Kasey: Just got back from Las Vegas

[Kasey]

My wife and I flew back from Las Vegas yesterday, and as usual had a great time.

We are low stakes players and I used Trackjack extensively to pick places for us to play. We went to Arizona Charlie's West, El Cortez, Casino Royale, Las Vegas Club and Gold Coast. Only at Gold Coast could we not find the 2 deck game described on Trackjack, so it worked really well!

It didn't hurt a bit that we were very lucky. In five hours of play, we won a combined 40 units. It was a welcome change, since last November we were on the wrong side of a swing.

I saw a couple of odd things I had never seen before, that I wondered just how odd they were.

First, at El Cortez, I bought in for $100 and won $55 in 30 minutes. We then decided it was time to do some shopping, so we colored up. The dealer yelled out "coloring $155" which didn't surprise me. However, when I got to the cashier, she got on the phone to tell someone(?) she was paying out $155. Immediately after she hung up, another phone rang and she picked it up and, after listening a second, said, "Yeah, $155." What was that all about? Surely someone cashing $155, including $100 of his own money can't be that unusual?

Then at Casino Royale, the dealer busted 21! She had a 6 up and a 2 in the hole. She then drew another 2 and an Ace to make 21. However, she didn't stop, apparently confused by the Ace, and drew a 3 and a 9 to bust! Has anyone else seen a dealer break 21? The world needs more dealers that work this hard!

A great time was had by all and Trackjack was very helpful. I'll have to make sure and get my subscription before tomorrow.

Kasey

[Michael Belgard]

Thanks for the kind words and for using Trackjack. I just checked our Gold Coast listing, and saw that we showed 20 tables of 2D. They recently switched most of them to 6D.

They still have 3 tables of 2D, but they are not open all of the time. I have updated TJ. Being the name-dropper I am, I made sure to give you credit for the information.

MB

[LVBear584]

You wrote:

> First, at El Cortez, I bought in for $100
> and won $55 in 30 minutes. We then decided
> it was time to do some shopping, so we
> colored up. The dealer yelled out
> "coloring $155" which didn't
> surprise me. However, when I got to the
> cashier, she got on the phone to tell
> someone(?) she was paying out $155.
> Immediately after she hung up, another phone
> rang and she picked it up and, after
> listening a second, said, "Yeah,
> $155." What was that all about? Surely
> someone cashing $155, including $100 of his
> own money can't be that unusual?

The El Cortez cashiers are instructed to call the pit whenever anyone cashes out $100.00 or more. This is not unusual in low-level casinos. The Western has their cashiers call the pit for $50.00 and up.

The cashier, of course, has no way of knowing how much of the $155.00 was your starting money, nor does she care.

Don't take it personally, it's standard procedure at the low-end joints.

[Hollywood]

> You wrote:

> The El Cortez cashiers are instructed to
> call the pit whenever anyone cashes out
> $100.00 or more. This is not unusual in
> low-level casinos. The Western has their
> cashiers call the pit for $50.00 and up.

> The cashier, of course, has no way of
> knowing how much of the $155.00 was your
> starting money, nor does she care.

> Don't take it personally, it's standard
> procedure at the low-end joints.

Nice post.
I only wanted to comment on the fact that dealers make mistakes all the time.
There is hardly a time I play where i'm not paid by mistake or a dealer takes my money on a push or better then that takes my money when I won. I never take it personally, they are not putting the money in their pocket. I always figure it's just an honest mistake.
Because I am a high end player, a bit boss is always watching very closly. They usually correct it as it happens. Ironically, this was never a problem for me before I became a counter. But since that time, so as not to lose the count I mess up the addition on my hands when multiple cards are in the picture. So I actually depend on the dealer and the pits watchful eye. I'm always telling dealers i'm not to good with numbers and I look up at them and say what do I have?
It also slows them down a bit so I can keep the count under control.

Happy playing,

Hollywood