Question for Frank Scoblete: choosing the right table.

[Alan Mendelson]

Frank, thanks for joining. Please don't be intimidated by the rough audience here. Most of the noise comes from the cheap seats. (LOL)

I have a question for you that I never asked any professional before. How do you choose what table you want to play on?

Do you consider things such as bounce, wear of the felt, placement under air conditioning, placement of the table, dealers, lighting, length of the table?

I ask this because I have specific things I don't want to be concerned with.

I don't want to play on a table that is very bouncy.
I don't want to play on a table with a dirty felt or a torn felt (something I experienced at Casino Royale).
I don't want to play on a table that is right under an air conditioning vent (casinos are cold enough without being under the vent.)
I prefer tables without much pedestrian traffic around it because I don't want to always worry about chip crooks.
Yes, I have my favorite dealers.
I like tables that are well lit, and I hate tables where the dice fall into a shadow and you have to rely on the dealers' call because you can't see the dice yourself.
And since I stand either stick right 1 or stick left 1 (SR1, SL1 the positions closest to the stickman) I prefer shorter tables and I hate the long "aircraft carriers" that they have at some casinos.

What do you look for when choosing a table? Any particular table conditions that are more important for you?

[regnis]

Alan-it is primarily bounce where I am concerned. I want to be able to get a fairly soft landing or, if the table is hard but not bouncey, a consistent bounce upon landing.

I do try to avoid amateurs who are having too much fun as they are losing. I don't find losing to be fun and so I prefer a more serious group of players. I can pretty much get that at Caesars at the higher limit tables, but here in Chicago it's real hard to find, especially now that all of our casinos have reduced the number of active tables down to 1 or 2. We used to have several with 8 tables but they keep reducing and putting in more slots cause our gaming positions are limited by law.

[FrankScoblete]

I won't go into the dream world of a 10 foot table or my own "special dice" but things you can really get where I play.

1. 12ft table
2. normal felt like the good old days, no artificial fibers
3. at the very least professional dealers who tend not to crosstalk
4. at the best dealers who are not only professional but friendly (or at least act friendly)
5. red dice, clear, larger size
6. enough light to see (I have a vision problem so I don't really know what pips show up but I can shoot from 25 years of doing this)
7. most casinos I play in now have rather high ceilings but I agree about the air-conditioner idea
8. prefer a table with only two random rollers --- give me time to relax after sevening out
9. want to be with Jerry "Stickman" or others of my small group of teammates (I really prefer not to play with loads of players.)
10. I avoid the "junk joints" even if they have good rules
11. prefer to play early in the morning 5 to 6 o'clock or mid-afternoon (if tables are mostly empty)

That's it for now. It is almost 3am and I have to start writing an article for Casino Player magazine.

[Rob.Singer]

When you have time Frank, I have another question I've been wondering about. I have a friend in LV you may or may not know--Mike W.--a very tall & lanky guy in his 40's who in the past has worked at one of the LV cash advance corporate offices there. Several years ago, about five I think, he was overtaken by the "guarantee" of being taught a foolproof system of winning at craps.

The mentors were a sort of "team" based somewhere in Europe or Asia whom he actually paid an up-front $8000 fee to (which I greatly chastised him for) with the promise that they would periodically send one of their "experts" over to give intense training to my friend. These sessions were called some kind of "phases" that when completed, he would become a true expert and consistent winner at the game of craps.

After lots of prodding, this team finally did send over their expert instructor, and my friend learned the first so-called phase. But a year passed and he couldn't get anyone to ever come over for the other phases. So he asked me for help in locating them from phone records, e-mails, etc., and I was successful in finding one of the group's leaders in Malaysia and another in the Czech Republic. But all he could do is harass them and could not get his fee returned.

Have you ever heard of this scam? I was very surprised my friend got caught up in such a thing seeing that in his professional life, he's no dummy. Thanks.

[FrankScoblete]

No, I don't know this scam. I feel bad for your friend. Any good company will always offer money-back guarantee and live up to it.

[Alan Mendelson]

I never heard of anything like this. And I've been "in touch" with the "craps community" for "advantage play" for about 15 years.

[Rob.Singer]

I never heard of anything like this. And I've been "in touch" with the "craps community" for "advantage play" for about 15 years.

