john Site Admin
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 1181
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Posted: Jan Sun 01, 2006 9:42 am Post subject: Ploppies bother me |
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Notes from a recent trip; a thoroughly enjoyable visit to my favorite casino city. My wife joined me for the entire four-day trip, which is a rarity because of her usual work schedule.
The airport was as uncrowded and efficient as ever. The weather was beautiful.
We enjoyed a concert by Stevie Nicks and Vanessa Carlton at the new Reno Events Center, comped by a casino along with our room for three nights. We paid for only one meal during our four days, a quick sandwich at Subway at the Virginia Street entrance to the Golden Buzzard.
We had a $75 "free play" coupon from one casino, but the cage just gave us $75 in cash. :>)
Most blackjack sessions were quite short. No blackjack session lasted more than forty-five minutes. I played $25 to $200 everywhere, and $25 to $250 a few times. Slight heat at one high-end store on graveyard shift, and one polite backoff from a low-end joint. Otherwise, no hassles. EV extracted was about $2300.
JA Nugget's dealers now sometimes do one-hour-and-twenty-minute rotations, as do Atlantis dealers.
At Siena, I was the only player in the entire pit one recent day. With two suits camped at my table, I left. I hope the Siena can survive. It is sad that the casinos offering decent games are not supported by the masses, while the burn joints like Eldorado, Silver Legacy, and Harrah's with their 6 to 5 ripoff games are packed.
At Peppermill, the table min and max sign was not lit up. I sat down to a heads-up game, and a few minutes later, a ploppy sat down and bought in for twenty dollars. Seeing my stack of green chips, he asked, "Is this a $25 table or a $5 table?" I replied, "$25," but the floorman turned on the light and made it $5. Other ploppies ran me off soon thereafter.
Circus Circus, Fitzgeralds, and Cal Neva single deck pen still varies greatly by shift and dealer. I got eight rounds heads-up from some dealers, but only five rounds from others. With one other player, some dealt five rounds, some an unplayable three rounds.
I found a playable blackjack game at Golden Buzzard, which is a rarity. Though two dealers dealt only five rounds heads up, I was able to play two hands and get four rounds. This is an improvement over the Golden Buzzard's formerly universal four rounds heads-up ands only three rounds to two hands.
At another store, I had a $100 bet out when several small cards came out to the ploppy at the table, driving up the count. The dealer showed a 5. I split my tens to four hands, to the absolute disgust of the ploppy, who fervently made his displeasure known. The dealer busted, for a quick $400 win. The ploppy won his minimum $25 bet.
At Reno Hilton, two drunken ploppies were playing -- one at first base, one at third. Both played terribly, the first baseman slightly less badly. First Base kept berating Third Base for his many misplays, complaining about Third taking the dealers bust card, blah blah blah. Eventually, Third Base tapped out but sat there watching the other drunk play. Finally, he commented, "You don't seem to be doing any better without me playing." I thought (hoped) I was going to see a fight, but First Base Ploppy ignored the comment and the tapped-out ploppy staggered away.
Elsewhere, another ploppy didn't like some of my plays, and made repeated loud comments to his wife (who was standing next to him) about how badly I was playing. It was hilarious, because I made several correct index plays in negative decks to win my hands, but he lost. I pretended not to hear him, but had a hard time keeping from laughing when he stood on a 15 vs. 7. I hit my 16 vs. 7 over his protest, drawing a 5 to beat the dealer's 17. He got so mad his face turned red and he started sputtering. I don't know why he was so mad on that play, because it made no difference what I did. The dealer's pat 17 would have beaten his 15 either way. I thought he was going to collapse right there. His wife tried to calm him down. I left soon thereafter, not wanting to cause the guy to have a heart attack.
At Atlantis, I watched a polite backoff. I saw a suit and two guards walking towards my table and thought it was for me, but they backed off a player at an adjacent table. Both the suit and player handled it well, and there was no problem. The suit said, "You know you're not supposed to be playing blackjack here." The player quietly took his chips and walked away without a word. The guards did nothing. I have always thought the Atlantis was a class act -- one of few casinos I actually LIKE. This confirmed my opinion.
I'll be back in Reno in a few weeks. |
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