Casino Surveillance Pro

I got a chance to play some Blackjack on Friday night at my favorite low limit Casino. Only had $50 on me, which is what I bought him with, so it's a good thing that it was a $2 minimum table. I usually make my base bet $5 but tonight I made it just $2. Played for about half an hour, and the dealer was very hot, at least at first. She ran everyone off at the table, except for me,  after about 10 minutes. I enjoy playing one-on-one versus the dealer, but it is a real quick way to get fingered as a card counter when you are the only one at the table. Because of this, I basically just flat bet one hand at $2. The count never went very high anyway, so I didn't feel too bad.  Walked away down $10. No big deal but one thing happened that I want to talk about. Towards the end of my play, I hit a 14 vs. a ten, and busted.  When I flipped the cards over and they (accidentally) landed on top of each other, so that you could only see the face of one of the cards (a four). Now th...

I'm happy to report that we had a great show on Tuesday, yesterday, with noted gaming consultant Thomas Gallagher as our guest. The hour long show really flew by, and we didn't get to discuss as much with Mr. Gallagher as I wanted to. Here is a link to the podcast of the show. Mr. Gallagher made a special offer to anyone who emailed him saying that they heard him on the show, so listen to the podcast for his special offer then you can email him and get a special deal on his gaming manuals. Just copy and paste this link into your browser to go to the FTP page for downloads of all of the podcasts of Casino Confidential. ftp://shows.americamatters.us/Show/Casino%20Confidential/ Also, I want to remind everyone that I will be posting my NFL week 2 pic of the week on Friday. Have a great day everyone.

Hi everyone. I've been sick so I haven't posted in a while. I have been feeling a little better the last couple of days so I will post a gambling update and a show preview for tomorrow Tuesday August 22nd. Remember Casino Confidential airs live in the Reno area at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays on 1180 AM KCKQ radio. You can also listen to it stream over the internet at americamatters.us or on the TuneIn Radio app. So tonight, Monday, I went to my favorite low limit blackjack tables, at an unnamed Casino in the city of Sparks. I played at a $3 minimum, single deck table, bought in for $50 and left with $20. Oh well, you can't win every time. I mostly flat bet $5 a hand, lost my first few hands and never got up at all. I was able to play for almost an hour on that $50. I never got into a high positive count or Ace rich deck where I felt like I could confidently increase my bet, so I didn't. I did  had a situation where I felt like varying from basic strategy involving a pair of ...

Had a great show today, basically  talking about what it takes to be a better blackjack player.  I will post the podcast link ASAP. I also want to tell  all my readers  about this great new discount travel card.   Register for Free for a $200 VIP Card good at selected hotels  and resorts worldwide.  Did I mention it's free ?   Go to www.gurufast.com/james

I have a great new Casino Confidential show planned for tomorrow, Tuesday August 15th: Casino Gaming 101. Intro to the philosophy of gambling, an  uncommon, common sense approach. You WILL learn how to lose less and win more. Listen live in the Reno area on KCKQ 1180 AM AT 4PM Pacific. Streaming live at http://amm.streamon.fm at 2300 GMT. AND it's a Giveaway Tuesday! I will be giving away a free range pass for 2 to our terrific sponsor, Reno Guns and Range, to the first caller at 844-790-8255.

I've decided to start reporting on my wins and losses when I gamble here in Reno. Hopefully it will teach some of the newer players out there reading this blog about what it's like to live in Vegas or Reno and enjoy gambling from time to time. So today I went to a casino in Sparks Nevada, which I'm not going to name, and played a little blackjack. I like this casino cuz they have low limit tables usually a $2 or $3 minimum with a $200 max. I bought in for $200, half green half red; put the green in my pocket and sat at a full table playing in the third spot. My bet range was from $20 to $30 per hand. And of course I was counting and tracking Aces. This was a single deck game with a 3-2 payout on blackjack.  (I refused to play at a 6 to 5 game.) Because the table was full there were only two rounds of play before a new shuffle. I played for about half an hour and walked away $50 ahead. I would have had more but on my second to last hand I lost with two tens, when the dea...

Today we're going to discuss what I consider to be the top misplayed hand by your average blackjack player. And that is a hard 12 versus dealers 3 for an up card. A hard 12 is obviously not ever a good hand to get dealt, and whether you're playing single-deck, double deck or a shoe game the odds are against you. Your expected return for standing is negative 25% while you're expected return for hitting is negative 23%. Not a good situation either way, but if you're playing accurate basic strategy you really should hit. In the long run it will make a difference. A slight difference I know but a difference none the less. However if you're counting cards, you might have a bit of an insight. If your true count is negative then you know that there are more small value and neutral value cards remaining in the deck or shoe then 10 value cards. At this point you should hit without hesitation. Playing perfect basic strategy is all about the percentages and being consistent...