Victoria Day - Victory Week
by Rob McGarvey
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I had waited and waited and waited. The city I live in, Toronto, was supposed to end up with permanent casinos to replace roving charity casinos early in the spring of 1998. I spent most of the winter perfecting my counting skills in anticipation. My plan is to spend a few hours at these casinos after my day job a few times a week and earn a healthy second income. Well, I was still waiting until I decided to take a weeks holiday from my day job which was stressing me out any ways.
The main reason for my waiting is the fact that the nearest casinos are both a 90 minute drive away. That is a 3 hour round trip. I like to play for 4 hour sessions, and this means I end up driving for almost as long as I play. I don't need the money, so I didn't mind waiting. But knowing you have the potential to be making about $150 an hour playing cards doesn't let you go forever without doing something about it.
I spent the Victoria Day weekend practicing my counting. I had switched from the Braun Hi Low Count to the Hi Opt II Count over the winter. I picked this count based on the facts around the value of the cards in relation to each other and to the simplicity of this count compaired to the other professional level counts. My plan was to go to the casino north of the city for tuesday and wednesday and the casino to the south for thursday and friday. Each day I would play two 4 hour sessions, one in the early morning, and the other in the mid-afternoon. This way I could put in an 8 hour day, but stay sharp by breaking the day in two.
I drilled my betting strategy into my mind along with Basic Strategy, counting 2 decks down in one minute, and the 10 Advanced Strategy Plays I use when the count calls for them. The weekend was nice and relaxing around the house and knowing I was not going to go to work the following week was a refreshing thought. I got up at 3AM on tuesday morning and drove north for 90 minutes until I got to the casino.
I have a players card that you use to collect points from the casino for your playing, but I decided not to use it until the last session on wednesday. On the last trip I took to this casino the dealer had moved the cut card up to 2 decks from the bottom. He did this after the boss came to him with my card and I had just doubled with a 9 Ace hand and got another Ace. I was not about to tip them off that I was back for more of their money.
I sat down and got a coffee and began to play mid shoe with $5 bets, the table minimum at that time of day. There were two other guys at the table and the dealer was a friendly guy who dealt nice and steady but not slowly. I finished that shoe without counting and just did some small talking while I bet $5 or $10 a hand, doubling after a win to get the dealer used to me changing my bets.
Once we started a new shoe, I began to count and kept my bets low. I bet $5 to $15 when the count was good, sometimes playing two hands when it was good to have $30 on the table in two small hands. I did this for a few shoes and was up about $200. When the dealer started to pay me off with $25 chips I began to bet them when the time was right. I moved up to 2 greens when the count was +3. At one point the count was +11 and I got two $50 hands out on the felt casually. After that shoe I acted like I was upset that my gambling was getting out of hand and got up to go for a walk. I took two hours worth of chips with me and put them in my pocket. I came back in about 15 minutes later and sat at another table after I watched the first few hands play out. I started with $25 bets and played up to $75 a hand when it was positive. When it wasn't positive I played $5 - $10 - $25 progressions until the count was positive. After just over two hours of this I decided to find a motel room nearby to set up camp for the afternoon session. I was up $430, about one weeks pay.
I found a place about 10 minutes away and put my things in the dresser and my stuff in the washroom and decided to have a nice nap. It was 10AM or so and I set my watch to wake me at 2PM. I would play until 7 or so and then use my free meal voucher to have a big buffet diner then come back to sleep until the next morning, play until 8AM again, come back for a quick nap, check out, and play my final session, then go back to the city. That is just what I did.
The afternoon session was good. The casino was a lot busier than the morning, but still not bad since it was tuesday after a long weekend. This casino only opens up enough tables to fill them, so I had to sit with a full table most of the time. The table minimum was up to $10, so I increased everything I did by two. I ended that session up another $645. I decided to go get my hair cut then come back for diner. I would shave before I went to bed and look like a whole new person the following day. I wanted this good thing to last even though there were no signs of any problems with what I was up to.
The next morning I sat at the same table as the first morning with the freindly dealer and had a good morning. He didn't say anything about the new look, and I don't think the morning boss even noticed. I fiddled around with $5 chips when the count was low and mixed greens in with them when the count was good. At times I had three hands of different amounts out all between $75 and $100 when there were lots of Aces left with a count of over +5. I got two Blackjacks at the same time and this got noticed. I acted shocked and happy and gave the dealer a $5 tip and that seemed to take the heat out of things a bit, but the boss spent a bit more time coming by to see what was up from time to time. I cut this session short but left up another $250. I wanted that nap since I didn't sleep all that well the night before.
I got up at 11AM since check out was before noon and went back to the casino. I found another $5 table and worked that for another three hours and didn't do very well. The dealer had a good shuffle and the count didn't go up very mcuh and I was getting a lot of poor hands as can be expected at times. I decided to move to a $25 minimum table and hand in my players card to see what happened.
I came into the shoe near the end and when the shoe was finished I handed my card in. I watched the card go into the pit to see what happened. A little slip was written up and my card given back to me with a polite thank you. The boss left the table and talked to one of the other dealers then came back to my table. He stood there and watched me flat bet $25 until the new dealer was brought in. When the shoe was finished and shuffled, I was handed the cut card. I cut the deck and watched the dealer put it about two and one half decks from the bottom of the deck. This was what I wanted to see and knew from that point on my players card was going to be used as a book mark. I bet two green chips when the count was +3 or more and left after that first shoe up $75. I bought a bunch of decks of cards and a new lighter at the gift shop and then went for soup sandwich and a coffee nearby before my trip back to Toronto. I made just less than $1200.
Home sweet home. I relaxed and did a few things that had to be done and then sat down with a pad of paper to write out what I had just done and plan for what I was about to do at the casino to the south of the city.
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