by CJ | Aug 8, 2018 | Baccarat, Casino Sessions, Podcast
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Well it’s been ages since I’ve got to the craps table. 3 months approximately. I’m getting withdrawal symptoms for sure.
The biggest issue is that my local casino has reduced the craps table hours yet again.
No more craps at lunch time on Friday for me. The table doesn’t open until 2pm now. Which makes it really hard for me to get to the casino during the mid afternoon. They have also closed Sunday totally. So it’s only Friday night and Saturday night now.
I’ve had to console myself with playing baccarat instead. Not much consolation if you ask me. But it’s better than nothing.
What’s a first for me is to participate in a major casino competition. My local casino is having a huge $1million prize draw for August. When you play through the week you get a ticket to go in the weekly draw. I’ve never been the type to go for this sort of marketing competition. But since I’m playing at the casino weekly I figured why not.
I play baccarat and get my ticket each week and go in the draw. Then I go there on Sunday night for the draw and play some more baccarat.
Quick in and out round trip from the house and back again in 1 1/4 hours. How’s that for efficient casino hit and run.
Of course I have had my down swings were I had to leave the casino on at a stage in my negative progression that I would not normally stop at. But I just abort and pick up again from scratch not from where I was up to in the sequence.
I don’t like being at the casino on Sunday evening there are to many people. And I hate sitting next to someone on a row of machines.
Usually when I go the place is next to empty and I can have my pick of any machine I like.
My wife will only go when it’s quiet as well.
Overall I’m still pulling 26% return out of baccarat. I’m aiming to ratchet that up as my bankroll increases. But steady as she goes for now. Don’t want to get greedy. That’s the kiss of death. It doesn’t take much to go backwards and ruin at the good that has accumulated.
Can’t wait to get back to craps again. This Friday I’ll be there at 2pm to watch them open the table. And see just how awful my toss has become.
My home craps table is still in pieces. I’ve spent the last 2 weekends rebuilding it in readiness to join it back together again and make it fully robust and portable at the same time.
Here’s a picture of my home table end rails under some heavy glue action with clamps.
by CJ | Sep 8, 2017 | Baccarat, Casino Sessions, Podcast
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Casino : Treasury Brisbane
Another week, another full half craps table. I refuse to squeeze in, so 5 players per half on a 12 ft table is all they can take.
I learned that judging by player chips I can sort of tell if anyone is going to tank and leave the table. The trouble is the regulars (like me) come in on Friday afternoon and they have a bad habit of going to the ATM and getting more money. So they leave a couple of dollars in the rack and disappear for 5 mins, and come back with more.
So if the table is full then I give it up for the week and go and play some mini baccarat.
I’ve also given up on the live dealers for mini baccarat as on Friday afternoon the casino switches $10 min to $25 min, but I’m not up to that level yet.
This leaves me with the $1 mini baccarat computer game. Not as good, but ok. I refuse to play online casinos, for various reasons I won’t go into here.
For today played for an hour with $200 buy in and coloured in for $290.
I play the target 3 play system and have been quite impressed with it.
After 9 sessions (no losing sessions yet) $1,400 has become $1,832.50 which is 30.89% ROI
Which compared to my 1.79% ROI for Craps makes me think I’m playing the wrong game. But baccarat is as boring as watching paint dry and I’ll only play it when I have to.
Last week I did have a chance to play some Craps.
$200 buy in.
Half table right side.
Set for 3V
Lost some on the other regular random rollers. Then got the dice. And pulled out a nice 21 hand. Went in slow with just $6 six and eight and then went out and up from there.
6, 5, 6H
5, 5
8, 4H, 6, 5, 3, 11, 8
8, 8H
11, 7, 6, 6H
6, 3, 7
Ran out of time as per usual.
Coloured out $228 (+$28) in 45mins
by CJ | Aug 20, 2017 | Baccarat, Casino Sessions, Podcast
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Casino : Treasury Brisbane
Showed up at the casino for my normal Friday session at around 12:30pm (the table opens at 12pm) and all the regulars were there with the half table full. No spots.
Looks like they were totally settled in so rather than wait for someone to leave and not get any action in my limited 1 hour window, I headed to the mini baccarat computer terminals. They are spread around the casino and even on different floors. All connected up to a centralised live dealer.
