|
The Great Northeast
Road Trip
(read part I
here, or part II
here or part III
here or part IV
here or part V
here or part VI
here) In
the backwoods of Oklahoma, a farmer's wife went into labor in the middle of the night, and
the doctor was called out to assist in the delivery.
Since there was no electricity, the doctor handed the father-to-be a lantern
and said, "Here, hold this high so I can see what I am doing." Soon, a baby boy was brought into the world. "Whoa there," said the doctor,
"Don't be in such a rush to put that lantern down.
I think there's another one coming."
Sure enough, within minutes he had delivered a baby girl. "Hold that
lantern up, don't set it down yet, there's another one!" said the doctor. Within a few minutes he had delivered another
baby girl. "No, no don't be in a hurry
to put down that lantern, it seems there's yet another one coming!" cried the doctor. The farmer scratched his head in bewilderment, and
asked the doctor, "You reckon it might be the light that's attractin' 'em?" I
spent quite a bit of this road-trip in Atlantic City during the middle of February 2002. The milder weather made it very enjoyable, and we
also had the pleasure of spending most of our playing-time with one of our close friends. It was with the guy who is the central-figure in
the upcoming 90 Days to Freedom set of articles. In it, I chronicle how I taught someone to become
a proficient and profitable Precision-Shooter over a three-month period. The
actual interview for that article covers the frustration, anger, doubt, anxiety, joy and
subsequent success, which he experienced in that ninety-day period. For the purpose of
this article, Ill call him RocknRoll because of his musical tastes, as
well as his mindset. RocknRoll
lives near Atlantic City in the community of Margate, and plays in various casinos four to
six days each week, for a total of about 40 to 60 hours.
His weekly earnings range from an average low of $800 to an average high of
$3000. His yearly income is in the $100,000
range, and he is satisfied that that is about all that he can extract out of the casinos
on the Eastern Seaboard because of the current table-playing conditions there. Well
have the 90 Days to Freedom articles coming your way
very soon. In the meantime, heres a
little summary of how we did on the salt-water taffy tables of Atlantic City, and how each
casino has its own distinct personality. Ms.
MP and I stayed at Ballys Park Place for the first part of our A/C portion of this
trip. A simple call to one of our Park Place
Entertainment hosts in Las Vegas was enough to garner us a pre-comped suite in the
renovated Dennis Hotel section of Ballys A/C.
I expected a bit more of a hassle getting room-comps from Ballys, but
didnt encounter any resistance when I was hooked up with their hosts. While the rooms arent huge or lavish, they
were certainly satisfactory to our needs.
Ballys
Park Place While
the hotel, food and beverage, concierge and valet service was excellent; the craps table
staff was competent, but somewhat jaded. While
I understand that the never-ending procession of daily tour-buses which disgorge a fresh
flock of sheep
er
players everyday may be boring; their dealers have
the dead eyes of dreaded mechano-drones that cant wait until death rescues them from
the craps hell of unending dealing. The
dealers here seem to hate their jobs more than most, and openly show a disgust of most
players. I dont think that is one of
the value-added features that the Park Place Entertainment trumpeted in their latest
Shareholders Reports. A
steady stream of tokes for the crew during my sessions barely loosened a nod of
acknowledgement from them. Most dealers in
any other jurisdiction are effusive and grateful in their appreciation for the level of
action that I involve them in. At
Ballys, even their winning tokes are half-heartedly put into the toke-boxes with a
resigned look of indignation. Our
actual play here was quite successful. Since
we were staying there, we had an opportunity to play in some really off, off casino-hours. My own shooting was quite good despite their long,
hard tables. My best rolling did not take place from any
positions near the stickman. In fact, my
longest, and most profitable roll was launched from straight-out at the end of the table. The initial touchdown spot for the dice was in the
Fields 12 or 2 circle (depending on which end of the table I
was standing at). From there, the dice took
one long bounce, and then continued to roll on axis to the end of the table. Now some
people might attribute good rolls like that to be based purely on luck. Okay, call me lucky, but you may want to hold off
on your Dont Pass bets, because this lucky spot delivered up nine
mega-hands. No
Pit heat was shown at anytime during my hands.
In fact, even when coloring out after successful (read: very profitable)
sessions, nary a second look was given to the number of $100, $500, and $1,000 cheques
(chips) that were sent out by the boxman.
Sands
We
did VERY well on their shorter 12-foot tables. Despite
the bad lighting that makes it seem like the middle of the night even at 10 am. I
didnt have any difficulty tracking the rotations of each die through the air and
right until its final resting spot on the table.
