HowlTheWendigo

New Member
The nearest Casino to me is the "Harrah's Cherokee Hotel & Casino Resort".

It will be my first time ever going to a casino.
I've printed off and laminated a copy of basic strategy from Daniel Dravot's (The Color of Blackjack).
I've practiced the KO count repeatedly from 1-8 decks (I bought in bulk from Amazon)
I even went ahead and purchased The Color of Blackjack to gain an understanding of simplified TKO (Along with old charts of CKO and expanded index plays from REKO.)
Also got Rubin's Comp City book (Touch on this later.)
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All of this to say, I got as much at home experience as I can with the basic strategy tools, using discord chats to track my play, and expanding upon information I have found in the past. The tism' got me good lemme tell ya.

I plan to visit the Casino within the next two months. I want an established bankroll and I have a friend coming to visit with me. A thought in my head keeps popping up and I can't squish it though. The idea of Comps.

I am no expert using this site, but I have only found a handful of forum posts encouraging the use of a Player's Card. The biggest reasons against this tend to be for longevity, anonymity, and EV. It makes sense! I am not here to butt heads with those who have clearly been in the game for way longer than I have. Those who've used simulations and have the wisdom to back it up their claims. Playing as a refusal with a large bet spread and burning the casino for as much EV as possible definitely works. You can buy whatever you want with the money you earn from the casino so what's the use of comps longterm?

For me, I always run into the idea of eventuality. ID to enter certain casinos, ID to cash out chips (especially for 10k), ID for a players card, surveillance facial recongition, car license plates being tracked. The books i've read have touched on it along with multiple AP youtube channels, there *will* be a point where you will have to hand over your ID.

There's of course some level of variance in the response of certain casinos after your information is out there. Its not first hand experience but it seems like some locations will bar you immediately before you get into a good count, and others you could milk dry the whole day while being a professional counter.

If i'm doomed to eventually be caught and being caught isn't the end all of my hobby/career, why wouldn't I pursue the extra rewards of being rated? Sure, you could *in theory* crank out more EV by playing unrated as a mystery counter. From the information i've scrapped together plus the player's card section of David's book, it seems like a player's card could be benefical in the short term too. A counter isn't liable to get a Player's card after all, its not the norm. He even touches on the idea of bringing your significant other to help reduce heat too as the standard counter is a single male that plays as refusal.

I understand cumlative wins would be the death of me in that aspect. Either my player's card is going to rat me out, good surveillance, or a pit boss eyeing my spread. So why not enjoy some extra EV from comps?

Its also a side tangent but with the rise of continuous card shufflers, wouldn't this also be a wonderful opportunity for 'Comp Wizards'. Perfect basic strategy is still a losing game but you can go from .5 to .2. You couldn't make any EV at these tables but what reasonable card counter would use such a table? It would inflate your losses which earns you EV back in comps and that inflated loss would help slow down your cumulative wins.

At least, i'd think. I'm still brand new here so maybe i'm missing some crucial information. I just want to shear my local casino's sheep, not skin it.
 

Rebecca C

Well-Known Member
The obvious problem with exposing your identity is that comps for blackjack are really stingy nowadays. All your prep and advance knowledge sounds good "on paper," but what you are up against irl is not the same.

There's a group that churns out Gen Z kids for a couple of thousand bucks a pop who are video game wizards who learn awe-inspiring counting skills, but who get kicked out of casinos almost every time they play because no one taught them real life casino skills. Their thousands of dollars enriched the school promoter, but the kids, well, not so much. You managed to avoid that hype, so good on you. But give your project a little more work before you bust down the doors of your local Harrah's run Indian joint. You'll thank me later.
 

HowlTheWendigo

New Member
Rebecca C said:
The obvious problem with exposing your identity is that comps for blackjack are really stingy nowadays. All your prep and advance knowledge sounds good "on paper," but what you are up against irl is not the same.

There's a group that churns out Gen Z kids for a couple of thousand bucks a pop who are video game wizards who learn awe-inspiring counting skills, but who get kicked out of casinos almost every time they play because no one taught them real life casino skills. Their thousands of dollars enriched the school promoter, but the kids, well, not so much. You managed to avoid that hype, so good on you. But give your project a little more work before you bust down the doors of your local Harrah's run Indian joint. You'll thank me later.
What are some casino soft-skills you would recommend practicing? And any books you could point to? I know its important to be able to count and perform basic strategy while maintaining a conversation, looking around, drinking, etc. Its one of the reason I leaned towards KO to help mitigate human error and help with consistency.
 

aceside

Well-Known Member
As said above, it just sounds good on paper, but not in casinos. To convince yourself, try to calculate how much you can make an hour playing your strategy.
 
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