seem to enjoy it more when they take action against you when you're down.

In their feeble minds....if you have a history of wins, you must be doing something, therefore, you're not a desireable customer.

May all the dealers blackjacks occur while you're in the bathroom!

Card.

You should have multiple names. But your real name is just a name, no different than an alias. When you become a threat to casinos it is your face that will be faxed around.

I agree, they will fax your smiley face around town, (as you appeared that day *wink*) and will associate your face with whatever name you used that particular day, however,the length of time the fax is kept is in question.

They may simply file it in a book and store that particular name in their data bank if they have no other record of you.

On the other hand if your name (real or alias) is in their system,
with any notation of your modus operandi, or crossed referenced to your faxed photo, you may get the tap as soon as you hand in your comp card and they look up the history. With that in mind DD' is correct a name is just a name.....it doesn't matter if it's your real name or an alias.

My only point was to keep multiple names and change them frequently so they would have to actually watch your play to make a determination about your skill level rather than simply typing in a name and having your past playing history expose you before you're able to get a bet on the felt.

Ofcourse the best case scenerio is to never get id'd in the first place which unfortunately is already too late for some of us.

May all the dealers blackjacks occur while you're in the bathroom!

Card

Thousands of people walk in casinos and gamble everyday without a players card, I'm one of them. However I do have a few "selected" cards I use when called for, but it is not neseccary to get a players card at every casino you visit. If a counter uses his ID to get a PCard at every casino he visits he is making it very easy for the casinos to communicate by using only his name. He is only setting himself up and it may not be long before counter measures are easily taken because there is no need for pictures,faxing,etc. they already have his name and history. No wonder why a few counters around here get backed off where ever they go, it's already set up.

Using different names is better, but now you have to deal with acquiring different ID's and remember all your aliases and where you used them. And all this for what, a free lunch?

Any counter that is more worried about getting comps than winning money is destined to go down a rocky road.

I would rather be the horse with no name.

On the trip that I'm about to make I'll have a total of $600 to pick up at three different properties from mail out coupons. I have coupons for more hotel nights that I'll be able to make use of. I have a free entry into one invitational tournament that is 50K first place and another for a 20K first place tournament. You simply have no idea what good comp hustling skills are worth, considerably more than the ability to keep five side counts. If you hope to really profit from your bj skills, I suggest that you develop some of these comp hustling skills as well and broaden your horizons. I know some players who manage to collect 3 airfare reimbursements from different properties on the same trip. That's cash in your pocket my friend. When you make it up to the level of seasoned semi-pro then you'll make an after expense profit per year before you play your first hand of bj.