It seems like such a non issue, but your interaction with your blackjack dealer is critical.  They can certainly make a tough session easier and a great session even better. 

I have another post on Karma that I am cooking up, but I can tell you that a properly toked (tipped) dealer can certainly make a difference in your session.  I can not tell you how many times I have been overpaid, paid on a tie, or just paid on a loss by a dealer who was looking out for yours truly.

Now I am not saying that they are actively trying to get fired, or that I am running some confidence game with a ring of dealers in Vegas or anything.  That’s just not the case.

What I can say is that I have made eye contact with a dealer on a number of occasions as they made a simple mistake, and they just keep moving the game forward.  You see, they don’t care if you take every last chip from their tray.  It’s not their money, and many of them will tell you just that.  So think of it as a bank error in your favor, just like in the monopoly game of your youth.  Only this time its real money and it’s nice when it happens to you.

I can also tell you how many times I have been shorted; and that would be only once.  It was an honest mistake and we had moved on to the next hand when someone else mentioned it.  The dealer felt terrible and wanted to roll the game back and called the pit boss over and everything.  I told her it was fine and that things happen, and they do.  But I can honestly say they are much more likely to benefit you than not.

Of course it helps if you are tipping like you should (more on that in another post) and if you are at a table with a dealer that is friendly and engaging.  So let’s get to it!

5. Caesars Palace –

We play in the “old” pit in the Forum Casino near the hotel registration area.  This is where you have the best odds for playing and the dealers are generally much older and are really the salt of the earth.  A lot of them have been dealing for years and many of them have stories of Vegas from “back in the day”.  I have had many great times in this pit just listening to some vintage Vegas vets turn a card or two.

4. New York New York–

This used to be a young a hip place to play that was a bit too smoky at times.  That was fine because the dealers were fun and we used to pull a lot of money off of the tables.  However they are currently going through a renovation and everything looks like crap right now.  There is almost no gaming floor left, and they didn’t have a lot to start with.  Hopefully they can make a comeback for next year’s poll, but as of right now they are 4th purely on legacy.

3. The Venetian –

As our level of play has increase over the years, we have found ourselves playing more and more in the Venetian, which is a good thing.  There are so many tables that you never have to hunt around to find a home.  They rate your play pretty well and the dealers have for the most part been great; fast when you need them to be and slow when it’s hurting.  A class act all the way.

2. Harrah’s –

This one tugs on the heart strings as you never forget your first.  Lori and I stayed at Harrah’s for New Year’s in 2003 and it was the right fit for us.   They had lower limits and some of the nicest dealers around.  We were in Vegas for like 6 days (way too long when you have no concept of money management) and they all knew us on the 2nd day by name.  Lori was actually sick that trip and I still remember Arlene asking me about how Lori was feeling.  It was startling and I remember her to this day, some 5 years and 30+ Vegas trips ago.

1. Wynn – 

Now I don’t think that I have won a dime at the casino from the moment it has opened, but I love playing there.  Everyone (and I mean everyone) is so damn nice that you just want to kill yourself.  Everything just smells good and everyone looks good.  Not that it should matter, but a well put together dealer just sets the mood just right.

So there you have it.  Lori and I don’t play downtown or at local casinos so it’s not a definitive list by any means.  But for the average Vegas visitor going to the strip, you can not beat the group for the best dealer experience around.

Remember, results may vary and check with your doctor before starting any vigorous activity. 

The Palazzo in Las Vegas is a very nice hotel.  That’s a pretty underwhelming statement when you consider how elegant the place really is.  I would say that it is on par with the Wynn and the Venetian in terms of “freshness”, but is by far the least ostentatious of the bunch.  For this discussion we are going to leave out the Bellagio as my good friend and frequent Vegas buddy; that we will call “44”, would say, “Are they still in business? Who even goes there?”  I personally don’t think that they are in fact going out of business, but they are definitely no longer the elite of the strip.

I will say that all of the staff at the Palazzo is extremely friendly.  Only once did we have a dealer who didn’t speak much, but she was extremely efficient and that was good since we were winning.

Lori and I have stayed their twice so far and the rooms are just great.  They are all suites and definitely all good. Here is a link to their site, but it really doesn’t do it justice.  All of the furniture is modern European with deep rich browns and cool to the touch marble through out the bathroom.  There are 3 flat screens throughout the room and they have HD as well, a very nice touch I thought.  There is a little office and a sunken living room, much like rooms at the Venetian.  The only real difference is that everything is just a little nicer.

The casino is actually very small compared to the Venetian.  There is only one main room with two long rows of tables.  JayZ has a club downstairs with a casino where the sports book is located, but we only wandered down there to see what was up and didn’t play any.

