PBH / colombia (travelguide, pictures) / post

casino in COL..

Yesterday night i was at Caribe Casino in Medellin, while waiting for one of the blackjack table to open up, i wandered up to the second floor, which is the texas hold em and VIP room. It´s nice up there! They have almonds for the guest to eat AND they make you fresh jugos as comp drinks! They havea couch area with big screen TV for your gf or wife to sit and wait while you gamble(lose). I was shocked to see a 25k minimum blackjack table, with players putting 50k to 100k per hand!

Watching the poker table was interesting too, i dont know what the buy in is. But last night, both poker table had 8 or so players all males, and their real hot GF just sat around waiting for them.

After a bit, i went down to the main floor and waited for my blackjack table to open. Playing blackjack in COL is easy to win, becuase the minimum is so low that you can bet the minimum($2500 peso) until you get on a winning streak and then up your bet and start winning lots of money. I win 3/4 times when i play alone or with COL players that know how to play.

Unfortunately, the majority of COL play blackjack very badly and agressively, which leads them to lose money quickly. More quickly than players in the US. One thing Casinos in the US will do is HELP you IF you ask, but here in COL the casinos do not allow the dealers to recommend the CORRECT play.

The other night i was playing with a player who lost over 400k peso, he lost everything! including his taxi money home, he was pestering other players(incl me) for 2500 peso chip to take the taxi home(taxi cost about 5 or 6k.) i gave him one chip and another guy gave him another, so he had enough to go home. BUT the dumbass, took our 2 chips and sat NEXT to us and lost it in two hand! He had to beg other player again.

By caslug on Nov 28, 2005, 10:29 in Friendly Talkzone.

tlop says on Nov 28, 2005, 16:29:

A little advice Although I am happy you have enjoyed success playing blackjack, unfortunately, you are wrong about it being easy to win. Unless you are an excellent card counter, every wager you make at the blackjack table has a negative expectation, regarless of the $ (or peso as it may be) value.

If you enjoy playing and don´t mind donating a little money, have fun. If you are going in their with the expectation you will generally make money, I recommend you rethink things.

Good luck.

Dan

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el norteño says on Nov 28, 2005, 16:52:

Craps Does the casino there have a craps table?
That's the game with the least casino advantage.

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riverplate says on Nov 28, 2005, 20:12:

texas hold'em I'll be living in Medellin starting in June...how's the skill level of the texas hold'em players? I look forward to playing a bit in Colombia.

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caslug says on Nov 30, 2005, 05:38:

craps.. Nope! Casinos in COL or Peru don´t have craps! I wish they did, i like playing craps especially when the minimum would be soo low.

A ex vegas casino manager, managing a casino in BOG, once told me that the reason COL casino don´t have craps is because it´s too hard to teach the locals how to play.

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caslug says on Nov 30, 2005, 05:53:

blackjack I just learn from a dealer, that the blackjack(caribe 21) i was playing is DIFFERENT than the US! they took out ALL the 10´s! in a six deck shoe, that means 16 less 10´s. so it changes several things,

a) Dealer has LESS chance to bust, especially if the dealer is showing 6 or less.
b) players MAY want to hit on 12 more often
c) players have better chance against dealer 17 or 18, because there´s less chance player bust.

I was counting cards last night, and every other shoe the high cards were stacked near the end of the shoe. So in final several hands, it was EASIER(not guarantee) to win, i won most of my money during those hands. Counting cards ONLY will get you one or two hand per shoe, because they always start a new shoe when the shoe has about 1 deck left of cards.

BUT one thing i notice about players here, is MANY play selfish, they WONT sacrifice for the table, like we do in the US. That´s fine if that´s how they want to play, but they over the long run, they lose more. I had one lady last night, that kep hitting on 13 or 14, while the dealer showing 4 or 5, and she would ruin the deck for EVERYONE, and the other players would tell it to her too. Since my spanish sucks, i just started giggling, because i usually lost only2500 peso, while the other players would lose 10 or 20k peso. She glared at me and said, that it´s not her intention to make everyone lose, but she did this SEVERAL TIMES!

When i play it´s usually to past time, so i´ll always win a little(40 to 70k) or lose a little(20 to 40k), over 4 or 5 hrs. If i play with good players i´ll win 75% of the time, if i play with crappy playrs i lose 75% of the time.

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caslug says on Nov 30, 2005, 05:55:

texas hold em I only watch couple of games of poker at the VIP lounge, they didn´t seem to bluff as much. from my limited knowledge of poker, i would GUESS they were playing conservatively but correctly, not trying to push bad cards.

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