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Chopstix posted:I went to vegas for the first time with the girlfriend’s family last month. Didnt have too much time to gamble but ill be going back again by myself for 4 days for….. a 4 day dodgeball tournament. Hopefully i dont lose it too big I wish there was a dodgeball tournament while I'm there. We are just getting Halloween craziness.
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Oct 12, 2022 13:35
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Chopstix posted:Hopefully i dont lose it too big I know this is likely mostly in jest, but if you're worried about "losing it big," don't gamble. Just got back from a Vegas trip with a bunch of buddies, and the friend I roomed with got hit hard the first night and never loving stopped griping about it. Don't go to Vegas (or at least, don't gamble) if losing money will make you sad or angry.
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Oct 12, 2022 15:46
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Judgy Fucker posted:I know this is likely mostly in jest, but if you're worried about "losing it big," don't gamble. Just got back from a Vegas trip with a bunch of buddies, and the friend I roomed with got hit hard the first night and never loving stopped griping about it. Don't go to Vegas (or at least, don't gamble) if losing money will make you sad or angry. I'm pretty sure he was referring to dodgeball, the tournament he was going for and not gambling.
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Oct 12, 2022 16:30
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ASAPI posted:I'm pretty sure he was referring to dodgeball, the tournament he was going for and not gambling. It would ruin my weekend to be knocked out of the dodgeball tournament on day 1
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Oct 12, 2022 16:43
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ASAPI posted:I'm pretty sure he was referring to dodgeball, the tournament he was going for and not gambling. Leaving my advice up for my friend who coulda used it but doesn't read the forums. 
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Oct 12, 2022 16:45
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Judgy Fucker posted:Leaving my advice up for my friend who coulda used it but doesn't read the forums. That is fair. This place needs more posting anyway...
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Oct 12, 2022 17:58
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I'm 100% with the philosophy of never traveling to Vegas specifically to gamble unless you have deep pockets and can handle getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly. I always make a point to have some other reason to be there - next month when I'm visiting we are going to a NFL game, NCAA football and basketball games, and we have some restaurant reservations and other shows to attend besides. There's still time to gamble if the mood takes me but at the same time I could pretty much not gamble the entire trip and still have more or less full days. I really try to avoid that mindset where I have to fill time with gambling or gambling becomes the center of my day.
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Oct 12, 2022 18:15
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Judgy Fucker posted:I know this is likely mostly in jest, but if you're worried about "losing it big," don't gamble. Just got back from a Vegas trip with a bunch of buddies, and the friend I roomed with got hit hard the first night and never loving stopped griping about it. Don't go to Vegas (or at least, don't gamble) if losing money will make you sad or angry. I wont be hurt by taking a financial hit, losing, etc, I just knew I would be going to vegas twice and decided eh, why the gently caress not try, with my trip last month (and the cruise) being a test run. I have been practicing and reading books and this forum about poker so hopefully it wasn’t all a waste and I am still terrible (i will have fun playing dodgeball regardless)
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Oct 12, 2022 19:33
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Chopstix posted:I wont be hurt by taking a financial hit, losing, etc, I just knew I would be going to vegas twice and decided eh, why the gently caress not try, with my trip last month (and the cruise) being a test run. I have been practicing and reading books and this forum about poker so hopefully it wasn’t all a waste and I am still terrible (i will have fun playing dodgeball regardless) are you going to play in a cash game or are you looking more at the tournament style format?
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Oct 12, 2022 20:03
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It will be cash, I don’t think ill have the time to play a tournament and have fun, as well as being rested (each day will be 8 hours of playing dodgeball, omfp). I do remember the online pokers in Nevada being pretty bad too
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Oct 13, 2022 01:53
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Just found this thread but I've been living in Macau for many years and work in the industry. AMA and I'll answer if I can. Everything is different now with COVID (mandatory quarantines, if you can even get in) but I was here in the before times as well.
