Well, let's see, there's at least 100 tables here.In the block from here to the Flamingo, there's probably close to 1,000 tables, for some reason, people think there's only the big casinos in Las Vegas, and if you're not hanging out in one of them, you're not really in Vegas. So the next time you drive into the MGM, or Bellagio, or Mirage, or Caesar's Palace, take a short drive by the employee's parking lot.There's probably no car in there built before 1998, not a car without custom wheels, tinted power windows, cd player, speaker system, alarmed, and probably all paid for too. What these dealers at the larger casinos make is probably close to double or triple what a dealer a block away at a smaller casino is making. The average tip count on a shift at the MGM is well over $15-$20,000 and that's ONE SHIFT.A lot of smaller casinos average $3-6 thousand tops, and that might be for the whole day. So what's the advantage of playing in these big casinos over the smaller ones? If you're an average player, pays for your own room and meals, doesn't ask for big comps or favors. The answer is THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE, in fact I can give you plenty of reasons for playing at the smaller casinos, and only one reason to play in the larger casinos.Better (more expensive) restaurants, and bigger (a lot more expensive) rooms.

I've discussed this topic with a few "professional" players, and they all agree, they wouldn't play at the big casinos unless they were planing to stay there and eat there, which means, only for the comps at a better restaurant or nicer rooms. But to the average player, you have to consider a few things.FIRST: Consider how much you have to spend, and how good a player you are. At the big casinos, the bottom line is HANDS PER HOUR. How many hands they can deal in one hour. The average casino is usually around 300 hands per hour, many expect 350, but the larger casinos expect 450, and believe me, if you can't deliver, you better have a good reason, like losing a limb, or spontaneous human combustion, or just look for another job. Dealer evaluations usually take place every 4-6 months, and you'll be lucky to get one warning that you're too slow, if you can't speed it up, you're history. So how can a dealer deal 450 hands an hour and still talk to the players, be friendly and personable, and be sure they and the players are enjoying themselves. The answer is IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. This person's going at full speed, 8 hours a day, and they don't expect mistakes either. With the size of the casinos and the table limits going up and up ($10 is the minimum on the weekends in Las Vegas) the average player isn't going to be able to stave off too many losses before they're going to have to quit, so with most players, the dealer only has a limited ammount of time to try to establish some sort of rapport with the player in order to make any tips, and at full speed, this won't happen. Most of the time they'll greet you (insisted on by the house) take your money, call out the change, and the cards are in the air. Take a half-second too long making your decision, and the dealer's tapping on the table, reminding you a Jack and Six = sixteen, and what are you gonna do? try to burn some time asking them what they think you should do and they'll say "Hit it or stay, what do you wanna do?" (great help) This all seems so generic, like these dealers were just popped out of an oven like cookie cutter ginger bread men. They all look alike, sound alike, act alike, they smell the same, use the same cliches over and over that they heard in a movie, or some other dealer say that sounded cleaver. They have no minds of their own, management doesn't expect them to. Once you stop for a second to think, the dealer has to stop the game, the floorman looks over, he walks up and says immediately "what's the problem?" As a player, you gotta be thinking "what the hell, it's my money man, give me a second to think" and of course, the floorman's trying to push you along, push the dealers along, as if they were making a percentage of how much they win.

So what's the answer? well like I said, there's probably a thousand tables in the MGM area alone, but just blocks away there's smaller casinos where the dealers are still driving cars made in the 80's, paying weekly rent and eating at work to save money on food. Every dime you tip them goes to paying bills and living expenses. The $5 tip you give them means something.It could mean the difference in making their rent or not. The game itself is the same everywhere, craps pays the same for a 7 in all the casinos, blackjack pays 3 to 2 in every house in Nevada, from the little joint with 6 tables to the MGM with 150 tables. When I tip a dealer, or a bartender, or a waiter, or a waitress, I want to know they're appreciative of the gift. Tips are not an obligation. Some dealers realize this, most don't. When I play blackjack for $5 and put a $1 tip up in front of the bet, I want to know that dealer really wants US to win. I don't want to play with a dealer that thinks every $1 tip is just a waste of his or her time. It doesn't matter to me how much experience the dealer has, the best dealer in Las Vegas still has to hit when you ask, and not hit when you don't ask, a break-in has to deal the same exact way, but when the dealers face lights up when I put up a $5 tip, when they win they pick up the toke, tap it on the rack and looks you in the eye with real appreciation, smiles and says "thanks, I appreciate that" you know they really do. Give a dealer at the MGM a dollar tip and they just shove it into the tip box, they may say "thanks" like you'd thank a cop for giving you a speeding ticket. Walk past the table in a big casino and the dealers on the dead games are doing anything they can to ignore you hoping you won't notice them and sit at their table, they'd rather stand dead and take a break, they know they're gonna make good money anyways.At the smaller casino when you walk by the dead games, they look at you and smile hoping you will sit at their table and play, knowing if they don't get a game, they won't make any money.

I'd tell you to look for a table where the players look like they're having fun, where at least a few of the players have a reasonable ammount of chips in front of them that they won, signifying the table is a winning table. But sometimes the reason some tables are quiet isn't because the players aren't winning, but because the dealer has no personality and nothing to say to the players. Some losing tables are still loud and have a lot of fun if the dealer can get them going.

When I played blackjack, I played to win, I wasn't there to socialize or pick up girls, or get drunk for free, or try to make friends. I'd go out at 2-3am , always go to the small casinos where I could usually find an empty table and an appreciative dealer that was glad to see me (and my tips) and after a few minutes, we'd be lasting friends, at least until I left around 6am. Whatever my buy-in was, I'd be sure to get silver.My first bet, whatever it was, was ALWAYS started out with a $1 play for the dealer. This way I'd establish the realtionship we were about to have. That way I'd get the dealer on my side from the first hand out. When the floorman saw me walk up, I'd introduce myself by name, that way I establish a rapport with the guy I'm gonna ask for a comp dinner or room when I'm done playing. My first few hands would be for at least $20 or $25 to establish in the floorman's mind that I'm a player, and to take me seriously when I ask for anything. Nothing is worse than a player that talks the talk, but can't walk the walk. No floorman respects a player that bets $5 and starts asking for cocktails, and dinners , and how they won or lost thousands before they showed up here. They only respect the size of the bet.PERIOD. Unless you're a 21 year old beautiful blonde with a killer body, then you don't even have to bet, just ask for dinner and a room, and when he's done wiping the drool off his mouth, you're in.

Don't be stupid, don't think because you're in Vegas you gotta play at the Mirage or Caesar's Palace to feel like you're really playing. No one cares where you won, or how you won, just HOW MUCH you won. There are no loosers on the plane ride home.. in other words, you can lie and tell everyone on the plane how you were comped at Caesar's Palace after you beat them out of $10,000, enjoyed a free suite and 2 full-time hookers, when in reality, you lost $200 playing video poker machines at Slots-A-Fun, and then dumped another $50 on the $2 blackjack table.

Remember "GAMBLING DOESN'T BUILD CHARACTER, IT REVEALS IT"

GOOD LUCK
Ken Pearlman