It's been quite some time since I felt the heat of the high desert, but it was wonderful to return to Las Vegas. I spend so much time with Blackjack spinning around in my head it was inevitable that I should "return home" like some sort of migratory Blackjack bird. All it took was a comp in the mail and a few phone calls and I was good to go on Sunday the 10th of June.
I got to LV and took the shuttle to my hotel. Take the CLS shuttle just inside the exit door as you go to go outside. $7.50US for a return ticket to the strip. I got settled, played a little double deck to get the feel of playing a hand held game again. I have to put in a certain amount of time to keep my comps at this hotel and wanted to get a start on that. Then it was time to make "the call." It was time to meet the man called Zengrifter. Maybe tomorrow.
I was up a measly $125 and wanted to go around and update my addresses at the nearby casinos and have a go at them. I hit three casinos and came back down $100. I just wasn't getting the cards, knew it, and wasn't going to bet myself into a huge lose to get out of. Went to the buffet for diner and enjoyed some good food. Roast beef, pasta primavera, and shrimp. I don't like to stuff up with a ton of different items, just make a nice meal out of what they offered.
Conditions were pretty typical for two deck. 60% dealt, almost 75% the night before. There were a number of CSM's there now where there were none before. You have to watch this, because it spits out two decks and makes you think it shuffles two decks, then another two decks, then switches back to the first set of two decks. It shuffles eight decks and spits out two of them which are then placed back in after they are PARTIALLY dealt out while the machine spits out another two decks for the dealer.
I was enjoying being alone too much to call anyone. There were four people waiting to hear from me, but didn't want to explain to them that, even though I flew for four hours to get there, I was enjoying my holiday more than I was enjoying playing Blackjack. To all four of you my apologies, especially Zen.
Had to split before 12 noon so enjoyed the breakfast buffet. Good coffee, bacon, fresh melon, a nice light snack. I picked up some gifts for the family and packed my bags. I grabbed a cab to downtown. That cost $12, more than my shuttle to and from the airport! I got settled in and scoped the place out. A saw a lot of one deck games being dealt to well over 50%, closer to 60% or 70%! I kept on out the front door and walked the Fremont Street experience. A lot of shops and casinos close together. Where I could cover about four casinos downtown it would have covered one on the strip. Lots of $5 single deck, and a few six deck games.
I went to get a players card then found out you need a separate card to play the tables. I handed the player's card to the pit boss and my driver's license and got rated. I was playing $5 single deck and upping my bet only after win when the count was positive. This just wasn't cutting it and began to bet the count in red. At the end of the day I was pretty frustrated with how things were going. I was warned about uneven picks when the dealer shuffled and was wondering how this was effecting the game. I began cutting the deck in different places and this helped. These dealers seemed to be able to put the cards where they wanted them in the deck. It seemed like they came out fast or were too deep to come out. I went from pulling about 15 of the top to pulling 40 to see what happened. The dealer didn't seem to like this too much, and the other players kept saying "let him cut, he's a good cutter." There are many ways to protect a one deck game it seems.
I asked for a comp to diner and was good for the diner on the second floor. Four pieces of southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes with vegies and two more coffees, and I was ready to watch the light show from the side walk. Impressive, but that is about it.
I was happy to see mostly women dealers this morning. The first one looked like a new dealer, small hands, perfect picks of 26 a side and I enjoyed making some money. I stuck around after my morning coffee for a rye n coke. Three drinks later I'm having fun, lot's of fun. I playing $5 then $10 then two hands of $10 when it was around zero and above. When the count was higher I would press it up to $50 a side. This is a 20:1 spread, but with people all around betting batches of greens no one seemed to care. After I got side by side Blackjacks with $50 out taking a $150 win off the table I think I woke up. I slowed it down and eventually got up and left. It was time for a siesta.
I woke up and counted my chips. A had just over $600. This was good news considering the up and downs experienced earlier in the week. I took it easy and got a comp for the buffet that night. This time it was roast beef again, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, and giant beef ribs. The roof top pool was closed at 8PM which is too bad. It would be a nice place to relax in the evenings.