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Oct 16, 2022 18:00
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ARRGHPLEASENONONONO posted:Just found this thread but I've been living in Macau for many years and work in the industry. AMA and I'll answer if I can. Everything is different now with COVID (mandatory quarantines, if you can even get in) but I was here in the before times as well. What is English proficiency like there, at least in the casino/tourism industry? That's never been a non-starter for my travels but if I'm gambling I'd like to be able to communicate with dealers etc. very well, and I don't know Portuguese (is that even really spoken there?) or any Chinese languages. Do anything like comps exist? At the least, is alcohol free while gambling?
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Oct 16, 2022 18:15
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Judgy Fucker posted:What is English proficiency like there, at least in the casino/tourism industry? That's never been a non-starter for my travels but if I'm gambling I'd like to be able to communicate with dealers etc. very well, and I don't know Portuguese (is that even really spoken there?) or any Chinese languages. Portuguese is generally not spoken in the casinos / resorts, I'm Portuguese and have never spoken Portuguese in any casino restaurant. Casino floor is even less likely as there is a 100% Macau local requirement for dealers / gaming workers. You can get by with English on the floor but bear in mind that there will be very few non baccarat games. In general dealers are relatively passive, and there is no tipping culture. Dealers are paid guaranteed tips, and tips received are not supposed to be kept. Comps exist and are given out regularly to rated players (i.e. you are playing with your casino card). Rooms, food, free play, gifts, etc. Alcohol can be free but most people in the casino are not really drinking. You can ask for beers when the free drinks servers are around (and I have done that a few times), but I've never seen licor served as part of the free drinks. However if you are playing enough then you can get drinks comped easily.
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Oct 16, 2022 18:36
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what's the poker scene like? Any weird local rules, how big is the rake, are the regs and recs good or bad?
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Oct 19, 2022 21:10
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Leperflesh posted:what's the poker scene like? Any weird local rules, how big is the rake, are the regs and recs good or bad? I'm curious as well, the last time I was there (too long ago) players seemed to have been a lot better than rumored. The blackjack rules were very very favorable as well, although it was auto-shufflers everywhere so no way to count (still all auto?) I figured the comps were good enough to make up for the tiny house edge playing perfect strategy though.
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Oct 20, 2022 03:50
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I'll ask a friend of mine, who was a regular in the local tournaments, about the specifics on poker as I don't really play regularly, especially in the casinos here, but since pokerstars was nuked here due to a mix of politics and lack of activity (relative to baccarat which is 95%+ of table games), plus the quarantines, the poker scene is mostly dead. Most of it was people from HK and some foreigners, who can't really come over anymore. Before that, I heard that Venetian Macau had a decent flow of drunk mainland gamblers coming out of the nearby casino bar that made those tables easy pickings for the regular poker players. This is completely anecdotal though.
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Oct 20, 2022 19:06
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Baddog posted:I'm curious as well, the last time I was there (too long ago) players seemed to have been a lot better than rumored. It should be all auto shuffle or one use with pre shuffle from the vendor. For baccarat I know everything table side is one use. Other games may or may not reuse cards but will use shuffler. This is for the casinos operated by the main concessionaires, afaik. The smaller, satellite ones may operate differently but are also way less likely to have so called western games. Edit: oh comps. They are quite generous currently, but I don't know the specifics for blackjack. I only see aggregates of the games but I doubt they'd discriminate blackjack in the theoretical win calcs. If you're hitting the minimums for card tier upgrades it shouldn't be difficult to get 20%+++ of theoretical losses back in comps nowadays for lowish tiers. Bear in mind though that most table minimums on the Macau "strip" are 25USD at best. ARRGHPLEASENONONONO fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Oct 20, 2022 |
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Oct 20, 2022 19:13
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ARRGHPLEASENONONONO posted:It should be all auto shuffle or one use with pre shuffle from the vendor. For baccarat I know everything table side is one use. Other games may or may not reuse cards but will use shuffler. Thanks! It almost makes it simpler because I could just concentrate on enjoying the scene. For anyone who cares, here is the odds calculation and strategy. Better game than anything you can find in vegas. https://wizardofmacau.com/en/games/blackjack If you're betting $100/hand, you're only losing 16 cents on each if you have this strategy down. At 30 hands an hour (or less if you find a full rowdy fun table), you're losing less than 5 bucks an hour. The drinks and entertainment (plus the comps if you are playing higher) more than make up for it. The even older rules are actually even money, although when I went to a place that was supposed to offer it and tried to do "The player may choose to win half his bet with any five-card hand, except against a dealer ace.", the dealer didn't know what I was talking about. Even back then. Man, I'm jealous of you. Macao seemed like most of the good stuff from vegas, w/o a bunch of the negative poo poo (everyone fake, hustling for handouts, plastic as hell). And Hong Kong is a quick ferry ride away.
