Newbie looking for advice: Foxwoods/Mohegan

[Waterrat]

Hi All,

I've been lurking around the forum for a bit and even more so I've been going through the Blackjack School. But before I commit too much time to counting I had a question for those you in the know: My "home" casinos will be Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. Do these establishments offer a good enough game to be worthwhile? From reading the boards and looking up their rules it seems like the answer is "yes" but I'd like to hear from those who frequent these places in person.

It will be a while before I'm ready to hit the tables but I'm already looking forward to it. I have my basic strategy down pat and while counting itself is easy - counting fast is not and that is my major area of training at the moment along with the indicies for basic strategy variations at a given count.

Thanks for any advice,

Waterrat

 

[Pelerus]

In terms of 8 deck games, Foxwoods has some of the best blackjack on the East Coast. It is in general better than the similar games offered in Atlantic City and the various smaller establishments.

The pen is typically 6.5/8 - but dealer dependent, so you can find better if you scout a bit for it. The rules are also favorable: S17 DAS S4 (and split any combination of tens); there is no re-draw to split aces, but aside from Spanish 21 that is rarely found anymore in any store. Some members here advocate against playing 8 deck games if you can avoid them, but the FW 8 deckers certainly beat the hell out of Mohegan's 6 deckers based on penetration alone. If you want to spread your play around a little bit, you can try Mohegan, but you should certainly favor FW. There are essentially 4 separate casinos all offering BJ in FW (including MGM), however, so you can probably spread your play enough just within FW itself.

Heat is generally low, and perhaps even nonexistent at the red chip level (with top bets less than about $250 or 2x$200). Spreads of as much as 1-16 or even 1-20 are practicable if your min bet is $10. Recently, $5 tables with the same rules and pen have become widely available in the off hours, so conditions are now more favorable than ever for the low roller. (This is unlike Mohegan's $5 games, which are in a separate H17 pit.)

Crowding can sometimes become an issue and make aggressve backcounting difficult to employ, but if you avoid weekends and peak hours this issue is abated somewhat. Crowding is also generally less of an issue now than when the economy was booming, although FW tends to close inactive tables and send dealers home early, so heads up play can be hard to find even when the casino is a ghost town.

Comps are decent, even for the low roller, so long as you make sure the PB takes notice when you have bets >$50 out. After playing there for about a year, I no longer paid for any of my rooms or food (or cigarettes :whip on my trips. They are pretty generous with free room offers, which is a major boon to low rollers and definitely helps to reduce the fixed expenses for smaller EVs to overcome.

All things considered, Foxwoods is definitely a good bet for both the beginning and advanced counter alike.

 

[Waterrat]

Thank you very much Pelerus,

Just the kind of info I was looking for.

As an aside, what is the proper send off for an AP? Happy counting?(not likely) Good luck? (it's not luck so probably not) I haven't seen the likely response yet......

Big wins,

Waterrat

 

[bjcardcounter]

Thank you very much Pelerus,

Just the kind of info I was looking for.

As an aside, what is the proper send off for an AP? Happy counting?(not likely) Good luck? (it's not luck so probably not) I haven't seen the likely response yet......

Big wins,

Waterrat

I would say wish you good counts and less heat.

 

[Jack_Black]

I would say wish you good counts and less heat.

instead of saying "good luck," say "good variance."

I also ask my girlfriend to say "have a good day at work honey!"