 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||||||
 |
|
||||||
 |
|
||||||
A Winning Strategy for Day Trippers
Jerry Patterson's Advantage Player Highlights
Excerpted from the Novermber 2000 Issue of Advantage Player Jerry Patterson's Online Casino Gambling Newsletter at CasinoGamblingEdge
A Short-term Blackjack Strategy for Day Trippers by Bill (Killer) Konrad
I asked my Instructor "Killer" to write this article for you because he is
the most successful "Day Tripper" I know. The reason, as you will learn, is
money management.
As you read this article, keep your home casino area in mind because, even though Killer plays the Riverboat Casinos in the Midwest, this strategy can be applied to any casino area that you live near enough to make a day trip.
The table selection data in here can be used as Killer describes or augmented by the table selection data in my book **Casino Gambling** beginning on Page 73.
Introducing Killer - - -
I live in St. Louis and have the great pleasure of having nine casinos from which to choose. My favorite casino is Harrah's St. Louis / Riverport. This casino is a complex that has four separate casinos.
In Missouri and Illinois there are no longer boarding times, so you can enter or leave anytime you want. This is different from the past when you could only enter or leave at specific times. Therefore, table selection has changed since last year and become much easier. In the past I would have to fashion my table selection around boarding times
I play blackjack in St. Louis with a partner called "The Knee," and we have found the best time to play is around ten o'clock in the morning. Table selection is good with many tables having two to three players. I am a quick-hit artist, which means my sessions rarely go over thirty minutes. When I enter a casino, I do a casino sweep and pick the very best table in the casino.
My favorite blackjack table at Harrah's St. Louis is the twenty-five dollar double-deck game in the high-stakes pit. This table is still tough compared to Las Vegas standards. I can only double down on nine, ten, or eleven. I can only split aces once, and there is no doubling down after splitting. Dealers hit soft seventeen. The double-deck game can only be entered off the top of a new shuffle.
I will look at all the tables in the casino before I sit down. After all, if I head for my favorite table without checking, I might miss a homerun table.
In the double-deck game, I use the High/Low Point Count, but I only bet with the count if it has shown me good results in this game; i.e., if I'm betting up with the count, I am winning more hands than I am losing.
I use the double-deck basic strategy to play the hands (double-deck is same as 4-deck strategy except double on 6,5 or 7,4 versus Ace (hit 8,3 and 9,2); double on Ace,8 versus 6 and stand on 7,7 versus 10).
All the other blackjack tables at Harrah's are six-deck shoes. Once I select a blackjack table, I go for the win. Once I get ahead, I will never drop below my buy-in. My stop loss is four units, but if I am ahead, my stop loss might be less. If I walk out a one-unit winner, I am happy. All the six-deck shoes can be entered anytime. I always try to win my first bet. This can be achieved by entering a game in a predicted high-card clump, especially after the dealer breaks. I like dealer breaks where the dealer has a stiff and breaks with a ten.
Once I enter a game, I play with two units. If I should lose these two units, most times I will start over with another fresh two units. I will never lose more then four units in one game. Playing this system has allowed me to win over 90% of all my sessions. Many of these sessions are small wins, sometimes only one unit, but at my win rate those small wins turn into big profits. Once in a while I hit the big win that allows me to win ten, fifteen, or even twenty units. These wins are never forced -- they just come along. Remember, in any one game I can lose only four units. Playing with a partner generates more wins. When I lose and he wins, he picks me up. When my partner loses and I win, I pick him up.
I use Jerry's Target method for selecting tables and for betting in the six-deck games. You can find some ideas for table selection in Jerry's book, Casino Gambling.
Over on the Players Casino side of the complex there is a high-stakes pit. In this high-stakes pit, two twenty-five dollar double-deck games are set up, but rarely are both tables open. The other tables in the high-stakes pit are six-deck shoes, along with all the other games on the regular floor.
The double-deck game at Players is even tougher than the one at Harrah's. In this game I can only double down on ten or eleven. Another bad feature of Players Island in the double-deck game is that the no mid-game entry rule does not exist. I would much rather play through the two decks without having other players enter who may disrupt the game. My win rate in this casino is lower than at Harrah's.
