Well in short IMO, the time, trouble and cost (although not huge I would gladly float but there just isn't the demand as I see it).  There is just a proven amount of too little interest, not your fault I understand. 

Virtually no participation, which when I weigh the pros and cons of everything, why continue?  Yes, we been down this road, but most everyone desires to watch YouTube these days to drown themselves with the fallacy and entertainment of a few hands here and there.  No one really is into any kind of detailed or experienced play, explanation of players decisions and outcomes, history of the casino/gambling industry, past stories, etc., etc.

There very well might be hundreds of members reading with great interest, but without input, responses and interaction, once again, why continue?  I even thought taking brick and mortar casino table pictures and posting them would be of interest.  But it did not.  I made quite a bit of profit and continually do so with varying BetSelection choices at the tables, and when I scan other forums they are rapidly discussing the search for guaranteed holy-grails by a continual specific type of wager, and discussing the application of long term statistics to a session of a few shoes.  ROMAL!  But that's what draws the discussion, not experienced play of any type whatsoever. 

Onward, with a bit of looking back.  I very well know the heavy participation of the forum here went away when I became the owner because I wouldn't put up with the high amount of one-liners, drama, name calling, degradation and attempts to rule a forum with drama, etc., etc.  We lost some great members to the name calling, the drama and related childish back and forth that went on.  Sad part is, those couple of dozen members went by the wayside and off the forum scene.

I really sat down and was ready to commit to the following, but.......... The end of last year I had plans with it all sketched out to install practice games of Mini, MIDI and 5 Treasures Bac, Blackjack and Roulette.  Along with a couple of other things.  But once again, (hate to be repetitive) I had to ask myself, why?  And the answer was clear.  Answer>>> Not enough demand or desire to warrant spending the cost for the custom development and maintenance of what it would take.

Personally, I admire you and a few others here, but the overall aspect of the entire aura of the whole forum, just doesn't justify the furtherance of it.  IMO and in reality.

I really do not desire to continue at this point.

I have locked most all topics and will continue to do so. 

The amount of participation amongst the readers are extremely minimal to trivial to non-existent.  So IMO it is not worth the expense, the time and the trouble involved to continue much longer at all.

The cost and trouble of maintaining this site is not worthy of much more time IMO. 

I profit absolutely nothing (Zero, Not One Penny) from the forum, no membership charges, no subscriptions, no advertising, no ad/banners/casino clickables.  I keep it safe and clean, etc., etc., etc.  Besides it really does take time and trouble to police it and squash the spammers and drama driven scum, et al.

Rather than spend about $1,000 a year, I rather buy my teen son a $10,000 high yield CD or Bond (9-13.5% easily) for the next 10 years.

Before the rumors fly.  Just FYI. 

It's been a good run, good luck to my few friends here.

Example.

Player side Panda 8, a.k.a. Golden Frog. Banker side weak. Player bet wins, Panda 8 pays 25:1 and dragon bonus pays 10:1. If betting side bets and you were on the banker, you would most likely recoup lost money and still come out ahead. If betting player side and side bets, it would really get you into the profit zone. 

We were hitting a banker strong shoe last week.  But a few of us were wagering $75 on both sides Dragon Bonuses, as well as $80 on the Panda 8.  It hit a couple times as you see in the example below within about 8-10 hands.  That $2,000 on the P8 and the $750 on the Dragon really made up for the few losing banker wagers we incurred.  Even without the P8 hitting, we were still hitting quite a few player side dragons when were losing on the banker.  Sometimes covering the loss and other times almost covering but not totally.  Kinda 'insurance' to a few of us. 

Just some visual examples. 

Examples Continued.

Pic 1). Weak player side and strong banker side. 10:1 dragon bonus payment also.

Pic 2). weak player side and strong banker side. 40:1 fortune 7 bonus coupled with a 6:1 dragon bonus. Depending if a non commission table push on bankers, but with a commission table, banker also gets paid.

Pic 3). I am not a tie player at all. But, a 6 card tie to me has indications of non-clumping and chop forthcoming. Again must be confirmed, just something we watch for and is one of our advantages that has paid off.

Pic 4). Weak player and strong banker. Numerous cards banker would have won or lost, however, player received the card that made banker a great wager especially with the side bets. A 3 card 9-0. Banker bet wins, dragon bonus 30:1 and Heavenly 9s 10:1.

