I was playing a casino with very good conditions, but one I had been backed off of before.

I’d been long awaiting a chance to try card counting at a particular casino in the midwest.

Once they suspect you of having an advantage, casinos sometimes take odd measures

Happiest of holidays to you from my card counting bunker to yours. I have been hunkered down at the grand opening of a new casino.

The money moves fast. When I lose count of the chips stuffed in my pockets or the cash I have extracted from them, or just when I need to dodge a little heat, compose myself, or strategize, I retire to my office—the casino bathroom.

I was driving to a Tribal casino recently. When the GPS beeped with the announcement that I had arrived at my destination I pulled over and looked around.

I was at a casino recently that didn’t offer surrender—not in the reports, not in the posted rules, not in the signage. Nevertheless, at my first 16 against a dealer’s face card I asked if I could surrender it and get half of my bet back. The dealer shrugged. The pit boss shrugged. […]

I was playing blackjack at a large casino last night I had never been to before. They had multiple pits separated by whole minefields of slot machines.

“Who here can tell me how to win this game?” I asked as I bellied up to a crowded blackjack table.

The player next to me—as is often the case—was tipping the dealer tonight. I—as is always the case—was not. The dealer thanked Mr. Tips more noticeably each time for the table scraps coming his way, and Mr. Tips responded by ever more loudly espousing the eternal virtues of tipping. They […]