Casino Tricks Of The Trade
Whenever you play at a casino, whether it be one of the major casinos on the Vegas strip, or an online casino such as Zodiac online casino, you want to always maximize your chances of winning. As with any gambling, the odds are stacked against you. But you can do a few things to try and bring the odds slightly more back into your favour.
Casinos bank on certain tricks of the trade to keep people playing. Maybe you know about the 'no windows' policy in gambling areas. The thinking is, if you can’t see outside you won’t notice how long you’ve been there or how late it is.And, of course, casinos want to keep the food and drink close so you don’t wander too far away.
There are some games that have a higher payout percentage than others. These are the ones you should target when you play. If you like to play the table games then games such as Baccarat as it has a much better payout percentage for the player than games such as Caribbean Stud Poker, which favours the casino a lot more.
Casino Tricks Of The Trade
- This website monitors modern casino tricks of the trade, understanding the importance of players using their smartphone to play. Now it’s all changed, simply grab your favourite gadget and enjoy at your leisure. The entire experience you have can be made even better. This is done easily by taking pleasure in many of the live casino games that.
- Slots tips are tricks of the trade that generate better value for money while wagering on slots machines. They also help you to avoid common pitfalls that are not apparent to new players. The most important slots tip is to look at slots machine as a source of entertainment and not income.
If you like to play the online slot spiele, then there are certain games that offer higher payouts. The more accomplished slot players like to play the video Poker slots, as these are the ones that offer the best payout percentages for the player. If you know the game you can have a lot of success when playing, and as long as you are disciplined and know when to walk away when things aren’t going too well, then you can really do well at this game.
All slot games should have the payout percentages listed, so you will know which ones will be better for you to play. This is very important information for you to know, as if you are playing a game that has a 94% payout, when you could be playing a game that has a 97% payout, you will obviously be minimizing your chances of winning.
So once you have determined the best games to play according to their payout percentages, you should then develop a strategy to again maximize your chances of winning. Games like Roulette and Blackjack can be strategized thoroughly, and you will see that all accomplished players will play very consistently to the strategy that they have devised for the game.
This usually comes through hours and hours of playing, and trying different things. The best way for you to do this is to play at an online casino, so you can really work on your strategy and not have to pay too much while you are doing it.
Card counting has been around the since the 1950s. It first hit casinos in the 1950s when a group of army veterans known as the “Four Horsemen” began using it.
Flashy billboards and advertisements that lure people to the front door. The absence of clocks or windows inside the casino to obscure a sense of the passage of time (so that customers are more likely to linger and gamble more) psychedelic carpets and a hypnotic ambiance, which encourage customers to focus on gambling. The hypnotic buzz that patrons experience when they go into a casino isn’t an accident. Feel good vibrations – The atmosphere that is created is one that will play to the feel good senses of the patrons. You will notice a friendly and enticing atmosphere among staff members that may be further complemented by the casino’s entertainment.
But these weren’t exactly the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, because they weren’t even winning money. Casinos didn’t begin fearing card counters until the mid-1960s.
It wasn’t until Ed Thorp refined card counting and presented his system in Beat the Dealer that casinos started sweating. The gambling industry can thank Thorp, though, because they used his book to understand how blackjack can be exploited.
Casinos have only gained a better understanding of card counting and thwarted numerous advantage players in the process. Some consider counting cards to be largely dead as a result.
However, a new documentary shows that this thought is far from the case. Inside the Edge: A Professional Blackjack Adventure reveals that card counting is still quite profitable.
More importantly, Inside the Edge takes a gritty look at the lifestyle of a blackjack pro and the struggles they deal with.
If you’re looking for a documentary that embodies the spirit of the hit film 21, then you’re looking in the wrong place. However, if you’d appreciate a realistic take on professional card counting, then you’ll definitely want to find out more about this riveting documentary.
Cross Country Blackjack Adventure That Results in Big Wins
Inside the Edge revolves around “KC,” a blackjack pro who visits casinos from Atlantic City to Northern California. He frequently changes locations to take advantage of different casinos and finds new targets after getting thrown out of old ones.
KC started playing blackjack as a young man and was immediately hooked. He dreamed of beating casinos for profits and read numerous books on the subject.
Eventually, KC became good enough to win and made regular trips from his California-based college to Las Vegas. He did so well that he decided to play as a full-time professional.
One good aspect to Inside the Edge is that it doesn’t present card counting as a guaranteed path towards riches every night. However, it does show how profits can roll in during a hot night.
For example, KC makes $30,000 in a three-day span during the Northern California leg of his trip. He also has plenty of other lucrative nights thanks to his skills, experience, and huge bankroll.
Tricks of the Trade
Inside the Edge: A Professional Blackjack Adventure features some of the interesting tricks that advantage gamblers can pick up. For example, KC found a way to game casinos using the very RFID chips they use to track gamblers’ betting patterns.
