This, That and the Other Thing - Part 2

Using a Player's Card is a very smart move. As long as you don't play for comps, the extras that the casinos give to their "rated players" are money and gifts in the bank, so to speak. Just never play one dollar more than you intended to play just to get a comp.

Sic Bo is a sick joke -- and it's a joke on the player. With house edges on some bets hovering at the 40 percent point, only a maniac would make this his game of choice. Yes, the board lights up, but the player is paying a hundred times over for that electricity. Even the best bets at that game, the "small" and the "large," have 2.8 percent house edges. What also causes Sic Bo to be a nauseating game is the fact that it can be really, really fast. You can get in almost 100 decisions in an hour. Hmmm, let's see... a 40 percent house edge; $10 per bet; 100 decisions equals...$400 per hour in expected losses. Egress quickly!

Beware of the spillers -- of drinks that is. Not only will they get you wet, they might just take your chips. The scam works like this. Davey Drunk slobbers his way into your game, plays a couple of hands, then "accidentally" knocks over his drink, all over the table, the cards and you. You, of course, look down onto the rapidly spreading stain on your crotch as our spiller "attempts" to catch his glass and make amends with one hand.("Oh, man, I'm really sorry, yeah, sorry.") With the other hand, he takes a nice handful of your chips. He then staggers off into the casino. By the time you realize that your chips are gone ("Martha, didn't I have 15 black chips, not eight?"), our culprit is long gone as well.

Dealers split their tips, which often gives bad dealers (personalitywise) no incentive to clean up their acts. Here is an original way to handle a surly, nasty dealer taken straight from the tables of Atlantic City. One player, with this rude dealer, tipped all right, but she'd stand up, walk to the table next to her, announce loudly that she was tipping the "dealers" but would not tip on the table with "that nasty one." Then she'd point out the offending dealer. She would then put the tip in front of her friend's bet on the adjacent table. My bet is -- she came from New York. What do you think?

Want to get extra comp points? When you tip at blackjack or any other card game, always put your tip on top of your bet. Let the dealer know that this chip on top, should it win, will be the dealer's bet and that you'll let that chip ride until it falls. If you are a $25 player with a $5 tip on top, the floorperson will more than likely rate you as a $30 player for those hands. Hey, every little bit helps!

Do you want to know where the best view in Atlantic City is? Walk to the end of the Pier One Mall, go upstairs to the observation deck and check out the ocean and the skyline of AC. You can get the best of both worlds from this vantage point. You also might see some schools of dolphins if you time it right.