Wheeling Island Eliminated Surrender

#1
I went to Wheeling Island last week and found that surrender is no longer an option. In my opinion this was dumb on their part. Now the Pa casinos can advertise that they have another advantage over West Va. However, few people in West Va. or Pa actually use surrender properly and the player's edge from surrender is fictitious. The casinos probably get an edge from offering surrender since so many players misuse it (e.g. surrender a 13 to a dealers 8)

The rumor at Wheeling Island is that they will soon eliminate all table games and become a slots only parlor. I hope this doesn't happen since I like playing at Wheeling.
 

BJgenius007

Well-Known Member
#2
Robby Mercer said:
I went to Wheeling Island last week and found that surrender is no longer an option. In my opinion this was dumb on their part. Now the Pa casinos can advertise that they have another advantage over West Va. However, few people in West Va. or Pa actually use surrender properly and the player's edge from surrender is fictitious. The casinos probably get an edge from offering surrender since so many players misuse it (e.g. surrender a 13 to a dealers 8)

The rumor at Wheeling Island is that they will soon eliminate all table games and become a slots only parlor. I hope this doesn't happen since I like playing at Wheeling.
Wheeling Island only paid their dealers $5.50 a hour while PA casinos paid $11 a hour. Labor in WV is cheap. I don't think they will ever get rid of table games.
 
#4
Robby Mercer said:
I went to Wheeling Island last week and found that surrender is no longer an option. In my opinion this was dumb on their part.
Ten days ago, one dealer said surrender had been eliminated only for the duration of some promo they've got going. We can hope.

few people in West Va. or Pa actually use surrender properly
Amen to that. I am constantly amazed at how few players at e.g. Rivers know even that the option exists, much less how to use it.
 

paddywhack

Well-Known Member
#5
Robby Mercer said:
The casinos probably get an edge from offering surrender since so many players misuse it (e.g. surrender a 13 to a dealers 8)
Every casino should offer surrender. It would improve all of their bottom lines due to the ignorance of the ploppy contingent.
 
#6
BJgenius007 said:
Wheeling Island only paid their dealers $5.50 a hour while PA casinos paid $11 a hour. Labor in WV is cheap. I don't think they will ever get rid of table games.
The Meadows in Washington PA pays $7.40 per hour and the River's pays about $4 per hour (I think). No one makes $11 base pay an hour.
 
#7
Robby Mercer said:
The rumor at Wheeling Island is that they will soon eliminate all table games and become a slots only parlor. I hope this doesn't happen since I like playing at Wheeling.
Let the fools find out the hard way. The first thought that comes to mind is Sands in AC. I remember their transformation to be the mega slot king of casinos. Remodeled to have a small corner for table games with all remaining space solely for slots. That went well. Bankrupt, demolished, and is now an empty lot.
 

Gamblor

Well-Known Member
#8
junior_counter said:
Let the fools find out the hard way. The first thought that comes to mind is Sands in AC. I remember their transformation to be the mega slot king of casinos. Remodeled to have a small corner for table games with all remaining space solely for slots. That went well. Bankrupt, demolished, and is now an empty lot.
Or look what happened when PA opened up table games. Only a "genius" bean counter manager would think "durr, since slots have higher margins, if we just had all slots, that must mean more profits for us!"

Its like a McDonalds manager thinking "durr, since soda has higher margins than a big mac, lets just sell soda!". Implication being McDonalds managers are smarter than casino managers.

It would suck for anyone playing there, but at least we can all get a good laugh.
 

Coyote

Well-Known Member
#10
Any recent details on Wheeling Island as far as rules and pen? How about Mountaineer? Feel free to PM me if you would rather.

Thanks,
Coyote
 

BJgenius007

Well-Known Member
#11
Coyote said:
Any recent details on Wheeling Island as far as rules and pen? How about Mountaineer? Feel free to PM me if you would rather.

Thanks,
Coyote
Before PA casinos opened, both Mountaineer and Wheeling Island had the same rule set: S17, 8 deck in main floor, 6 deck in HL room, DAS, DA2, no RSA, no LS. After PA casinos opened in July 2010, Mountaineer stays the same (this is your answer for the rule set, and penetration depends) but Wheeling Island tried to adapt and compete. They adapted late surrender as well as all PA casinos do. Then they opened 2 double deck tables as the loss leader. At first, these tables has $5 table minimal, so APs spread $5 to $500 and constantly made a fortune off it. The first step for Wheeling Island to curb the loss is to change table limit $10 to $300. But they still lost a lot of money, so they changed from S17 to H17 about two months ago. Still not doing too well, they took away Late Surrender in the beginning of July.
 
#12
Wheeling Island Deck Penetration

I play the double deck game at Wheeling Island. Penetration is very much dealer dependent. Some dealers cut off ~the last third of a deck. Others cut off as much as the last ~3/4 of a deck. It all depends on the dealer.
 

Coyote

Well-Known Member
#13
Thanks guys! So with the change at Wheeling Island, would you say its better to head to PA and play the casinos around Pittsburg?
 

BJgenius007

Well-Known Member
#14
Coyote said:
Thanks guys! So with the change at Wheeling Island, would you say its better to head to PA and play the casinos around Pittsburg?
I no longer went to Wheeling Island.

I am making more money on the two Pittsburgh casinos. I haven't seen them ban counters yet. According to their financial statements, both are making record money because the ploppy population outnumbers APs 100 to 1 according to my observation. One note, I never feel any heat betting $25 to $300 at the Rivers but I feel a little bit at the Meadows but the latter has the better rules (6 decks in main floor), so I prefer playing there. At the Rivers, you only got 6 deck game in HL room ($100 table minimal).
 

BJgenius007

Well-Known Member
#18
Coyote said:
I gave the PM option! :laugh:
Erase at will fellas!
Thanks!
That DD has really become a crappy game, especially when you saw dealers like Vicki is dealing. She only gave 66% of the penetration. I have seen most of the APs migrate to The Meadows which now has the best game in Pittsburgh region.
 
#19
At least Wheeling Island had placards on every table stating that it offered surrender. At Rivers in Pittsburgh, I don't ever remember seeing such a thing.

For all of the talk about ploppies surrendering too often with foolish hands (13 vs. 8, etc.), I have not seen this much when I've played. In other words, I think more intelligent people actually use surrender, whether it be a basic strategy player or AP. So it would actually make sense from Wheeling's perspective to remove it.

The change from S17 to H17 wouldve happened anyway, IMHO.
 

Gamblor

Well-Known Member
#20
Vladimir Stupnisky said:
For all of the talk about ploppies surrendering too often with foolish hands (13 vs. 8, etc.), I have not seen this much when I've played. In other words, I think more intelligent people actually use surrender, whether it be a basic strategy player or AP. So it would actually make sense from Wheeling's perspective to remove it.
Nope, can't recall seeing anyone playing BS surrender decisions correctly. See plenty of people surrendering 12 v 9, 6 v 5, A5 v 8, etc.,
 
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