Neither have I up until then. I basically lived the entire experience with Mike for over a year and a half. If you and Frank have never heard of it, then it was just what it appeared to be--people preying on the weak with promises of making them rich. My friend tried to use my strategy with vp but he just didn't have the discipline required and always gave in to the temptation to keep on playing beyond what he said he would do prior to a session. That's when he went for the craps thing. He saw visions of money being withdrawn at will from the LV casinos, just as anyone with similar fantasies does with counting cards in BJ or so-called advantage play in video poker. Just doesn't happen. People can come on and say they know people who do that, but that's only what they WANT to be true and in the back of their minds, know it isn't. There is only one near-sure way to win consistently in Nevada and other similar locations in games other than sports betting, and that's by following the strategies and special plays I've put forth for playing video poker, and playing them exactly as I explained them.

[Alan Mendelson]

Rob, I wouldn't be too quick to discount the blackjack card counters, and have you ever compiled a list of your followers and their net wins?

[Rob.Singer]

Rob, I wouldn't be too quick to discount the blackjack card counters, and have you ever compiled a list of your followers and their net wins?

Your comment is kind of what I mean. Where are these people who supposedly make chopped liver out of the BJ tables? I did an article on this myth for GT after constantly reading how AC & Stanford Wong kept proclaiming they couldn't play BJ in LV any more and were forced to go into the gaming "business" to make money. Chuck DiRocco actually asked me (he never "asks" really, you just did what he said because it had to be important to him) to go to every major Strip casino and a few off Strip, with articles in hand from these two, and find out if that story were true, incomplete, or just plain BS. Well, every single casino manager and pit boss I spoke to said without hesitation, that both of them were welcome to play whenever they chose. Most of them did add in that, just as with all obvious counters--whether known or unknown--if they were caught then they might be asked to leave. But no one was banned for good. So it turned out these guys were over-hyping themselves for the sake of reputation building and the critical sales of their gaming products. Not a bad idea for failed gamblers.

[arcimede$]

There is only one near-sure way to win consistently in Nevada and other similar locations in games other than sports betting, and that's by following the strategies and special plays I've put forth for playing video poker, and playing them exactly as I explained them.

Well Alan, there you have it. Singer claiming his strategy overcomes the math and returns better than the ER of the machines. How else could one "win consistently"? You've been claiming for the last year that Singer doesn't claim he can change the ER and he just did it ... again.

[Alan Mendelson]

I'd like to see a list of your followers and what they have won.

there are plenty of documented cases of card counters winning big money and being banned.

[Alan Mendelson]

Well Alan, there you have it. Singer claiming his strategy overcomes the math and returns better than the ER of the machines. How else could one "win consistently"? You've been claiming for the last year that Singer doesn't claim he can change the ER and he just did it ... again.

I'm sorry Arc, but again... Expected is different from Actual Return. Yes, he says his actual return was better than the expected return. Did you get hit on the head with a basketball?

[Rob.Singer]

I'd like to see a list of your followers and what they have won.

there are plenty of documented cases of card counters winning big money and being banned.

Alan, I've said many times that I have yet to meet anyone who wanted to learn my strategy, who had the total package required as I have in order to excel at it in a manner that I have. That being said, there are plenty of people who keep in touch with me who tell me they are winning using their own various versions of what it is I taught them. You've seen a few of them here. On other forums I know they've tried to explain about their successes, but if it isn't arci coming on to call them liars and when that fails he claims it's always me....it's another AP just like him, who's driven by jealousy. So by and large, most of them stay away from posting because of it. You've seen that here.

I'm interested in these documented cases of card counters winning big money and being banned because of it. The only one I can remember is the MIT case. That was a proven team assault. Where are the rest? Certainly, because I uncovered the convincing evidence on two of the more known personalities in that arena, I'd like to see proof of all these alleged winners in order to believe it. Wouldn't you?

You're absolutely right. Consistent winning has zero correlation with altering either positive or negative game expected return.

[redietz]

I'm no fan of Kurt Flowers or "Wong," at all, but Rob's misrepresenting the gist of what they reported. They stopped playing blackjack in LV, not exclusively because they were banned, but primarily because the rules changed significantly and made it virtually impossible to win. There's no reason to ban people when the rules have changed, which is the case in LV. Now Flowers is an unmistakable individual, so banning him would have been easy, but unnecessary given the rules in 99% of the tables.

Rob, the reason your contacts said they were more than happy to allow them to play was that the rules had become unbeatable. This has little to do with subterfuge on Flowers or "Wong's" part. They stopped playing when the rules went negative. No magic progression or stop/loss strategy, I'm afraid, for blackjack.

[Rob.Singer]

I won't dispute that because I'm not an expert on or a follower of BJ.