Too large of a spread tips casinos off to when somebody is counting cards. The RFID chips give gambling venues an easy way to detect wide bet spreads.
KC figured out that he could still register chips as being wagered even if he held them under the table. He used this discovery to his advantage by strapping chips near his knees and putting them underneath the betting circle area.
This trick made it appear as if he was always betting between $2,000 and $3,000 per hand. In actuality, he was risking much less than this when the count wasn’t in his favor.
Furthermore, KC also learned how to add shuffle tracking on top of card counting. Shuffle tracking helps him gain an even bigger edge and makes it harder for casinos to figure out if he’s an advantage player.
Card Counting Isn’t an Easy Living
Casinos don’t make it easy on KC and other professional counters. They use other technology beyond the RFID chips to catch counters and ban them.
For example, they have facial recognition technology that can identify card counters who’ve been entered into certain databases. KC uses a variety of different looks and disguises to get around this tech and avoid being recognized.
Nevertheless, he’s frequently backed off or even kicked out of casinos during the documentary. He has a particularly tough run of getting kicked out of Vegas casinos.
“I’m not welcome in this city,” says KC. “I’m finding myself playing in poor casinos and off-shifts at low limits […] Now I’m a known entity and can’t play in Vegas anymore. I’ve come to crossroads in my blackjack career.”
“I need to determine if I want to go down this road further. I’m going to have to leave Las Vegas, travel around the country, and hit other casinos.”
KC chooses to continue playing blackjack for a living. However, he’s forced to embark on the aforementioned cross-country journey to make it happen.
Beatdowns From Security Are Still a Threat
Casinos once had a reputation for taking advantage gamblers in backrooms and beating the crap out of them. Of course, this reputation was largely earned when the mob ran Las Vegas from the 1930s to ‘70s.
These days, the corporate-owned gambling establishments aren’t known for using such heavy handed tactics. But some of the card-counting legends appearing in Inside the Edge note that this is still a distinct possibility.
Max Rubin, a gambling expert who holds the secretive “Blackjack Ball” every year, has had some really bad experiences with casinos.
Casino Tricks Of The Trademark
“In the past, I have been drug in the back, I’ve been punched,” said Rubin. “Friends of mine have been burned with cigarettes, friends of mine have had their jaws broken, friends of mine have been threatened to be murdered.”
Luckily, KC doesn’t encounter any physical altercations or serious threats during the filming. But a Mississippi casino trespasses him without letting him cash in his chips. KC has to contact a Mississippi gaming agent just so he can reenter the casino legally and exchange his chips.
Downswings Are a Reality
Even the most successful card counters don’t have huge advantages over casinos. They can suffer major downswings as a result.
KC experiences this firsthand as he regularly loses thousands of dollars in certain spots. For example, he has a really tough time in Connecticut and drops his limits some to “regain confidence.”
Overall, KC makes hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of his blackjack adventure. But even at this rate, the short-term losses hit him hard.
During these rough patches, travel only adds to the difficulties. KC’s journey took him to the United States’ West Coast, South, North, and even the Bahamas.
“Travel is a big part of the game,” says advantage gambling legend James Grosjean. “Moving around constantly. It’s an aspect of the game that makes it difficult for some people. At first, the travel can be fun. But sometimes the travel is very grueling.”
Luckily, his long trip ended on a high note in the Bahamas. KC not only won plenty of money without being harassed, but he also got some relaxation by the pool.
His father, a former backgammon world champion, even joins him at the very end of the journey. The father and son count cards in the Southwest region to close out the trip.
Casino Tricks Of The Trade Industry
Altogether, KC winds up with almost $500,000 in three months’ of play. He was up over $600,000 at one point lost around $300,000 in the middle of the trip.
KC was able to recover a good portion of these losses and end up around $500k in the black. He cut down on expenses too by sleeping in his RV most of the time (outside of the Bahamas flight).
Conclusion
Many people believe that card counting is dead. Both Rubin and Gambling Wizards author Richard Munchkin state that they’ve been hearing this same thought for four decades. However, KC proves that this is far from the case.
“Blackjack players will always be smarter than casino operators —fact of life,” says Rubin. “[Casinos] are watching somebody else’s money, we’re playing our own.”
“While the casinos are sleeping and those guys are at home, we’re thinking. […] Right now, people in blackjack are making as much money as they’ve ever made five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago.”
Card counters and advantage players alike can win playing real money blackjack. However, gamblers need to take things a step further to achieve KC’s level of success.
KC used shuffle tracking on top of standard card counting. He also wore a variety of disguises and carefully learned gambling laws, such as not having to show casino employees your ID.
Beating the casinos for big blackjack profits isn’t easy. But as KC’s journey’s shows, this feat is definitely still possible today.