yes, thank you.
A red chip player has to profitably use every available minute on a trip to make his or her time worthwhile. In my opinion, the meager comps available to red chippers are not worth playing a weak comp game and further reducing the already-low hourly expectation of red chip play. Boomtown and Fitzgeralds are probably the most generous Reno stores with room comps for low-level players, so it might be worth using a player's card at those places and stretching session length a little bit.
Fitz will let you stay four nights free a year so long as you keep $25 in your players club account. With an average bet of just over $15 a hand, if the comp city formulas are right, I earn about $15 x 100 x .02 x .2 = $6 per hour in comps. So, four hours of significantly camouflaged play gets me four nights' stay? If the player gets backed off, the use of that player's card on future trips probably should be discontinued, or tested on a shift that the player doesn't normally play at that store.
Are they really dumb enough to not put a red flag on a player's info when they back him off? Surprising. . .
I rarely tip. My records show that in the last 756 hours I have played, my tips total $54. Almost all of that was at Reno "go for your own" stores where dealers do not pool tips.
Do you still know which Reno casinos let dealers keep their own tips?
On my last trip, I came across a sharp but friendly dealer who almost certainly knew I was counting. He was the "let's see if I can give you some money" type. . . In any case he was dealing deep, even when the count was good. I always limit my tips to silver, which I only have to offer if I happen to have received a blackjack with an odd number of chips out. So, I'd put out a silver dollar for him when I had a large bet out, for "good luck."
He continued dealing deep into the deck, and I didn't end up getting any more silver; when he colored me up I had only greens or I would have tipped him $5 more. But as I got up, he gave me a "you're really pushing it" look. As I got up, another dealer asked me if I was leaving a winner, and then made a comment about how I'll probably come back the next day and get her in trouble.
What's the right way to handle this situation? How much responsibility is on the dealer to catch counters, and how much flak do they get if their winnings are below what they ought to be? (This happened at one of the small shops)