We just finished a week in Nevada, driving north from Vegas to Reno to retrace some of the steps in Barry Meadows' book "Blackjack Autumn" .. and see if he was right.
He mostly is, but many of the games he played outside LV are gone now. There are some new ones at other casinos.
General thoughts: it is MUCH easier to be an AP outside of Vegas. Jeez. The small towns -- sure, you might be able to play one of those only once in a while, but conditions are usually good. And in a few casinos in small towns, I saw NO video surveillance. Seriously.
So, the trip report:
SATURDAY, JULY 14: Mandalay Bay. Place still p*sses me off. inimums are higher than Bellagio. Won, but it took me a while, and didn't win enough to risk exposure.
SUNDAY, JULY 15: Excalibur/Luxor/Tropicana. Excalibur's SD games are abysmal now -- no even money on dealer A versus natural, 6-5 natural, etcetera. But it wasn't the worst I faced that day. The Trop, an aging, smelly shithole, GAVE ME HEAT for spreading one to three red. Pit boss on my ass all night. I doubled my put in, and yelled to my SO, "this is bullshit. Let's go." Supposedly, the Trop is being torn down. Good riddance. Luxor: not a great game, but money can be ground out from this place.
MONDAY, JULY 16: Bellagio, and a good object lesson. I saw the inside of one of the autoshufflers when it jammed and had to be fixed. Gang, there is NO way all six decks could be in play on any one hand -- not with the design. But I have no insights into how many cards ARE in play. I couldn't read it that far. The autoshuffler at Bellagio is a "wheel and spoke" affair, and each spoke holds maybe ten cards. It does NOT rotate constantly.
TUESDAY, JULY 16: Downtown. Several good -- or at least passable -- games.
MONDAY, JULY 17: Monte Carlo. Forget it. Lost.
TUESDAY, JULY 18: One more at Bellagio, just because it's fun to play on a profit without the AP stress. Played one shoe game at Bellagio and made money. Still do-able if you can afford to spread a range with green -- or black.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19: On the road! Drove to Beatty. DO play Beatty. Enuf said. There's one casino in town. You can't miss it. That game is BREAKABLE.
THURSDAY, JULY 20: Tonopah. No live games. Drove on to Tahoe. But the promotion at the El Capitan killed me -- video poker players who hit four of a kind on the flop get a free case of Pepsi. I had to laugh.
FRIDAY, JULY 21: Tahoe. Fair to good conditions in Tahoe, and even some three-dollar games where wild spreads don't look so nutty. Which is the advantage to a three-dollar game for an AP. Try Bill's for that. Harvey's -- the usual. Same at Harrah's. Smaller places, better games.
SATURDAY, JULY 22: Reno. Someone please drop a nuclear bomb on Reno. What a hole. The blackjack isn't bad, but .. try and get a DRINK up there or wait less than an hour for a meal on Virginia St. What a craphole. Didn't hit the Atlantis or Peppermill -- stayed on Virginia exclusively. Will never do that again.
There you go. Other notes -- I am getting off Hi-Lo for good, and doing something else. AP BJ is now a hit and run game, and I even coined a phrase this trip: "double and walk." I double my put in, and I walk it. Don't care if it was just 20 bucks -- I hit 40, I walk before anyone gets me.
Up significantly for the trip. Save for the BS at the Trop, played it well enough with bonehead plays and bad moves mixed in to NOT get heat.
