How bad did I screw up?

[Diver]

I suppose it goes without saying that a real AP would never miscalculate their chips, but I can attest that an AP wannabe can get so caught up in count, cover, talk, etc. that they discover they are up 120 units when coloring up after three hours of play. From comments I've seen here, 20-30 units would be a reasonable level to cap off if you want to continue playing at a particular casino, particularly if it is smallish. Note to self- stacks of four green chips are worth $100, not $25.

 

[EasyRhino]

I usually don't worry too much about how many chips I have in front of me at the table (Nor to I worry too much about how many chips I've ratholed). After all, there's a lot more important things to worry about, the chips will take care of themselves. Occasionally this means I'm surprised when I walk away from a table with a win instead of a loss, or a loss instead of a win.

However, on my last trip to Vegas, when I balanced my "books" comparing my jotted-down log against my cash on hand at the end of the day, I was short a couple hundred bucks. This was very worrisome to me, since I'm usually better at bookkeeping than at playing, I was worried if I had lost track of losses, or dropped some cash, or had my pocket picked, or had another drunken blackout. Turns out the cash was in the wrong pocket and I found it the next day.

 

[bj bob]

However, on my last trip to Vegas, when I balanced my "books" comparing my jotted-down log against my cash on hand at the end of the day, I was short a couple hundred bucks. This was very worrisome to me, since I'm usually better at bookkeeping than at playing, I was worried if I had lost track of losses, or dropped some cash, or had my pocket picked, or had another drunken blackout. Turns out the cash was in the wrong pocket and I found it the next day.

Easy, Given your professional vocation you should know that any good accountant has a funds payable and funds receivable pocket, as well as a funds ratholeable pocket These help avoid any embarrasing post-blackout cluelessness.

 

[EmeraldCityBJ]

I suppose it goes without saying that a real AP would never miscalculate their chips, but I can attest that an AP wannabe can get so caught up in count, cover, talk, etc. that they discover they are up 120 units when coloring up after three hours of play. From comments I've seen here, 20-30 units would be a reasonable level to cap off if you want to continue playing at a particular casino, particularly if it is smallish. Note to self- stacks of four green chips are worth $100, not $25.

I don't worry about the number of chips in front of me, unless a big stack is likely to get noticed by someone I'd prefer not to meet in the parking lot after I cash out. In such situations, I'll color up to large denomination chips and pocket them (note, I don't consider this "ratholing" since I'm not trying to hide the chips from the pit).

There are a couple other things to consider:
1) A three hour session is more than enough time for many casinos to figure out what you're doing. If this is a store you'd like to preserve, you might want to consider shorter sessions.
2) Be careful about keeping your chips in nice even stacks and constantly counting your chips at the table. I think "neatly stacked chips" is on the list of "card counter traits" used by some casinos.

 

[geneticfreak]

I know I have the neatly stacked chip problem, but I think it's because I have a slight touch of OCD. Every now and then I'll knock my neat stacks into a multicolored mess of a pile, but I can't bring myself to leave it that way too long and they get re-stacked into nice even amounts grouped by color.