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Thread: Parx & Sands Casino's in Pennsylvania

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    Parx & Sands Casino's in Pennsylvania

    Can anyone give me an overview of the Parx & Sands in Pa. I wanted to start playing again. (took a leave) and I thought I would give those places a shot.

    If anyone knows anything regarding conditions & penn levels etc, I would really appreciate it.

    High end tables would be of particular interest.


    Thanks
    HOLLYWOOD

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    Senior Member bigplayer's Avatar
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    Sand's takes action better, but is more sharp. Parx sweats more and will backoff players just for looking like a counter. Both actively flyer photos of players around the area.

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    Being backed off of both these places this year I can telll you with certainty they do share information.

    That being said, Sands is absolutely more sweatier than Parx, and Parx has some sharp people working for them. Sands gives bad pen on the shoe, but their DD S17 game is something with barely any house edge and is quite a novelty. If anyone shows remote brains at sands they are immediately watched. Tread carefully at sands.

    Whereas with Parx, they at least take action really well since they see so much high limit action being close to philly. They also have better pen on their shoe game. If you don't get too greedy and use a 1-6/8 spread at Parx you should last for awhile.

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    Senior Member AP360's Avatar
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    1-6/8 spread on an 8D shoe?
    “You aren’t making money until your money is making money.”

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    Quote Originally Posted by AP360 View Post
    1-6/8 spread on an 8D shoe?
    He probably uses more complex approach. I travelled with a guy that used a level 3 count he invented. He would win $5K and quit betting 1-6 (playing 2 hands heads up at a reserved table) at good shoe game starting at 1 or 2 black chips. They tolerate it at least for a while but many places don't like consistent wins of that size. I warned him at sweatier places to stop with a loss during some sessions since it is all one session so those artificial barriers of when you quit are meaningless but posting losses help your record look good. He never listened and got backed off at most of them shortly after my warnings. How many times a day do you expect to get away with wins of that size? He would do 5 or 6 times a day for 3 days in a row with no losses and usually fairly short sessions. I am guessing he must have posted some big losses but you know how many gamblers talk of their wins but omit their losses. At his word he rarely lost.

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    Thank you for this information. It is quite helpful. My first time posting here and I sincerely appreciate it.

    HOLLYWOOD

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    All good advice Tthree: In looking back over the years. I got to the point where I couldn't play anyplace. The biggest reason? Greed. Had I NOT banged them over the head like I did, it would be much easier for me today. At first I guess I was just trying to validate my abilities. Had I just nipped at them over the years I wouldn't need drivers licenses in 11 names. (front only) I have found that taking small bites out of them and keeping the sessions short does not give them much of a chance to zero in. Especially that I only play at $100 tables.
    HOLLYWOOD

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    There is a rumor from poppy who play at the Parx Casino say they no longer offer Late Surrender for there blackjack games. I though the game rules are still set the Pennsylvania gaming control board. Unless something changed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by seriousplayer View Post
    I though the game rules are still set the Pennsylvania gaming control board. Unless something changed.
    They are crooked. The casinos petition the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for rule changes and even though some games are patented and can only be dealt according to the patent holders rules they allow casinos to violate federal patent law and hang a sign over the table saying they are dealing the patented game but allow the casino to deal a different game that does not use the patented rules that someone paying the patent holder to deal their copyrighted game must use according to patent holders rights. It would be like getting a deal with Coke to sell their product and serve Royal Crown, Pepsi or watered down Coke when someone orders Coke. If you advertise you are offering a patented product you can not alter the patent holders formula without violating federal law that protects the patent holder from people damaging the name of his patented product.
    Last edited by Three; 10-04-2015 at 08:39 PM.

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    Parx still offers late surrender. Idk what bigplayer is talking about, but the heat at Parx is non-existent. Maybe hes talking about black chip action because I bet green action, but yeah, I found the heat at Parx to be completely non-existent, maybe I just play the part to perfection, who knows. You can stand there backcounting for 6 hours straight and the pit bosses dont care one bit. Of course they could have called surveillance to watch me and therefore no need to pay attention to me, but I watch them with the phones and they dont seem to call surveillance at all about me. Maybe they just care about spread and because I pure wong, my spread is very little and they must think im a novice player who doesnt use a sufficient spread to beat them. The funny thing is, I have beaten them down for about 23 trips in a row, with only one loss among those 23 and i have yet to get backed off or any heat whatsoever.

    Regarding Sands, the pen is horrible, but they do allow you to RSA, which many other PA casinos dont offer. This is the only place where I ever lose at. Im highly suspicious of their ASMs. I have a pretty good instinct that they are cheating in this store. It surely cant be a coincidence even with all the variance in this game. I mean who the hell is monitoring them? I doubt the commission board rarely checks in on them, and im sure the corrupt management at sands knows when the commission board will come knocking, so they deal a fair game at that time. The only thing making me go back to that store, is the thought that because they are a big name, maybe they aren't cheating and that I'm overthinking it, but every visit i go there, i second guess myself.

    The best pen in the Philly area is Harrahs(cut a deck or less for the most part on 8 deckers). Combine that pen with the standard PA rules S17,DAS,LS, you got one of the best shoe games in the country. I dont even care about posting valuable information on a public forum, since i wont be playing for a while, as Ive burned out with all the travel. Ill go full time when i either move to philly or vegas where i have a large amount of casinos close by. The thing about Harrahs and Parx, is that there is no notch on the shoe, so it's very dealer dependent and most of the dealers cut deep. Harrahs seems to teach the dealers how to cut the cards by placing the cut card flat on the backend of the 8 deck pile and then quickly cutting it, resulting in excellent pen. Parx is also dealer dependent, but there's no sequence that they teach them to cut the cards, it seems as if the dealers are told by management to cut a certain amount of cards and just guess on the amount that needs to be cut and most of the time it ends up about 1.2 cut off for the 8 deckers on the main floor. Some dealers will cut off about 1 deck. Harrahs is still the best place for pen.
    Last edited by ZenKinG; 10-05-2015 at 12:13 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ZenKinG View Post
    Parx is also dealer dependent, but there's no sequence that they teach them to cut the cards, it seems as if the dealers are told by management to cut a certain amount of cards and just guess on the amount that needs to be cut and most of the time it ends up about 1.2 cut off for the 8 deckers on the main floor. Some dealers will cut off about 1 deck.
    Parx is a cut by notch casino. In other words they is a notch on the side of the shoe that they cut the cut card to. I haven't been there in a while so maybe they are cutting to a different notch now but when I was there the notch was almost 2 decks cut off for their 8 deckers. You might be onto something about your deck estimation concerns.

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    I am "persona non grata" statewide in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

    I assure you that PARX is sweaty for anyone betting light black, and pen' is mediocre.

    The DD game at SANDS is excellent for those who know how to take advantage;

    BUT backoffs (via Shift Manager) are commonplace.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tthree View Post
    Parx is a cut by notch casino. In other words they is a notch on the side of the shoe that they cut the cut card to. I haven't been there in a while so maybe they are cutting to a different notch now but when I was there the notch was almost 2 decks cut off for their 8 deckers. You might be onto something about your deck estimation concerns.
    There's no notch at Parx. And when there was a notch, it was about 1.5 cut off. They were definitely not cutting off 2 decks. My deck estimation isnt perfect, but definitely not that bad. I don't know the last time you were there, but for the last 3-6 months or so of me playing there, there has been no notch.
    Last edited by ZenKinG; 10-05-2015 at 07:24 PM.

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