Originally Posted by UTHAddict
This is a great thread! I remember reading this 8-9 years ago when I discovered this game at a casino in PA. I've been on a nice run over the past couple months and would like to share my experiences. I'm a poker player at heart(admittedly not a very good one), but there is no rush in the casino comes close to playing this game. I stopped playing BJ completely after I found this game.
Estimated Stats
All in all, I've probably played about 50-60 sessions averaging about 5hours each. I mainly play $10 tables but will gear up $15 and even $25 if I'm running hot.
-I would estimate that I'm up about 15k-20k all time, coming out ahead about 60-65% of the sessions.
-My biggest losing session was $1500 and I've had about 5 losing sessions of $1000-once in an hour.
-My biggest winning session was $8k when I hit the royal flush. My last 5 sessions have been: +8k, +1.5k, +$500, +$500 and +$900(today). The $1.5k win was with a straight flush on the flop betting $25 ante-blind.
-The craziest sequence I've seen at a table is 6 quads in the space of about 3 hours. I had one and one was on the board(although I didn't play trips on this hand and lost my blind). I've also lost 11 straight hands.
Approach
I know the right plays but only do them about 80%-90% of the time. My rationale for this is that the variance in this game is a royal b!tch, so if I've lost a few 4x row or if I'm just running bad in general, I might not be as apt to do it on some of the more marginal +EV hands(K2s, K5o, etc) especially if my bets are up to $15.
-I usually buy in for $300 at a time, just so I'm thinking about what I'm doing. Money can go fast in this game so when I rebuy, at least it gives me a moment to pause.
-I try as much as possible to minimize the amount lost on losing streaks and maximize the amount won on winning streaks. If I'm losing, I'll usually take my bets down to $10 and try to ride it out. If I'm winning, I'll up my bets to $15 and occasionally more. I generally don't play $5/hand because it feels wasted when I hit a big hand. I feel I have a very good sense for how to do this now and it's really key.
-I've found that for my bankroll it doesn't make sense(ever) to bet more than $15(ante and blind). Even marginal increase to $25 introduces a level of variance that I can't handle.
-I do actually play trips, especially when I'm on a roll, but I try to limit it to $5(40% of the time) $10(20% of the time), and always an amount less than my blind-ante. I know it's a sucker bet but I find the game immensely more interesting when I play it, so I try to do it in moderation. I've been lucky to hit some of my big hands such as a royal, a sf, and several quads when I was playing it. I take a lot of flak from dealers and players alike for not playing it all the time.
-As much as possible, I try to get action from my neighbors. When people are scared to go 4x with their A-10, K-10 type hands, I gladly offer to go half and half. The casino I play at doesn't mind this and the way I see it, if people are leaving EV+ plays out there, it might as well go to you and not the casino. There's so many people that play these incorrectly that it's pretty much there for the taking every time you sit down.
-I can usually get a $25-50$ comp after every session win or lose, even though this casino is notoriously cheap. If you're nice enough, I've found that 75% of pit bosses will gladly do this for you. It may not seem like much, but it adds up and I'm never paying for food. I treat myself to many steak dinners from this.
-I've never come across any flashers, but dealer mistakes are fairly common and no, i do not correct them when they make a mistake that's in my favor. IMO, the casino is not a place for you to take the moral high ground as they will gladly take/steal your money if given the chance.
Observations
95% of people I've come across play this game horribly wrong and are not redeemable. This game must be a massive money maker for the casinos. Here are the most notable ones:
-The biggest mistake is failing to 4x when they should. Most won't even raise hands like AQ, A10, KQ, etc. Today I saw the absolute worse case of this where a lady didn't 4X or even 2X her pocket 10s and second guessed whether to 4X her pocket aces. When I asked her why she was even thinking about it she said "That hand usually works out bad for me so I don't like to bet it". I couldn't help myself, so I said "look, it's your money, but you cannot win at this game doing what your doing." She replied that I should do what what works for me. She also went on to say that most of the times she won't bother to look at her hand before the flop because it usually "gets her in trouble". At this point I realized that she was way to far gone-she lost $600 in an hour and went broke, complaining all along the way. A dealer once give me grief for 4x A10o when I lost saying I "need to wait to see the flop, I've dealt this game a long time". The pit boss overheard and nodded in agreement. Frustrate, I said "is there a game that offers you 51% change in the casino, and would you take it all day everyday if there was!?" They said "yes, ofcourse we would", so then I said "what about 60%+? that's what that hand was" and then all I got was a lot of silence....
-Playing a disproportionate amount on trips. It boggles my mind when I see people play $10 on ante-blind and do $30+ on the trips, so even when they win, they still lose! I've even seen folks doing $15 on the back and $100 on the trips because "that where you make the money" as they tell me-I kid you not! Needless to say, these folks don't last very long.
-Not being aware of the variance. They buy in for $200 and are surprised when they lose it all in a couple hands or they will buy in for $1000 but play $25-50$ per hand.
The other 5% know what to do in the vast majority of situations, but don't always do it(I'm in this bucket). In fact I have never come across a single player that makes the right mathematical plays on every hand.
I have not even come across another player that wins at this game, mostly due to the mistakes above. Obviously, I don't always win, but people usually lose around me left and right and quit.