The next best place for me to play blackjack in St. Louis is at Station Casino in St. Charles, MO. This complex has two casinos. One casino is on a boat, and the other casino is on a barge. The barge is moored to the dock, and the boat is moored to the barge. The best blackjack is on the barge. The barge has a high-stakes pit with four twenty-five dollar double-deck games. Most of the time I can find two of these tables open and sometime three.
The rules on blackjack in this pit are superior to any other blackjack game in St. Louis: double down on any two cards; split up to four times including aces, and double down after splitting allowed. The only bad rule is that the dealer hits a soft seventeen.
In addition to the nice high-stakes pit there is a ten dollar double-deck game on the main floor. This game is usually crowded except during the early morning, my favorite time. All of the other blackjack games are six-deck shoes.
All blackjack games on the boat are six-deck shoes and there is no high-stakes pit on the boat. Therefore, most of my blackjack is played on the barge.
At the time of this writing, Station Casino is in the process of building a boat on a moat, or a large land-based casino built on water. This is a way of getting around a rule that says all casinos in Missouri have to be built on a river.
My next favorite place to play in St. Louis is the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, Illinois. The Casino Queen is one of the largest boats of any kind on the Mississippi River. This boat has three big decks of gambling. There are no boarding times. I can get on or off the Casino Queen at any time. All Illinois boats are now open boarding. This is a change from the past when you could only board Illinois boats at certain cruise times. If the boat cruised, you could not get off the boat until after the cruise.
All the blackjack on the Casino Queen is six decks. This is the only Casino that stands on soft seventeen. There is no high-stakes pit, but there are some twenty-five dollar games and at least one hundred dollar table.
The President Casino by the Arch has all shoe games. This is the only casino in the St. Louis area that has an admission charge of two dollars. This casino is always crowded because only about one-fourth of their tables are open on a regular day. There have been many sessions where I came to this casino and did my Jerry Patterson casino sweep and went home without playing. When I do find a table to play, I usually have a low winning percentage at this casino. I do not like to play blackjack here.
The last casino in the St. Louis area is the Alton Belle Riverboat Casino in Alton, Illinois. This casino has all shoe games. This is a hard casino for me to beat. The last time I played this casino I had a rare session loss. This casino is also the greatest distance from my house, and the greatest distance from other casinos in the area. I do not play this casino very much.
My day trips and quick hits are confined to the St. Louis area, but I have played at and evaluated other casinos in my region. I sometimes play these casinos listed below on a business trip or over a long weekend.
Some of my other favorite casinos in the Midwest are the Par-A-Dice Riverboat Casino in East Peoria, Illinois, and the Empress Casino in Joliet, Illinois. I enjoy playing the Par-A-Dice, when I am on business in Peoria, IL. This casino will usually have five tables open during the day, and ten tables open at night. I like to play this casino when most of the tables are open for greater table selection. I usually win on the twenty-five dollar tables. It is hard to win on the five and ten dollar tables because of overcrowding.
The Empress Casino is one of the class casinos of Chicago. If you are a twenty-five dollar player, you can usually find a good game. If you play five or ten dollars units, you will really have to work for your win.
In Indiana my favorite casino is the Majestic Star Casino. Indiana is the last state in the Midwest that still has a boarding time for casinos. So when I play in Indiana, I can only get on the boats at certain times. This hurts table selection. Usually the best time to play an Indiana boat is during the second half of the cruise, after some of the blackjack players have lost their bankroll. Conditions are ripe for casino sweep during the second half of the cruise. Another good reason to play the Majestic Star Casino is because the Trump casino is very close. If conditions are poor at the Majestic Star, I can wait an hour and go over and check out the conditions at the Trump casino.
My favorite places to play in Iowa are Harvey's Casino Hotel and the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Council Bluffs. Both these casinos are usually crowded. For that reason I have to work a little harder on my table selection. Sometimes I do not find a playable table at all. I have had no big wins at either of these casinos, but they are fun to play. As with most casinos in the Midwest, these casinos both have six-deck shoes.
My favorite place to play in Michigan is the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant. Always crowded, it is hard to find a good game. On busy days they will open some higher limit tables, and these, because of fewer tables, are good games to play. This casino requires a good casino sweep to win.