I chose one that allowed me to keep an eye on the table, just in case any spots opened up. It was a live dealer $10 min type of computer terminal. They have $1 min fully computer generated mini baccarat. But this live terminal was the only one that would let me spy on the craps table.
So I fed in $200 and got started with the target 3 play system, I’m quite fond of. After around 10 mins I’m up $30 and notice that my last bet on player won, but I didn’t actually get paid.
This has happened in the past when I was betting $5 and didn’t realise the min bet for player or banker bet was $10 in the instructions in the help section of the game rules.
So I thought ok, I’ll try again. Player won again and another missed payout. WTF is going on. I tried a third time and player won again and no payout.
Looked at the instructions and sure enough the bastards had changed the min player and banker bet mid shoe to $25 min. So my bets were void. I can understand a change of limit in between shoes. But in the middle is just wrong.
In total disgust. Coloured up and out of that machine on principle. I’ll have a chat to the dealers and pit bosses about that next week.
Went to find a $1 mini baccarat machine to keep going.
Found one at the other end of the casino.
Put in my ticket of $230 and started at $5 min target 3 play bet. There is a hand dealt every 30 seconds, which is a good speed.
I just bet player only and followed the progressions and regressions as needed by the play. It so simple that I was actually playing craps on my phone at the same time. Got up to $440 and my time was getting close to finishing. Finished off with a couple of losing bets in the cycle. Didn’t have time to leave on an upswing.
Will pickup the next game at that same position of (-$35) and continue on.
Colour up $405 (+$205)
Now what really cheesed me off is that I went back to the Craps table and there was only 2 players. It was 1:30pm. So I think I just need to go at 1:30pm which gives the regulars time to let their chips drain away and leave. Will try again next week.
by CJ | Jul 24, 2017 | Baccarat, Casino Sessions, Podcast
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Casino : Treasury Brisbane
$300 buy in
Mini Baccarat
Target 3 Play
Well I was surprised again this week to show up and the craps was in table in full swing. Not as busy as last week. But 12ft half table was full.
I refuse to squeeze in between players. No matter that I only get 1 hour and 1 opportunity to play each week. It cramps my throw and I’m there to play live what I practice.
The other players were regulars. With 2 newbies. I knew the new players wouldn’t last long based on their chip count in the rail. But I’ve learned my lesson in the past that waiting around for a spot to open up is not worth my time since I only have 1 hour.
From my recent finding of $1 min computer baccarat machines, I thought that was perfect to get some live practice in. So found a machine near the craps table that I could keep an eye on the table.
Inserted $300 and realised immediately that I’d made a mistake, I was on the live play machine which is actually $10 min. Damn. Oh well I’m in now, I played it anyway.
Did the target 3 play system, which I like because it suits my method of play. Bet player only with varying bet levels depending on what progressive / regressive level you are on. Basically capitalising on doubles.
Played for 30 mins not even sitting in the chair and hardly paying attention to it. Kept looking in between hands every 30 seconds to get a spot at the craps table.
At 30 mins of basically doing my emails while playing, I got crabby because there were still no Craps spots, and I also come the casino to get away from doing work for a bit.
Coloured up $370 (+$70) and went to Craps table to chat to dealers.
Finally at 45 mins a spot opened up and I saddled up to table and went to buy in and realised I had no cash!. My money was on a slip of paper receipt from the mini baccarat. Double damn.
I gave up. With just 15 mins left. It wasn’t meant to be today. Told everyone see you next week. The dealers seemed to be actually disappointed for me, because they know I only get a short time. They know to look after the regulars. Of course compared to them I’m a small fish. But I’ve pumped over $10K through the table in the last year. Still sitting at 1% profit. My aim is to get to 10%
Forgot to mention that I also get my parking validated after 30mins play with my silver level casino membership which is $50 value. Yes it costs $50 to park in the city near the casino for 3 hours.
by CJ | Jul 8, 2017 | Baccarat, Casino Sessions, Podcast
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Something different this week.
Took the family for some time away and travelled through the week to Cairns in far North Queensland at the top of Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree rainforest. Such a beautiful place. 2 hour plane flight from home. But never got around to it. Costs a fortune of course. Upsets me that I can go to New Zealand much cheaper than see my own country.