I write and mention 'weak', 'strong', increasing and reducing hands.  I also mention winning hands with high payouts of Dragon Bonuses and other side bets. 

I took the time to layout a small sample here of what I am referring to for ready reference to anyone interested for a visual explanation. 

Why?  Because I/We have found that triggers do certainly exist within Sections of shoes.  Certainly wakes us up at the table and catches us with our eyes set to follow what is happening. 


Pic 1). Weak hands. Player reduces, but wins, happens quite often. Banker fizzles out, can't survive, pulling the only card to lose, again happens more often than you would anticipate. Be alert for a strong player, showing in this scenario forthcoming, has to be confirmed by another hand of course, but a trigger nonetheless.

Pic 2). Same as Pic 1.

Pic 3). Same as PIC 1, stay the same and the other side occurs reductions.

Pic 4). Strong hand for banker. Three card 9 for banker win. Dragon bonus would be a 30:1 as well as a Heavily 9 for 10:1 payout.

Fantastic Detailed Vegas and Casino History.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6DxEP4diOk8&pp=ugUEEgJlbg%3D%3D

Some nights are just special.  There is a long continual argument on most of the forums that go back-and-forth for as long as I could remember. What I am referring to, is about the game being entitled pure guess work and luck and/or people executing their triggers with skill and applying a rock solid money management method to guide them. It is an endless argument that will never stop.

However, I still stick with executing triggers with skill (advantages) and applying a rock solid money management method to guide myself to advantages of wagering or not, and how to deal with the outcomes. But there is also that addendum which is, wagering for what is happening while it is happening. No matter what that might be and that is what throws the highest majority of all off.

So the last night of my play was super special. Highlighted without any trouble to remember whatsoever. For years, referring to those that were there will have no problem saying; "Remember when so-and-so was banging it out.", etc., etc., etc.

You know some nights are casino nights, where upon almost no one at the BAC tables win, at least much greater than their buy-in or perhaps, just a very small portion of their buy-in. Then there are those nights where the players just push their money back-and-forth, finally breaking even and emotionally drained, they finally leave. And finally there are those nights where the players dominate over the casino. All said and done, those nights that the players dominate everything has to fall in order.

Well, the other night was one of those nights that the players won and one big at that! Win, lose, or draw, I will remember this night forever in my most remarkable and memorable BAC sessions. Sure, I have had larger wins.  However the hands, the wagering, the camaraderie, the showmanship, it was all flawlessly there my friends for almost 2 whole shoes.

The session started off like most others.  Win a few, lose a few.  Half the players knew each other well and the others were either occasional or new players. It was about hand 10 or 11 halfway through the first section. There were a few chops with a couple of doubles, one more single, then there was a double banker followed by another double player. One of the occasional players I referred to, pushes in table max at 5K out of his approximate 10K buy-in. He is known to buy-in once and only once. A few times I saw him play in the past, he would wager about 20 hands in the shoe and usually $500-$1200 a hand if I remember correctly. He would occasionally bet larger for one or two bets. We were at a Midi/Macau style 5 Treasures BAC table.

He was on the banker side like almost everyone else was. The player returns a six. He gets the cards and flips a face card over. His second card was a four line and flips a nine over after the horizontal peak and the vertical peel. Leaves his 5K max wager up on the banker side. Most others increase their banker wager. One person on player with a very small wager.  The guy places $200 on the two card/three card Blazen 7s, $100 on the Heavenly nines and $200 on the F7 fortune.  Player returns a four and bank returns a five. Players third card was a seven and bankers card is slid over to the guy. He verbally says anything but a five and we're all agreeing with him of course. He turns the card vertically and starts the peel. Looks up and says we have a two or three. Peels it back and looks around and obviously desires some camaraderie for the fortune seven he is going to produce. Flips the two and high fives all the players with a fortune seven which we almost all had $100 or more on the F7 and he gets $8000 for his F7 wager rather than the 5k he had on the banker base bet.

