Hello all,
In my quest to become a professional advantage player I have realized how important it is to share information with the community. I've put reading forums and participating within the community as part of my agenda. I train at home (6-8 hours drilling--deck estimation, basic strategy, deviations, true count conversion, fractional division with precision, speed and accuracy mandatory) more than I play at the Casino's and this spring break was my first time working 4 days straight. The following is my experience within the week prior to the Louisiana casinos closing due to COVID-19.
The COVID-19 offered up plenty of cover. I was able to wong in and out with no suspicion at L'auberge because they allowed stand up betting. If you haven't been to the casino's during this crisis, they all were mandated to pull out 3 of the 6 chairs per table for the 6 feet distancing rule. Isle of Capri did not allow more than the three seated to place a bet, which worked out well during the weekend as its hard to play with fewer players per table. It wasn't all that abnormal to just sit at a table and count until true 1 then get out and remain at the seat when the shoe became negative, then wong back in when it became positive again. Their were lots of people trying to obtain a seat and it seemed like only the regular ploppy's were out--and counters. This helped speed the deals up as it mitigated the new player who needs lots of guidance and asks tons of questions.
Isle of Capri's deck penetration was increased by most dealers uniformly per dealer's comment to me that the pit bosses were on them to penetrate 1.5 to 1.6 decks versus "at dealers decretion"( mostly 1 to 1 1/4 penetration). There were dealers though that were very stressed at the panic and those that didn't give a darn and gave less than 1 deck penetration. I have names and descriptions of those dealers but wont post them on this forum as I don't know the protocol. There is a dealer that had been dealing black jack for a few months that simply is bad at math. The dealer made tons of errors and was incapable of adding up the hands correctly. This resulted in extra brain work to ensure she wasn't taking my money as well as being paid out by the casino on losing/push hands.
If you whole card (I don't), this dealer was probably the person to do it as she was very nervous and sloppy. The corona panick really made her nervous.
L'Auberge on the otherhand was to greedy to allow only three players. In the morning, they were adamant on only three players per table who could place a bet. By the afternoon, they just simply let people stand and place bets on all 6 spots. At this point and through the night, it was very easy to wong in and wong out because lots of people were standing due to limited chairs.
Additionally, L'Auberge had about 4 dealers that were training and in the afternoon, I had to leave the place because of how slow and bad the dealing was. There was extra pit boss scrutiny on those training dealers which did alleviate heat on me
Golden Nugget seemed to have the best dealers with the speed and ability to add cards together/pay out bets more quickly and accurately and with the 3 person per table policy, the notch 1.5 deck penetration was tolerable and lucrative.
Currently I am drilling and working on advancing my knowledge through books and forums during this down time. Once the casinos open up, Im going to make the trip to maximize my edge and observe any things that can be exploited.
Good luck to all, stay safe!
