Tarzan
Banned
I sit here recuperating from my "day at the ranch", lurching about the casinos of Atlantic City and preparing to go back in swinging for the fences again tomorrow. I took a day off... sort of... more drills, play a bit at home, the usual. My daily foraging is usually uneventful with all the usual suspects and trappings of living this life, the fluctuations, the bouncing around, the stress and frustrations, those few sweet windfalls that pick it all up and make up for lost time...
This trip was different and had an interesting twist. When you are there and at it day in and day out you see things and gain understandings of things that your typical recreational or infrequent gambler cannot grasp the concept of. One of these things is the typical flow of gamblers at their game with the game remaining constant and the players changing around constantly, often like lambs to the slaughter at the hands of the casinos. The lambs brutally die one by one or in groups but a fresh batch of succulent meat falls right in to take their place like clockwork, maintaining the typical flow. You get used to this and become numb to it. You feel sorry for them but know their fate.
By chance I engaged a conversation with self-professed supposed "AP" that used the typical hi/low count. The more I talked to him, the more I realized that regardless of being a counter, he is another lamb to the slaughter! Why?--- Because he crosses the line and becomes a "gambler" rather than an advantage player. He made claims such as, "Oh, I love playing single deck 6 to 5" with my response being, "Gee, isn't that sort of long-term unbeatable compared to other games with that 1.4% casino advantage due to a 6 to 5 blackjack payout?". He went on to talk about many things, such as "superfun21" in Vegas (which I have heard is NOT all that super fun (because of an added casino advantage) with a few twists on a single deck game to make it a tough way to go. I am unfamiliar with this game and read about it a little someplace. He went on to talk of his bet spreads and betting, which left me thinking, "Holy CR*P! You need about a million and a half backing you to bet like that without running ridiculously high risk of busting out.", but I said little, just letting him talk. He was a young man in his late 20's and although I didn't bother to ask I seriously doubted he had a million or better backing him as a bankroll.
I have worked with my counting system for the last 25 years or more, which is more elaborate than basic high/low and play low base bets with a very large, however non-replenishable bankroll. I play tight and conservative, gauging every nickel. I have huge fluctuations back and forth even with a very low base bet and ultimately bang out $15-60 an hour or so (gross before expenses) if I broke it down by the hour of play time not counting idle time, commuting and travel time, etc. I have seen just how it can go and I know that I am not invincible. So you must see how I look at this cocky young man, full of bravado and with a sense of invincibility that in concert with his foolhardiness will be his ultimate demise.
He was the walking, living proof that you can be a counter and still not be an "AP". He is another lamb, waiting to be slaughtered.
This trip was different and had an interesting twist. When you are there and at it day in and day out you see things and gain understandings of things that your typical recreational or infrequent gambler cannot grasp the concept of. One of these things is the typical flow of gamblers at their game with the game remaining constant and the players changing around constantly, often like lambs to the slaughter at the hands of the casinos. The lambs brutally die one by one or in groups but a fresh batch of succulent meat falls right in to take their place like clockwork, maintaining the typical flow. You get used to this and become numb to it. You feel sorry for them but know their fate.
By chance I engaged a conversation with self-professed supposed "AP" that used the typical hi/low count. The more I talked to him, the more I realized that regardless of being a counter, he is another lamb to the slaughter! Why?--- Because he crosses the line and becomes a "gambler" rather than an advantage player. He made claims such as, "Oh, I love playing single deck 6 to 5" with my response being, "Gee, isn't that sort of long-term unbeatable compared to other games with that 1.4% casino advantage due to a 6 to 5 blackjack payout?". He went on to talk about many things, such as "superfun21" in Vegas (which I have heard is NOT all that super fun (because of an added casino advantage) with a few twists on a single deck game to make it a tough way to go. I am unfamiliar with this game and read about it a little someplace. He went on to talk of his bet spreads and betting, which left me thinking, "Holy CR*P! You need about a million and a half backing you to bet like that without running ridiculously high risk of busting out.", but I said little, just letting him talk. He was a young man in his late 20's and although I didn't bother to ask I seriously doubted he had a million or better backing him as a bankroll.
I have worked with my counting system for the last 25 years or more, which is more elaborate than basic high/low and play low base bets with a very large, however non-replenishable bankroll. I play tight and conservative, gauging every nickel. I have huge fluctuations back and forth even with a very low base bet and ultimately bang out $15-60 an hour or so (gross before expenses) if I broke it down by the hour of play time not counting idle time, commuting and travel time, etc. I have seen just how it can go and I know that I am not invincible. So you must see how I look at this cocky young man, full of bravado and with a sense of invincibility that in concert with his foolhardiness will be his ultimate demise.
He was the walking, living proof that you can be a counter and still not be an "AP". He is another lamb, waiting to be slaughtered.
