--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "paladingamingllc"
<paladingamingllc@> wrote:
>
> --- In vpFREE+AEA-yahoogroups.com, "weharter" <weharter+AEA-...>
wrote:
>
> At VP, he's an "A", no doubt, but some of that dough he just ran
lucky
> on without high certainty. Still, I'd never begrudge a player a
> positive EV flux. As an overall AP talent, he's a "B", equally no
> doubt. I hate to hurt the group's feelings, but I've been involved
> many different AP situations over the years, and VP is in a class
of
> its own as being almost the easiest (keno is easier, but mind
> numbingly boring). If you are sufficiently motivated enough, VP
is
not
> that hard, and a piece a cake compared to some of the more
advanced
> techniques in blackjack (steering, tracking, locating, hole card
play,
> etc.). Most VP professionals are B- to C- talents overall. They
fact
> that these folks can still make money even with their limited
talent
> tells you everything you need to know about VP.
>
I don't quite agree here. I think there are planty of vp players who
could master the blackjack game. I give a lot of credit to guys like
Peter Griffin, etc., but lots of the blackjack guys are just "monkey
see, monkey do' just like vp players.
I personally see nothing difficult about basic strategy, counting,
strategy shifts, hole-carding, shuffle tracking, etc. That's really
the easy part. It just takes study and practice.
The hard part is getting away with it. That's the end of it I didn't
want to deal with. I didn't want to put myself in a position of
losing casino after casino after casino. I've felt the world getting
smaller just off the few casinos I've lost over the years.
There have been barrings in vp over the years but it's nothing
compared to the blackjack guys. BTW, I just heard of some recent
barrings at Fandango in Carson City.
Poker players who can grind out a profit are assets to poker rooms.
They help get games going and keep them going. In smaller rooms,
just one or two winning players make a huge difference in how many
table hours the room gets in in a day.
Caesars Palace is a prime example of how a larger room uses good
players to their advantage. They are continually running freerolls
for hours played. This brings in the local pros to play the out-of-
towners, in effect, propping up the games. They are de facto prop
players.
Bob Nersessians book, Beat the Players, is essentially about the war
between the casinos and professional blackjack players. Nevada
regulations clearly state that card-counting, hole-carding, shuffle
tracking, are legal. Yet the mindset with the casinos is they are
not.
Over the years Gaming and the Cops have willingly let casino security
get away with backrooming and I.D.ing blackjack players without
probable cause of a crime. That's what it takes, according to the
law, to backroom someone. Probable cause, not suspicion. And card
counting, hole carding, shuffle tracking are not crimes. Yet
security uses these reasons to backroom people. They clearly have
the right to bar these players but not to backroom them.
The only recourse BJ players have had is the civil courts. At the
publishing of his book, Nersessian had won nine judgements from low
to high sex figures. Other lawyers have won suits. With losing all
these suits maybe the casinos will get off the mindset that counting
is illegal.
I steered clear of blackjack because of the hassle of getting away
with it, not because I figured the game itself is too difficult.