Originally Posted by
jdog
I don't think I'd celebrate getting the attention of casino security. It means you are likely getting close to burning the property.
Bingo!
I go back to Norm's blackjack forum with Zenking. At that time he was in his late 20's living with his parents, playing blackjack at the Pa Casinos. A few years later we were both at WoV, where he announced plans to move to Las Vegas and specifically mentioned several times that this plan was inspired by me and what I had shared. I take no responsibility for that. But it did make me want to try to help him, from afar, without getting to involved with him.
Upon his arrival here in Vegas, I offered him some suggestions and advice, both publicly and privately and things I had learned during my time here. He was playing very similar stakes to what I was playing, green to mid-black (he was spreading to 2 hands whereas I mostly stuck with 1 because I found that to draw attention). I also advised, to stay away from the strip or play the strip minimally. Those are the casinos with the top surveillance personnel using the top and latest technology. If you are going to be a "grinder" type player, playing a regular rotation, even a decent size rotation, you want to avoid or minimize the places that can cause you the most trouble. I think at one point I even posted publicly my exact rotation for him. Roughly 30 casinos that I played regularly that were pretty tolerant of the stakes he and I were playing (as long as you don't camp out for too long).
I also PMed axelwolf and asked if he and maxpen and others might be able to help ZK in any way. Maybe get into some supplemental non-blackjack stuff. Turns out they had already met him and sort of taken him under wing, which was great.
But in reading Zenking over the years, he did everything exactly opposite of what I advised. He played mostly the very strip casinos I advised against. Didn't play the local type places. Didn't even really play enough to be a "grinder" or a large enough rotation. And he had and still has this habit of taking everything personally (like backoffs) and drawing additional attention,
when the goal should be to minimize the situation and attention.
So I did everything I could for him....at least that I was willing to without getting too involved and he did exactly the opposite every step of the way,
and continues to do the opposite. But he is the
GOAT, so what are you going to do?
Similarly, BillRyan (recently banned for 6 months at WoV), I knew from the BJ forum before even Norm's forum. When he moved to Vegas I offered him some suggestions as he was wanting to play not just the lower limit blackjack that he played, but some other smaller AP machine stuff in his retirement years. I sent him a list of just some minor things different casinos did and offered.
That is what I do. And I do that because people have helped me along the way. I have mentioned a bunch of times that when I arrived here, an AP in Vegas that I am still friendly with, told me about the video poker mailer play. Like Zenking, I was here for blackjack. I had no interest in VP play. He convinced me that not taking advantage of it putting a modest amount of coin-in through that would result in mailer offers disproportionally higher than the cost, was "like leaving money on the table". In the end, that supplemental play that my partner and I did, made us 400 K which we split over the years. Nice little extra chunk of coin.
And that is exactly why I have always tried to do my part in helping some other players, especially those just getting started, or new to Vegas. Mostly just advice and little stuff that might help them. It is a little frustrating when someone decides they know everything and does the opposite and then complains when things don't work out.
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