bad advice from pit bosses

[Cougfan]

You should have put on your best Clint Eastwood voice and said:

Well what you have there is a very close decision. If you double you will win or lose a hell of a lot of money. So you really only have one question to ask yourself. Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?

[DSchles]

How many decks were you playing against?

Don

[luckyned]

Should have said: 6D H17 DAS NS. It's a hit in this game. It is just remarkable how much we sweat the attention of these people, many of whom don't even know the basics.

[ZeeBabar]

I am not sold on Pit guys been dumb or intentionally giving poor advice. I have tested them (as part of my ploppy act) by asking if I should hit a7 vs 10, double an a,8 against a 6, or split 4's against a 4 or 5 or splitting 9's against an 8 and almost always, the guy looked up in his computer and gave me the right advice. Sometimes, because I knew the count, I would shrug and either go against his advice or go with it.

I think the casinos where I play, they have the correct strategy because they can check with it when they suspect a player is very good or an AP and verify that the player always plays correctly. At one game, I had guys playing big on each side of the table and the guy who was making incorrect decisions ended up with the host at his side offering comps.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

I have found that I have been obliged to teach my students just how close a

decision MAY be by giving a close play and computing the "dollars and cents"

cost of misplaying it by giving the e.v. for a $10 bet at -1 and +1 Recently,

a (new) student was lambasting himself for failing to surrender a hand with

a ZERO index (at a ZERO True Count). The wager was $5. The cost was ... !

Naturally, this segues into lessons on "cover play" and "Counter Basic Strategy"

(and how these are too be avoided at most games.)

[mushin]

PBs and dealers give bad advice on a regular basis. I've never even considered the possibility that they do this purposely. The vast majority simply don't know what they are talking about when it comes to blackjack.

I agree 100% that often give bad advice.

I partially wonder if their "bad advice" is more a result of seeing "misplayed" hands all the time. From their point of view they see improper plays all the time and if you see the same improper play enough it would start to look like the proper play. There are enough people that double when you are not supposed to that it really make it seem like that doubling is the correct play.

[mushin]

I also have to point out that something I hear often is "The New Book Says..." Or "The Old Book..."

I hope that I never gave the your an f'ing idiot look when they said this.

[fjrider]

A week ago I had a dealer try and talk me into playing the side bet. A little while later he tried to talk me into raising on a win. Both after I had been winning for a couple hours, and he had already told me he had been there 12 years. A little while later, he has a jacket on and is doing some pit work, looked like he was a back up pit man. Pretty sure he was knowingly trying to talk me into losing. But pleasant and civil the whole time.

[Freightman]

A week ago I had a dealer try and talk me into playing the side bet. A little while later he tried to talk me into raising on a win. Both after I had been winning for a couple hours, and he had already told me he had been there 12 years. A little while later, he has a jacket on and is doing some pit work, looked like he was a back up pit man. Pretty sure he was knowingly trying to talk me into losing. But pleasant and civil the whole time.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Always keep in mind that their purpose for being there is to assist in emptying your wallet. I recall 1 asshole, in my beginning red chip days, offer to buy me a beer on the house if I went from the $5.. Table to the $25.00 table, truly before I was ready. A true asshole in every sense of the word, and not just for that.

[fjrider]

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Always keep in mind that their purpose for being there is to assist in emptying your wallet. I recall 1 asshole, in my beginning red chip days, offer to buy me a beer on the house if I went from the $5.. Table to the $25.00 table, truly before I was ready. A true asshole in every sense of the word, and not just for that.

I actually enjoyed talking to this guy, we had covered a number of subjects(yes, he was probably trying to distract me) but pleasant anyway. I just chalked it up to him trying to do a good job, can't blame him for that. And none of it worked, so yut da hey. He seemed to have pretty much the same attitude about me, so no harm, no foul.

[Freightman]

I actually enjoyed talking to this guy, we had covered a number of subjects(yes, he was probably trying to distract me) but pleasant anyway. I just chalked it up to him trying to do a good job, can't blame him for that. And none of it worked, so yut da hey. He seemed to have pretty much the same attitude about me, so no harm, no foul.

Nothing wrong with chatting up the critters - many of them are quite decent sorts - just understand that they also have a job to do.

[Smartblackjack]

Often times dealers or pitbosses give bad advice because they them selfs dont know how to play. Looking that play up in playing blackjack as a business the correct play is double down the pitboss was right. The gain is 18 units in a 1,000 hands.

[CHAM]

Funny how you just assume that it's a hit without even asking what game he's playing. It's a double for all SD games and for DD, H17. Did I miss that it was a shoe game?

Don

Funny enough I just learned of this today. Went to Ken Smith's site and found it. Thanks Don.