bobstaman said:
I'm relatively new to this and have never been told to leave a store. For the past couple months I had been hitting this store about 5-10hrs/week spreading 25-200. But the past 2 weeks I have been going around 20 hrs/week. This store is pretty large and a 25-200 spread isn't that big, since I seem some regulars drop 10k/week. I don't know if I am becoming more paranoid, but the PBs seem to stare at me more, maybe only because they recognize me coming more often? Today a dealer came into his shift and cut the deck to 50% where there is a mark in the discard tray where to cut the deck at 75%. I've played with this dealer a couple days before and he cut was cutting the cards right at 75%.
Are there any possible signs when you might be backed off? When do you guys decide there is too much heat on you? How long do you give it before you go back?
I am quite certain that many will tell you that you are paranoid and have nothing to worry about. Although I only have one piece of anecdotal evidence, you can take it for what it's worth. I got B/O'd at my local store recently and realize now what a huge mistake it was; because I now have much more in traveling costs and have fewer options. I started out averaging about 3-4 hours per week there and was on a slow but steady climb, winning approximately $2,400 at this store over a 6 month period. I was very cautious in the beginning....using cover plays and not spending a lot of time in the same pit or on the same shift. After a while everyone there seemed comfortable with me and didn't pay a lot of attention to me because I was "fitting in" as one of the locals. Greed got the better of me as I started spending more and more time there and used less and less cover. I got to the point where I was spending 10+ hours per week there and playing longer and longer sessions and winning more and more.
In the month before they B/O'd me I played 20 sessions at this store and won on 15 of them, with several sizable wins that caught the attention of the pit. I went up by an additional $6,100 over 31 days. This is not a big store, so while this may not seem like a lot of money, they took notice. I started to feel some heat during this win streak........PB's watching me closely, talking to eachother while looking at me, comments about me "knowing when a BJ is coming", starting conversations with me during play in an attempt to distract me, whispering to a new dealer about something during shift change, what I thought for sure was an "undercover" player at the table who didn't quite fit in and was paying a lot of attention to what I was doing---Seemed more interested in my bets than his game, a PB giving "instructions" to a dealer about proper cut card placement after I hit a monster count on a shoe that she only cut out 1 deck out of 8, etc.
At the time, all of these things individually concerned me enough to leave the pit or leave the casino but then I came back the next day or 2 days later because I was writing all of this off to me being paranoid. It was only after it started to accumulate that I felt it best if I stayed away for a few weeks and spread out my play more. On the first day I went back after a few week hiatus, they B/O'd me.
As it turned out, I was not paranoid enough. I had become too relaxed and complacent and comfortable in my neighborhood corner store.
One man's advice for whatever it's worth to you.........If you are going to kill the Golden Goose, don't kill the one that lives in your own barn.
