vpFREE2 Forums

The Harvey's deuces play; a love note from Team Nerd

#1

Just wanted to share with everybody a private e-mail I just
received, obviously in response to my earlier posting on the
Harvey's play, given the subject heading:

sender: "John Elway"

"piss off"

(end of message)

It's nice to know that I was on the money here. I now am certain
that some or all of the present members of Team Nerd have indeed
been behind the destruction of many good Northern Nevada plays (such
as the Ormsby House, Peppermill, Cal-Neva, and many others in a long
list).
Almost all of the members of Team Nerd live in Vegas, although there
are one or two "scouts" who are constantly scanning Reno/Tahoe
casinos; when they find a play, they call in the Vegas troops and
hit the play HARD, to their short-term profit (they hope), and the
play's inevitable destruction.
These people have a lot of time on their hands; in the case of the
Ormsby House fiasco, when the casino limited the promotion to
locals, a dozen or so TN members went so far as to rent an apartment
in Carson City and change their driver's licenses so as to
appear "local".
The common denominator seems to be: these are all highly
intelligent, young, college or ex-college students; they don't have
regular commitments (such as a real job, a relationship, etc.), they
have a healthy disdain for rules written and unwritten (which after
all aren't meant for SMART people), and they have an appalling lack
of social graces (I admit I'm generalizing from the twenty or so of
these people I've actually MET; I'm SURE there's ONE well-adjusted
non-sociopath in the bunch, and to him I apologize),
Anyway, Team Nerd and its analogues were greatly responsible for the
rapid disappearance of VP plays in Vegas during the period 1997-2001
(and a few times afterward, as in the Tuscany fiasco). They have a
scorched-earth mentality in that they make no real attempt to
prolong or disguise their play, instead banking on an efficient
communication network to ensure that they have a few days at least
to exploit a play before management gets wind of the situation.
I can't assign all of the blame for the disappearance of good Vegas
VP to this relatively small group, but what they've done sure hasn't
helped. If you want to spot one BTW, look for: extremely rapid and
accurate play, concentration on the task at hand,
uncommunicativeness (is that a word?) to the point of rudeness, and
(the real giveaway) frequent incoming cell phone calls. And of
course, the Nerd in question will be pounding away at a 101% dollar
play or something even better (which is why the Nerds are hard to
spot in Vegas these days).

···

subject: "Team Nerd"

#2

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "rockofjello333"
<rockofjello333@y...> wrote:

Just wanted to share with everybody a private e-mail I just
received, obviously in response to my earlier posting on the
Harvey's play, given the subject heading:

subject: "Team Nerd"
sender: "John Elway"

"piss off"

(end of message)

It's nice to know that I was on the money here. I now am certain
that some or all of the present members of Team Nerd have indeed
been behind the destruction of many good Northern Nevada plays

(such

as the Ormsby House, Peppermill, Cal-Neva, and many others in a

long

list).
Almost all of the members of Team Nerd live in Vegas, although

there

are one or two "scouts" who are constantly scanning Reno/Tahoe
casinos; when they find a play, they call in the Vegas troops and
hit the play HARD, to their short-term profit (they hope), and the
play's inevitable destruction.
These people have a lot of time on their hands; in the case of the
Ormsby House fiasco, when the casino limited the promotion to
locals, a dozen or so TN members went so far as to rent an

apartment

in Carson City and change their driver's licenses so as to
appear "local".
The common denominator seems to be: these are all highly
intelligent, young, college or ex-college students; they don't

have

regular commitments (such as a real job, a relationship, etc.),

they

have a healthy disdain for rules written and unwritten (which

after

all aren't meant for SMART people), and they have an appalling

lack

of social graces (I admit I'm generalizing from the twenty or so

of

these people I've actually MET; I'm SURE there's ONE well-adjusted
non-sociopath in the bunch, and to him I apologize),
Anyway, Team Nerd and its analogues were greatly responsible for

the

rapid disappearance of VP plays in Vegas during the period 1997-

2001

(and a few times afterward, as in the Tuscany fiasco). They have a
scorched-earth mentality in that they make no real attempt to
prolong or disguise their play, instead banking on an efficient
communication network to ensure that they have a few days ........

