TomM

Once again have to congradulate the chiefs at Bph for hiring Magaly..Sounds Irish but I'm probably wrong. She put the 6 on the bank for a come from behand winner that really helped out in that one. Poor Girl mixed up a mess, but I forgive her. She inherited most of the that mess.

Would be nice to have some table selection again, huh?. I guess the bac tables were down for like 4 or 5 days or something? The only thing I noticed different last night was the little feature that auto selects the best connection from the three choices they give. Big whoop there. I have to guess there is more to it than that. Like a said before this outfit is confusing at times and lately is exhibiting characteristics of a joint trying to tighten up their game. I wish they had the stability of like a Dublinbet. Dublinbet shoes look as good to me today as they did when I first started practicing there. The only defensive maneuver that I see there is the speed of the deal at times. However, when I can keep up I still find their shoes quite good for me. The only other thing I can figure is to many good players overplaying Bph for higher stakes. I can’t fault anyone for taking advantage of some of the better shoes. Personally I only intend to play low stakes there at least until I have access to more online casinos. I think it would just be to easy to have your play profiled. If you intend to use online casinos as a money thing in the future you could be in trouble if these various outfits start to share information. If you punch Bph into Alexa.com you see the stats show that about 80% of their business comes from North America. I think like 67% are Americans. Not surprising with the anti-online gambling ban on here in the USA. I’ve heard rumors online that when the large USA based companies are set up for it the laws will change. I think the online market must have outfits like Hurrahs and Caesars and whatnot drooling to get a piece of the USA market down the line. I still would like to know why Betphoenix is the only live table game joint that has flaunted the UIEGA laws. It has got to be a huge boon to their operation to offer live games to any country where online gambling is outlawed. They virtually have that market cornered for now even though the sports bettors have a # of good offshore books to patronize. The other thing is it is just damn difficult to find any definitive information about their table games. You can get a ton of opinions/ information on Betphoenix from the sports betting sites but almost none of that information applies specifically to the live table games. I know from the sports betting sites that Bph had a major issue when the company that served them folded or bailed last year. They were apparently the only client then, but now have to share servers with all the other outfits in Costa Rica. It least that was the information I read from "Richard". Richard is the BPH rep that runs around to the various sports book forums and calms everybody down when Bph is off the air for any time at all. Those sport betting guys get really PO'd if they can not get their bets down. Would be nice to get hold of some real financial information as to just how lucrative the live table games have been for Bph. I’m not sure if they are obliged to share that information even with the Costa Rican government, as I hear they run tax-free down there presumably because they hire so many locals. I find it difficult to believe that they would not have all there table games up and running on a weekend unless they are having some internal problems like server issues or something like that. But as Ellis says never underestimate these guys. They’re very smart.

Table 1 is open now. Almost perfect (2-1) top heavy player. I just dropped in and saw this one open so I don't know if these are new cards or not. Update: About a 30 some minute shoe ended at hand #44. They were busy with the tag team wash a minute ago. Maybe someone won a couple colons...not me, I'm watching The undersea world with my wet freind Jacque Cousteau. It has been re-runs of the old Cousteau shows on TCM all day. Too cool. Update part deau: Well I OD'd on the Cousteau reruns but watched enough of the shoes to see they were good tonight. This last shoe the other girl "pit person" or whatever came over and took the joker from the dealer and put in in the shoe but they didn't turn the shoe sideways so I couldn't see to well how far from the end it went. Aside from the first shoe it appears as if they are dealing basically full shoes. That's it.

Hey Guys Was just on live chat over at Bph. I was told they will be down till this Saturday June 12, 2010 for maintenance. I asked about another site that I stumbled upon run by the Phoenix people. It's URL is Betphoenixcasino.com. The lobby reminds me of BOC's. It should have the live games when it is up and running. I tried to enter with my Betphoenix acct info but keep telling me that was wrong. I asked the live chat person at the Betphoenix sportsbook website about not being able to access that website with my acct. info that lets me into Bph or Bogarts and was told I should contact them. I have to assume all the "BPH" live dealer games are closed for now. I get a tighness in my chest every time I think about going to the local joint. That can't be good. Besides it will be Friday in a couple hours. Figure there will be one quarter table that's under a cloud of smoke and the rest will be $50.00's ready turn into $100.,00. pumpkins at midnight. Naw, Smokadelphia ! I'll wait.

This thread eluded me somehow and just thought I would bring it up near the top of the page so new members will see it. Good stuff !

