From: hall@kronos.arc.nasa.gov (Michael Hall)
Subject: Re: SD rules (was Re: AMEX Trop Deal)
Organization: NASA/ARC Information Sciences Division
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 01:06:06 GMT

In article <1992Nov14.171740.26690@midway.uchicago.edu> kolt@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <eric.106.0@hup.ucla.edu> eric@hup.ucla.edu (Eric J. Splaver) writes: [munch]
>> Excalibullshit is 
>>also acceptable but watch the table rules closely, I played for about 
>>fifteen minutes before I realized it was DD on 9, 10, 11 only.  
>Don't knock it! I;'m convinced that this is the best SD game available. It 
>moves faster than CC, it's just as easy to get meal comps (and I'd much rather
>have lunch there than in the Circus trough, they tolerate bigger bets before
>calling them out. And there's no picket line to cross, or evil pit critters
>like at the frontier.

I was going to post a while ago to say this is the *worst* blackjack game 
in all of Vegas.  Worse than the 50% penetration double deckers at Palace
Station.  Worse probably even than Vegas World, though I've never played
there.  The dealers on the single deck tables at Excalibur preferentially
shuffle 1-2 rounds to 6-7 spots.  I experienced shuffle-ups after the
first round of 6 spots from two different dealers in two different pits
when I merely parlayed a win (to double my bet) from the first round,
and they also shuffled up after the first round of 7 spots several times
in the space of a few minutes.  The count was positive whenever this
happened, and I have absolutely no doubt that the dealers noticed the
low cards and shuffled to protect the house.  Bets were *not* jumped
when these shuffles occurred, so that was not the problem.  The game
is unbeatable.  They might as well cheat by taking some 10's out of the
deck.  When a dealer shuffles after the first round of 6 spots in a
positive count, inform the other players at the table that the dealer
is cheating by shuffling prematurely whenever the house edge drops,
and then leave.

Anyone else have an opinion on whether Excalibur single deck is the best
or worst game in Vegas?  I have a sneaky suspicion it depends on what size
action you give them...

While I'm ragging on the Circus Circus empire, let me note that I've
also run into blatent preferential shuffling at Circus Circus in Vegas,
like one dealer who did 5 rounds of 3 in a negative count, and then
1 round of 3 for a positive count.  Or a dealer who dealt 1 round
of 7 to me in a positive count, then 2 rounds of 7 in a negative count,
then 1 round in a positive count, while assuring me that he always
deals 2 rounds to a full table.  This is criminal.  It doesn't matter
that the IQ of the average Circus patron is too low to detect that
anything strange is going on.  Also, a dealer at one casino said
that when she was working at Circus Circus Reno she saw a dealer dealing
seconds for the benefit of the house.  And I have a friend who saw a dealer
dealing seconds there too.  That's a felony.

The Circus Circus empire cheats its patrons, pure and simple.

You know, I always wondered how the hell they could build Excalibur and
then this new pyramid thingy, off the profits from $1 players at Circus
Circus...

-- 
Michael Hall            \When you're down on your luck counting cards, just
NASA Ames Research Center\repeat this (CMU football) chant: "That's all right.
hall@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov \That's okay. They're going to work for us some day!"