Reasons to give up Card Counting

[celadore]

Greetings all from your long lost disciple!

It has been many months since I have trolled this website. Card Counting is so out of my blood that it seems like another lifetime, even though I only stopped last April.

Reasons I stopped:
1. In the end, with my limited bankroll, crowded tables (which I had to use for cover) and slow dealers, my hourly EV had dropped to around $3 an hour. This is not a good allocation of my time.
2. Picking up poker. I have started playing live poker games (since Nov 2009) where my bankroll growth rate is much better. MUCH better!
3. It's boring. The initial excitement and fun has worn off. Counting Cards is now a chore and I no longer find it that interesting.
4. More time on business. I now have several business interests. I would be a fool to spend so much time in a casino when I have more profitable ventures to attend to.
5. Image protection. Of course, very few people knew I was counting cards, so I looked like a degenerate gambler. I am from a small community and word started spreading. Had to nip that in the bud .

Goodbye and goodluck to you all! If anybody wants to come to Kenya to hustle some casinos let me know - I got all the down and dirty .

(Damn, y'all know my secret haunting grounds now :grin.

 

[celadore]

Dang it!

Dang it! Now that I've been lured back on to the site, all I can think about is dusting off the old skills and heading off to the local for a quick hour or two!

Going to watch apprentice instead

 

[kewljason]

Greetings all from your long lost disciple!

It has been many months since I have trolled this website. Card Counting is so out of my blood that it seems like another lifetime, even though I only stopped last April.

Reasons I stopped:
1. In the end, with my limited bankroll, crowded tables (which I had to use for cover) and slow dealers, my hourly EV had dropped to around $3 an hour. This is not a good allocation of my time.
2. Picking up poker. I have started playing live poker games (since Nov 2009) where my bankroll growth rate is much better. MUCH better!
3. It's boring. The initial excitement and fun has worn off. Counting Cards is now a chore and I no longer find it that interesting.
4. More time on business. I now have several business interests. I would be a fool to spend so much time in a casino when I have more profitable ventures to attend to.
5. Image protection. Of course, very few people knew I was counting cards, so I looked like a degenerate gambler. I am from a small community and word started spreading. Had to nip that in the bud .

Goodbye and goodluck to you all! If anybody wants to come to Kenya to hustle some casinos let me know - I got all the down and dirty .

(Damn, y'all know my secret haunting grounds now :grin.

I can certainly understand you first 4 points. If you are in it for the money, at low levels your time and efforts are better spent on other ventures. Especially if you have lost interest and now find it boring. I am having a little trouble understanding your point number 5. Why is it important what other people think. As long as you are comfortable with what you are doing (and maybe a spouse or significant other) that all that matters.

At any rate, I wish you the best in all your future endeavors. Peace and be happy.

 

[celadore]

I can certainly understand you first 4 points. If you are in it for the money, at low levels your time and efforts are better spent on other ventures. Especially if you have lost interest and now find it boring. I am having a little trouble understanding your point number 5. Why is it important what other people think. As long as you are comfortable with what you are doing (and maybe a spouse or significant other) that all that matters.

It's partly cultural, but mainly damaging to future prospects. Like I said, I come from a small community, and where I am from they are key to my business success. There is a certain astigmatism towards gambling - and it would be harmful to my current business endeavours.

 

[Sharky]

preacher man? :laugh::devil::laugh::whip:

 

[BUZZARD]

Boring? Sneaking around casinos, taking the monies from these ancient, shriveled, ugly, harmless, pathetic slot zombies that keep pumping it in, slowly manuevering through the maze -gently pushing there walkers, trapped and lost and loving it- twenty four hours a day 365. it's almost like I'm hittin the old bags on the head and stealing their purses. Work is boring. Making egg salad is boring. O and you will lose at poker- you were just running well. If you werent rolled to make more than 3 bucks an hour here then you arent going to be grinding any more playin holdem.