                     <snip>

This may seem like a dumb or naive question,

Rock, but I have no experience with "Pro Team Players", and
therefore, I wonder why the casinos tolerate them. DO they actually
tolerate them? Can it be that they are not aware of them, and so do
nothimg to stop the pillage? If this is the case, wouldn't it be
beneficial to advise a casino employee, surreptitously, of course,
in order to avoid mayhem or bloodshed. Has anyone ever tried this
approach? If so, what was the result?

It seems terribly unfair that, a few individuals can spoil it for
the rest of us.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had experience with
this type of player.

                      Babe

#3

there are a number of professional teams in operation in the state
in the past they have hired bums, hustlers, druggies and prostitutes
half are active players, the other half just hold seats and scare away
non team members, the team "owner" puts up the bankroll and pays
members based on performance
often there is some collusion involved with casino employees,
especially up at tahoe which is a very small and anti-outsider
community (tourists are just sources of money)
perhaps they have changed strategy to hire college students who are
probably available cheap these days
or maybe an enterprising group of unlv students got inspired by the
movie on the mit bj team

ideally casinos would 86 teams and anyone who camps (plays more than 8
hours straight) or tag teams with other players
this may be happening at harvey's
i do know that the casino and casino employees are very aware that
these are strong positive expectation machines so anyone who plays
should play nice and remember to tip at least half a percent on
taxables and a buck per drink to the cocktail waitress

#4

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "jackessiebabe" <jackessiebabe@y...>
wrote:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>This may seem like a dumb or naive question,
Rock, but I have no experience with "Pro Team Players", and
therefore, I wonder why the casinos tolerate them. DO they

actually

tolerate them? Can it be that they are not aware of them, and so

do

nothimg to stop the pillage? If this is the case, wouldn't it be
beneficial to advise a casino employee, surreptitously, of course,
in order to avoid mayhem or bloodshed. Has anyone ever tried this
approach? If so, what was the result?

Well. no, actually, they are barely tolerated in some casinos, but
in most are actively discouraged or expressly forbidden. The genesis
of team play was when progressives first became popular; the idea
was for team members to "scout" progressives and then call in team
members to occupy every seat on a good (positive expectation)
carousel as they became available.

For the most part, today progressive meters have been slowed so
much, and the games that progressives are tied to are so bad, that
teams now operate in a 'promo attack" mode, where the idea is to
identify short-term good plays, hit them hard, and run away.

The casino attitude toward people like this is profoundly negative,
given that the purpose of a promotion is to reward loyal players
and/or to attract new ones, and the persons who pop in just to milk
a promo and then never go near that place again are neither of those
things.

The trouble with asking one of these types not to play in your
casino is the horrible danger of misidentifying your target and
driving away the very player your casino promotion has successfully
enticed into your establisjment in the first place. So a casino has
to be PRETTY SURE before they lower the boom on someone.

It seems terribly unfair that, a few individuals can spoil it for
the rest of us.

Especially since with a modicum of care, these people could have
disguised their play and not ruined things for everyone else.

···

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had experience with
this type of player.

                      Babe

#5

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "rockofjello333" <rockofjello333@y...>
wrote:

Just wanted to share with everybody a private e-mail I just
received, obviously in response to my earlier posting on the
Harvey's play, given the subject heading:

subject: "Team Nerd"
sender: "John Elway"

"piss off"

...

I'm sure Team Nerd members consider themselves to be as swashbuckling
as the various incantations of MIT blackjack teams. "Team Nerd" is a
little demeaning and would hardly be a good tag for the eventual made
for TV movie. Therefore I respectfully suggest one of the following:

John Elway and the Golden Nuggets

The Cell-Phone Savants

Raiders of the Lost Deuces

Manhattan Project II

Have Strategy Chart Will Travel

Terminator IV: The Decline of the Machines

The VP Vampires