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The Great Northeast
Road Trip
(read part I
here, or part II
here or part III
here or part IV
here) The nice thing about traveling to Connecticut to play at
Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, is the people. If
you like to be around people, Foxwoods for example, has A LOT of people. The largest casino in the world is populated by so
many people, that it makes the Rose Bowl capacity look sparse by comparison. Playing at Foxwoods can also be quite an experience. Its like a huge gaming magnet that attracts
people from across a large, heavily populated region.
The craps tables are likewise populated with a real cross-section of people. From Bangor and Boston to New York and Newark,
youll find so many discernable accents that youll think that central-casting
put out a call for stereotyped Eastern Seaboard voices. Since Foxwoods is so close to New York City, there is a very
strong NYC influence. You know
10 New
Yorkers
12 opinions! It is that
atmosphere which gives Foxwoods its special character.
The dealers are quite skilled, but they are also a little jaded when it comes to
graciously accepting tokes. Some players
dont even receive a thank-you or an acknowledgement of their dealer-bet. I guess no one told them that being polite
doesnt diminish their masculinity. Or
perhaps they make SO MUCH money from super-george tippers that they dont
need or rely upon smaller contributions from other players.
Either way, the situation may change if New York City ever does build a casino in
the future. Okay, the overwhelming vote was to economize on the Trip
Report details, and maximize the methods and approaches that I used on this adventure. You may not be interested in what kind of suites
we stayed in, or what year of Poilly-Fuisse we had with dinner, or what the Connecticut
countryside looks like at this time of year; so heres what you asked for. My betting methods were fairly conservative for the most part. My buy-in was $1000 for each session. My Loss-Limit was set a little higher for these
sessions because I was playing on unfamiliar tables.
I figured that it might take a while to dial-in the sweet spots
as well as I do on most of the tables in my regular haunts.
For that reason, I set $250 as my rock-solid, will-not-compromise
Loss-Limit. That is a Loss Limit equal to 25% of my buy-in, which is
actually HIGHER than my current 15% Loss Limit rate, and Ill explain just why in a
moment. Some people suggest that a 50% Loss Limit and a 10% Win Goal is
appropriate. Okay, but that means you usually
have to have five winning sessions just to break-even for each losing session. That means that 83.3% of your sessions HAVE to be
winning ones! Whew, now thats a pretty
hefty target. I remember some people registering disbelief when I wrote about
winning 19-out-of-20 sessions (for a 95% win-rate).
Now, if these same people subscribe to the 50% Loss Limit and 10% Win Goal; then I
can understand their bitterness and reluctance to believe in what I am doing. I guess if I was winning 80% of my sessions and
still LOSING money; then Id be a little reluctant to believe in the accomplishments
of others. Hell, Id have a hard time
believing in almost anything other than craps being a negative-expectation game at that
point. In my articles I talk about Loss-Limits quite a bit. In fact, in some upcoming articles that
havent been posted yet, I go into excruciating details about the how,
why, when, where and what of Loss-Limits. For this trip, I wanted to gather as much
table information as possible. I
wanted to update my casino-shooting database, with as much detail as practical. I figured that it would take a decent period of
table-time to figure out the best positions, throws, and especially sweet-spots for each
one. I was willing to have a higher Loss
Limit to accomplish that goal. Again, as it turned out, it was a needless concession. I was able to gather the needed information
without causing any bankroll damage. I was
definitely pleased that I was able to demonstrate some decent consistency from table to
table. Only the sweet-spots varied to any
real degree. That one aspect of sweet-spots was the most difficult to figure
out, but the patience, discipline and bankroll exposure was well worth the effort. The reward from some tables was truly stupefying. I even amazed myself that some sweet-spots were so
large and forgiving, that there were literally hundreds of times when I was sure that the
toss would render a 7-Out, only to be blessed with a Point or Place number
win. The dice just didnt act as erratically as they normally do
if my throw isnt perfect. I attribute
that to moderate table lengths, consistent felt-condition and base materials, good-quality
Paul-Son dice, and very absorbent back-wall rubber pyramids. There were many times when the dice bounced up
into the pyramids and still stayed on axis for the rollback. The only time when it had a negative effect, is
when one dice would hit the wall and flop down about one or two inches from the wall,
while the other dice decided to go on an erratic Australian walkabout, and travel up to
twelve inches further, sometimes on axis, and sometimes not. The results from that were totally unpredictable
and random. Heres how I bet on random-rollers:
Thats it. Thats
the entire method that I used up until we got to Atlantic City. Ill readily admit that this method is
definitely NOT the only way to approach random-rollers, and its probably not the
best way either. If a table got ice-cold, I
used a short-leashed progression on the No-4 or No-10.
We subsequently made dramatic changes to our choppy table
methods once we got to AC. Ill tell you
more about that in Part VI of this report. As to my own shooting, well, I was pleasantly surprised at how
good the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun tables were. Yes,
they were usually crowded, but I had plenty of good hands, which encouraged me to seek out
the less-crowded tables. That meant playing
at much higher limit tables. Normally I
dont do that simply because I dont have to.
In Vegas, you can shop around to find empty tables.
Here, its a little different. Even
the $25 tables can get moderately-crowded whenever they are open. We sought out those higher-limit tables, but mostly avoided ALL
of the random-rollers who populated them. Instead
of being squished in like sardines at the $5 tables, the $25 ones usually afforded a good
amount of open space. Once a table filled up
and I was finished with my own roll; I would then move on to another one. This method worked out best, and actually helped
my shooting profitability especially once we got to Atlantic City. For my own shooting at the $25 tables, my betting approach
looked like this:
Although $25 tables were never outside of my snack
bracket, I never felt compelled to play at them because there were always cheaper
alternative choices. This trip-experience has
made me rethink that reluctance SOMEWHAT. While
Vegas offers a wide variety of price-points, Foxwoods provided enough substantive proof
that my own shooting could stand up to the higher-limit tables without jeopardizing my
bankroll, or make me uncomfortable in having to bet higher Pass Line minimums. Interestingly enough, some of my longest rolls took place on
those expensive tables. Due to the dice
circling the table faster because of fewer players, my shooting opportunities were much
more frequent then they would be on the more crowded $5 and $10 tables. This more-shooting-frequency factor
helped contribute about 40% of the overall profit for this segment of the trip. You can see why Ive given the $25 tables a
little more attention. My Connecticut results were as follows: § Sessions: 20 § Total Playing Time: 32.0 hours § My hands: 81 § My Rolls: ranged from a low of 2 to a high of 32 § Sevens-Rolls-Ratio: 18.4:1 § Total profit: $8204.00 § Profit-per-Hour $247.00 Atlantic City is next. The
CD changer has our favorite discs in it, the gas tank is full, the road is clear, the sky
is blue, theres a great lady beside me, and theres a smile on my face. Saddle up, partner, were headin south. Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables
and in
Life. The Mad Professor
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