Watch out!

15 March 2016

By Frank Scoblete

There are so many things to watch out for when you go to the casinos for overnight stays. For example, did you bring your blood pressure medication? Because you very well might need it as the games can get quite exciting and your blood pressure can skyrocket. Trust me, I know.

But there are many other things you have to watch out for too. Here are some “watch outs” for you.

• Watch out for players standing next you at craps games because some chip cheaters will try to snatch a chip or two when you are shooting or clapping or ordering drinks or whining about your losses. To thwart these varmints, line up your chips in the chip racks the way the casinos do — large denominations in the middle and smaller ones on the outside. This way a chip cheat can usually only snatch the small denomination.


• Watch out for systems hustlers who might try to get you to buy their system right there at the tables. These hustlers will teach you the system and then you will play it with them at the table or machine. Of course, you put up all the money and take all of the losses but if you should win, the hustler will take between 20 to 50% of your win.


• Watch out for making wrong playing decisions at blackjack. You must use the basic strategy for the game you are playing. Basic strategy is the computer-derived strategy for playing every hand of yours against every dealer up card. Do not think that your intuition is stronger than basic strategy. It isn’t.


• Watch out for players who vociferously give you advice on how to play whatever game you are playing. If you don’t understand the game, then don’t play it. Instead, get a book and read about the game. You’ll save a lot of money that way since most “big mouths” are nothing more than big mouths.


• Watch out for players who tell you they win all the time or know someone who wins all the time. This is not true. The longer a player plays the games, the better chance losses will happen and accrue.


• Watch out for people (especially in elevators) who ask you how you’re doing. Do not tell them you have won big, won little or won at all. You are always down. You are a loser, even if your pockets are stuffed with hundred-dollar bills.


• Watch out if you like to eat garlic and other spicy foods. Slot machines don’t care if your breath smells as if something died in your mouth, but other players will not enjoy such unsavory exhalations. It is almost a universal truth that someone whose breath stinks will want to talk into your nose.


• Watch out where you keep your wallet. Shirt pocket; buttoned. Make someone have to face you in order to steal from you.


• Watch out if someone bumps you; that can be a sign that someone who didn’t bump you is going to try to steal from you. When you get bumped; your hand should go to your wallet or purse — even before you accept the bumper’s apology.

OK, these few “watch outs” can’t hurt you because it is always good to — well — watch out.


Frank Scoblete’s new books are “I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps”; “Confessions of a Wayward Catholic” and “I Am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack.” All available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.