It was hard not to go back at it again this morning. Would I go up or would I go down? This is not supposed to matter to a card counter. If I lived in town I would be able to come back any time to have a crack at them anytime. Should I give it all I've got before I go home? No. I was happy with my win. I had to be out of the room at 12 noon, then wait to be picked up at 315 PM by CLS. Just before I was ready to go, the phone rang. It was JP from LV! He tracked me down and it was great to talk to him. This meant a lot to me. I'm sure I missed a lot of good companionship while I was there.
CLS picked me up downtown and didn't care that the ticket was for the strip which is a closer ride to the airport. When I got to the airport I saw a friend of mine getting off. It looked like he didn't want me to see him but I rushed him and wished him luck. He said "I'm going to need it." I found out he was telling everyone back home he was taking his wife to the Bahamas! I got home at 1AM on Friday (three hour difference) and took an airport limo home. My girl had come to get me when the last conversation we had had she told me it was too late. I called her on the cell and told her I was home already. I counted my money and wondered why I had close to $800 more than when I left. I guess my accounting was a bit off, more good news. I gave her a slot machine I had bought her and told her I didn't take her to LV, but I brought LV to her. She played with it trying to get three 7's to show up. I pulled it once and got them to show up. I think I was playing the wrong game while I was down there!
It was nice to win. Las Vegas appears to be all glitter, but it is only that on the surface. This city exists for one purpose. It's like a commercial on your TV set, there to entice you to part with your money. The show is only there to get you to watch these commercials, just like the Fremont Street Experience is there to get you downtown away from the bigger commercials on the strip. Casino, hotel, shop, casino, hotel, shop, casino, hotel, shop, and on and on and on. Was it worth the time to fly there four hours each way? Worth the flight price of $466 Canadian? Worth missing my family for four days? For the third time out there, the answer is NO.
I downloaded my E-mail and had a lot of reading to do. When I was done I had logged into four different online casinos to hit them for $375US in Father's Day bonuses. Just like I brought a bit of Las Vegas home for my girl to play with, Las Vegas can come to you without all the hassles, and you can shut it off when you have had enough of her for one day.
Many of you will be viewing this newsletter because you got a short e-mail telling you it has been posted for the month of July.
This is all made possible by Yahoo Groups. If you did not get an e-mail telling you the newsletter is up and you came here some other way, please click
the Yahoo picture to join this e-mail group. You will not be getting a bunch of e-mail every month from myself, my partners, or any of the other members.
You will get a notice about the newsletter going up, and from time to time, great money making offers. Last month I sent out a Father's Day message
that was worth $350 US. Go check out the message by clicking HERE. Then I sent out an amazing offer for a site paying 2-1 for
Blackjacks on June 21st! Binions used to offer this at Christmas time for their $5 tables, and gives the Basic Strategy player an off the top 1.5%
advantage. Add this to a 30% deposit bonus and this offer is worth approximately $360 US for three hours work. Go check out the message by
clicking HERE. On the 21st I sent out another
notice for a 100% $50 bonus and realised that I should separate the newsletter list from the online bonus list so that people that only want to read the
newsletter don't have to recieve this extra e-mail. I will continue to work hard here at my end to give my readers the opportunity to make some serious money each month.
Online Flash Cards
One of the great tools that a player can use to ingrain information to memory is the flash card. I have a library of these cards set up at my site. You can view them by clicking HERE. I have recently added a unique online flash card set up to help Hi Opt II players with their memory work. Check it out HERE. These cards are the indices for multi deck Blackjack but can be used for single and double deck as well. I will be adding more of these flash cards as time permits. The Hi Low count and Basic Strategy will be next. They will eventually be catalogued on the existing Flash Library page.
Many of you online hustlers have seen some not-so-good changes in these past months. Cryptologic has started requiring players to put in far too much action to get your bonus money. If you are required to put in $1000 worth of action for a $50 bonus, you will be wasting your time. You will be much better off going after deals like the ones I sent out last month. Requiring more action doesn't really take much out of what we expect to make from the bonus, it just takes up our valuable time. With a negative expectation of .22% or -.0022 we can expect to lose $2.20 for $1000 worth of action. If the site requires you to put in $3000 in action for a $250 bonus added to your $500 deposit, you can expect to come away with $243. That is one of the Father's Day bonuses I sent out. Single action bonuses are a thing of the past, but there are still some very decent double triple and quadruples out there that offer big money for the big action required.
