zebra

I would be honored to share the podium with you. Paul

The dates work for me! Look for my PM Paul

I played Fitzwilliam 2 years ago - helped pay for my trip! Paul

Sounds like a plan. I have not been to Vegas in a while and have some friends to look up. Keep us posted on negotiations. I can get comped at Rio or GC and could take a roommate Paul

I am honored Paul

I played parts of 6 shoes in 3 days at Coconut Creek in Florida. Scores were (before comm) +20, -11, +13, +11, -6, +27 total +54 A quick summary of the shoes: 1. Entered at hand 52. SAP count was 15, 16, 12, 4 I played OTB4L and got out at hand 75 (24 hands) Low point was -4, high +23. Won 15 lost 9 +20 2. Entered at start of shoe. Played S40. Got out at hand 8. My mistake was getting in too soon. If I had waited longer I would have recognized that it was made for F2. Mark this off as a learning experience. -11 3. Entered near the end. The last 14 hands were BBB P BBB P BBB P B. It was screaming F.I was down a bit at the start but the shoe ended with 10 of the last 11 hands P. Played 18 hands, won 11 lost 7. +13 4. Entered hand 43, SAP 11, 10, 8, 12. Played OTB4L. Played 16 hands, won 10 lost 6, never minus +11 5. Entered just before the end - only played 4 hands. -6 6. Entered at start. Began with S40 and was +10 at hand 14. SAP was 4, 0, 4, 4. Switched to F2 and won 10 of my next 13 bets. At hand 47 I was +36 and quit at hand 56 +27 I have now played NOR on 3 trips. I started with a BR of $500 and it is now $1500. My play will go into hibernation now for the football season (yes, it is starting already). I will continue to practice and hope to begin casino hopping in November. I guess I will be upping my unit size with my larger BR. Paul

First 4 shoes at Coco Creek this week: +19, -11, +19, +10 after commission Interestingly enough, the only shoe I played from the start of the shoe was my only loser. The more I play, the more I see the value of knowing what the shoe is doing. Tote boards are invaluable. I don't think I will ever play without them again. I will play a few more shoes and give a more detailed report in a day or two. Paul

I think it would be a good idea, altho it might be overkill for members of the forum. Benson used to have a monthly newsletter that was quite informative - don't know if it is still in exsistance. Personally Ellis, I would rather see your novel!

How very true. It seems like almost every system I try works at home! It is another thing at the casino. I can't count all the times I have been torn between a bet that follows the system or one that follows a trend. Then add the fact that the same bet could be an 8 or 10 unit swing. You MUST have confidence enough in what you are doing to make that bet. It's always easy on the kitchen table. I have now played NOR twice in the casino, and have gone +54 in AC and +24 in parts of 2 shoes in Seminole Coconut Creek (a total of about 30 hands). The more I see this system work the more confidence I have in it. I find myself staying in S40 most of the time, occasionally in OTB4L and hardly ever in F. The shoes I have been seeing rarely show runs of more than 3. It seems when the go more than 4 they go to 8 or more. The Coconut Creek casino has only recently put in bac. The pit boss said it was last Dec. There are 2 tables seating 9, with only one open during the day. The minimum bet was 15 during the day and 25 at night. They have a nice tote board on each table and they do not allow players to handle the cards. I had no trouble finding a seat as I always do in the Hard Rock. There is no hotel there (yet) and they have a continuous shuttle from the parking lot (4 stops) to the front door - very player-friendly. I will be visiting them again next week to continue working on NOR. I will keep you informed on my progress. Paul

Hi Ellis I'm sure this has been asked and answered before, but I don't know where. When playing a 345 loop what do you use for the quitting point? -8 is too low because you can get there in a few losing bets. It is also easy to make up the loss and still get into a good shoe. I'm thinking in the neighborhood of -16 to -20. I like the 345 because I can play $10 units on a $25 min table, which is often all you can find

Hi Ellis I'm sure this has been asked and answered before, but I don't know where. When playing a 345 loop what do you use for the quitting point? -8 is too low because you can get there in a few losing bets. It is also easy to make up the loss and still get into a good shoe. I'm thinking in the neighborhood of -16 to -20. I like the 345 because I can play $10 units on a $25 min table, which is often all you can find.

