Alina - all business over at Paddy Power's live casino

Last week Alona, this week Alina.  It’s not a typo.

Alina was dealing at one of the tables I found playing at Paddy Power.  She didn’t deal me any Blackjacks.  She didn’t deal me a streak of any description.  In fact during my time at her mercy I lost quite comprehensively.

So why dealer of the week you ask?

Let me answer this question with another question.

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Personally I like to keep a toe in most of the spiritual camps just to cover my bases, so aren’t totally close minded to  the possibility of coming back as a something else in another life. It’s about as plausible as a heaven or hell I reckon.  Agreed, the thought of coming back as a cockroach and having to have sex with other cockroaches doesn’t appeal.  But in gambling parlance, if that’s the hand I’m dealt…

But I digress, so back to the original reincarnation question and why I ask it?  Well there was a fleeting moment during my session with Alina that I thought it might be nice to be reincarnated as a playing card.  That moment was some time during the below shuffle.

Congrats Alina.

Alona's all smiles on the blackjack table

I will always maintain that a happy dealer is a good dealer.  And a dealer who develops a habit of dealing you plenty of Blackjacks is a  very good dealer.

So how about a dealer who is happy and also manages to dish out a whole lot of Blackjack joy…

This is deserving of our dealer of the week award.

Alona was all smiles during a session on the Gold Blackjack table over at Unibet, and a deserving winner of this weeks award.

Keep up the good work Alona!

regards

LD

This kind of made the Dealer of the Week award a bit of a lay down mazaire.

So, Julija, I know you didn’t mean it, but thanks anyway.  And if you can manage to deal me another 3 Blackjacks in a row, you will automatically be a front runner for our Dealer of the Year award.

Congratulations and please, keep them coming!

LD

She’s precise with her deal, she has a very pleasant disposition, she dealt me a $200+ winning streak on her blackjack table, she’s gorgeous and she has a very appropriate name.

Yes, Baiba by name…

You’ll find her dealing from Playtech’s European dealer studio, which you can play at a bunch of Playtech casinos including:

• William Hill
• Euro Grand
• Bet Fred
• Casino Europa

Congratulations Baiba. A very deserving dealer of the week!

More shots of Baiba in action…

Riga Blonde Girls Parade

According to news hot off the press, Entertasia are partnering with a Latvian based gambling software developer to create games for the Western playing market.

Their new partners, CXTM are based in Riga.  Yes, that’s the same Riga, Latvia where Evolution Gaming have set up their dealer studio, dealing games to players at Unibet, 888.com, Expekt, Victor Chandler, Ladbrokes, Blue Square, and so on.  It’s also the same Riga, Latvia where Playtech decided to plonk their European based dealer studio.

Under the deal CXTM will be helping to ‘Westernise’  Entertasia’s games which have to date been targeted largely at Asian player markets.  This will largely involve developing new interface skins – but may also involve recruiting new dealers to fill yet another Riga studio.

Now while the interface skin thing is fact that comes from the company CEO’s in their joint press release, the suggestion that a studio in Riga with Latvian dealers is being planned is pure Livedealer.org speculation that has no basis in fact…but it would make plenty of sense.  I mean if you’re going to ‘Westernise’ the product then surely the dealer in the video – a major component of the game, should be Western right?  And if you’re  looking for European dealers, then why not go to the place that seems to be the darling of the real-time-video-streaming industry…Riga, Latvia.   The fact that CXTM is based there just cements the theory.

And judging from the above photo, taken at this years ‘Riga  Blonde Girls Parade’ (organized by the Latvian Blonde Association – this is true, look it up) there is certainly no shortage of qualified dealers to choose from.

I’ve always thought of roulette as a mathematically sub-optimal game to play.  Assuming you are talking about a quality wheel with no bias, you have a game where each spin is an independent event offering payouts for each bet that are less than the odds of hitting that bet (substantially so for the American version of the game).

Stick to Blackjack has always been my mantra.   But a chat I had with a dealer the other day had me thinking maybe I’ve been a little hasty in writing roulette off as a potential earner.   What I learned was that the human element (ie dealer/croupier spin) of this game can make the outcomes decidedly non-random.  And if a player can harness this situation to their advantage, there is cash to be made.

But how on earth can outcomes be non-random I hear you say?

Section spinning

So here you have a high tech, low profile, John Huxley type wheel with no discernible bias whatsoever including all manner of features to ensure randomness such like separating frets and wheel diamonds to make that small white ball bobble around all over the place.   Then you have a ball spinning many times around the wheel in the opposite direction to the wheel itself, before finally coming to rest.  How can the outcome be anything but totally random?

It’s hard to fathom, but the upshot of what this dealer was telling me is that experienced dealers CAN consistently land a ball on chosen wheel sections.  Section spinning is a practice that is certainly not encouraged by their employer, but I have it on good authority that in at least one casino (and I’m sure it’s not the only one), the dealers work very hard at perfecting their section spin skills – whether it be for tips or simply their own amusement, or just a quiet affirmation of their skill at spinning.  The fact is, very good croupiers can hit sections with monotonous regularity if they so choose.  Some even do it unintentionally without even realizing they are doing it!

This is sometimes also referred to as a dealer’s signature – consistency in ball delivery through much repetition.

Pick your sections…and be VERY nice to the dealer

The implications of the above are obvious and significant. Imagine knowing (from observation, dealer chat etc)  that there’s a very good chance that the ball is going to end up in a certain quadrant of the wheel.  All of a sudden the odds/payout picture of roulette as I’d always thought of it changes dramatically.  Theoretically your odds of hitting a given number drop from 1 in 37 to somewhere in the order of 1 in 10 – with no change to the payouts!

Get a feeling the dealer is looking to land the zero? – you bet neighbours around the zero.  Get the feeling he or she is looking to land somewhere else? – bet neighbours around that number.

Of course armed with the knowledge that your winning destiny is well and truly in the hands of this experienced croupier, the other point that should go without saying is be very nice to the dealer.  A tip here or there wouldn’t hurt.  Carrying on like a jerk will.

Do online dealers section spin?

To be perfectly honest I have never noticed before.  But then until talking to the above mentioned dealer, I was oblivious to the fact that it was at all possible so didn’t ever pay much attention to bet outcome history.   The fact is, the equipment used in live dealer studios is the same as that used in bricks and mortar casinos and the dealers can be every bit as experienced as their traditional casino counterparts.  So section spins or a dealer signature may exist playing live roulette.

It might pay to pay slightly closer attention in future to any emerging patterns.  Maybe just watch and observe for a while and study the outcome history.  And above all – be nice to your dealer!