Every month I get letters from excited players looking for more information on our favorite game. Although I don't have too much time to write back, I try to respond to each letter. Take a look at this one.
I've recently become really interested in playing blackjack full-time. But I've been playing blackjack using basic strategy for a couple of years. Your articles on www.onlinecasino.com are great! Thank you!!
Hey, that's great news.
I live in New Jersey and I am interested in playing online (for now). I know Basic Strategy very well, can do basic card counting and I have single deck strategy in front of me whenever I play online (my online casino uses singe deck). I opened an online account with $100 and got a bonus of $40. Unfortunately, before having read your article titled, "Make the Most of Casino Bonuses" I lost my bonus. That's when I stopped playing and made sure I read all of your articles on Online Casino and everyone else's articles too. After that, I started to play again went as low as $58 before ending at $116 and now I'm writing you. At first, I wasn't aggressively following your advice in that article mentioned above. Then reality hit me and I started to play your advice to the letter and that's when I made my money back (not including the bonus).
Good for you. It is fun playing BJ online, and this can get you betting too much. It's simply about making money, AND having a bit of fun at the same time.
My normal one unit bet is $1 based on my $100 account. I use Capped Martingale but a positive progression (increasing with each win): $1 - $2 - $4 and Oscar's grind when I fall below a pre-determined level in my money. When I find that I end up playing a few hands that brings me to the high of my money's range (i.e. from $90 to $105) then I double my normal unit bet until I lose or my money goes back to lower original levels (i.e. $90). This seems to work until...
You get your hands in quicker like that, and can protect yourself when you dip into your bonus...which still protects your real $$$.
And this is where my question comes. Let's say my money when I start is at $100 with a max. loss of $50 and my goal is to make $150 (end when my account is at $250). I start playing my normal bet using Capped Martingale and I will switch to Oscar's Grind if my money goes below $90. What happens if after several hands I find that even after using Oscar's Grind my money just seems to keep slipping down below $90 (remembering that I begin using Capped Martingale again once I'm at or above $90). And eventually, after continuing to use Oscar's Grind my money then goes to $80 how or what should I do to change my betting strategy to help me get back on track? What can I be doing differently if it just feels like hand after hand the Dealer is winning and taking back everything I make?
Hmm. I will sometimes log off and hope that I am avoiding a bad string. It will happen. Went through 12 losing hands last night. I would just flat bet until I move from 80 to 84 then bet 4 and hope to win and get to 88, then bet 2 hoping for a 90 etc. You've set your limits to losing down to $50, so you are still protected by that, as long as you stick to it! Remember, playing on past the total amount required to secure the bonus money is pure gambling.
Without action, nothing can happen!
The Pataki administration and the Seneca Indian Nation have struck a deal to build two Las Vegas-style casinos in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, and possibly a third elsewhere in western New York, the governor said in a surprise announcement late this afternoon. The deal would give the Seneca Nation control of the Niagara Falls Convention Center, a 153,000 square foot building that is in dire need of an uplift, for $1 a year. If the deal goes forward, the casino could open as soon as next spring. A site has not yet been selected for the Buffalo casino, but there have been discussions about renovating a portion of a downtown office building. The deal announced today would also allow the Indians to open a third casino in the future on existing reservation land, which stretches across three counties in western New York. The proposed casinos could provide a boost to an economically depressed area, and create competition for the first time for the two privately operated casinos on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. Gov. George E. Pataki seized on that fact to rally support for his proposal. "They have had a casino that has generated the jobs and the revenue and has attracted private investment," he said at a news conference in Niagara Falls, with his back to the skyline of Niagara Falls, Ontario. "There is no reason why on our side of the falls, we can't surpass that and have more investment than they had on the other side."
This can mean a few things to Blackjack players. It could drop the table minimums on the Canadian side to compete with $5 and $10 table minimums on the US side. The number of decks could also change to compete on either side of the border. We will be watching this carefully and hoping for the best!
If you are seriously ready to learn to make money both online and off playing Blackjack, get in touch with Rob at
blakjack@idirect.com. E-mails that simply state "I want to know more"
will get a standard reply. Please tell me how much you know about playing Blackjack, where you live, and if you are
interested in making money online or off.
