Not intending to hijack, but how do they handle the HL bacc tables as far as cards. I am only familiar with the local small bacc tables, and they have two shoes of cards, shuffle machines and the dealer handles the cards at all times. For the big table, where the players mangle the cards, do they open each deck, and go through the card change process, then hand shuffle or machine?

 

the cards come in an 8 deck bundle preshuffled.

they do another quick shuffle and cut and put them into the shoe.

it's a new set of cards every shoe.

 

I've wrote about this on the old site before but 30 years ago or so I was watching a guy, I don't remember now but I think it was packer (obviously the other packer) wagering 400k a hand at GEEZERS, he reportedly list 10m. I wonder if that was his max bet. Have any of you seen more than that? I'm sorry to hijack..

I read this recently...

In May, 1995, packer was back on the right side again, winning $US20 million at the MGM Grand. Witnesses said he then went from table to table, playing eight hands at once at $US250,000 apiece. Within 40 minutes he was $US25 million ahead, having apparently won 20 hands on the trot. After this, he left a $US1 million tip to be split among the dealers.

But even when losing, he could be remarkably free with his chips. Sometimes he would pay cocktail waitresses $US50,000 to sit with him while he gambled. Other times, he would pay girls similar amounts of money to dance with him all night. In one of the most frequently told stories, he bought a Mercedes-Benz during a visit to Las Vegas and gave it to a valet parker.

Another time, as legend has it, he paid off the $US150,000 home mortgage of a female croupier who was deeply in debt. The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer is available in bookstores

 

400k a hand is the max anywhere in Vegas and I think you need a 10M+ line to get it.

 

Didn't Packer eventually get backed off by MGM though? While he was a notorious whale, he also played exclusively hit and run, and would take casinos for $20M like the story above then quit playing and never give them a shot to get it back. Perhaps I'm mis-remembering that he was eventually barred from playing at a few casinos for this reason.

 

I saw Packer playing once at the Mirage. This had to be late 90's / early 2000's. he was playing on the main floor, and was betting $250k a hand across all spots at a BJ table. Crowd around him was 4-5 deep, even with security trying to keep people moving.

 

Another time a couple years back in the MGM Mansion main casino area (don't remember if Shifter was along on this same trip or not), and not in one of the back salons where most of the big action betting is going on, there was one whale betting his $400k max on a bacc table. Had quite a few million worth of lammers up for both markers and hundreds of thousands in commission lammers up on the top row. Had the largest stack of grays and pumpkins that I had seen at the time. Was with my host passing through, and I stopped and did a double take, and he gave me the ole "better not stop and stare for too long, lol"

 

naw I missed that one.

you should have gotten a picture! lol.

 

I appreciated you moving along so quickly.

 

And pulled the Derek Jeter photo stunt in the Shadow grill? I'll leave that to Ken's friend Jim.