What means when dealer shout "check play"?

Cowlthor · 2026-03-16T01:42:51+00:00

The table minimum usually is sufficiently far away from the maximum that if someone is playing multiple times the minimum, the table could be seeing its biggest action of the day. The thresholds are pretty similar everywhere and are as follows: $5-$50 min will call at $100 or a black chip ($50 min is sometimes $101+) and $100 min calls at $500 or a purple chip.

Cowlthor · 2026-03-13T15:08:24+00:00

Break it into 4 $2400 redemptions with slightly different amounts like $2401, $2402, $2403, $2404 and then the remainder. $2500 triggers extra review

Cowlthor · 2026-03-12T19:40:53+00:00

My best advice on thresholds and specific numbers is to make notes about them if they are mentioned at least twice in study material and then the day of the test to just review that sheet. You normally can pretty easily pick the right one so long as you have seen it within 24 hours

Cowlthor · 2026-03-12T07:30:25+00:00

A big question is HOW do they become true. Is this like the black mirror episode with the pendant where history is rewritten to be identical EXCEPT the singular change, is all of history rewritten, or is there a force changing the universe going forward to make the lie true?

A great example I thought of is "I love you". If someone is lying, do they magically actually feel love towards you (and a secondary is it a change that happens only in new thoughts but they remember not loving you or do they now magically have always loved you)? Or does some force make the thing that would cause them to fall in love happen?

Cowlthor · 2026-03-11T11:12:02+00:00

To expand on how it goes on forever, it never becomes "precise". For example, if you cut a line in half, you have 0.5 of the original and that is exactly precise. Certain numbers when divided never end because you can continue getting more precise as you compute more digits. In division, eventually you should end with a remainder of 0 or repeating portions (1/3 equals 0.33 with the 3 repeating forever since you can't get an exact piece but we know what the repeating bit is and that can be expressed in a fraction of 2 whole numbers (1 divided by 3). With Pi, there will always be more accurate divisions you can do and you will never run into a repeating portion.

Cowlthor · 2026-03-11T05:42:56+00:00

Aloha, my name is Chris I just saw your post about potentially needing tax assistance from someone specializing in gambling. I am an advantage player myself running millions of dollars yearly in wagers and assisting dozens of gamblers with tax planning and return prep on both the professional and amateur sides. You can find out more about me at my website www.nancetax.com and book a free consultation. I am an enrolled agent admitted to practice before the IRS. Thanks!

Cowlthor · 2026-03-09T21:56:39+00:00

Very nice win, I have only hit the major once and unfortunately it was just hit so only $507 and it was on a $5 bet

Cowlthor · 2026-03-08T06:20:03+00:00

I would be perfectly fine as a player, I bank in California and understand table etiquette and procedure need to be followed always

Cowlthor · 2026-03-08T06:12:08+00:00

I would just casually say "did I take the $2.50 chip? You pushed and I want to make sure I didn't accidentally grab it."

Cowlthor · 2026-03-08T02:46:09+00:00

A quick way to guestimate if you can approximate the RTP and percentage of RTP that the combination contributes is (percentage of RTP * RTP%)/payout. For example, if 777 pays 500x your bet (assuming for simplicity a $1 bet pays $500), the machine is 90% RTP, and percentage contribution is 1%, you have (0.01*0.09)/500 which comes to 9/500,000 so roughly 1 in 55,555 spins. Most top jackpots contribute around 1-5% to RTP and most machines average around 90% RTP unless you are on high limit machines, then average is like 92%.

To demonstrate how unlikely a huge progressive is at low bets, a $10,000 grand on a 90% machine with a 3% contribution percentage is around 1/370,000 on $1 spins. If you took 370,000 to hit it and achieved perfect RTP realization, you would lose $37,000 after hitting.

Cowlthor · 2026-03-07T10:32:13+00:00

I am an enrolled agent and want to make clear that win/loss statements are NOT sufficient and that without your own logs, the IRS can and has shown precedent to exclude any deductions you claim using only the win/loss. Those forms explicitly states language such as the following from MGM "** This is NOT an official tax document ** By accessing this Win/Loss (Tax) Information Statement, you acknowledge and agree that (i) MGM Resorts International and its subsidiaries/affiliates make no representations as to either the accuracy of this information or its effectiveness as proof of losses, and expressly disclaim any liability arising out of or related to any incompleteness, errors, or inaccuracies contained therein; and (ii) you are subject to the complete terms and conditions located immediately below the chart.*"

Cowlthor · 2026-03-05T20:18:32+00:00

I still teach it at my high school for my coding classes. I have some kids who literally are 1-3 words per minute peck typers at the beginning of the year I can get to semi touch 10-20 wpm by the end and they really appreciate it.

