Table Games El Cortez single deck bet spread

Yes, at one time they had a whole row of penny droppers, it was rather amusing to walk by and and see people with trays filled with pennies, their fingers stained black from handling them. Remember, you had to feed in pennies for each pull.

 

I was there last week, played the $5 single deck as well. I'm a minimum bettor with perfect basic strategy, so I don't care for counting etc. However, in my case, there were two players, who were betting $5 on BJ, while betting $25 on the side bet! I don't know how many times they had to buy in extra hundred(s).

So, I guessed that would've been a great table for a counter, to blend in with the ploppies

 

In the past I was able to go $5 to $25 with little attention. However, I wouldn't stick around very long - 15 or 20 minutes at most.

 

Pit bosses standing there watching never bothers me, I just ignore them. On our trip in May my wife and I stayed at Bellagio but went downtown to gamble everyday and I spent between 3-6 hours per day at ElCo playing single and double deck every day. I was betting green chips, varying bet between $25-$100 pretty regularly with the occasional $150 or $200 shot thrown in. Two out of four days I cleaned up and the other 2 days I walked out down a decent amount. I probably lost about $200 total over the course of those 4 days. The dealers were friendly and the amount of hands before shuffles was 100% determined by how many players were sitting at the table. I bet for the dealer fairly regularly (at least once or twice per shoe, more often if I’m on a winning streak) sometimes $1 sometimes $5 if I have a larger bet out, so maybe that contributed to not being shuffled early. Some of the out bosses even talked to us and were friendly. I guess if them standing there watching you bothers you it could feel like heat but I never had them take any overt actions against me and never felt unwelcome, and if you add up my time at the tables I spent nearly an entire day out of a 5 night trip grinding it out at their tables. I don’t even think the critters at el co spent an inordinate time watching my play in comparison to any other casino I’ve played at.

 

Also, I should add, I was not the only player varying bets. Most were betting minimum the vast majority of the time but I did see players varying bets from $5-$25 and one other player while I was there who was betting bigger than I was averaging probably $100 bets and swinging to $200 regularly and they didn’t seem to have any problems either.

 

If I was flat betting, the pit boss looked at the discards, and then told the dealer to shuffle early, I'd be upset. (Not sure you were flat betting but it sounds like it). Isn't it akin to cheating by the casino to look at the cards prior to making the decision to shuffle? If they see a bunch of low cards in the discards, they can surmise the count is high and shift it back to 0 by shuffling. Since you can't really have an advantage flat betting, the net result is that the casino is increasing their edge by counting vs a player who never had an edge to begin with. Doubt anything can be done about it but I wouldn't play anymore at that table.

 

Hey @eksantirik , we were probably playing at the same table at times last week. I was the doofus with the backpack. Lol. I tried hard to count, but there were enough chatty folks at the table that it distracted me too much. Truthfully, I enjoy the banter more than trying to eek out a few extra bucks counting, but since the El co is the only place I can do it, I get a laugh out of the folks telling me I should be doing the royal match side bet. Lol.

 

El Cortez is known as the sweaty Spaniard for a reason

I don't even bother with their single deck anymore since they watch it even closer than their DD.Additionally single deck Basic strategy and deviations are drastically different from DD so it's not worth the extra work as I'm not going to last long and nobody else offers real single deck (except the Silverton with one table)

I spread 50-300 on their double deck
They also during slow times had pit bosses Hawking me from the first hand I played
This can't make people who bet green there are aren't even counting feel comfortable



My record for getting kicked out was 8 minutes when the most I had bet was 100 as the count had barely risen
My last trip to my shock I twice lasted 90 mins on their double deck

 

Some of the pit bosses are sharp some are morons
I've seen the morons kick out people for rasing their bets who clearly aren't counting and are playing terrible blackjack

The sharp ones aren't going to kick people out just for raising their bets if those players don't have an advantage

A major draw of blackjack is the fact that it's beatable

But probably 95 percent of people who think they can count don't play a winning game
Casinos are best served to be more tolerant and let people play longer rather than being paranoid and kicking out tons of losing players to get rid of a few winners in the process

 

Yes it is cheating and it's disgraceful

I know this board is mostly geared towards people who go to Vegas a few times a year and are just looking to have fun not be advantage players
So most don't realize that casinos generally are completely scum and beyond shady with the things they do to anyone who can eek out a small edge

It's not the mafia run 70s but many still do things that are illegal as well as use intimidation tactics against APs

Sure the pit boss will smile and pretend they're on your side and are rooting for you to win
Until you do win and they realize it wasn't just dumb luck

For people who are just looking to have a few drinks and play games they can never win at long term,they'll pretend to be your friend and take your money

 

One advantage I may have had there was that I did give most of my play during the day, was only down there at night one time. Was a great time, and yes I went there primarily to get a beatable game. If I had experienced what others have described (constant shuffles) I probably wouldn’t have spent nearly as much time there, so maybe I got lucky.

 

The constant shuffles are another reason I avoid the single deck
I've seen dealers deal more rounds in negative counts on single deck than they do in positive counts
Not all dealer do this but I have never seen the opposite

At the El Cortez on the double deck I've never seen a dealer drop the deck before the cut card in high counts or the pit boss order a shuffle in high counts
I have seen these things in other casinos

I have been backed off in high counts but have also been backed off in low counts

 

Oh sure. 15-20 years ago both the Western and Spike had penny coin droppers.
Western had legitimate 3-2 blackjack too.
Multi-deck and not great rules but I spent whole afternoons there sucking up free booze at virtually no house edge flat betting dollars.
Five hours at 60 hands an hour is an expected loss of 2 bucks for a lot of fun and a lot of booze.
Anyone else remember the Ethiopian dealers Tedjus and Addis?

 

For sure. This would have been in 2006, before I had a phone capable of taking clear pictures. I would have risked getting kicked out to get a picture of it.