Bph still flying the red flag this morning. BOC was down last night when I checked, but is up now. When they first opened they didn't offer those various betting platforms. I can't remember what the upper limit was but I believe it was more than $ 300.00. Now it appears that the upper limit goes with the $15.00 minimim bet. When I see $15.00 tables in a casino my inner silly self just wants to start heckling from the aisle, even though I have manged to keep that impulse under control. Would be fun to get a few licks in at BOC but two minutes after I signed on the dealer video froze. I didn't feel like hanging around even though the short board looked good for TBL.

Probably some server problem or something. I'm sure the chiefs will have the recruits boning up on shuffle procedures in the meantime. Update: Concerning my prior post #16 that mentions the losing shoe I just have to say I just replayed the first 40 hands and even with my conservative progression I am at +9.5 units at hand 40. To make matters even worse I can see System One would have kicked butt without much fuss regardless of what progression used. This just goes to show that I can really foul up a perfectly fine shoe. I remember and old movie that I had never heard of came on at the start of this shoe and it turned out to be a hoot. Unfortunately I must of been more involved in the movie than usual. On the other hand I pulled the plug at -5. Just goes to show how handy it is too run with a stop-loss in mind for emergencies. I really don't have a firm stop-loss for playing Maverick with the conservative progression but I think for me -10 under normal circumstance or -5 when a good shows on the tube. With the conservative progression my worst shoe holds at -6.5. When I hit -4, I push the panic button and that usually gets my attention and I start the crawl back to zero and hopefully a winner. One other thing to keep in mind at Bph lately is their shoes are running longer then usual so if you are anything like me you my be a little more fatigued if you are playing more than a couple shoes per session.

I know what you mean. The 1's legend I keep alerts me to potentially stuggling shoes real quick. If my score isn't in negative numbers by the time I recognize it I can get sucked into a "House shoe". I'm still experimenting with a version of System One as a more conservative way of winning these shoe types with a conservative progression aimed at recovery while still tracking the shoe with Maverick so return on queue or continue with System One if things don't shape up for the remainder of the shoe. I still have more figuring to do with that and will post it somewheres around here if it ends up to have any teeth at all. The obvious thing is to bail and take a small loss and wait for the next shoe or see what the other tables are doing. I tend to like to battle on as it is good training. The "bad" shoe got me for -5 units last night but I quit playing because I was tired and just recorded the rest of the shoe. i beleive the shoe stayed crappy the whole way. I remember watching and waiting for a Ultimate bet scenario to line up and hit it, playing in my head. The next two bets I tried that on were not "Ultimate Bet" candidates but just looked to be advantage bets and won one and lost the other. So had I kept betting and made the 5 unit "ultimate bet" I would have recoverd all but a little commission. I tend not to bet into these situations much perfering to take the small loss so I don't have to dig out from a bigger hole in the next shoe if I muck things up. The warning signs are all over the wall on that one. Perhaps I'll post it over on the M&M thread as an example of a difficult Maverick shoe. The only thing is I am rarely playing a strong progression at the start of a shoe so my drawdowns and loss's on these shoes tends to be insignificant. Also sometimes a more agressive progression or attitude will recover the lose and go on to win these shoes but I am looking for another avenue in system One to provide some relief here perhaps.

I played 3 shoes at Bph last night and two of the three were just fine for me using Maverick/PC. They seem to be using a bunch of little shuffle variations but the most visual is the stacking of the shoe with the picks after whatever house shuffle they use. The final shoe that Byron shuffled he was about to stick the cards in the shoe and he must of got some off camera instructions and did a sort of WTF look to the side and broke down that shuffle for another goofy maneuver before he put the larger "picks" back in the shoe. All this shuffle stuff is very entertaining but that final shoe of the night was really goofed up. IT changed from OTB4L favorable to TB4L and RD-H to Anti real quickly that makes it difficult to hit winners on with any consistency. These shoes are easy to spot in the first column. Playing the conservative progression I tend to bog down in these. I need a little more torque in these or sit out after 2 loss’s and hope to hit the resume bet. I was thinking of going with a controlled version of System One that I have been working on but have not seen many shoes that Maverick doesn‘t win so haven‘t had the opportunity to try it yet in live play. It needs a little more polish and practice anyway. The other thing they did last night that I have never seen before is after the dealer sticks the cards in the shoe they waited for a “pit person“ to come over and stick the Joker in near the end of the shoe. I guess they are trying their best to reconcile with the # of players they pissed off with the “short shoes“. .All in all Bph has to take the cake for the weirdest shoes I have ever seen in a single session. Mostly weird good, but occasionally weird confusing. Anyway it appears they are back to dealing full shoes and still experimenting with shuffle procedures that they have to teach the dealers to abide by. It least I have a little more time to build the perfect PB&J sandwich during intermission.

