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One of the rules of blackjack is to always play at the best possible venue. You want to find somewhere that has playing conditions, rules, dealers, and minimums that are in your favor. If you plan on staying for a while, you should also look for favorable comp plans so that you can win free massages, meals, hotel rooms, and other bonuses. Unless you plan on playing online, which is typically inadvisable, you will need to find the right casino.
Scout out the venues before you play. If you are going to be in a city for a weekend or a week, you should take a few hours to check out all of the venues that offer blackjack before you sit down to play anywhere. If you fail to properly check out all of the casinos in an area, you might miss a very good game with great rules and the limits that you are looking for. When you walk around, you can get a feel for what the other players are like, if there is cigarette smoke everywhere, how fast the dealers are, what the rules are, how high the table minimums are, and so forth. Taking a few notes on each of the places is a good idea because you might not remember everything the first time around.
Regardless of how high the stakes, it is always a good idea to talk to the dealers and their managers (the pit bosses) to build good rapport. You can ask pit bosses about the games and whether the limits or conditions change during peak hours. Most casinos run on three eight-hour shifts, so you can usually expect to see the same dealers and pit bosses at the same time every day. If you befriend the dealers and pit bosses early, you are more likely to receive comps, bonus offers, and other preferential treatment later.
Find a place with minimums that you can afford. Some casinos raise their rates in the evenings and on the weekends in order to make tables less crowded and to get people to bet more. Tables usually have signs that will tell you what the minimums are, but they get changed frequently. Some casinos may give you private tables if you are willing to bet enough at a time. Setting up a private table is typically at the discretion of the pit bosses or managers on duty, so you can ask them what their policies are during your initial scouting trip.
Some casinos have pamphlets at their front desks that can tell you about how their comps and bonuses for players work. Otherwise, you can ask a pit boss or find a customer service kiosk. There are almost always separate comp systems for table players and slot players. You should mostly pay attention to how the comps work for the table players. Some casinos require that you play a minimum number of hours at a certain average bet in order to qualify for their comps. Rather than betting outside your bankroll to meet a casino’s comp requirements, you should find a casino that offers comps at wagering limits that you can comfortably afford.
Assuming that you are only planning on playing blackjack, the other games at the casinos shouldn’t really matter. In fact, some of the smallest casinos offer the best blackjack games with the lowest table minimums. It is relatively standard for casinos to offer blackjack, so you might find some smaller places that only have slots, video poker machines, and a few blackjack tables. As such, you should make a point to check out smaller venues when you go to a new city.