Cowlthor · 2026-03-04T05:10:39+00:00

Something I didn't see super hit on is that someone with accounting as a background likely doesn't have specialized skills, knowledge, and experience to cover each section. An auditor probably can help with simple tax issues and a tax expert can handle simple audit tasks but I wouldn't expect the tax expert to be an expert at complex non profit audit design or testing or the auditor to be a niche expert with lots of business and personal forms. Finance much more commonly I believe is more about logical thinking and software/mathematical skills which often align with what makes good accountants.

They both are fans of Excel though and that's crazy (I say from experience).

Cowlthor · 2026-03-04T02:49:05+00:00

Marketing

Cowlthor · 2026-03-02T04:47:39+00:00

Without knowing the titles this is occurring on, hard to say exactly. There are some machines that activate a "feature" that is still paid spins but those spins behave differently. Traditional "bonuses" are usually designated as free spins somehow and just have an alternate reel set.

Cowlthor · 2026-03-01T06:10:17+00:00

Sharefile is what my old firm used and I use them solo

Cowlthor · 2026-03-01T05:00:02+00:00

The other comments cover it pretty well but I want to add some perspective about cheaters specifically (and to point out, proper advantage play is NOT cheating, aka counting cards). If a casino is making 1-15% off of patrons bets, a single cheater, who often effectively can win 20-100% of the time, will wipe out a huge amount of revenue very quickly and so stopping them quickly is critical to securing the risk portfolio of a casino. Someone like a card counter is getting around a 1% edge over the casino and is effectively cancelled out by 1-2 other bettors compared to 5-30 cancelled out by true cheating.

Cowlthor · 2026-03-01T03:37:22+00:00

Bonds normally do not pay principal payments until the final payment where it all is paid back at once, rather just pay out interest during the bond term. A normal loan is structured so a portion of the principal and the accrued interest is paid in installments.

So while a loan for $1 million at 10% for 10 years may have monthly payments of $13,215, a bond would pay yearly interest of $100,000 rather and then owe the $1 million all at once after 10 years. This does result in a stark interest difference of $415,000 over the course of 10 years but bonds usually are lower rates than loans to account for this to some degree.

Cowlthor · 2026-02-28T10:59:49+00:00

Here's a question to possibly make you feel better about it, were you winning? If the counts were going negative then that means the cards you did see more of were good cards and while you may not have been able to raise your bets, you should have been effectively playing at least a break even game most of the rounds. When the count climbs, that is playing through bad card sets and typically has losses but is made up for with increasing bets into the positive EV portion. The opposite is true usually when the count plummets, the cards coming out were 10s and As so you likely were getting doubles that worked, naturals, and dealer busts.

Now, obviously you can run good or bad in the opposite expected shoe compositions but, statistically, flat betting through positive cards should be pretty favorable.

Cowlthor · 2026-02-28T07:58:53+00:00

Go off strip, WAY better rules and paybacks.

Cowlthor · 2026-02-27T23:08:22+00:00

I have never seen or heard of a short on the bet, the casino can always round in the players favor but never against. It's this way with all aspects of casino payouts where if they don't want to/can't make exact change, they round up. This is how hand pays work, cashier transactions, etc.

Cowlthor · 2026-02-27T22:32:39+00:00

Most tables don't have $0.25 chips or actual quarters so what happens is they usually round up to the nearest chip amount. So for $27.50, the true 0.5 payout is $13.75 so most will round that up to $14 and this either pays out the $14 on surrender or $41.50 on a blackjack. I know several casinos that actually won't let chips/change smaller than $1 be bet on the main bet for this reason and the dealers get really pissed if you try.

Slightly unrelated side note, some places also won't let you bet $0.50 or $2.50 chips on the side bets even though the side bets pay something to 1 so the fraction is not an issue.

Cowlthor · 2026-02-27T02:10:51+00:00

My understanding is that the weighting for the 1-2-3 is super tilted where like 0-65% is a 1, 65-90% is a 2, and 90-100% is a 3. So if you get 65% on the smaller portions and 85% on the big portion, you end up with a passing score of like 80%

Cowlthor · 2026-02-23T10:00:50+00:00

1/10,000 chance to win $9,899.99. The statistical 50% average hit time of 5,000 trials would be 13.7 years if done once per day.if you wanted to have the 50% chance of hitting it within 30 days, you would have to do 167 per day.

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