Getting bent out of shape
Dear Mark,
I was listening to a radio talk show about casino gambling
when a caller claimed he does well in blackjack by looking
for warps. Well, the guest on the show didn't give a response
because the host went to a commercial and they didn't come
back to the subject. So, Mark, what is a warp? Rhonda A.
In the casino industry, we call it a "dealer tell,"
meaning, a dealer who gives away information that the casino
believes players shouldn't possess. In this case, when a
dealer checks the hole card under tens or aces, some inexperienced
dealers will unknowingly bend those cards upwards. This
will cause the tens and aces to have a different shape than
the rest of the cards in the deck. With this information,
the sharp-eyed player believes he knows the dealer's hole
card by its disfigured state-which is known as "playing
the warps."
But believe me, Rhonda, pit bosses who aren't asleep standing
up are always on the lookout for dealers who hack their
cards to death, and they'll correct this transgression.
How effective is this type of play? Well, if you knew the
hole card, it could be very lucrative, but it still comes
down to casino management's ability to monitor their pit.
Dear Mark,
Besides card counters, have any other players ever been
barred from playing blackjack based on certain strategies?
Melvin D.
I really can't answer for every casino on why, or if, they
would heave-ho a player based on playing strategies, Melvin,
but how about being banned for having too much capital?
It happened when Australian billionaire Kerry Packer beat
the MGM in Las Vegas out of $26 million, most of it while
playing blackjack. The casino finally barred him, not because
he was a card counter but because he was more capitalized
than the casino.
When you put together a lucky streak and a player with more
financial resources than the house, you've got a possibility
of casino closure-permanently.
Dear Mark,
What is the worst move a player can make with a hand while
playing blackjack? Susan L.
Getting ridiculous here, Susan, it's actions like doubling
down on a natural blackjack. Actually I've seen this done
once with a $200 wager where alcohol got the best of this
party animal. Now for the average player in the casino,
it's standing on a pair of eights versus a dealer upcard
of 7 instead of splitting them. A player making this basic
strategy error will lose 70% of the time.
Susan, you are the type of player who always plays perfect
basic strategy, right?
Dear
Mark,
Last year when I went to see the dolphin exhibit at the
Mirage in Las Vegas and it was just $3. Now they are asking
more than triple that. What gives? Henry P.
I've
got a sneaky suspicion that Steve Wynn, owner of Mirage
Resorts, recently changed toothpaste's to one that contains
those extra whitening ingredients. You need a cunning pearly
white smile when you dupe patrons who once paid $3 to view
the hotel's captive dolphins to now fork over ten bucks-although
he threw in a few white tigers as a bonus. Whoopee!
The point I'm trying to make here is that if you're coming
to Las Vegas, you better be prepared to spend moocho dinero.
Bargain lodging and $2.49 prison chow buffets are becoming
an endangered genera.
With more than 40% of the total revenues on the Strip now
coming from non-casino sources-and growing five times as
fast as the casino take-plan on casino operators reaching
into your wallet for any, and every, thing they can.
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