They did have $10 minimums in place most of the time. Their crews were totally unappreciative of tokes,
and showed outright HATRED for anyone who varied their betting (ie. regression,
progression, adding further Odds to a Come bet, turning bets off, etc.). Dealers would openly threaten each other,
and intentionally try to short-pay some Pass-Line bet players. These guys obviously failed their How to Win
Friends and Influence People course. It
was one more reminder why New York City would leave A/C to stew in its own
sour-juices if NYC ever approves a casino. Ill
have a rolls, hands and profit summary of how we did in each A/C casino in a
later installment of this Trip Report. Subsequent
to our trip, we found out that the Sands is reducing the number of table games,
specifically, craps tables. If their attitude
is any indication of their love of their jobs, then the cutbacks and layoffs wont
arrive a minute too soon. I realize that slot
machines can be far more profitable than table games, but if the up yours
dealer attitude is their way of encouraging new players to the game; then Im sure
they will find renewed happiness as slot attendants.
I wonder if their attitude will improve, while being stiffed by
quarter-machine jackpot winners?
Claridge
This
is not a high-roller house, but they sure have sweet-rolling tables. You can almost always find a $5 table here, BUT,
you can count on it being crowded 24 hours a day. We
did okay with the dice, but it was one of those one-chance-to-throw-per hour situations. Like Ive said many times before, its
hard to get into a shooting groove when you dont get your hands on the dice very
often. Still
the food was good, and the staff was fine. Im
pretty sure that their dealers dont see a lot of big betting action on their tables. During one hot hand, we worked our Inside Place
bets up to $300 each, from a $10 and $12 start. After
a few hits at that higher level, we wanted to press the 6 & 8 to $420 each, but the
female dealer couldnt seem to clear her mind to figure out how to do it. Yes, I know that its the same as pressing
from $30 to $42, just add another zero, but she just couldnt wrap her mind around
it. The box-man kindly assisted, when she
said that she had never handled that size of bet before.
The box-man apologized, and I said, no problem, as I threw
another $12 for her to press their own 6 & 8 Place bets that I had piggy-backed for
them many hits earlier. If
this casino was in Las Vegas, I would find myself drawn here quite often. While its pretty busy almost all of the
time, I like the atmosphere, and I find the tables react exactly the same way as the
tables at Gaughans Plaza in downtown LV. Of
course you wont likely see a $2 limit here, but then nothing is perfect.
Hilton
Im
not a huge corporate fan of Park Place Entertainment, but then Im not a huge
detractor of them either. What I do find is
that on-site management is more a determinant of employee attitude, than anything that is
printed in their Annual Shareholders Report. I
know Ive mentioned that twice already, but I recently re-jigged my stock portfolio,
and PPE was weighing heavily on my mind. While
not every dealer at the Hilton is top-notch, they ALL had a top-notch attitude, and showed
some amazing levels of friendliness and appreciation that I have NEVER seen in Atlantic
City in the twenty or so years that I have been going there. If you believe in good karma and maintaining
positive vibes; then this was THE place to be, at least for the duration of our stay in
A/C. Needless to say, we were pleased with
how the tables performed for us. Our
actual profit was not very high, but the enjoyable playing experience partially
compensated for lower than expected revenue.
Tropicana
I
didnt do very well on the Trop tables. The
funny thing was, one of the floor-men saw my Players Card sitting on the edge of the table
beside the box-man. He looked down at it
several times as he sashayed by the table, but never bothered to pick it up or fill in a
rating card. When the dice were in my hands
during a fairly decent run with the dice, he picked it up and flung it back in my
direction and said, Your betting action doesnt merit filling out a card. I replied by saying, Well I guess your
employees dont merit tips either. At
that I had the dealer remove three dealer bets that I had in action. I added, If I could get the $48 bucks that
Ive already had them drop in the toke box, that would complete your public-relations
campaign perfectly. I
only stuck around for a few more shooting opportunities with the dice after that. So I cant really say that their tables were
bad. That appraisal just applies to their
floor people. Needless
to say, our playing time at the Trop was extremely short, but the profit we earned
generated the highest profit-per-hour figure of the entire A/C casino group. In fact, the one and only ninety-minute session
garnered a whopping $1820 profit.
The
dealers here were great! In
addition, I found their skills to be on par with the best dealers in Vegas. The tables here are busy and handle some pretty
big action. Almost all players are handled
with a high degree of professionalism and skill. It
would seem that these guys actually love their jobs.
That is something that you dont see often anywhere. It was pleasantly surprising to see it at
Caesars-A/C. The tables rolled true and
straight for us, and we had some of the longest, most consistent hands of our entire trip. We ended up spending many, many hours here simply
because we figured that we couldnt afford to leave while the dice-gods were shining
so brightly on our shooting. During
one particular day, RocknRoll and I spent a total of thirteen hours at their
tables. That is WAY beyond the time that I
normally spend in a casino, however, the dice were rolling THAT well, and we just
couldnt leave. Despite nearly 40-hours
of total playing time in Caesars, this was the only casino where I never suffered from a
Point-then-7-Out roll. In Part VIII, Ill finish telling you about the other A/C casinos that we visited, and how we fared in each one. Until then, Until then, Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables
and in
Life. The Mad Professor
|
|