2/4/2005
Recently, I’ve run across two new products I’d like to recommend for blackjack players. The first is a three-card set of tri-fold laminated blackjack strategy charts developed by the esteemed blackjack guru Don Schlesinger. There’s a card for single-deck, double-deck, and multiple-deck, and each card gives four different strategies, depending on the rules in the game you’re playing.
They’re called “Ultimate Blackjack Strategy Cards.” Now, I’m usually suspicious of anything labeled “ultimate,” but these cards are not misnamed. They’re the most scientifically accurate BJ strategy cards on the market today. And I like the fact that they’re usable for any level of play, since there’s a basic strategy for recreational gamblers and the “ultimate” one that will take you as far as you can go on the advanced level. http://www.AdvantagePlayer.com is home of Don’s Domain, one of the most informative, comprehensive, and reliable blackjack sites on the Internet today.
The second BJ product I would like to recommend is the newly released book, You’ve Got Heat, by Barfarkel. This is not your typical BJ book written by a well-known BJ expert, full of mind-numbing statistics and endless charts. It’s the chatty warts-and-all account of one low-stakes card-counting BJ player who makes 26 trips to Vegas over a period of four years, with a goal of turning a $2,000 bankroll into $10,000.
I suppose I liked this book so much because it’s the true tale of a fellow “scuffler,” someone, like me, who doesn’t depend just on playing one game skillfully so you have an advantage over the casino. Although his main game is BJ and mine is VP, the constant scrambling to get an edge over the casino is the same. It’s never seeing a good coupon you don’t jump to use; it’s a constant search for good promotions to exploit to the max; it’s becoming a part of the Internet gambling family to learn of new juicy playing opportunities; it’s having a network of friends who share your passion – and the secret advantage plays they’ve dug up; it’s the constant search for freebies that the casinos hand out.
http://www.bjinsider.com is the Web site of long-time BJ expert player and writer Henry Tamburin, who published this book. At this site you will find a wealth of good information on BJ and can read the free articles in his popular, monthly electronic newsletter, Blackjack Insider, in which Barfarkel continues to write about his BJ playing adventures in Vegas.
You can buy both of these products here on this site; go to http://www.greatstuff4gamblers.com/.
2/10/2005
Brad and I recently took a road trip to Laughlin, where I had a TV appearance and a speaking engagement at the library. It had been a number of years since we’d been to Laughlin. Before we bought our condo in Vegas and moved here permanently, we drove back and forth from Indiana to spend the winter in Vegas and often made a stop in Laughlin. The first thing we noticed was the improvement in the road between Vegas and Laughlin. What used to be a two-lane death trap is now mostly a nice wide four-lane divided highway. In the one stretch that’s still two-lane, there’s a passing lane every few miles – and this stretch will be four lanes within a year, I’m told.
Another change that surprised us was how the town has grown. Actually, maybe it hasn’t. I’m not talking about Casino Row along the river – that hasn’t changed a lot – but the actual town a couple of miles up on the hill. Brad and I discussed this and we concluded that we’d never been in that section before, always staying in a casino down along the river. We thought of Laughlin, as many uninformed people do of Vegas when they only visit the Strip, as being just a place full of casinos, never exploring enough to realize there are churches, libraries, drug stores, grocery stores, and all the other businesses that grow up when there are houses, apartments, and condos full of people who actually live an ordinary life like in any hometown USA.
One thing we found that hadn’t changed: snowbirds in their RVs camping all over the place. And we met a lot of them, an enthusiastic bunch who came to get some good gambling advice when I spoke at the library. I could tell a lot of these snowbirds came to Laughlin for two reasons: the warm winter temperatures AND the chance to spend time in casinos.
We stayed at Harrah’s and found out what we’d read on the Internet VP bulletin boards – that good video poker is still alive and well up and down the river in this casino town. However, we did take a little time for exploring in areas we hadn’t visited before. From the town center, we drove out a few winding miles to the Indian casino, Avi. We were surprised at the size of this resort. There’s a 300-room hotel and a 260-space RV park, which was quite full. The large casino has a buffet, sit-down restaurants, and a food court. It sported new slot machines, video poker, and slot club promotions, and was bustling with action on the Friday night we were there, looking like any crowded Vegas casino.
It was a fun getaway weekend, although some might call it a busman’s holiday. But we got to meet a lot of enthusiastic frugal fans and we won a little money playing VP. What more can we ask for from a mini-vacation?
A couple of “programming” notes:
The World Series of Blackjack (WSOB) has started airing on GSN (formerly the Game Show Network) on Friday nights (with reruns all week) and has been both a fun and educational watch. The show on which I play airs on Friday night March 4, with the usual reruns several times during the week following.
Some have asked when Brad and I would be appearing on the A+E series, “Caesars 24/7.” I don’t know, and I have very mixed emotions about this show and whether I want our segment to air or hope it doesn’t. Goodness knows they need someone on the show to give some balance by providing sound math advice on how to gamble smarter. However, I may spoil the image that they seem determined to show. I’m kind of blond, but I’m not young. I don’t go out in public half-dressed, with body parts hanging out of my blouse. I’m not against sex, but I don’t think of it every waking moment. And I may have committed the carnal sin in the filming – perhaps I accidentally said something that showed I had a brain or two in my head.
Que sera sera!