A few more hands went by with two players that followed, and then back to back ties. We all counted those back to back ties as two banker, two player, two banker, two ties, but we agreed those two ties should have been two players. A few of us also had $200 on the Blazen 7s praying for the 200:1, three card 7-7 tie.  One of those ties was a two card 7-7 tie for 50:1 which was beautiful as well.  Yes maybe it's guessing, yes maybe it's superstition, yes maybe it's just feeding into the score board. I still have to entitle it as wagering with what's coming out and happening at the instant time.  Most pulled their banker base wager down and placed a new wager on player with smaller amounts, a couple pressed up on the player side. The guy talks to me, and I commented, both ties followed both bankers dominating the hand with extremely weak player valued cards. We both really loved a few bankers to come out at that point. (Out of the schedule and as we all know, nothing lasts in BAC) We had the ammunition from what the casino has already given us without any risk to our buy-ins and we were already passed our goal levels in my opinion. So it was just playing to keep winning is what I can describe it as. 

Well 7 IAR bankers came out on top of the previous 2 that continued after the back to back ties that was preceded by a double banker.  He did not just play it, he performed wagering successfully, pressed up and staying at table max naturally by the bucket load!  At numerous times, he was not a gambler, but a showman to the highest power. Flawlessly handling most hands out of the section that we were on. Looks around and obviously wants the camaraderie, that old school type, I got your back brother, just do it please.  Most of us were there with him and he obviously had the floor.  Most all of us were at table max wagering and a few that do not play higher amounts, were clearly well above their norm.

He absolutely translated his wager into a commanding presence that was obviously non-rehearsed! That is what great players do, they don't back down, they don't stop with a small win, they ignore statistics and experiences if they are winning not conceding privilege or yielding after initial resistance or the regular grind.  They are wagering for and virtually blacking out everything except each current hand consciously employing their wins and pulling down continual profits.

As we said when we were coloring up.  "You have to play to win".

It is what it is.  Accepted it, Grow from it, Learn from it.

It doesn't matter what you have previously done in the game of Baccarat.

It only matters what you do; from here on out.

Alrelax

Like I have repeatedly written about and brought forward.

0-1-2-3 ZERO OR LOW TIES.  Great advantage the majority of times to myself. 

Here is a shoe from the other night.  Real, factual and although I profited nicely and I empathize nicely!  However, I should have had considerably more.  I wagered bankers and wagered every hand with $50-$75 on F7 as well. 

I took the picture and bankers won 4 IAR after snapping the picture.  Then a single players won followed by another 3 IAR bankers.  A double players then appeared followed by 4 IAR bankers.  Then the shoe turned to chops and other events.

Detailed article reference Mexico's casinos.

"WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned six targets involved in a money laundering and cash smuggling enterprise operated by Cartel del Noreste (CDN), one of Mexico's most violent drug trafficking organizations. CDN is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) that exerts significant influence along the U.S.-Mexico border near Laredo, Texas, the busiest land port of entry on the southern border.  The three individuals designated today play central roles in advancing CDN's criminal dominance over the Nuevo Laredo plaza in Tamaulipas, Mexico, supporting the cartel's broader illicit operations, which include fentanyl trafficking, human smuggling, money laundering, and extortion.  Today's action also targets two CDN-affiliated casinos, one of which is located just two miles from the U.S. border."

Click on the link to read:


https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0440

WEAK & STRONG

We have all touched on this before whether it was in detail or not. In BAC winning and losing hands, it is a very difficult in my opinion to put into exact detail why or why it did not happen the way we thought. However, there are Weak and Strong results in hands, which are definitely a tangible fact after they happen. I am not referring to ones and twos type of results here and there.  I am referring to about 6-12 hands clumping IAR.  It is not patterns and trending. Just a long-term observation that follows much greater than 50% of the time, when it begins to occur.  I have definitely put it into my advantages department.

WEAK

One side reduces and the opposite side wins by one or two points consistently. Both sides are basically weak or at least one side is, and the other side gets even weaker as it is reduced. 

Example:  Player opens a 5 and Banker opens a 2.  Player pulls a 6 and Banker pulls an 8. 

Example:  Player opens a 5 and Banker opens a 5.  Player pulls a 7 and Banker pulls a 9.

STRONG

One side increases near or at maximum point value and other side is stagnant or might even reduce.

Example:  Player opens a 3 and Banker opens a 7.  Player pulls a 6. 

Example:  Player opens 0 and Banker opens a 1.  Player pulls a face card and Banker pulls an 8.

Now with that thrown out there, I have found that the Weak/Strong clumping tends to benefit one (1) side for the event occurring, rather than a continuous Weak/Strong 'chop-chop'. 

