Can Card Counters Get Comps?
Gambling Times Magazine
by Bobby Singer
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!! Seems my answer is fairly decisive. Not
only can card counters get comps, I believe in most cases playing
for comps becomes the purest form of victory for us, the players in
today's casino.
As a professional Blackjack Player dating back to the early sixties,
I personally experienced the constantly changing attitude toward
counters. At times casinos were most liberal, both with the way the
game was played and in their apparent laxity in attitude toward
counters. At times casinos were not so liberal and, through the
years, there were many different looks to that changing climate.
The depth they place the cut card is my barometer to guage their
attitude. Most casinos no longer allow their dealers to peek, but
instead use a mechanical device on the table to determine whether or
not the dealer has a Blackjack. This is done to avoid dealers
warping the cards as well as to prevent players at first base from
reading the hole card. Casinos have also trained their dealers to
shuffle differently making it more difficult for shuffle tracking.
Some casinos have different types of machines that shuffle cards.
Those that use a constant shuffle certainly negate card counting.
The shuffle machines that shuffle separate packs of cards to replace
those in play dramatically increase the speed of play, which is of
course a positive for card counters.
As you can see, casinos are constantly changing the way they deal
Blackjack. They change to compete in today's marketplace, which
often may just involve the rules of the game. Most Las Vegas
Casinos, for example, offer surrender as well as doubling down after
splits. They also stand on all seventeens. Most casinos in Laughlin
don't allow surrender or doubling after splits and dealers hit soft
seventeen. We as card counters oblige the logical and therefore
choose Las Vegas. It is very important to know the blackjack rules
offered in the casino where you are going to play. Besides marketing
to be competitive to the general public, casinos also constantly
change the integrity of the game to attempt to discourage card
counters. This most often will be the placement of the cut card. For
example, if the casino only deals 60% of the cards before shuffling,
it is likely counters will go elsewhere. However, this creates more
shuffle time or down time to the casino where they lose revenue from
the average player. If the casino deals 80% of the cards before
shuffling, the casino has less down time or shuffle time and
therefore increases the table net hold from the neophyte. However
card counters whose numbers are far less than the novice, will win.
Again the depth of the cut card is my barometer for determining the
"Heat" on the game, (The casinos efforts and attitude in
discouraging card counters).
But why, if the question is "Can card counters get comps?"
am I writing about the changing attitude of casinos and the way they
market and deal Blackjack? I believe it's important you understand
why I've had such great success as a card counting professional
Blackjack player. For me, there have always been three very
different approaches to the game. All three produce profit and
therefore considerable revenue to my family and me. One was or is
Team Play, the degree of which changes to conform to the changing
attitude of the casinos. The more lax a casino world becomes; the
more aggressive and larger the team becomes. The second approach was
my playing as an individual. This always was my favorite and overall
the most productive for twenty years from 1962 through 1982. I
personally averaged playing 3-4 days a week for more than forty
weeks a year.
I played all over the world. From mountain tops in Greece to Monte
Carlo, The Caribbean, Africa, Tasmania, Korea, Haiti, to name just a
few. I played almost everywhere there was a Casino. It took the
casinos twenty years to realize the act of a fool was just that; an
act. Since 1980 I've become such a regular on television, appearing
as a guest on such shows as Larry King Live as well as many
infomercials that you would think I no longer could even walk into a
casino without being recognized. Not true!! Within the last six
months I've played Blackjack at almost every casino in Mississippi.
No one asked me to leave or to stop playing blackjack.
As a counter for so many years, you can always sense when you are
being watched. Not once did I feel my playing was at risk of being
stopped. At many of those casinos I was playing for full comps
(room, food and beverage). Also, I recently played in a casino near
Palm Springs, California where I am building a new home. The casino
had just $2.00 and $5.00 minimum bet tables with a maximum bet of
$200.00. The tables were all full. I really was curious what would
happen if I attempted the bizarre. Therefore, my bet never exceeded
the table minimum until the true count reached player advantages. At
this level I actually increased my bets from the table minimum to
the table maximum; a range in bets at one table of 100 to 1 and at
another table of 40 to 1. I did this for more than two hours before
my wife and I decided to get some dinner and attend a movie. We left
the casino with more than eighteen hundred dollars in profit. Not
once did a pit boss even look at me. There rarely was anyone even
watching the table. The moral of this story is quite simple. Even as
visible as I have been in the media over the last twenty years, I
can still play this wonderful game as an individual. But it's time
to address the real core of this article; "Can card counters
get comps?"
This is the third reason I strived to be the best and most
successful card counter I could be; to actually play for the comps
as well as the money. This was so extremely important, as I realized
early on in my career, that the casinos efforts to rate my play for
comps dramatically reduced their focus on my skills. The casinos
rate such play by reference to time and speed. Simply put, the
average bet combined with hours played gives the casinos a
theoretical win. This then determines how much the casino will apply
toward RFB. If the action is strong enough, not only can you get
comped for everything; you may even receive reimbursement for your
airfare. Prolonging your play provides you with an opportunity for
more lucrative comps.
Recently I sat in the lounge of a Vegas strip hotel with a man I met
this last year.
He's a successful businessman who told me he had lost hundreds of
thousands of dollars playing blackjack. During the summer of 1999,
he saw me on television and purchased my home study course. He told
me at the beginning he stopped losing and after just a few months,
he started winning on a consistent basis. In the fall of 2000 one
Vegas casino barred him and then by December so had several others,
he than proceeded to tell me his general pattern of attack. He lives
in Las Vegas and likes to go to the same casinos and play with cash
and rarely ever asks for a comp.
I explained to my new friend (a delightful family man) that if I was
a pit boss and saw a player several times a week playing with black
($100.00) chips and not asking for comps, my total focus would
become the skill of the player. The pit boss is evaluating how good
is this guy? Is he playing for enjoyment or to count cards and
"beat the house."
I told him that even though he lives in Vegas, he should check into
a hotel for 3 days and play for the perks. Play for room, food and
beverage. I told him never to register in the same hotel more than
3-4 times a year. There is no doubt that the focus of the pit boss,
wherever my friend plays, will be whether or not he qualifies. Last
week he called to tell me what a great time he and his wife had for
3 days staying in a suite at a major, most beautiful Las Vegas Strip
Hotel. He won $11,518.00, saw a great show, and ate in gourmet
dining rooms, was treated like a king and never waited in any line
for anything. I thanked him for the phone call but more importantly
reminded him not to return to that same hotel again for at least
75-90 days. He also more importantly told me that while playing in
the casino for comps, he never felt any "heat" on his
skills.
"Can card counters get comps?" Absolutely!!! It's nice to
relax in a suite at a major casino hotel. It's nice to walk in front
of the lines at coffee shops, buffets, or other restaurants! It's
nice to see the shows and get good seats! It's nice to be treated
like a VIP!! Expect and ask for the comps your play entitles you to
receive.
Not only can card counters get comps, but its part of the feel good
process that allows your mind to relax its way to victory. I believe
the average three-night stay in a hotel suite with airfare and food
and shows is easily a perk of a few thousand dollars. That coupled
with a victory run at the tables completes for me, and my wife of
forty plus years, a lovely weekend!!!
Another important rule for us was always to change hotels. There are
so many good hotels and so many cities to choose from, causing your
visibility to lessen. I can enjoy all the party invitations like New
Years, the Superbowl, Presidents Week and others, yet any single casino
may only see me two to three times a year. They view us, all of us
that play for comps, as the losers of the world, the fools. They
sure get the "last laugh", don't they? Well, at least let
them think so. I don't get to laugh until I get home and count the
money!!
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