BLACKJACK TOURNAMENT E-BOOKS BY BJI AUTHOR KEN SMITH! How to Win EVEN MORE Blackjack Tournaments - Volume II... only $14.95. Ken Smith's second e-book on tournament blackjack contains more of his winning strategies that have made him one of the best tournament blackjack players in the world. Or, purchase both Volume I and Volume II together for $24.95... over 15% off! NEW! Read how Ken used skill to win a recent blackjack tournament. Get his books and you could too!

A casino opening can only be described as: FRANTIC! You need tables, computers, shuffle machines, dice, sticks, roulette balls, cards, layouts, chairs, cameras, lighting, scheduling, game protection, discard racks, electrical displays, and last but certainly not least, office supplies. Then someone has to figure out where to put everything, what has to be under lock and key, and where do we put the other items of little importance. It takes a lot of cooperation and teamwork to coordinate an opening of a new casino for live play, and then someone forgets the ashtrays!

The most sensitive and vulnerable area is game protection. The staff is new and not acclimated to the new surroundings, tables, dealers, procedure and policies. Most are too busy looking at the decorations, admiring the "NEW" casino, and thinking about the prior "Play Days" when they were able to eat, drink, play and experience all the amenities for free.

The casinos do a trial run for the restaurants, games, and all departments to work out the bugs as much as possible. They use employees as guinea pigs. Casinos are very aware they will be vulnerable on opening night and for at least the next seven days. No matter how prepared they may be, something always goes wrong! Like they get hit by "The Greeks" (a professional team of advantage players), or a dealer colors up someone for 500 chips instead of 100 chips or there are no pens or someone forgot to unlock the roulette balls or no one can find the keys to the card drawer or "Where’s the Sticks for Craps?" or an employee can’t find a parking space. NO ONE gets a break during the opening! It’s frantic, exciting and exhausting, but what a rush!

The area that really gets pumped up is game protection, which includes coverage inside and outside the pit.

...enter your member login information below to read this article/newsletter...

Paid Members-Only Article

You have clicked on a link to a Blackjack Insider web page or article for paid subscribers. You must have a paid membership to the Blackjack Insider newsletter to view this content. About 1/2 of the articles in each issue of the Blackjack Insider are for paid members only, while the rest are viewable by everyone. Your purchased membership will allow you to read all Blackjack Insider articles for 12 months.

Enter your user name and password below (they were listed and e-mailed to you after you purchased your Blackjack Insider membership):

Forgot your membership id or password? Click here.

How do I get a membership?

A membership can be purchased online at our secure store with your credit card for only $19.95 per year. You will receive a user name and password immediately by e-mail which you can use to read the all past and future members-only articles for 12 months, as well as the regular free articles.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP NOW... only $19.95

Do I have to buy a membership?

No. Blackjack Insider will continue to be published as a free monthly e-newsletter. But about 1/2 of the articles each month will be for paid members only. Subscribers without a membership can still view and read the non-members articles for free.

What happens after I buy a membership?

Immediately after you complete your purchase, you will receive a unique login user name and password. These are displayed on the final purchase page, and are e-mailed to you. When you click on a members-only article in our web site, you will be prompted for this user name and password (as shown above). Simply enter them, and enjoy the article! Note: make sure you turn on the checkbox above when you login, to save the user name and password so that you don't have to re-enter them every time you view members-only articles.

Why did you switch to paid memberships?

Blackjack Insider is a professional monthly publication with top-notch articles by world-reknown gaming experts. In addition, we have regular reporters that monitor game conditions and tournament schedules throughout North America. We use a partially paid subscriber model to enable us to continue getting the best content for our readers from leading authors on blackjack and gaming.