 

[celadore]

Boring? Sneaking around casinos, taking the monies from these ancient, shriveled, ugly, harmless, pathetic slot zombies that keep pumping it in, slowly manuevering through the maze -gently pushing there walkers, trapped and lost and loving it- twenty four hours a day 365. it's almost like I'm hittin the old bags on the head and stealing their purses. Work is boring. Making egg salad is boring. O and you will lose at poker- you were just running well. If you werent rolled to make more than 3 bucks an hour here then you arent going to be grinding any more playin holdem.

I am quite happy with my poker results and have played enough hours to know that I was not just running well. If you could see the skill level of the people I play against and the amount of money they throw around you would be shocked.

I am definitely not claiming to be pro material. In fact, there were a couple of times some pro's came down here from SA and I opted not to play against them because I rated their game as way superior to my own.

I'm not an idiot and I resent the fact that you implied that I am. Best of luck to you.

 

[Brock Windsor]

Goodbye and goodluck to you all! If anybody wants to come to Kenya to hustle some casinos let me know - I got all the down and dirty .

(Damn, y'all know my secret haunting grounds now :grin.

Are you playing in Nairobi? A friend told me he heard of a dealer there that couldn't add so when he had a multicard hand he would just hit it out til he busted. I was too worried about getting out with the money to try playing there. Is there heat? If I were with locals would it be ok?

 

[celadore]

Are you playing in Nairobi? A friend told me he heard of a dealer there that couldn't add so when he had a multicard hand he would just hit it out til he busted. I was too worried about getting out with the money to try playing there. Is there heat? If I were with locals would it be ok?

Yep, I play in Nairobi.

Dealers: Yes the dealers here are bad and often make mistakes. It is quite common to be given trainee dealers who are incredibly slow and really bring down your hourly EV. I have often requested dealers like this to be replaced as your EV drops by more than 50%!

Supervisors: Every table has a supervisor watching the game, especially for new dealers. They pick up most of the mistakes the new dealers are making. However, their concentration tends to drift off after a while and every now and then a mistake will slip through unnoticed.

Heat: Many of the PitBosses are foreigners and know what card counting is, however, their knowledge is limited and they find it difficult to spot them in the short term. I have never experienced heat during a session, only noticed attention in between visits after they have noted my action over a period and seen that I was taking money out of the casino instead of leaving it in their greedy hands. However, I have never personally been backed off.

What happened to me at one place was that they changed the penetration from 75% to 50%, thereby severely reducing my advantage. I had to get up and walk away from this place. I am pretty sure that this was due to my action and not just a coincidental change in policy.

I was recently at another casino where there was a new, young pitboss who welcomed me by saying that he heard that I was a 'dangerous' player. He instructed the dealers to reduce the penetration to 50%. I was quite surprised since I had laid down some serious cover at this casino and was pretty sure that they couldn't have made me yet. I was also only break-even here. I made some noise about them wasting time with shuffling and left the table. Since I am well known at this casino (due to my poker prowess), the main pitboss later came up to me and apologised, saying that the new pitboss had misunderstood and that I was welcome to come back to the tables anytime. Cover still in tact! But I avoid the new pitbosses shifts.

Cover: The majority of local gamblers play Pontoon, not BlackJack. The few regular blackjack players tend to be of foreign origin (expats). Most of the time the few tables are filled by tourists. There are not many blackjack players here, so by your second visit you'll be a regular. Being with locals will not aid your cover.

If you just intend a short visit, don't bother with cover. Just go crazy! Local casinos won't be able to pick up your action until after you leave, and if you get banned from one, there are another 10 to choose from. Even casinos of the same ownership don't communicate with each other. So if you're banned from one, you can still play at another casino under the same group!

Casinos I Recommend: Based on penetration and allowable spread, I would recommend the following joints: RKL (Intercontinental Hotel), Babylon (Town), Bollywood (Westlands) and Finix (Hurlingham).

 

[zengrifter]

Dang it! Now that I've been lured back on to the site, all I can think about is dusting off the old skills and heading off to the local for a quick hour or two!

Going to watch apprentice instead

Are you really the beautiful and famous Taj London? zg

 

[celadore]

Are you really the beautiful and famous Taj London? zg

Na mate, I'm butt ugly . That's just a cover photo for my blog to protect my identity when I thought I was going to be a serious card counter. Funny how quick life changes.