Every casino on the strip has a 24 hour place to eat and The Grand Lux Café is a great option.  There is one in the Venetian as well, but if you are staying at the Palazzo this is right by the elevators to the rooms so it’s very close.  They are owned by the same people that run The CheeseCake Factory, so you can imagine the size of the meals.  Very good indeed.

This last time we ate at Dos Caminos, which was great because the girls always love Mexican and this was very good Mexican.  The place doubles as an ultra lounge of sorts so late nights it’s a cool place to grab a drink.  They have a ton of Tequilas as you might expect, and can make a mean Margarita.  Very Choice.

There is a ton of high end shopping, but you are going to get that at all of the higher end casinos so there is nothing too special about that.

So basically The Palazzo is top notch and has quickly become Lori’s favorite spot on the Strip.  It doesn’t hurt that they give us rooms so I guess I should show them some love! 

By the title of this post one would assume that I am actually a winning blackjack player and I can honestly tell you that I am not.  What I am is a guy who can extend my play and occasionally pull a nice hunk of change off of the table.  Blackjack is a game of ebbs and flows.  The crucial element is to know when to get your winnings off the table when you can.

The reality is, to be a truly profitable blackjack player you have to either be a card counter or not play at all.  Since we are not trying to get thrown out of a casino, let’s assume that you are not going to count cards and you will in fact belly up to the table and plunk down your hard earned cash.  Trust me, it’s even more fun when you know what you are doing!

To start, I am going to assume that you know basic strategy.  If you don’t, or need a quick refresher, you can go to this site that lays out everything you need to know to get you to the point for which we can start talking.

So let’s get started.

In order to understand the nature of this game you have to think about it as a 50/50 proposition.  If you play basic strategy you will have a great opportunity to win the individual outcome or hand.  Now just like a coin toss, sometimes you are going to win and sometimes you are going to lose.  But within a session there are streaks, and it’s those streaks that you have to exploit.

Before I get too far along I want to set the circumstances for which you should be playing.  You need to find a table that is the highest limit that you are comfortable with.  Meaning, if you can afford to sit down at a table with $300 or $400 then you can play at a $25 level (or $50 if you are frisky).  The reason for this will be explained later.  You must also try and find a table that has a manual dealer shoe.  It should look something like this:

This is key because you will need the break in the action.  Blackjack is a very fast game and when it’s going bad you will be thanking the gambling Gods when the dealer has to yell back to the Pit Boss, “shuffle check!”  It’s also important because basic strategy assumes a certain amount of decks (of cards) in the shoe.  If you are playing on a table with an automatic shuffler, things are constantly changing.  So consequently the times that the cards are favoring the players are often greatly diminished.  Plus there are other theories on that, but I won’t get into them right now.  Just look for a table with a shoe and you are in.

So now you have a table and some people who look like they know what they are doing and you are ready to play.  As I said before, this game is a streaky one and you have to ride the good streaks and get off when it’s going bad. And that brings me to the heart of the strategy: betting.

The key to Blackjack is the betting; more to the point hedging your bet. I can not stress this enough.  You have to be able to take your winnings and constantly push up your bet for the next hand.  Not everything, but a good amount because when you are on a roll you want to maximize your output.  When you are losing you are only ever losing the table minimum.  This is why you must find the table and limit that you are comfortable with.  Let me illustrate.

You sit down at a $25 table with $400.  (The $25 limit is a pivotal one because that is the level when the Casinos actually start to pay attention to your play.  I will elaborate on that in another post, just know that getting rated is a very good thing.)

Your first bet is $30, I know you are saying that you want to bet the min, but trust me on this one $30 is the bet.  Now something crazy happens and you win.  Awesome, congratulations!  You are a winner!  Now the dealer is going to pay you $30 right next to the $30 you just bet.  Great. So for your next bet you put $50 out in the circle. At this point you have pulled $10 of profit off of the table. Here it is broken down:

$400 – $30 = $370 at the start of the first hand.

$30+$30+ 370 = $430 after winning that first hand.

$430- $50 (second bet)= $380 at the start of the second hand.

Things are now cooking and you win the next hand. Now you win $50 and that is paid out right next to your $50 bet.  The next hand out, you increase your bet to $75.  Now you have completely covered your initial exposure of $30 (your original bet) and a total profit of $5.  But wait, you still have that $75 bet for the next hand.  If you win that next hand you are really playing with the house money!  That is pure profit and all sorts of great things happen at this point.  You keep this pattern going until you get to $125; at that point you increase your bet at $50 per consecutive win.  When you get to $250 then you can increase your bet by $75 or $100 (a “check”) until the cows come home!

