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Took a trip to fabulous Las Vegas last week...arrived at 11:30PM on Wednesday Night 5/28/03 and left Las Vegas at 11:30PM on Saturday Night 5/31/03.
With the trusty May 2003 Issue of CBJN in hand, as well as the top bargain deals to be had in Vegas from Anthony Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor Best of LV, I hit the tables with my brother....he was in town on business 9-5 Tuesday thru Thursday and 9-1 on Friday.
I played approx. 12 hours of low-roller BJ on Thursday, another 10 hours on Friday, and about 9 hours or so on Saturday. In total, about 31 hours of blackjack in 72 hours.
I played the following casinos and games, roughly in this order, betting red to multiple green chips at each:
Orleans, 2 Deck, awful (Penetration to 1.0)
Suncoast, 2 Deck, terrific (0.6)
Fiesta Rancho, 2 Deck, poor (0.9)
Wildfire, 2 Deck, decent (0.8)
San Remo, 2 Deck, awful (1.0)
Main Street Station, 2 Deck, very good (0.7)
Lady Luck, 2 Deck and 1 Deck, good to great, (0.7 to 0.5, and 0.5 to 0.4)
Binion's Horseshoe, 1 Deck (0.5) decent table hop/back count
Las Vegas Club, 1 Deck (0.5 to 0.4) some good play
Golden Gate, 1 Deck and 2 Deck (0.5 and 0.8) decent at times
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I use the Hi-Lo count and was gradually spreading from 1 hand of 1 unit - to 2 hands of 6 units each - in the 2 deck games. Off the top, I occasionally came out with up to 2 hands of 2 unit bets. In the 1 deckers, in general I came off the top in the 1 deck games with 2 or 3 units, going to 1 hand of 5, or 2 hands of 3 or 4 units, and down to 1 unit when I thought I could get away with it. I also table hopped and did some wonging.
Overall, unfortunately, I dropped 65 units. The worst run of cards that I encountered was at Main Street Station's 2 deck game, dealt to about the 0.7 deck level. While my brother and I were dealt a good game with just the two of us at the table, I had a nightmare run with all of my bigger bets, and lost 65 units at that game alone in about an hour. (Ignoring that hour, I broke even for the trip.)
As indicated by CBJN, I headed to Suncoast and their' 2 Deck game. This equalled the best game I have ever encountered in 10 years of counting cards, dealt consistently, to me anyway, to the 0.6 level, sometimes to 0.4 or 0.5 by some dealers. I won while playing mostly alone on Thursday for about 2.5 hours during the day, and returned there Friday night on a different shift with my brother.
My act (which I thought was pretty good) includes talking with the dealer and pit and asking for some advice on close plays, as well as some small tipping. (I did not encounter any heat or problems in 31 hours, except at the Suncoast.)
The Suncoast pit critter on Friday night was talkative as hell, and everything was going great. My brother and I were doing well, just the two of us, when 2 other players joined at first base, an older man and woman....the woman was flat betting $100 bucks a hand. I was up about $250 for a while, my brother about half that, when we started to give some back.
The pit critter disappears for a while, and then I noticed this older pit boss staring at our table intently. Even then, I figured he was watching the old lady and her $100 bets. Boy was I wrong....
About 5 hands later, I push out 2 bets, just 20 bucks each, while my brother puts out a single $15 bet. The lady and her friend are in for maybe $100 and $25. Before the cards are dealt, the formerly talkative younger pit boss interupts the dealing, pushes my 2 $20 bets back my way, and tells me that I am not going to be playing any more blackjack....."Why don't you enjoy some craps or slots, you are thru playing BJ." At this betting level, quite frankly, especially at this nice place, I was shocked. I responded with a bewildered "Why", and he said "they just did not want my play." My brother, ignorant to Nevada Law, declared, "You can't do that", to which the pit critter replied, "Oh yes we can, we have the right to refuse play to anyone for any reason....your friend is welcome to our other games, but not blackjack."
After a while of acting stunned, some of it not acting, I stood up with a $90 win, while my brother asked me if he should continue playing. I said yes, of course, as the dealer had not shuffled. My brother kept playing until the shuffle, and then he quit as well, also ahead. I then asked the pit critter if he would show my how to play craps. He said that he would when the shift ended.
The morale to the story, at least for me, was that fooling the pit and fooling the eye in the sky are 2 different things. I probably got too careless with the best game in town, especially by my dropping my bets to low levels too quickly on negative counts when I thought I had the pit fooled. This game was so good it begged to be watched from the sky. I don't know how many people are watching it, but I ruined it for me on this 3 day trip.
I have been shuffled on before, especially a while back when I was very quiet at the tables, and I always got the hint and moved on shortly thereafter, but not immediately....I wanted to keep the pit guessing. This time, my game came to an abrupt and very surprising end without any real hint of heat.
In a way, my first barring was sort of funny, especially in front of my brother. For this once, I'll consider it flattering, but I won't next time....especially if I have ruined the best game in town for myself. My father, a craps and Basic Strategy BJ player, would never have believed the story unless my brother was there to back me up. In general, my father thinks that counting cards is a waste of time since it does not "guarantee" a win, and that casinos laugh at us counters. Maybe so, but the Suncoast sure as heck was not laughing when they barred me a week ago.
My biggest surprise was why they didn't just shuffle up on me....It would have sent me packing pretty soon thereafter. I thought of 3 reasons why they didn't.....
1) The game is so good that they wanted me to clearly get the point that I wasn't welcome at any bet level, and shuffling might not have done the trick. Also....tell your counter friends to stay away as well.
2) The pit boss may have been as fooled as I thought, and then darn well pissed and embarrased when the eye in the sky called down to him with the news.
3) The pit was never fooled at all, and they wanted to show me that they were as slick as I thought I was.
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Regardless, it was a fun trip. My brother and I don't see each other often, and we spent zero on food and drink for the 3 days, each of the above casinos comped us when asked. He has no local gambling nearby like I do in the midwest, and we both had a good time.
Ohio Bob
