Here’s a first: I just got comped–against my will.
I arrived at the large tribal casino knowing I had been backed off here before. If I had any chance for earning EV, I would have to fly under the radar. I would hit the graveyard shift in “Disguise #1.” The following morning (different shift) I would play in “Disguise #2.” Complication: only when I arrived did I realize that the nearest motel was half an hour away, equivalent to an hour of lost playing time for each round trip, so I ended up just booking a room at the casino. More pricey and risky, but I deemed it worth the trade-off in a very tightly scheduled weekend of play.
I played that night as Full-Bearded Leather Harley Dude. I made sure I entered from the overflow parking lot so that surveillance could never tie me to the hotel. When the dealer passed over me and my hard 17 against a dealer ace, I complained to the pit.
Pit Boss: “What did you want to do with that 17?”
Me: “Surrender it.”
Pit Boss (with a wry smile): “That IS the right move.”
I ended the session on my biggest bet. This is a great way to get max EV and still exit a casino without a backoff. Stand up. Declare you are going to bed, and move all in. The pit is less likely to worry about you, because you are headed out the door. If the count goes down, you make good on your promise. If the count goes up, there is always a good excuse to stay for “one more hand.”
“You staying here tonight?” asked the dealer.
“Nope.” I replied loud enough for the pit to hear.
The next morning I suited up as Respectable Clean-Shaven Tucked Khaki Golfer Guy and swung by the lobby for my hotel receipt.
Desk Lady: “I’m sorry, I can’t give you a receipt.”
Me: “Say what?”
Desk Lady: “The casino comped you the room based on last night’s play.”
I had not given a player’s card or ID at the casino. And if they figured me out, they would have to know that I had been backed off before. So they NOT ONLY positively ID’d me and DIDN’T back me off, but they tracked me down as an ACTUAL hotel guest. And how did they stick it to me for catching me in the act? THEY COMPED MY ROOM AGAINST MY WILL. The kicker–four more hours of no-backoff play after this debacle. Can someone make sense of all this?
–Loudon Ofton
hmmmm Maybe they are trying different tactics. Maybe they just wanted to scare you and maybe they dont have the full authority to back you off. like trick your mind into letting you know we know who you are. like telling you dont count we are onto you even if we dont say anything. heck being followed and stalked on is scarryier than being taken into a back room, becuase u have rights and have laes to protect you.but being stalked is a whole another story.
Casino’s usually ask for an ID when checking in, especially with a credit card. Do you check into hotels using just cash and no ID? I was thinking about how best to be anonymous without raising any red flags. I’d imagine that making fake IDs these days is probably not a great idea. Disguises are one thing, fake IDs is a different thing. Thoughts or clarifications? Thanks.
Len
Well it doesn’t work that way in the movies, can’t understand why they would do that. Good stuff.
This could be a fairly simple one, but it’s not clear from the story…
Where did you get changed into the Harley Dude and the Golfer Guy disguises?
If you got changed in your room, went outside and re-entered from the car park, it seems pretty simple to run the tapes back and see you (in reverse) sit at the table, arrive at the casino, leave the hotel and come from your room… then it’s just a matter of watching for you the next day and cetching you when you appeared.
When you put on and took off the various disguises would effect the run of that story would change the order of things, but unless you somehow distanced the disguises from the room in a way they couldn’t have traced it on CCTV – I think that’s your answer.
That said, quite why they’d figure out that you were playing in disguises (I can’t imagine that’s normal behaviour for regular players) and didn’t back you off is beyond me.
Maybe they just wanted to play the odds and hope you had an off day for your second to recoup their losses.
Wow – some pretty bad typos and bad grammar in there, I think the message still comes accross though.
One more point… maybe the fact the bearded, leather clad Harley Dude didn’t have, you know, a *Harley* raised some suspicion. Just a thought.
Still think CCTV answers most of the puzzle though.
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