My favorite casino in Minnesota is the Grand Casino Hinckley in Hinckley. Two other good casinos in Minnesota are the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, and the Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Red Wing. The reason I like the Grand Casino Hinckley is because the high-stakes pit is usually not crowded. Most times I can find a good game. The low-limit tables are always crowded and hard to beat. Mystic Lake casino is the biggest casino in Minnesota and has lots of blackjack tables from which to choose. Sometimes as many as forty blackjack tables are open at any one time. They have some restrictive rules like not being able to bet over twenty-five dollars if you enter in the middle of a shoe.
Treasure Island Resort & Casino in Red Wing, MN is a nice place to play. They have some twenty-five dollar tables and even the lower limit tables are not that crowded the times I have played there
Besides St. Louis, the other big Casino area in Missouri is Kansas City. My two favorite casinos in Kansas City, Missouri are Harrah's North Kansas City and Station Casino Kansas City. Both of these casinos have a two-casino setup for a total of four casinos. I can very easily go from one casino to another to find just the right blackjack conditions. The casinos themselves are large and have several blackjack tables to choose from. Both of these casinos have six-deck shoes.
My favorite casino in Wisconsin is the Ho-Chunk Casino in Baraboo. This is one of the biggest casinos in Wisconsin with four blackjack pits of around eight tables each. Usually I can find a good game in this casino, and they do have some twenty-five dollar games. My winning percentage is low in this casino.
Five hours south of St. Louis in Tunica, Mississippi, there are over one-half dozen large casinos. My favorite casinos in Tunica, in order, are Binion's Horseshoe, Sheraton Casino, and Gold Strike Casino Resort. Binion's casino, of course, is my favorite because they have single-deck blackjack. The best motel room in Tunica is at the Sheraton. These are big and beautiful casinos, and going to Tunica is a nice gambling vacation or weekend trip.
In Illinois, I play the Par-A-Dice Riverboat Casino in East Peoria, Illinois, and the Empress Casino in Joliet, Illinois.
- Bill (Killer) Konrad
Summary and Conclusions from Jerry
Killer's strategy is the epitome of short-term play. He plays on his terms at the times he wants to play. He is prepared to leave right now when he has accomplished his win goal or on a stop-loss. He doesn't go for the action; he goes in, he gets the money and he gets out.
And, as you can see, he know his casinos, he knows which are best for him and where the best games are. In other words, he has a plan and he executes the plan to perfection. If you live near a casino area, you should study this article very carefully and take the "Killer" approach.
I am not suggesting you play exactly like Killer, although that wouldn't be a bad idea. I am suggesting that you use this chapter as a model for formulating your own plan for your home casino area.
Here is a list of a few other large cities (besides St. Louis) near or containing casino areas in which this strategy would work:
- Memphis: Tunica, MS casinos
- Chicago: Riverboats
- Minneapolis/St. Paul: Nearby Indian Casinos
- New Orleans: Riverboats
- Hartford, CT: Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun
- Detroit: Downtown Casinos
- Philadelphia: Atlantic City Boardwalk Casinos
- Las Vegas (residents): Casinos surrounding Flamingo & Strip Boulevards and casinos surrounding Tropicana and Strip Boulevards.
Please take a look at what I consider to be the finest blackjack course every developed, the Blackjack Masters Course. The is a special offer on my Web Site right now. Click here: Blackjack Masters Course.
Best regards,
Jerry
I suggest cutting and pasting this page into a Word Processor document and then printing it out for study and use.
Better yet, purchase **Casino Gambling**.
Buy sports tickets Online! MLB, NFL, NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball and more events!
Home • Casino • Sports Betting • Sportsbook • Horse racing • Links • UK Gambling • Webmaster $
Warning: This website is for information and entertainment purposes only. This site contents adult related gambling content. Minors and people with gambling problems are forbidden from using this website. Unauthorized use of Internet resources is a responsibility of their parents and guardians. Please check with your local authorities if you are allowed to access online gambling related websites.
Copyright © 2000-2005 TheGambleZone.com All Rights Reserved.