Hi Everyone I just returned home from my trip to NYC. I stopped in AC for 2 days. I was with family so playing time was limited. My goal was to double my bankroll ($500). I played parts of 6 shoes in 4 different casinos. I played NOR, but found myself in S40 most of the time. It was hard to find tables under $15 min so I played $10 units with a 3, 4, 5 loop. My results: +27, -8, +3 (Harrah's) -7 (Bally's) +16 (Trump Plaza) +41 (Trop) for a total of +72 (before comm). Subtract about 10 for comm and I accomplished my goal. A few observations: I have never seen AC so dead. I was there Tues and Wed but I have never seen the casinos so empty. Even the Boardwalk had very little traffic on beautiful days. There was no problem getting a seat in any of the casinos I visited. In Harrah's I was the only player most of the time. They had 2 tables open all the time and no players. They allow the players to handle the cards, so the cards were always new. No toteboards. Bally's had 3 tables open. One was almost full. I went to an empty table and the dealer told me that if I asked the pit boss he would make the table non-smoking. I played most of a shoe and it was streaky/choppy/streaky and I was lucky to get out -7. No toteboards. At Trump they had many tables, half comm, half none. Only the non-comm tables had toteboards. They use $20 checks instead of $25 so it was a bit confusing. I was at a table with 4 other players. I was up and down, then hit a run of 9B to save the shoe. I walked thru Caesar's and they had all non-comm games, half of which had toteboards. Trop had 3 active tables with players allowed to handle cards. I sat at an empty table and told the dealer to just deal straight. The game featured ZZ runs of 6 and 13. I was up 49 and got out at 41 knowing I made my goal. This was my first real test of NOR. I think it went rather well. See you at the tables. Paul

Ellis - I sent you a PM Paul

Yes - looks can be deceiving!

I will be in AC on Tues and Wed. If you expect to be in town let me know and we can play a few shoes together Paul

I also played at Fitzwilliam when I was in Dublin last year. I played 3 shoes and wound up +24. It is a very small place with only 5 or 6 tables (all games) in the whole casino, and no machines. I also enjoyed playing there. My dealer was very inexperienced at bac and made several errors that I had to correct (and a couple I chose NOT to correct!)

Hi All The 2nd shoe was much more streaky than the first. There were runs of 5, 5, 7 (all Banker) and a ZZ of 6. S40 handled it quite well with a max bet of 5 units (twice) thanks to the help of the SAP count. I finished +27 units before commish. There was also a 3rd shoe which Andrea did not play - lucky for him. It bounced from chop to streak to chop. I was at + 14 at play 16 and down to -12 after a couple of streaks at play 34. I managed to finish at +4 units (1.5 after commish). Of the 6 participants in Shoe 2, only 4 including me and Andrea won more bets than they lost. one of the others still managed to lose over 400 units anyway. After 3 shoes I am +51.5 units after commish while never betting more than 5 units. All I can say is THANK YOU MASTER ELLIS Once again your methods come out on top! Paul

Hi Guys I am posting this in the private forum because I think it is too much free info for the public forum. Here is my betting strategy that I used in the BF tournament. The SAP count near the end of the first column was 5-4-12-0. At this point I started betting that 2's (LC) would go to 3 (ie betting repeat after every 2) and that 3's (MC) would NOT go to 4 (betting opposite after every 3). For the next 50 hands I was 5-1 betting 2's would go to 3 and 5-3 betting 3's would not go to 4. That is a swing of +6 (bets, not units). As Ellis says, read the shoe. Paul

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I must confess that I was also in this tournament, under my old BF name of Baccarat Kid, aptly stolen from one of Archer's pseudonyms. I finished second to Andrea by one winning bet. I also played S40 from the start. I played just as I would have in the casino. My highest bet was 4 units and that happened only twice in the shoe. As Andrea said it was choppy, never a run more than 4, altho there were ZZ runs of 5, 5 and 8, all of which I caught. I hit +30 in the middle of the 4th column. If it was real play I would have gotten out somewhere in the high 20's. I went from +30 to +19 when I missed most of the 2's Andrea jumped on, but I came back to +25 at the end. Two of the other 4 players wound up ahead, one was even and one got killed, but Andrea and I finished 1-2. I also made one typing error that cost me 2 units. I must say that the whole thing was run very well. One of the guys ran a computer program that simulated an 8 deck shoe and posted results after every hand. It was played out on Skype and took about 90 minutes after a few kinks slowed things at the start. Garnabby did not show up. Here is the shoe. Columns don't add up to 20 because of ties, which were ignored. B1221133111131 B22311111131 P11411411321 B21113222143 There will be another shoe played next Sunday at 5 eastern time. Cheers Paul

