Hollywood: DOES CAMO APPLY TO BIG DOLLAR

[Hollywood]

player. I read many things about keeping low profiles in casinos. However, it seems impossible to do so if you are a person who is playing for big numbers. I walked over to a table recently in the pit in AC. There was a woman playing who had about $1000.00 in chips in front of her and she was playing $300.00 per hand. She was not doing well and the chips were going fast. When she got down to her last 3 blacks, she was in a double down situation. She went into her purse and put up three 100.00 dollar bills in order to get change and double down. The pit boss instantly told her that she would now have asked for over $10,000 and if he were to give her change of the $300.00 he needed her name address and social security number, along with picture identification. She declined, hit the cards lost and left. When she was gone I asked the pit boss what that was about because I never saw it happen before. He told me she was making change several times and went over the currency limit as explained above. Now I understand how the currency laws work in this country regarding transactions over 10 thousand in U.S. currency. But my question is this, I only play with credit lines, A. Because I refuse to walk around with shoping bags full of money. B. It's easier with my host, and I get comped to the max. But because I play with the lines, they know exactly who I am. It seems to me it is imposible to keep a low profile when a person is playing for big numbers. If a person has a high risk of ruin, there is no way around this. No matter what casino I go into, I have the same problem. So I count, and I mostly win. No one ever bothers me. I had a very bad experience in Aruba last april, but never in AC or anywhere else. I have had new dealers come in and go heavy on the penetration, so in that case I just play the table minimum (which is always $100.00)and disapear for a while. When I come back I don't get the impression they were watching me again, because they seem to go back to doing things as usual. My bet increase at good counts goes from one hand of $100 to 2 hands of $300.00. I never get harrassed or bothered. I was just wondering if we make to big of a deal about being busted for counting? Have I just been lucky? To tell you the truth, i'm not certain. I only know they don't bother me. But I would love to know, how can anyone who is putting up big numbers be in cognito? And why would they want to? I always feel that in AC at least if they make a move the worst that can happen is I play basic strategy until I leave. I would just like a little feed back on this. I'm always curious about how others in the room feel about things. Some of you must have the same problem.

Regards,

Hollywood

[Don Schlesinger]

1. Please don't make your titles all capitals, which looks like you're shouting. Type your titles the same way as the body of your text.

2. Please break a long post into many smaller paragraphs. It will be easier to follow, and you're more likely to get a response if you don't cram everything into one huge, rambling paragraph.

Thanks.

Don

[Hollywood]

Sorry Don, got D's in high school in english. But, that stuff I can do and will.

Regards

Hollywood

[98%]

I just have one question for you. Can you really get an edge spreading $100 to two hands of $300 in the AC 8-deckers? That seems like an extremely tough grind. Do you wong around a lot?

As for your question, the answer is that big play gets scrutiny, regardless of how you go about it. One tactic would be to make sure there is even bigger play going on somewhere in the same vicinity in which you are playing so that you don't get as much notice. As for the $10,000 buy-in limit, that can be skirted with a series of advance chip purchases. If you play very large, you could keep a pool of tens of thousands in chips from which to draw on your casino visits. A few racks of black chips in a safe location at home could serve your purposes. Hoarding larger chips may raise some suspicion as anything larger than $100s are tracked more closely in major casinos.

Of course, it sounds like you have a good relationship established with your host and with the pit personnel at your casino(s) of choice. That is probably the best approach of all, if you can pull it off.

[Hollywood]

That portion of what you said about hoarding chips is actually an excellent idea. That was actually the kind of thinking I was looking for.
Regarding what else you mentioned, I only play in the pit, which is only 6 decks. I never play 8 decks. And there is always very heavy action around me with the table minimum at $100.00.
I jump from the one hand of $100.00 to 2 hands of $300.00 to as much as $500.00. Are you saying that is not a good idea? If so I would like some feedback on that. Thank you so much for your suggestion, it's the little stuff that help.

Regards,

Hollywood

[98%]

My intuition tells me that a 1 hand of $100 to 2 hands of $300 spread even against a 6 decker is a tough grind, though now that you've mentioned that you go up to 2 hands of $500, that sounds a little better, but it could still be pretty tough. Of course, I don't know what rules of penetration you're getting. On the rare occasion that I find myself playing against a shoe, I generally use the method outlined in BJA which has you go in incremental steps from 1 hand of 1 unit to 2 hands of 6 units(consult chapter 8 in BJA). Sometimes I tweak it slightly according to the game. I have gone to some of the major Strip casinos, parked my ass for about 8 to 10 hours and played that way the entire time with no heat at all. Of course, I do not spread quite as high as you do (I'm mostly just a green chipper) and there is plenty of extremely large action on the Strip to keep me invisible.

My suggestion for you would be to employ a method similar to that mentioned in chapter 8 of BJA and spice it up with a little camo (regression betting, playing to unequal hands, insuring 1 hand but not the second at borderline counts, etc.). Good camo and general high-roller survival ideas can be found in 'Blackjack Attack', 'Blackbelt in Blackjack', 'Blackjack Secrets', and 'Burning the Tables in Las Vegas' (don't worry, I'm sure it applies to AC too).

[Don Schlesinger]

extremely large action on the Strip to keep me invisible."

This is a very bad idea. Never think that you are invisible. Why play so long at one place? You're asking for trouble. Trust me.

Don

[98%]

I mentioned it was a rare occasion that I find myself slugging away at shoes so, when I do go, I tend to stay for a long time. It may seem like a bad idea on the surface, but when you know enough about the internal workings of a particular casino and the capabilities of individual personnel, you can get away with a lot more there. I'm not really going to go into specifics here, but perhaps you can imagine the sorts of things to which I am referring. My track record (granted it's only 2 years of active, full-time play) of 0 incidents and 0 heat ever should speak for itself . Also, if I do happen to win big early on, I'll just leave...but this is a problem I almost never seem to have.

If my betting levels were as high as Hollywood's, I would definitely not attempt such long sessions. Whatever it is he is doing seems to be working - he's spreading black around and apparently has a good relationship with his host and bosses. My only suggestion to him is to keep doing what he is doing and see if he can bolster his game with the ideas in BJA and the other books I mentioned (and, of course, to hoard racks of black chips!).