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Oct 20, 2022 19:42
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ARRGHPLEASENONONONO posted:
That's pretty good for comps! And it's hard to find a decent rules game in vegas now without a 100USD min, with odds nearly 2x worse than the Macau game. Let us know when the quarantine rules ease up a bit? I need to get to mainland as well, hopefully transiting from US -> HK - Macao -> Guangzhou or Shenzhen (and rail from there), gets way easier at some point. loving pandemic!
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Oct 20, 2022 19:58
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Baddog posted:Thanks! It almost makes it simpler because I could just concentrate on enjoying the scene. For anyone who cares, here is the odds calculation and strategy. Better game than anything you can find in vegas. On the blackjack rules they don't really have any incentive to squeeze the house edge because it's a niche game: https://www.dicj.gov.mo/web/en/information/DadosEstat/2022/content.html#n3 As for living in Macau it's sort of a weird as it's a tiny city that's almost village like in seeing and meeting the same people over and over again, with a massive tourist visitation that mostly keep to themselves (other than the traffic caused). Great commute though, unlike HK which is a nightmare.
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Oct 22, 2022 13:10
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Baddog posted:That's pretty good for comps! Rumors are that they're considering easing up on quarantine in mainland, which would ripple through to Macau. HK easing up should also help avoid any double quarantine... If it doesn't and you have a China visa/access you're better off going HK -> mainland -> Macau. Quarantine hotel quotas have been quite limited for HK-> Macau and there are no quarantine requirements between Mainland and Macau, other than any regions under active outbreak. Edit: to give a sense of how ridiculous things still are: MGM is running a local Oktoberfest, which they did annually in the pre covid times. It is partially outdoors and partially in a well ventilated structure with a high ceiling. There are currently zero covid cases and everyone coming into Macau needs to be from a no covid region in Mainland China or go through quarantine, and you still need to do a PCR test within 48h to go in. This is not required to get into any casino, restaurant, bar, etc. Only for "events". ARRGHPLEASENONONONO fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Oct 22, 2022 |
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Oct 22, 2022 13:17
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ARRGHPLEASENONONONO posted:Rumors are that they're considering easing up on quarantine in mainland, which would ripple through to Macau. HK easing up should also help avoid any double quarantine... We *had* fresh 10 year visas, but I think they just straight up cancelled them all. Didn't just suspend them. I hope they keep the PCR test requirements, I'd actually be goddamn *ecstatic* to be in an area with zero covid cases for a bit. Like taking a trip back in time. Could play poker again without wondering if that guy has a really bad smokers hack or if he's spewing plague all over the table. I'll take plenty of legitimate covid tests before coming, quarantine for a few days, test me a few more times for the next 2 weeks! But we can't do multiple stints locked in various hotels, just for basically transiting through very low spread areas. Good tip on going HK->mainland->macau. I hear you that it's silly to have restrictions on outdoor/well ventilated areas, but not care about casinos/bars. Not as dumb as the poo poo we've been doing though. CDC director just told everyone that new variants are out there, keep washing your hands! And then immediately caught covid. Guess she didn't use enough soap.