One of my bucket list items was to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. So just had to do it. Here’s a snap from going through the fish. What a good feeling. Reaching out to touch them.
Great Barrier Reef – Swimming with the fishes – literally
I know why people travel the world to snorkel and dive now. Truly magnificent.
Cairns has a casino but no craps. I went into the casino to check it out. It’s very nice. But had the family with me so no time to play. Didn’t even have time to get a $5 chip as a momento of my travels. Next time.
Back to reality in Brisbane…
Showed up at my usual time at the casino and craps table was closed again. Jeez
Sought out the pit boss again and asked if it’s finally been cut. He said no, they have 2 dealers sick so they can’t open the table.
So it appears that not only do we only have one table that is only open during small windows that we only have a few dealers that can work the table. I’ve counted 6 so far but they have to juggle their shifts around because through the week they deal other games as well.
Perhaps I should become a craps dealer to help them out. Second thought no thanks. It’s a very hard job. I’ve got a mate of mine who was a craps dealer on a cruise ship. Now if I was younger with no family that cruise ship lifestyle doesn’t sound to bad.
Anyway I thought I’ll get some mini baccarat in instead.
I found a computer terminal that had 2 x roulette a sic bo and a mini baccarat running on it.
Could not believe it but it was a $1 machine. Must be my lucky day. All the rest of the terminals I’ve seen have been $10 min.
Put in $100 and started to play. I know Heavy has a baccarat system. But I’ve been wargaming Target 3 play by Seth Theobeau and doing quite well with it.
Had some emails to catch up on so did that in between hands as well as play mini baccarat. The target 3 play is quite simple once you’ve practiced it and there is 30 seconds between hands. And I only bet banker in this session. Just need to keep track of bet size not where to bet.
It’s great to sit down and play instead of standing.
Played for 15 mins and cashed out $120.50 (+$20.50) 20% very nice.
The 50c came from banker 6 hand which pays 1:2 instead of commission on each banker hand.
I’ll put this $1 mini baccarat into my rotation now when the craps table is not available and get my baccarat skills up without risking much money at all. Fantastic.
by CJ | Jan 21, 2017 | Baccarat, Podcast
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Casino : Treasury Brisbane
$100 buy in
Mini baccarat
Found a computer terminal with a live dealer in front so I could watch them deal and reset the shoes. They deal 2 different games back to back. Must be boring for them with no interaction with the players.
First time playing baccarat, and it was very confusing as the dealer was not standing on hands that I thought he should stand on. And there was one hand I was sure player had won but he gave it banker and I lost my bet. I felt cheated.
But you can’t talk to the dealers with these electronic machines.
Treasury casino only has $25 min tables or $10 minimum computer terminals.
Speaking with my friendly craps dealers I’m getting to know. The casino is allowed a certain amount of pokie machines per fixed table game. Since they don’t have the space they put all these computer terminals in playing multi games (baccarat, roulette, sic bo) and each terminal is classified as a full table. Then they are allowed more pokies. Amazing way to get around legislation.
Anyway it was good to play a game sitting down. And test out some basic line bet strategies faster than at the craps table. Each hand happens every 45 seconds.
I have watched the full baccarat tables and even watching it is painful. These idiot players squeezing the cards and taking 1 minute to reveal the card they’ve been dealt. I just want to reach over and turn the damn thing over for them. What a joke.
Trying out a trend / anti trend strategy coupled with a win and loss progression and regression.
Got down to $25 then back up again, didn’t follow my strategy properly as I kept getting lost in my position in the strategy until I realised you could write stuff down and even use your phone at the terminals.
I like the speed of the game but dislike sitting alone tapping on a screen while at the casino without a dealer in front of you. Seems kind of wrong. Also I dislike that you have no connection to the outcome of the hand. Which is why I always have and will continue to love the game of craps over any other game that people can come up with. Maybe the skill based computer games that are now coming out in some USA casinos might sway my opinion on that if they ever get to Australia. But in my humble opinion craps is still the best.
Looking forward to road testing more baccarat plays.
Colour in $105 (+$5) in 1 hour