2/18/2005
Bounceback Part 1
Bounceback casino cash is an incentive sent to you in the mail to get you to return to a casino. Whether you collect it in good ol’ U.S. bills or in free play credits that you have to run through a machine at least once, it’s the favorite casino promotion for most players. However, they differ on how they view and take advantage of this promotion. Here is one person’s take on the subject, a friend who does not want his name used.
“”Those of us who play lots of video poker at several casinos in Vegas have many choices to make. One of those choices is whether or not it’s worth the time, effort, vehicle expenses, and aggravation to drive all over town to collect bounceback benefits. Many casinos send bounce-back cash or free play to their customers in an effort to both reward loyalty and to get players back in the door to play more. Some of these casinos are the Palms, Stations, Fiestas, Coasts, Hard Rock, Tuscany, Ellis Island, Westin, Rampart, Cannery, Hacienda, NY-NY, and Sam’s Town, among many others. Amounts you can collect in one trip vary from as little as $3 to as much as $100 or more.
“”My personal rule of thumb is that I will drive ANYWHERE in the Las Vegas area for $50 or more. For $25 to $45, I will make a special trip if it takes less than 15 minutes each way. For $20 or $15, I must be either driving past the casino or just a block or two away on other business. I don’t bother with $10 or $5 unless I’m in the casino playing anyway. You must make your own choices on what your time is worth!
“”Many people try to play in such a way as to maximize their advantage. They figure out, or read, or guess at how much they must play at property X in order to receive the largest amount of bounceback compared to their play. This is a fine strategy for many, but it’s not for me. Driving around picking up $15 here and $20 there seriously eats into my actual playing time and my leisure time as well. Call me lazy, but I don’t enjoy fighting traffic in order to pick up bounceback at six or seven distant casinos, possibly taking half a day — and especially not in summer’s triple-digit heat. Maximizing your edge (including bounceback) at lots of casinos carries with it a price that’s too high for me personally. My preference is to pick a few casinos with decent games, where I truly enjoy playing. I have one core casino where I play most of the time, enjoy the comps, and get the maximum bounceback. I also play occasionally at three or four other casinos in the same general area, just enough to receive sufficient bounceback to make the short drive worthwhile. This is the strategy that currently works best for me.
“”Many years ago, bounceback was rare or nonexistent. I would generally play at the casino with the best combination of games and cashback, with ambience and comps as smaller factors. A couple of years ago, when bounceback became more common (and cashback began dwindling), I tried to play at lots of places to maximize my mailings. Financially, this worked okay, but it was not something I was happy doing. In the past year or so, I realized that gambling should be fun as well as (hopefully) profitable. Reducing the number of casinos I played at, and therefore reducing my “”driving-around”” time, has made playing video poker much more relaxing and enjoyable for me. It might work for you too, especially when you consider that you’re actually LOSING both time and money while you’re in your car, running into and out of casinos, and not playing!”
Next week we’ll continue with this subject.
2/25/2005
This week we’re continuing on the subject of bounce-back, which we initiated last week with a guest column from a single guy in Vegas and how he decides how much emphasis he wants to put on bounce-back benefits.
We local Las Vegas gamblers call bounce-back cash our “welfare checks” and the opportunities for this money seem almost endless, as long as you can find time to play in an endless number of casinos to earn it. You might think that no one would ever complain about going to a casino to PICK UP money, but in Vegas this can become a scheduling nightmare. Each coupon is time specific. For example, this month Brad and I have 38 pick-up times in seven casinos scattered all over town. Good thing I’m extremely organized or collecting money could get to be WORK!
There are many possible takes on this subject. Because Brad and I both qualify for separate bounce-back amounts on our separate accounts at each casino, one car trip is worth double to us as a couple, an advantage single people don’t have. To save an extra trip to a casino, we try to plan our play in a casino on a day we are also doing a pick up – although occasionally this doesn’t work, because promotions we want to take advantage of do not overlap pick-up days. We do “clump” our casino pick-ups, conducting anywhere from two to four in one area on the same day, so we have one or two free days a week when we don’t have to visit a casino and we can do just-life things. But again, this takes great organizational effort.
We try to avoid heavy-traffic times, but this isn’t always possible – Vegas traffic is a source of aggravation most of the time. We always have a wide choice of restaurants whenever we’re hungry and want to eat during one our bounce-back pick-up runs, since we have comps at all of the casinos where we play. And we sometimes plan an entertainment activity, like a movie, at the same casino where we are doing a pick-up.
Most importantly, since there’s a ceiling for bounce-back at any one casino, we find we play with a better edge (and better profit potential) when we emphasize bounce-back at many different casinos rather than playing beyond the ceiling requirements at any one casino. There are few casinos where one can play every day with a good edge, especially beyond the quarter level. You need to move around to different casinos and take advantage of the best promotions, including bounce-back.
As in all things, personal goals are the key. As long as Brad and I are having fun picking up bounce-back all over town, we will continue to do it. However, I notice that we’re already slowing down a bit in this area. Is it a sign of old age? Or perhaps I’m finally getting some sense? Five or ten dollars doesn’t tempt us out of the house. We can even skip picking up $15 or $20 and I have only a twinge of regret as I tear up the coupon.
If you want to know more about maximizing bounce-back benefits so you can run around collecting money from casinos, I suggest you read the 10-page section in More Frugal Gambling in which I discuss this topic in depth. If it sounds too much like work, that’s okay. I’ll still like you anyway.