I've never seen that bad hand burn at Bph but plenty in the brick and mortor joints. I think it is just a little more game control. When I played in the B&M joints regularly 10 -15 years ago when they mucked up a hand somehow they just considered it a dead hand and didn't do that mid-shoe burn. It really pisses off a lot of players when they do the burn because most players feel it screws up the flow and they have to re-figure their play. I've been in shoes were it has happened more than once in a shoe (usually because the dealer is new or asleep) and the whole table picked up and split. Once I was left heads-up when the table moved on so needing a break anyway I eventually asked them to burn that shoe and I would start the next shoe. They did it that time. But if that is going on a lot at a table I usually just bail. I don't think they have a specific number of cards they cut off the new shuffle at Bph. I just see them stick the joker in close to the end. I haven't played many shoes there recently but the ones I have played were broken down to way more 2's and particularly 3's and more and slighly longer ZZ runs. This is an indication to me that they were successful to some degree in busting up the straight runs.

Just finished up 3 shoes at Bph and it was OK but short on long repeats. Had a 10R in the final shoe tonight but it was out of character with the rest of the shoe and the other two were more mixed. Possibly the time they were dealing the short shoes they had there "pit" re-figuring the shuffle. I needed something so crossed the pond and ended up at Dublinbet for the 1st time in three weeks or so and played one shoe off the short board for a 20 something unit win. It has been going on for like 3 years now and there shoes are still good for me. Lot of the same faces and a nice smooth interface that makes online play a pleasure. Being able to only look back 10 plays from there board is OK for me. Still haven't been over to BOC in over 3 months. I keep forgetting and not sure if I remember my password. Nice bunch of folks over there as I remember. I hope they don't have the turnover that Bph seems to have unless they are bumping many up the coporate ladder quickly.

Haven't played there much in the last 10 days or so so only saw a couple of the short shoes. I played 3 shoes last night/early morning on table 4 and they all went the distance. The shoes were not that good though. Either I just got a load of crappy shoes or they have managed to break up a lot of the streak with the intermitant wash. Saw a lot of 3's games.

No, I'm not sure. I was to tired to play much after that first shoe last night and was watching old movies on TCM. Looks to me like they are pretty basically back to their usual shoes. A bit more jumpy at times but still a good mix. I had the last shoe of the morning going this AM, and counted 14 players in a row. It was looking pretty good but I was just half watching in fun mode so I recorded that one for posterity. The 14 players started at play #37 and until the shoe ended at #66 Banker only produced four circles, two 2's and two lone 1's. Gotta love that.

Maybe, it was the nickel table that ended at 2.20 am Eastern USA time. I guess 1:20 am jungle time. That was a good one that had a bunch of 4's 5's and 6's. That was my first shoe of the night and I wasn't really expecting anything that good. Was watching the tube and playing nickels that time. Back to the fun.

I just finished a shoe at Bph and it was real trendy, real good shoe even though they did that card sorting thing before that one. It was right back to the normal length and she made a point of showing that she was cutting off only 1/2 deck or so. I can't figure out what they think there up too. They "forgot" to erase the toteboard from the previous shoe and almost ran out of places on the horizontal board that time. When I left a minute ago they had two dealers doing the card sorting thing again. I don't get it. Maybe they are just trying various card control measures to see what might work for them the best. Didn't work to well on the last one. I got 18 units with the Mav/PC thing. Maybe the boss got a wild hair going. Wouldn't surprise me if they dig up a shufflemachine that can handle the big cards down the road.

Well they certainly have the capability to quickly analyse your play with the computer holding all the data. The problem with USA players is we only have one online outlet for money play. It would be much better if we could spread our action around a little just like if you are hammering one particular B&M joint. The bad thing in the USA is this online gambling legislation will probably be deadlocked for a long time to come with all the other problems that take precedence now. Bummer

Same thing happened on the last two shoes on the nickel table. The first shoe ended at hand #38 and the second shoe ended @ hand #44. Less than an hour play time on each shoe. I haven't been over there for a few days and I popped in tonight for a tune-up shoe and I dropped into the nickel table because she was looking like she was almost done with the shuffle. She did some wierd stack the shoe with small "picks" from the piles after the shuffle. Never seen that one before anyplace. They must be getting hit pretty good to be going to that kind of trouble. I'm not doing much hitting there, especially lately. I really treat that place with kid gloves because I don't want to have the welcome mat pulled from the only cash joint I can access now. I hope they quit spazzing out or we are going to have to get used to playing like 5 deck shoes or something. Oh well !