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Oct 23, 2022 05:23
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Trip report. Did great the few times I could play during the tournament….. before games, a little after games (busy not in a casino about 10 hours a day, physically, brutally exhausted). Then came the early check out time and the late flight…… too much time to kill and get slowly bleed on everything. Great learning experience though, having that lease in regards to time/whoever mentioned not going there just to gamble is abgreat idea Don’t think it at all is for me. Maybe with the girlfriend or family, but man I can see how people can get slowly accustomed to the life and get addicted. Not even to the point of financially ruining yourself but still soending significantly more than one should Also i get tilted too easily Chopstix fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Oct 25, 2022 |
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Oct 25, 2022 20:09
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Chopstix posted:Trip report. Did great the few times I could play during the tournament….. before games, a little after games (busy not in a casino about 10 hours a day, physically, brutally exhausted). Glad you had a good time at your tournament and the poker tables were kind to you  I think the main thing that has changed about Vegas is that it used to be a place where your money could go really far and you could live like a king for a few days.. now it feels like it's more expensive than almost anywhere else you go on vacation lol. When you are already paying a premium for transportation, food, the hotel, concerts / shows / sporting events.. going and losing at the tables just feels like a knife into your guts. It does to me anyways.
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Oct 26, 2022 23:44
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Yup. I understand inflation etc. but there was a time (in the 1990s specifically) when my buddy and I could play $3 blackjack at a casino and absorb a few free drinks and walk away like $100 poorer and not feel like we got ripped off. Also we would have gotten a good deal on the hotel because they had intentionally cheap rooms to get you to stay there and play. Now it's like $25 min bet tables? Or something? What?
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Oct 27, 2022 00:12
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And you have to pay for parking now too lol. They're getting greedy again.
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Oct 27, 2022 00:46
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Leperflesh posted:Yup. I understand inflation etc. but there was a time (in the 1990s specifically) when my buddy and I could play $3 blackjack at a casino and absorb a few free drinks and walk away like $100 poorer and not feel like we got ripped off. Also we would have gotten a good deal on the hotel because they had intentionally cheap rooms to get you to stay there and play. Yeah 3:2 Blackjack is pretty much over on the strip for the budget player. MGM has an unstated policy now that there are zero 3:2 tables in any of their casinos with under a $25.00 limit and from what I can tell Ceasars is the same. Some of the higher end Casinos I wouldn't be surprised if that extends even higher. For a while free bet blackjack was the way to go and you could find some cheaper $10 tables on a game with like a 0.60% house edge but they've been loving around with the rules of the game the last year and now they've clawed that house edge up to the 2.00% range so it's not any better than 6:5 blackjack.. **I just remembered how I used to tell people about how it was fine to go down to the Pleasure Pit on a Saturday evening if that's what they enjoyed doing with their time but they should recognize that they were playing a version of the game with a huge house edge so they are paying extra for it.. well now there's probably no difference between the tables there and any other table I'm likely to play on the strip so I may as well head down to Planet Hollywood lol Starsfan fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Oct 27, 2022 |
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Oct 27, 2022 03:09
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Leperflesh posted:Yup. I understand inflation etc. but there was a time (in the 1990s specifically) when my buddy and I could play $3 blackjack at a casino and absorb a few free drinks and walk away like $100 poorer and not feel like we got ripped off. Also we would have gotten a good deal on the hotel because they had intentionally cheap rooms to get you to stay there and play. This is the reason I stick to Face-Up Pai Gow when in Vegas. Goes so slow and pushes are so common I don't lose my money so quickly, so I can get a few drinks in while playing and not feel ripped off. But yeah, mins on FUPG are dumb now too, no more $10, $15 is only around in the morning. By 11:00 AM everything goes up to $25.