I have found more so than not, it is usually mixed with both Weak/Strong winning point values, that benefit the one side that is winning for the event.

Anyone else notice this type of Weak/Strong clumping outcome, that can definitely be recognized and used as a tangible advantage??

Okay, here it is.  After several hours of looking at my notes from the previous two good to great sessions, I was able to define what I was referring to in the above posting.

I was definitely overpowered by my winning. I believe because it came fast and hard, out of the norm, out of the so-called schedule by all means. In brief, the winning was disruptive.

Winning is always welcomed, don't get me wrong. However, I strive to control both my losing and winning wagering with merging both into my money management method.

My money management method, posted and written about enough on the forum, does control me in the upper 90% percentile of all of my play.

But my problem was, I went out of conscious and clear frame of mind.  I wagered far greater amounts, as well as not as much as I should have after the winning was coming at me, fast and hard. Yes, I far accomplished my session goal!  And while I was NOT going to color up and walk away, I followed the winning recklessly and like I said, I was out of schedule.  I wish to stress, I did not give it back, not by any means whatsoever. I had my buy in. I had my session goal and I was continuously winning at an out of schedule return rate.

I should have wagered what was winning in a different light, as well as larger amounts while merging into the temporary out of schedule, fast and hard winning, with my normal 1/3rd 1/3rd 1/3rd MMM and being conscious of my 'everything held' (buy in and previous wins/goal), so that means 2/3rds held and a wagering continuation with the last 1/3rd of my wins for additional wins with conscious and clear frame of mind. 

The last part is what I should have done and I did not do. And that is what I am referring to, The Power of Winning can change you.

What is The Art of Baccarat?

The fact is, I understand it because I have the experience, the brick and mortar play with over four decades of solid play starting with those big beautiful 14 seat BAC tables, two sided with seven seats on each side, three dealers with two floor people, one at each end, the entire shoe, each and every shoe.  The shoe was held by each player in a counterclockwise rotation and each player dealt the cards until that player dealt out a winning Players hand, no matter what side the person was wagering on.  It truly was an 'art' because of the way it was played, the majority understanding the complexity of the game and the extreme respect for it that surpasses anything seen these days.

No scoreboards, no side bets, just simple and pure, respectful BAC. The game was played by the majority of its players that really did understand what was happening and how to approach it. Of course that developed into the mini and midi BAC tables with the scoreboards the players adore, watching and pointing to, believing they can transport the statistics that they read about on the Internet into real life with guaranteed triggers.

However, you have to understand the true Art of BAC. There is a distinct definition of not just what it is, but the how and the reasoning of why. Not, and I emphasize the "should" or the "statistics" that do not consistently and never will apply to the 1-2-3 or 4 shoes anyone sits down to play in a session.

The Art of BAC is definitely the ability, the execution, using profits to comfort oneself, avoiding grinding down the buy-ins that sit in front of the players because the players that understand the Art of BAC, are different than the highest of the highest majority of all players these days.

The Art of BAC. There is one, seriously there is. If you get it right most of the time, you got it. If not, sit down and think hard and long, change your ways. Once you do, you're on your way to understanding the Art of BAC.

You have to be a receiver of your actions and not a defensive wall the highest majority of the time. The game of BAC is not just about watching the presentation of hands produced +/- 80 times from a shoe. The Art of BAC is about you and your ability to understand it and merge your conscious with a skillful application of imagination and creativity that develops into intellectual responses entitled, 'wagering'. That my friend is the art of BAC.

BUMP! 

I was at the casino within the last week.  Both sessions were good to great!  However, my mind was not there even though I was winning and turned profits. 

Could I have done better?  Absolutely.  Why did I blocked myself from winning a lot more than I did?  Because I fell prey to 'The Power of Winning'.

Walking out to the parking lot with my hand on the obvious bulge of cash in my front pocket, I remembered this post I wrote. 

Will explain when I write it out and define it, later tonight or tomorrow.

Can't make this stuff up.  Pull tabs, huh?  Yeah, gambling I guess.

Federal charges accuse a payroll manager of embezzling more than a million dollars from a Minnesota company "to fund her gambling and pull-tab addiction."

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/payroll-manager-embezzles-1m-for-pull-tab-addiction-charges-say/#