First time backed off (advice appreciated)

[zoomie]

I do have a bike. Two of them, and I ride all over the southern half of the city regularly. 330 sunny days a year, ya know...lol. Las Vegas is not nearly as bicycle friendly as many other large cities though. I am seriouly considering a motorcycle for my transportaion needs here, plus it would make for fun trips to the Dam, grand canyon and towns up north.

Not bike friendly at all. A motorcycle is no improvement over a car as you still have to park it in self-parking. But, I recommend a motor scooter (Vespa, etc.). Get the license plate (if you need one in NV for a scoot) attached by velcro. Park anywhere at the front of the hotel - sidewalk, bike rack if there is one - and remove the plate. Can't get a ticket without a plate.

 

[Automatic Monkey]

Not bike friendly at all. A motorcycle is no improvement over a car as you still have to park it in self-parking. But, I recommend a motor scooter (Vespa, etc.). Get the license plate (if you need one in NV for a scoot) attached by velcro. Park anywhere at the front of the hotel - sidewalk, bike rack if there is one - and remove the plate. Can't get a ticket without a plate.

No, don't! People did that back in the 70's before everything was computerized but now they can cross-reference the VIN and you will get a whole bunch of tickets.

If they find a vehicle with an obliterated VIN, it's going to be deemed stolen property and end up down at the police station, along with anyone found in possession of it.

 

[pit15]

Not bike friendly at all. A motorcycle is no improvement over a car as you still have to park it in self-parking. But, I recommend a motor scooter (Vespa, etc.). Get the license plate (if you need one in NV for a scoot) attached by velcro. Park anywhere at the front of the hotel - sidewalk, bike rack if there is one - and remove the plate. Can't get a ticket without a plate.

Yeah. The cops won't tow it or anything. They'll just say oh ****. There's no plate, nothing we can do about that!!!

 

[zoomie]

Yeah. The cops won't tow it or anything. They'll just say oh ****. There's no plate, nothing we can do about that!!!

Come on guys, get realistic. Anything is OK in Vegas if you tip. You give the doorman a couple of bucks and put it where he says. Then no one complains. And for $2 you save ten minutes at least. My time is worth way more than that.

 

[tensplitter]

Come on guys, get realistic. Anything is OK in Vegas if you tip. You give the doorman a couple of bucks and put it where he says. Then no one complains. And for $2 you save ten minutes at least. My time is worth way more than that.

Ah yes, a simple form of corruption.

 

[WrongWayWade]

From reading the forums, I'm guessing that being backed off is nothing to be too worried about in my position; in fact, I'm almost tempted to blow it off and look at it as a badge of honor, in that at least it verified that I was counting cards correctly (though I suppose winning money without getting busted is a more desirable indicator). But I don't want this to turn into a recurring problem, which is why I'm asking you for pointers. Here are a few things I think I did right and wrong; any advice is much appreciated:

I think staying too long at the same table was a big part of it, and you did say that after seeing that +15 count you bet well over your standard spread; I'm sure that caught some attention.

I've now been backed off twice in two different ways. The first I stayed in the same pit way too long (switching tables once), and even saw what looked like the call to the eye in the sky but thought I'd play some cover plays. DON'T DO IT! If they are really anaylzing your game from above, slipping in some wrong basic strategy plays and trying to bet 'wrong' just isn't going to work.

The second time was on the fifth day of a Vegas trip where at my home casino I had won $4000 over about 6 sessions. I wasn't at the table for that session for 30 minutes when the back-off came; which tells me they started running the analysis from the minute I sat down. In both situations I had won a lot in a short period of time; I'm pretty sure this is the key feature that will get them to run your game. If your game gets analyzed you WILL be backed off, cover or no cover.

Watch for the phone call and if anyone is staring at your table, it's time to move. And you can't win 'too much' in one trip without getting major heat. In my opinion, bothering with all sorts of complex cover plays just hurts your edge and is a waste of time. The trick is to get out before the call to analyze your play comes.

 

[capt_taco]

I think staying too long at the same table was a big part of it, and you did say that after seeing that +15 count you bet well over your standard spread; I'm sure that caught some attention.

Yeah, I think staying there too long (and across shifts for the pitbosses) was the worst mistake I made. I mean, looking back on it, most (regular) gamblers that show up at the tables I play at don't last more than 60 minutes without losing all their money or walking away with a lucky win. So from the casino's standpoint, I guess it's pretty obvious that if you're there for that long, you're either really lucky or you're counting cards, and it's pretty easy to tell which by watching you for a couple decks.

That's just something I didn't account for -- you know how to count cards when you didn't used to know, and you look at the game differently ... so you get in the mindset of knowing you have the advantage and continuing to play. If I didn't know how to count, there were probably 2-3 times I'd have walked away feeling lucky to have won. Guess there's such a thing as pushing your luck too far even if you do have the odds on your side. Valuable learning experience, that.

I don't know about the +15 count messing things up, though. Since I was literally in the john during the first two hands of the deck, I would guess that anyone suspecting me of counting would have thought I was an idiot for betting big after having missed the first two hands and therefore having no idea what the count should have been. I admit I was a bit nervous about it too, not knowing ... but with a +15 out there, no matter what the first hand was, I figured I had to be at around at least +10 unless the first hand was extremely bad. If they can pick that up while they're watching we walk back from the john, more power to them.

Watch for the phone call and if anyone is staring at your table, it's time to move. And you can't win 'too much' in one trip without getting major heat. In my opinion, bothering with all sorts of complex cover plays just hurts your edge and is a waste of time. The trick is to get out before the call to analyze your play comes.

I think this is another key point I overlooked. I wasn't paying any attention to the pit people at all. There were probably half a dozen times when they might have made the phone call but I thought nothing of it, because hey, who watches the $5 blackjack tables, and they were probably just phoning in some routine business like switching dealers. Guess I know better now.

I also agree about the cover issue ... once they've got some suspicion, nothing is going to help. During the end of this particular session, I actually did lose count of my own cards once and flipped over an A-4-10-6 thinking I'd busted. One time with a big plus count, I hit a 12 against the dealer's 4 because that's actually the right play, but to anyone watching you except the best card counter in the world, it looks like you're an idiot. Not to mention that I was drinking and swearing like a newbie tourist the whole time. So my guess is that cover might play a part at the very beginning -- like betting 3x normal on your first hand after sitting down while the pitboss is staring right at you, and things like that -- but after a while, no matter what, you have to have the timer go off in your head and get out.