Paris - This Week

Off to my second visit to LV - leaving Wednesday morn.. Use to play BJ a little bit 20 years+ ago, using what I guess is considered BS nowadays. (Anyone remember "Scarne on Cards"? That was my bible). I'd consider myself as BS player now, but not a CC.

Our more recent visit was a disaster in some aspects - we didn't sign up for players cards etc. On the other hand, I walked away with (small, <1K) cash in pocket (BJ), which I won't complain about. (my wife, playing slots, didn't).

What are the best BJ games for a competent BS player close to Paris, and possibly looking at maximizing comps (staying at Paris).

General thoughts are 1K bankroll; I rather bet $10, unless there is a compelling reason to move to green.

Thanks

Hopefully you've realized that Scarne was completely wrong about BJ. In fact,computers have pretty much proved him to have been wrong on most things.

I'll be interested to see how you do and what you think of Paris. My wife and I are going back to Vegas Thanksgiving week and will be staying at Paris. We went to Vegas, for the first time in over 10 years, about a month ago and stayed at NYNY. Nice strip view room but didn't care for the restaurants or casino. Of course it didn't help that they were remodeling about 1/3 of the casino and we picked the week they were using jackhammers and concrete saws. Made playing during the day almost impossible. But back to Paris. Seems to be a nice hotel in a central location on the Strip. Fairly easy walking distances to half a dozen or more major and minor casinos.

Paris is a decent joint, except for the bad blackjack rules (problem at most Harrahs properties).

a) don't play 6:5 blackjack.

b) Get a good basic strategy chart. You can print one from this site. To cover your bases, get one where dealer stands on soft 17 and one where hits. do 6 decks unless you're going to green chip it at double deck games.

Note that "winging it" on basic strategy will cost you more in expected errors than bad rules anywhere (except maybe 6:5)

c) To find better BJ rules, nearest hotel choices would be mirage, venetian (north), bellagion and planet ho, and further south, MGM and Monte carlo.

Echoing all of this. Note that most games near Paris are H17, not S17.

Your closest options for $10 blackjack are Bellagio and Planet Hollywood, both will have a 6-deck H17 DAS DA2 LS game which is about as good as you will get for basic strategy blackjack.

I don't think $10 play will get you much in comps anywhere on the Strip. You can try smaller casinos (Bills, Casino Royale, both to the north of Paris) but most of the big ones are owned by two big chains - MGM (ti, Mirage, Bellagio, Monte Carlo, NY-NY, MGM, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay) and Harrah's (Rio, CP, Flamingo, Harrah's, Bally's, Paris) - so the comps there are accumulated across all casinos.

Learn basic strategy, find a decent $5 or $10 shoe game, and hope you get lucky. Your expected losses on 10 hours of play at $10 will be $50, and 95% of the time you will end up between +$23 and -$123.

As for restaurants, I am not a big fan of dining options at the Paris except for the creperie for breakfast-type meals. The Bellagio buffet and Spice buffet at Planet Hollywood are both top-grade.

Thanks for the information. We probably didn't do ourselves any favors by checking out so many hotel/casino operations during our last visit. It really came down to picking a central location and we probably should have paid more attention to the tables but it was almost information overload. I noticed a lot of differences, which was somewhat expected after a 10+ year break, but missed some key ones. I think if I noticed anything it was the 6/5 single deck tables and the S17 business. Didn't have a chance to look too hard but I didn't see, and really miss, the old 2 deck out-of-hand games at what is now called Bill's and a few other places on the Strip. Ex had a master rating in bridge and used to just have a field day at those tables. Back then they didn't back her off but she was conservative in her play so she could grind out some nice wins without being real obvious. Bride and I always play good basic and we're working on teaching her counting so we'll see in a couple of months.

Wow, the ex wasn't backed off from the Barbary Coast? based on what I've heard, that's impressive.

I think the Barbary Coast got much more of a reputation than was really justified.

They were overly focused on individuals and bet spreads, in my opinion.

This was probably 1993-94. Ex and I had become established at Bally's across the street but would go to the Barbary Coast as a change of pace. Ex was a killer in a two deck game and pretty much knew what specific cards had been played and what was left in the deck. Of course she didn't know what to do with this talent and in fact didn't tell me she could do it for years. I think one pit boss by the name of Bill knew it but never made an issue out of it. He used to chat her up at the table all the time but always joking and pleasant. She hit them for $4,000 one afternoon and all Bill did was offer to buy us dinner. Typically she'd play for hours at a red table and maybe win a couple of hundred which pleased her to no end. She never got crazy with her betting and regardless of it being a red or green table would never bet more than 4 units and that was only if she was way ahead. Of course even with her edge you can still lose and she lost enough that they never backed her off. Other than it got to be we couldn't stand each other she really was one smart lady and lucky. The afternoon she hit Barbary for the $4K she was left with 2 dollar slugs. Bill was chatting with us after she'd cashed in and she had these two slugs. She pops them in a $2 double diamond machine right next to us and hit $300. Bill just shook his head.

Know that now. Got suckered into 6:5 games last visit (and fortunately came out ahead) as I was looking for $5 tables (hadn't played for a while).

Gone one better. Have been practicing BS with Casino Verite, and live at our local casino (which actually doesn't object loudly to referring to a BS chart, as long as you don't slow down the game). Not perfect, but at >> 99% (probably at 1 error per 150-200 hands, without referencing a chart).

Stayed at the Bellagio last visit (July), and that is where I played for the last couple of nights. Given the proximity to Paris, I might choose that as my table choice.

At this point, I play BJ for entertainment, not profit. I do realize there is something keeping the lights on in the Casino, however 10 hours of entertainment for $50 is a pretty good value in my opinion ($5/hr? what can you do for $5/hr nowadays?)

Regarding Scarne - I haven't seen it for >20 years, and don't remember it - however, it was probably better than listening to people at the table.

Thanks to all for your input!

You can't win long-term, but 6:5 continuous-shuffler D10 nDAS blackjack (~2% house advantage) is still better than most games at the casino: roulette (5%), 3-card poker (3-7%), place bets in craps (2-5%), slots (2-10%), keno (25%) ... 6:5 is a horrible rule for card counters, but only a bad rule for non-counters.

Not most things, mostly just BJ. zg

Sorry,but the man was a complete fraud.

Are you saying Scarne on Dice isn't true?

Back from Paris LV.

Wife loved the place; she has previously stayed at the Bellagio and Ceaser's; liked it better than either (felt she was treated much better). Room was okay, but we wern't there for the room.

Blackjack from what I saw - lots of single deck 6:5, and they were busy.

The other common game was 8D 3:2 H17 DAS LS game. Minimums were (rarely) as little as $10 with $15/2000 and $25/5000 being more common, with minimums going up as it got busier.

Played a little bit at the Mirage (before a show); similiar situation, but according to the dealer there were S17 games at some $25 tables.

My success? After about 25 hours of play, up a bit; as a BS player, I'm really pleased about that.

Best outcome on a hand? Split 3's to four hands, two double downs, and the dealer bust.

Another time had the dealer paid 3 greens against 3 reds, and I didn't take it. Liked the dealer and it just didn't feel right.

Had fun.

It's not the dealer's money.

Yah, but it is her job, I liked the dealer, and didn't want to risk getting her into trouble.

After I did that, she did say that any dealer playing would take the money so quickly that you wouldn't be able to see their hands; if it happens again, I'll probably behave differently.