Vegas Casinos seeing red

Used to stay at Rio occasionally until blackjack minimums were $25 most of the time. That place went downhill yet the minimums went up, so I stopped going there. But, a couple of days before Christmas, circumstances put me there again and there were a couple of $5 tables. I play $10 a hand, but I prefer to be at a $5 table. I like the Orleans. Always $5 available, never pay for a room midweek.
Driving there, some of the middling places (i.e. NY NY) advertise $5 blackjack 24/7. It's weird that you have to advertise such a thing.
One thing that bugs me is trying to figure out the rules for specific tables as I'm deciding where to sit. My personal preference is for the seat next to the third baseman and hopefully the third baseman has a decent stack of chips. I like to see hits coming around the table before it's my turn. I have been the third baseman and I do OK, but I'd prefer a really good player to be there. So I'm walking the casino looking for a spot. I can easily see the table minimum and if the right seat is available. But you have to just about sit down to figure out the dealer hit rules, the blackjack payoffs and the number of decks in play.

 

Don't be ripping on the El Cortez now.

It's like walking into the saddest casino in 1965. The way I like it.

 

That's been my experience on the Strip of late. Lower table minimums mean lower BJ payouts.

I prefer heads up, just me and the dealer.

 

No free drinks??? WTF? What's the point? I went on a cruise a few years back and I found out I had to pay for my own drinks. Hell I'm going to lose, so at least a little something for the effort, right?

I fit the exact profile casinos want, the player who is there to be entertained and understands the trade-off. Give me a nice atmosphere, free cocktails, and the illusion of an opportunity to actually win $$, and I'm fine. (Most depressing memory from gambling experience, shooting craps at 3 am after driving up to Lake Tahoe after waiting tables and my $150 in tips, and drinking OJ.) Thankfully, I stick to my limit of what I budget for the night and do not waver. Its the reason I have always picked golf in Vegas over golf in Bandon Dunes; what's better, table action after the round or Bandon Dunes bar with 99% dudes around?

 

Heads-up is virtually like a slot machine; it's OK only when I'm down to my last $50-$100 and want quick rewards or to be finished off.

 

I will disagree. Sitting at a full BJ table feels like a slow death to me. Waiting on people to decide whether to hit a 13 against a 2 or to stand on that 14 against a face card.

My best surges and harshest losses have come heads up.

My method of play is the same. Rather than counting cards, I count wins/losses for 20 hands (ignore the pushes).

Once up 2 units, then I'm done for the session. If I win a double down on the first hand, I'm done. Collect my $50 or $100 and off to the next casino or I will take a break. (I prefer to play $25 or $50 a hand, relative to the cash I bring.)

Let's say I go 7-13 on the first 20 hands. That would put me down $150 on $25 units.

If I go from 7-13 to, say, 12-28 (down 16 units and this did happen to me at Binion's last summer), I will bump up to $40 or even $50 a hand to catch the W/L pendulum on the way back. Took a while but I did get back to three units up and left up $75.

I bring enough money to offset a bad stretch like this and keep playing but, for me, a perfect Las Vegas day is winning $50 or $100 a session from five or six different casinos. Sometimes it takes two hands. Sometimes it takes an hour.

 

I don't like heads up. It goes too fast and if dealer gets a hot streak, you can bust in a hurry.
However, a few times I've sat at a table and when people began leaving, I was left by myself. That happened one time in Reno. I told the dealer I don't really like playing by myself. She said, "hang in there, you're going to win six hands in a row." First hand, she hit to 21. I shot her a look. She smiled and said, "starting now." And I won the next six hands in a row. Makes you wonder ....

 

Yeah, it's slower, but you have less of a risk of a quick bustout. I like to have playing time, even just to break even.

 

I thought this thread was another one about Lena Dunham's Hillary support.

 

I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for a few days at the MGM Grand, so I can pretty mush guarantee I'll contribute a couple hundred dollars to the coffers.