Dear Fellow Players I am posting here to warn you not to sign up with NBAProCapper or Zach's Private Forum or any other name he goes by. Let me tell you what happened to me when I signed up for his MLB Premium plays. First, let me say that the only reason I signed up in the first place was because of his guarantee. Here is what he promised, copied directly from this forum: 8-04-2010 05:39 PM Mlb final stretch offer (make $4000+) I will be giving my plays for $400.00 for the rest of the mlb season. You are guarrenteed to win $4,000 or you will get a refund of your $400.00 and also get my 2010-2011 NBA Season Plays Free ($1200 Value) I set up an account with a sportsbook for $1200 plus a $250 bonus, a total of $1450. Zach's Premium Picks quickly proceeded to wipe out my entire bankroll in about 3 weeks. I bet exactly as he said including unit size. He obviously has little skill as a handicapper. On Sept 14 I sent him this request: Obviously I did not make $4000 - I lost $1200 ($1450 with bonus) and “would have lost more if I continued to follow your picks. Please honor your commitment and return my $400. His response was: 100% end of season you will be refunded I have not forgot no worries So after the WS I again requested a refund. After several request he finally replied: if you would have ridden out the season you would have profited $6k+ I understand you lost the money fairly quickly but i did not know you would not continue on afterwards. I don't think a refund would be really fair as i did honor my guarantee. So this is what you are dealing with – an unscrupulous liar who makes promises he does not keep, not to mention a lousy handicapper. Stay away from his offers like the plague. Paul

Well said Ellis. Let me give another example of why this forum, Beat the Casino, works. I joined the private forum as a bac player who thought he knew the game well and won occasionally. I used Ellis' free system to win more than enough to pay for my membership. After reading through the mountains of material in the private forum I realized I was into something special. I mastered some of the systems and began to contribute as well. I realized that to become an even better player I would need to watch the Master. I joined Ellis and a group of members in Vegas. I found Ellis to be a true mentor. I played next to him and he was willing to answer all my questions as we played. He even did a little seminar in my room. Following this trip I met up with Ellis again in Tunica twice, along with Papa Joe Waminc. We all were able to play together, answer each other's questions, and bounce new ideas off each other. One of the new ideas to come out of our last trip was SKOR/z, with the "z" to signify "zebra" since I came up with the idea. I am very proud that I was able to add to the knowledge of the forum. Last year I was planning on going to Vegas for a few days and posted that fact in the forum. A new member contacted me and asked if we could meet and discuss things. I told him to call me and we met in the Gold Coast. He knew bac, but was totally confused with our terminology and methods. We met several times during my visit and I tried to get him on the right path. He seemed to be having a hard time catching on, and was surprised that I would take my time from playing to work with him. I explained that this is how our forum works. Guys went out of their way to help me, and I was simply returning the favor. We found that we had a lot in common and struck up a friendship. We stayed in touch after I went home and he continued to ask questions about the systems. As time went on and he continued to study and practice, he became a great player as well. He is now a regular poster and a great contributor to the forum. I am talking about NormA, and members will attest to his efforts. He is simply doing as I did, passing on his knowledge without seeking compensation other than knowing he is helping others and also helping himself in the process. A year from now some new contributor will write a post thanking NormA for helping him get started. I apologize for rambling on, but I really want everyone to know how special Beat the Casino is. I have become a consistent winner and a student of the game. Thank you to Ellis and all the others who have contributed to my growth and success. To new members I offer this advice: Read, learn practice, win, pass it on. Ellis, feel free to post this wherever it will do good. Paul

Claridge (now part of Bally's) has a small area where there are table games with low minimums. This was true my last trip about 10 months ago. There was always a $10 table, sometimes 2 or 3.

Hi Guys I have been away for a while, but still following the posts. I think what we all need (at least what I need) is a quick restatement of Mark's rules with the addition of Ellis' F2 clarification all in one place, with maybe a sample shoe to accompany it. Thanks to all of you who have been paving the road. Paul

I am retired and living comfortably on my pension and social security, so I don't need to play for a "living". However, I have won on my last 3 trips to casinos (3+ days each time in Tunica and Vegas) since playing with the arsenal of systems this forum has provided me with. I now walk into any casino with confidence that I will be leaving with some of their money. I count that as $ucce$$. Paul