It’s important to understand that at any time you lose you take you bet down to the minimum of $30.  There will be a large temptation to put a big bet up there after you have lost a hand where you had $150 bet, but don’t.  You are throwing your profits away because just as quickly as you can win 5,8,10 hands in a row you can certainly lose that many.  So the key is to only lose a small amount when you are losing and win as much as you can when you are winning.

So many times I have been playing with people who always bet the minimum and never increase their bet.  They will win 10 hands in a row and actually end up losing all of their money because they will just keep playing and playing and eventually lose it all back to the casino.  The game is basically a coin flip, so when you are on the plus side, you really need to be taking advantage of the situation.

This brings me back to the importance of that dealer shoe.  You need that chance to actually win.  You need the opportunity to have that break in the action and reassess.  When you have made a good profit you should leave.  There are so many blackjack tables in Vegas that there is no reason to be married to any one table.  If you have been taking a beating, maybe it’s a good time to grab a snack or something.  Move to a new location and start again.  This game is like a wave; you always want to get out when you are going up and don’t stay too long or it will all come crashing down.

This is obviously going to be a multi-installment post.  More on this to come.

There are just so many things to talk about when talking about Vegas, so let’s begin at the beginning: Flights.

Now a couple of years ago I finally decided to consolidate my air travel to one airline.  Like most people I would always go to Orbitz and find the cheapest flight and just go from there.  That’s pretty much how I did it for the first couple of years and all was well.  Then I took a look at my miles and realized that I had a ton of miles, but they were spread out across 5 airlines.  And of course I didn’t have enough to do anything on any one of them.

So I decided to take the plunge and pick one carrier and go with it.  The winner was US Airways.  Now about a year after that decision was made I moved to Atlanta for work and of course the two players in this market is Delta and AirTran.  Not to worry though, this decision would turn out to be mint, read on.

Hopefully you do live near a rather larger airport because you will need a lot of flight options when coming to Vegas.  Luckily there are about a million flights into Sin City every day, a ton from LA if you happen to be so lucky.  If you are an East Coaster like me, the distance makes it unrealistic to do any trip less than 3 nights.  I say this because if you are trying to make a weekend out of it and you fly out on Friday night; you inevitably will stay up way to late and then be the walking dead come Saturday.  You will surely catch your 2nd wind and stay up even later on Saturday night and then just be a pile of dung for Sunday as you fly back east all day.  This makes for one crappy Monday morning that you just don’t want to put yourself through.  So you should stay that Sunday night or fly in Thursday so you don’t feel cheated.  Now back to flying…

The real reason to consolidate your air travel is so you can actually achieve some status and potentially some first class upgrades.  Now I am not suggesting that you need to fly to Vegas first class by any means, but it sure is nice.  This is especially true if you are doing it for the cost of a coach ticket.  Enter US Airways.

Since they are not the major player in the ATL, there are not that many Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Chairmen people flying on US Airways; so subsequently yours truly (along with my companion on the same reservation) gets the upgrade just about every time.  This is even more important as I have learned over the years that Lori’s back is not so great when it comes to long flights.  The difference in the seats is like night and day when it comes to her demeanor when disembarking from the plane.  Then you throw in your free adult beverages, meals, and ridiculous amounts of snacks you can easily see the benefits of a little brand loyalty.

(This is a good time to point out that I am bummed that they don’t carry my drink of choice, Johnnie Walker Black.  Sure it’s not a deal breaker, Jack and coke is a fine drink in its own right, but man it would be nice.  I am just saying…)

There are also different things that you can see depending on when you fly into Vegas.  If you take a morning flight from say Florida and you are running ahead of schedule, the pilot often times will bank the plane over the Grand Canyon and then the Hover Dam.  I have been on both sides of the plane when this has happened and the view is amazing for both. 

If you are taking the Red Eye in, well there is nothing cooler than seeing the lights of the strip for the first time.  The crazy thing is the airport could not be closer to the strip so sometimes it looks like you are going to fly right into it!  It feels like a homecoming of sorts when I see that because I know how much fun I will have.  That feeling definitely changes over the years from the excitement of the unknown to one of going home to your hometown and seeing what’s changed.  But Vegas is nothing like your hometown.  This city constantly changes with new casinos and attractions that you are always left with a sense of wonderment as to how every city in America embraces their history and historical buildings and Vegas is the complete opposite.  If it’s not making money then it doesn’t make sense, and then poof it’s gone.

Vegas, it’s my kind of town.