Whats the big deal w/ Green Chip?

Just curious as to what is so special about Green Chip? Isn't there alot more/better information on the free page? Maybe my $$ would be better spent on CBJN, and just frequent the free page.

Clark

One of my objectives was to meet other counters and GC provided a format for that. If you're really hooked on BJ it will take your game to another level. I resisted for a long time just because I'm cheap but it's worth it to me.

Definitely helped me take my game to the next level

If this kind of money makes you say "Can I or can't I." Then maybe you shouldn't be gambling.

Ten best reasons to join Green Chip (with apologies to David Letterman):

10. A near total absence of trolls, wackos, and psychopaths whose sole intent is to disrupt the site.

9. The archives - these alone are worth a year's membership. There is information here than cannot be found anywhere else.

8. Post of the Month - The best post of each month (chosen by Stanford with input from members) receives $100, plus the post is placed in the archives. That's two year's membership, plus your own tiny claim to fame.

7. A sense of comraderie not found on the free pages.

6. Green Chip members are usually polite toward each other, even in disagreement. (This is not applicable to the non-gambling page.)

5. Green Chip parties - A chance to meet other green chippers in person and socialize. While membership in Green Chip does not guarantee that you will be permitted to attend the parties, it is the first step.

4. More specialized discussion - note that there are pages devoted exclusively to theory, card counting, and cover and comps, among other areas.

3. You cannot lose - Green chip has a 10 free trial period for new members.

2. We aren't talking a fortune here - less than $4.09 per month. If that represents a significant cash outlay for you, you probably shouldn't be anywhere near a casino. For that matter, how did you manage to afford a computer?

1. The biggest reason to join Green Chip: Parker's entertaining and enlightening trip reports are posted only on Green Chip pages. (Okay, so I'm a little biased on this one. The other 9 are still excellent reasons.)

Including Parker's Trip Reports.

Every month or so, somebody asks if the GC membership is worth the cost. The question is actually a joke, because (Stanford, please do not read the rest of this sentence.) the price is a joke.

Everytime somebody poses this question, we all chime in. If I were asked if I wanted to renew my membership, I would say yes faster than if the dealer asked about insurance with a KO +20.

-T-

My question is one of anonymity. How are the identities of individuals protected?

As a "member" of a group dedicated to beating the casinos out of money, I would be concerned with to potential of being associated with such a group. I imagine their are already rats among the members if the casinos have any quality people in their counterintelligence programs.

Obviously, even now an individual with strong computer skills can narrow down the computer that I post from, and with some investigation, probably determine my identity. Although after 20 years of playing in Vegas & Reno my picture has been taken a few times and I have felt flames before, but I guess I'm just paranoid.

Although Parker's enjoyable posts are unique, the above is a fine example of what you'll find in GC: Posts made by serious players containing good information, not cluttered up with all the BS found on the free pages. I've only been playing a few months, and my game is way ahead of where I'd be with out it.

You can get an honest answer by reading Green Chip Membership on the home page.

The only people who can see the IP address of the computer that you are posting from are the site administrators. I think we can trust Stanford and David.

And even with the IP address, it is a big jump from that to positively identifying an individual. For example, if you had my IP address and knew how to interpret it, you would know that I am posting from a RoadRunner account in San Diego.

Now that narrows it right down. :-)

All dial-up connections and most residential high-speed connections such as RoadRunner use dynamic IP addresses. This means that the IP address your computer has now may change the next time you get online. So it is unlikely that even the most talented hacker would be able to positively identify you from that.

Anyway, any of the concerns you have mentioned re Green Chip would also apply to the free pages, and you're posting here, aren't you?

There are indeed casino people in Green Chip. Most of them post openly as such, and we have learned much from them.

The only way one is likely to get in trouble on Green Chip is by getting too specific regarding dates, times and descriptions of events that happened in a casino.

Just like on the free pages.

I would suggest using a firewall. We should trust Stan and Dave but I have heard that BJ21 has over a dozen postbusters(correct me if wrong) that all have access to our IP addresses.

Do you have a firewall Parker? If so how often do you get incoming hits and for what reason do you think they are being sent to you?
If you do not have a firewall, you should consider using one.
My question is not directed to Parker, anyone is welcome for a comment.

Mott

Mott expressed concern that the post-busters can read IP addresses. If true, I understand the concern. Perhaps you put up a post that Casino X in City Y now has Special Promotion Z. You want it to be anonymous. The post-busters might be able to determine who posted it, which could undermine your security.

However, on Green Chip there are no post-busters. I believe that only David and SW can see IP addresses from Green Chip. So that is another reason to post on Green Chip and not here.

Now to change the subject a little bit, I do not know if anyone ahs address part of Griswold's question: the relative value of CBJN vs Green Chip. If one is to spend a little money, which give more bang for the buck?

TO some extent, it may depend on where you play. If you play Vegas, then CBJN is an indispensable tool. If you play other locations, it becomes more important to develop networks with other players in that location. And Green Chip is a good way to do that.

If you join Green Chip you might as well send a post card to every pit boss in the country with your picture and a message "Hi I'm a card counter... please bar me".

The postbusters cannot bust posts on Green or Black Chip and do not have access to the IP addresses of posts on those pages of bj21. I have been on Green Chip almost since the beginning of this site and I have met many Green Chippers over the years. I have yet to hear any complaints or stories about a poster's identity being discovered from an IP address.

I wouldn't say GC and BC is that bad in regards to casino employees lurking and posting there,, but I will say the MB pages would seem of more interest to casino employees rather than the free pages which they may write of as being full of trash so they may head for the "good stuff" on membership pages. Call me paranoid or what have you..but it is quite obvious that some casino employees post crap and troll the page from time to time...as a matter of fact, I would say over 50% of the crap and insults Don S. and John M. get( who are both authors of good books) are from casino jerks who would like everyone to think "hang the book up, cause you cant win!!"
Casino bullshit is what I call it.

If you have half a brain and don't post that "I will be the slobbering three hundred pound man in the red shirt at table 123 from 3 to 5 p.m. on Thurday" you have nothing to fear from posting on GC. Green Chippers have logged thousands of casino visits and merely posting under a handle has not to my knowledge led to heat, much less barring.

This poster has no clue what he is talking about and furthermore does not care. His only interest is in disrupting the board, and he judges "success" by the number of hits his posts gets and the size of the thread that results from it.

In other words, the poor jerk has no life.

Normally I just ignore these obvious trolls, but I would like to point out that this exactly the type of garbage that one will not find on Green Chip.

My home LAN accesses my cable modem connection via a Linux router that doubles as an excellent firewall. I haven't checked the logs in a while, but I get a fair number of hits, which I assume are mostly hackers and script kiddies looking for a box to play with. I haven't noticed any real increase since I became more active on these boards.

Anyone who has an "always on" internet connection (usually DSL or cable modem) should use a firewall of some sort. With a dial-up connection it is not as important, although it certainly can't hurt anything.