There is a lot that I love at Borgata, but don’t stay there often because I only get comp rooms mid-week and only one per month. Most of my Atlantic City play has been at one of the Harrah’s hotels because of the room availability, but I’ve been trying to slowly move my play over to Borgata so I get better comps and hopefully weekend nights – when non-seniors travel.
I was with a few friends and wasn’t able to take pictures or notes, so this post is all from my memory. Admittedly, there are fuzzy moments as many Kettle One and Club Soda’s were enjoyed.
The day was spent playing a variety of slot machines from pennies to $1 machines. I didn’t walk away from any slot with more than I put in. I made up for that by getting 4 Of A Kind in $1 Double Bonus Poker. I don’t normally play this game, but I’m starting to enjoy it more than Jacks or Better. The volatility has been fun.
Things got crazy after a fantastic dinner at Chelsea Prime. After dinner, the plan was to play a little blackjack, smoke cigars and have another drink.
I sat down at a blackjack table and started with a small buy in to test the waters. That small buy in lasted about 3.5 hours!
It is rare to sit down at a table with friends where each of you wins. It’s even more rare to see an entire table win. This was one of the very rare occasions where everyone at the table won. Even more rare was the fact that multiple people were in and out of the table and there were no losers.
The fact is that everyone played the table by the rules of the blackjack card above and that added to the fun at the table.
The table minimum was $15 when we sat down and, unlike Harrah’s, we were able to play $15 hands after the minimum moved to $25. I play with a progressive betting style so minimums didn’t matter too much to me as I only play the minimum when I lose, which didn’t happen much on this day.
At the end of the session, my final bet was $100 and, of course, I won. I colored up after the session and received colors of chips I haven’t seen in a while.
The great part of this night is that I wasn’t the only winner. I wasn’t the biggest winner, but that is because of my passive/aggressive style. The people that stopped by and were aggressive from hand one showed the biggest wins at the table. Everyone at the table won a little money, had many drinks and even more laughs. Success!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
great report. how many times did they change dealers on you?
As a former die-hard reader of Bill Simmons on ESPN Page 2, I know all about them bringing in coolers/closers. I experienced this my very first time playing blackjack and, no, it did NOT cool me off. There’s nothing like watching the pit boss trot out dealer after dealer and the wins still keep coming!
JMP, every dealer was better than the last one. High fives were everywhere!
I think they like to have tables like this every so often so people watching can see the good time and we talk about the good times they had.
What’s the saying? You get more bees with honey…or something like that.
Great! Way to prove that changing the dealer doesn’t matter. Also, I approve of gradually moving play over to the Borgata where they offer better rules in almost every game.
Ted, you’re right gambling rules at Borgata are much better. Slowly trying to build my equity. Cash back and comp dollars also seem to come faster at Borgata, but I can’t say for sure.
you may be in the ‘bounce back’ zone right now, where they’re trying to get a feel of how much you’ll drop per trip. i’m there right now, I think (getting weekday rooms and $15 in food credits per month, etc). Of course, we are heading into the winter season, so Harrah’s is loosening the purse strings a bit too. Probably the only hotels not doing so are Resorts and the Hilton, which is why they’re defaulting on the mortgages.