All done!
I'm sitting at the airport, with my money pouch down my pants bulging like a colostomy bag after a visit to the Eldorado buffet.
Haul for the weekend was $4500 not including my $4K windfall from cover play. (I don't know, should I count that? I count my losses from cover play in my calculations.) Slightly short of my projected EV but I'll take it. Only two non-violent backoffs, 1000 miles on the rental car (that time spent cut into my EV a bit), no criminal encounters (which is good- I've been enduring a streak of assaults, burglaries, attempted robberies, larcenies and extortions on my BJ trips- never pleasant even when you don't have to worry about protecting your bankroll.) I'm especially happy because I was down $3300 after my first 2 hours of play.
Notes:
Pen manipulation via the dealer in SD games is all-important. Work on heads-up games and be sure to be capitalized to spread to 3 hands.
If you're getting shuffled up on, you can use play-action bets to force a shuffle when needed.
My experience is you will get in more trouble with the house when losing than when winning. Maybe they are using ploppy math and believe you can make money by backing off counters when losing, or maybe they know being backed off when down is more demoralizing and they want to make it hurt. The way to beat this: win!
The new orange-cream shake at Arby's is really good.
If you play VP for cover, stick to a 25 cent machine so in case of disaster and you hit a jackpot, you won't have to present ID.
Also, if you are playing anonymously, don't lose anything in a casino! You will have to show ID to security to get it back from them. My cell phone fell out of my pocket at a table and fortunately the PC saw it, intercepted me on the way to security and handed it to me with a smile.