Well it's the 5 minute before midnight server reset thing at Bph so I just wanted to congradulate the boss at Bph for hiring Francine. Not only stunning and can blow kisses too Papadu from both hands (Papadu give extra points for ambidexterity). Also Francine sits up nice and tall and slowly fades as she realizes the extent of her dilemma but keeps on keeping on. Just before the break a card didn't scan properly so she had to wait for the pit to come and straighten out the mess while she seemed to be saying "come on give me some direction I'm not Meryl Streep here". It was better than the deer in the headlights thing anyway. Update: Went back and they have the big font "We'll be back" banner blowing on the nickel table now. That banner has been blowing over the $50.00 dollar table for the last couple of days so I hope it's not contagious. I guess I will mark that shoe as incomplete due to technical problems. On the bright side it gave me a chance to catch the end of the Letterman show and the tail end of "Dances with Wolves" on TCM. Every shoe has a silver lining !

Not here. But I have to check with the casinomiester to see who has been naughty and nice lately. It would help all gamblers if they would just do the smallest research with a site like casinomeister before they deposit so those junk sites would die off sooner.

Well I doubt if I can explain it but I have experienced it at both BOC and BPH over the last few months. It used to really wierd me out when I first experienced that delay. I pondered what may be happening and as usual just ended up blaming the whole thing on Wild Bill Gates. Maybe the pipeline for the digital display is faster and the video pipe needs to be enlarged for MFPS (more frames per second I guess). If they do have to use larger pipe they better not run it through the Gulf of Mexico. I don't know how BP and BPH would mix. Could end up with levitating cards covered in oil. LOL

So wake flip on Bph and play one good shoe while shaking out the cobwebs. Guess it was to good, Racheal and another girl were double teaming the wash a minute ago. Oh well. Bph went down for a while yesterday so I crossed the pond and there was Monika dealing at warp speed, me trying my best but always a few dots behind the eight ball. Fortunately a few guys sat for the next shoe and they slowed Monika down to sub-light speed again. Whew. Going from Bph (valley of valium) to Dublin (meth lab) bet is a pretty wierd transition sometimes.

Wow Mark, I read through that earlier and it looked like a really well choreograghed script of what has been going on around here the last 3 years. Mind blowing !

Sure I'll post it up later. Just winding up my session. I'm thinking she must have only cut off 12 cards or so like in B&M joints. At Bph they are not consistant about the cut card but I never saw one go that long before. Everything else looked normal the rest of the evening it was just that one really long shoe and I didn't notice that many naturals ( but maybe there were I'm not sure). But I ran off my card by a mile. I've done that on ocassion in the casino with normal cut-off but first time there. I side counted the ties so I know I am correct on that.

Last shoe on the nickel table went 95 hands and 15 ties. Looks like better gear up for 10 deck or something. I got tired of watching but she was shuffling when I went to the kitchen and when I came back she was washing 1/2 the shoe. I didn't see if she washed both sections.

Well John for a while last night late only 1 table was going and then they got the nickel table going a little after midnight EST but they were sifting through the cards face down like they were doing a wash and I watched that action for a while on the nickel table and was thinking maybe they are adding a wash to the thing. She was so slow doing whatever she was doing with the cards that I thought maybe they were new or she was looking for damage and such before firing up the thing but I got tired of waiting so played a partial shoe on T-1 and nothing stunning there so went back and she was looking like she was getting to the end inspecting the cards or washing or whatever so I went back to T-1 and the dealer there was starting that procedure with the cards on her table so I went back to T-4 and she was putting the cards in the shoe sometime after midnight and I played for awhile. I have never see any new card procedure there (if that was what was going on) before so I wasn't sure what was up. Anyway I thought the cards were a little more OTB4L favorable after the procedure somewhere a little after midnight EST. so a little after 11:00 pm jungle time. I thought the early shoes were a little tougher and got gradually better after 3 shoes or so. I was trying my best to play the Maverick while fumbling around trying to figure out the easiest way to mark the circles TB4L or OTB4L with my pen and came up with a couple ways that made sense to me a few hours ago. I'll look at my cards later to see if I can figure out any of my scribbling later today. I think all the table are up and running now, or 3 tables or something. Have fun.