The PBR is coming

It is almost that time of year, are you counting the hours?  We
are… It’s time for the 2008 Professional Bull Riders World Finals and The
Vegas Tourist is getting ready to cover it like only The Vegas Tourist can.

Don’t look for the usual coverage you get from everyone else… Nope, you
know that’s not our style.  Besides this is the fifteenth year, and the PBR
knows how to throw a party like no one else.  So we will have a lot to
cover and a lot to report… our way.  The stories and insights into the
people, the events, and the world of the PBR.

We want to give you a look behind the scenes.  The nitty-gritty,
the fun, and the unique sights and sounds that you will only get at the PBR
World Finals. Interviews with the bull riders, stock contractors, and of course
the fans…  Photos of the rides, the buck offs, the riders, the
ceremonies, as well as some special videos…

On the scene reporting… from all the fun and festivities as the Fremont
Street Experience turns into Cowboy Central, to inside the chutes at the Thomas
and Mack, to the concerts, and the retirement parties.  We at The Vegas
Tourist want YOU to experience what it is like to be in the middle of all that is the
Professional Bull Riders World Finals.

The special updates, insights, and special media coverage will only be available at
ThePBRLasVegas.com.  So go there now and sign up … and try to keep up with Mark, Sazzy,
and the PA as they hang on for that eight second ride!  From the crack of
the gate ’til the dusts settles The Vegas Tourist will be there.

Card Counting: A dying art or a necessity?

Card counting has certainly become popular in recent years; even before the movie “21″ came out in theaters.  I started counting several years ago when I was in college.  Somebody explained to me how it worked, and I remember at the time thinking that it seemed too simple; yet, something I felt I could actually learn.

It turns out that card counting is pretty simple; it just takes a lot of practice.  I spent several years counting cards in the Seattle area, making enough money to supplement my income enough to buy gadgets and go on vacations without dipping into my “real” income.

So when I started going to Vegas for vacations, I was very interested in playing and counting cards there.  I have to be honest though, I was a little disappointed when I started seeing games with rules that significantly increased the casino’s edge over the average player.  They’ve increased the edge so much that card counting is almost a necessity anymore.

In a traditional, single deck blackjack game with the best rules (those rules that are the most advantagous to the player) the house has about a .5% advantage over the player.  For a card counter, this means that the player can increase their edge to about 1-3% over the house.  This is one of the big misunderstandings about card counting.  The player has to play thousands upon thousands of hands in order to make money.  When you’re dealing with about a 2% advantage, you need to play a LOT of hands, and at high enough stakes to make 2% actually worth something.  A few hundered hands at $5 to $50 isn’t going to make a lot of money.  I would argue it might not even be worth playing.

So in Vegas, I saw games that offered such rules as paying 6:5 on a natural, or blackjack instead of 3:2 (this is a horrible rule, and increases the casino’s edge significantly).  Other rules, such as no double downs after splits also increase the casino’s edge.  Sure single and two deck games are available, but the rules increase the casino’s edge so much that it’s almost not worth counting.

So I’ve come to a conclusion:  card counting is almost a necessity if you decide to play blackjack anymore.  In fact, I believe that the casinos almost expect card counting to a certain extent.  I played at Binion’s this year, and I am confident that at least one dealer knew exactly why I increased my bets when I did.  Here’s the thing: I’m not increasing my bet to the table maximum.  I think my bankroll could only support a maximum of $100 per hand.  I would suddenly increase my bet from the table minimum, $5 to my own maximum, $100 in a single hand and nobody even bothered to announce “checks in play!” as they normally do.  Around the Seattle area, if I did that, the floor supervisor is almost guaranteed to stop by and chat with me for a minute.  They’re still pretty paranoid around here.

At $100 maximum, I just think it’s not worth the casino’s attention or time to address the situation.  I’m not going to make a lot of money from them, and even more importantly, with the rules of the game having changed so much, I’m only increasing the edge to maybe 50% at best (in other words, I still don’t really have an advantage).

I suggest that casinos have changed the rules of blackjack enough that they have come to expect card counting, and at low limits, probably don’t even care.

If you’re interested in learning to count cards, there are really plenty of books available.  It’s simple math; all you have to do is keep a tally where you increase or decrease your count by one.  In multiple decks, you have to do some simple division to convert the running count to a true count.  At any rate, I’ll write other blog posts to explain in more detail how it all works.  Just remember that even if as I claim, the casinos don’t really care, you still don’t want to get caught.

Everybody starts by learning basic strategy.  Before you can count, you have to know basic strategy well enough that you don’t even think about it when you’re playing.  After that, you can pick one of the several card counting methodologies available.  I learned the hi/low strategy, where you assign a +1 to low cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6), 0 to middle cards (7, 8, 9), and -1 to high cards (10, J, Q, K, A).  When the count increases significantly, the player begins to see a slight advantage.  When the count decreases, especially when it is negative, the casino has a better advantage.

Then you have to learn to convert the running count to a true count by dividing the running count by the number of decks remaining in the shoe.  All of this takes a lot of practice, both in terms of keeping track of the count, and doing the conversion.  All of this is done while you are playing perfect basic strategy.  Once you’ve got that down, you start to learn ways you can adjust your play from basic strategy based on the count.  So for instance, according to basic strategy (when surrender is not available) you are supposed to hit 16 against the dealer’s ten card.  If the count is positive however, you might want to stand in that situation.

One of the things I love about card counting is that you can take it as far as you want.  It’s a skill that requires constant practice.

Good Luck!

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