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Oct 27, 2022 15:21
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I was at the plaza and there was one free bet, one “World’s most liberal blackjack”, and one normal 2:3 blackjack table. $10 min during non-peak hours
Chopstix fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Oct 28, 2022 |
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Oct 27, 2022 23:32
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I have no interest in 6:5 blackjack at any price, nope. It's not an especially exciting game to play, if there's a 2% house edge then I have no motivation at all. That's leaving aside that I don't have deep enough pockets to play $25 a hand.
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Oct 28, 2022 00:13
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ARRGHPLEASENONONONO posted:Just found this thread but I've been living in Macau for many years and work in the industry. AMA and I'll answer if I can. Everything is different now with COVID (mandatory quarantines, if you can even get in) but I was here in the before times as well. Will I ever get to play poker in Macau again? (Coming from the USA)
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Oct 31, 2022 06:14
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Baddog posted:We *had* fresh 10 year visas, but I think they just straight up cancelled them all. Didn't just suspend them. I understand where you're coming from but it's just getting ridiculous here. For exemple everyone who was in MGM, working, staying or visiting, was locked down in the building for 3 days because one of the dealers there had covid and worked there... 3 days before. All this sparked a round of mass testing of the entire population where they found no new cases, after getting I think 6 cases from contact tracing. Another round of mass testing this weekend. In the meantime it's been even more of a ghost town. edit: Two idiots trying to escape the MGM lockdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwpLb_c8SXw ARRGHPLEASENONONONO fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Nov 3, 2022 |
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Nov 3, 2022 18:42
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Lote posted:Will I ever get to play poker in Macau again? (Coming from the USA) Poker is dead now and has been for a couple of years. I'm sure it'll come back after restrictions are lifted but your guess is as good as mine for when that'll be.
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Nov 3, 2022 18:44
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yeah i would advise going anywhere in china right now since they're going to be very strict about lockdowns and if you don't speak any Mandarin... yeah good luck with that. i'm looking on taking a trip to thailand, vietnam and maybe some other country.. i think vietnam is suppose to have some casinos so if i got there i'll probably check those out.
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Nov 3, 2022 20:52
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ARRGHPLEASENONONONO posted:
get 'em! Seems like its getting a bit out of control in GZ, good luck man. Was wondering how they are dealing with false positives in one of these big building lockdown scenarios. The tests are good, but if you test everyone in the MGM, you're going to probably have dozens of false positives. I guess they do 2 or 3 rounds? Does china have tests with faster turnarounds?
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Nov 9, 2022 00:45
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Baddog posted:get 'em! They test people in batches of 10 (1 test with samples from 10 people). If it tests positive those 10 will test again individually. Turnaround is 4 to 12 hours in my experience.
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Nov 10, 2022 09:34
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That's... actually really smart. You'll still get an individual false positive occasionally (a few percent of the time) but it greatly reduces how many total tests you have to administer.
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Nov 10, 2022 18:33
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Leperflesh posted:That's... actually really smart. You'll still get an individual false positive occasionally (a few percent of the time) but it greatly reduces how many total tests you have to administer. And with low levels of covid in the community it's also a way of saving money, as they are always PCR tests. It's quite smart and efficient. There's also way less resistance to doing one for travelling when it only costs around 10USD, though they mess around with the timing requirements a lot (24h / 48h / 72h+)
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Nov 10, 2022 19:30
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ARRGHPLEASENONONONO posted:Just found this thread but I've been living in Macau for many years and work in the industry. AMA and I'll answer if I can. Everything is different now with COVID (mandatory quarantines, if you can even get in) but I was here in the before times as well. What do you do? Also I saw a 14 or 15 banker streak in Macao once. They had to reload the rack every 1-2 hands
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Nov 14, 2022 03:22
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Lote posted:What do you do? Financial and operational analysis. Not direct gaming analysis though, there's a dedicated team for that. When/where was that? Do you mean they changed the shoe entirely? Since the players are allowed to bend and generally manhandle the cards the big casinos don't use auto shufflers (on the table) for table games, to my knowledge. Edit: or was it player request? I can easily see that happening for highish stake hands.
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Nov 15, 2022 19:38
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