Playing Blackjack in Mexico

Security near the casino.

The Frontón casino is a few blocks down from

the fancy Le Meridien hotel, a Marriott property

in the Colonia Tabacalera district of the capital.

There are at least two presumably lower-priced

hotels within a short block of the entertainment

complex.

Threre were two police vehicles evident while I

was in the area .. and a guard outside the casino

was armed with a Mexican rifle or shotgun but

was not brandishing it.

There is a Metro rail stop less than a short block

from the casino.  An iconic building illuminated

sofisticadamente --  a taxi driver told me its name

which included the word Revolución -- 

is right across the street from the casino building.

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Royal Yak casino in Mexico City.

I didn't see any logo or signage picturing

the Tibetan oxlike beast known as a yak.

The logo in evidence at the casino near

a major racetrack has three cherries lined up

slot-machine style.

The racetrack is Hipódromo de las Américas

on Avenida Industrial Militar. It opened in

1943.

Perhaps in keeping with its roots, the

Royal Yak's blackjack game is a rarity in

my South American experience -- games are

shuffled manually and dealt from a shoe,

with no continuous shuffling machine at

either of the 21 tables that were open when

I played.  For a card counter, this is probably

the best game I have encountered in

Latin America.

The rules are basically the same as at the

Frontón casino that I played at the night before.

Dealer takes a hole card and manually peeks at

it before play starts if her first card is a ten

or an ace and thus a potential natural 21.

Two Yak blackjack tables were open, with

50-1,000 and 100-2,000 peso limits respectively.

Dealers were slower and showed less dexterity

than the Frontón dealers. However, I saw no

dealer mistakes in the 75 minutes I was at the

Yak tables.

The dealer sells chips right at the table, unlike

the other casino where a cashier sold chips.

My agua potable once again was gratis.

Deck penetration was about 70 percent, with

no heat (and no advanced players) evident.

There was action when I arrived at 11 p.m. on

a Friday night, but the higher limit table was

dead and only one player remained in action

at the other 21 table when I left 75 minutes later.

This is unusual for a midsize casino on

a weekend night.

A supervisor told me the 21 games are open

starting at 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday ..

and close at 3 a.m. Sunday hours are

3 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Note that the casino may have moved as

it is located several hundred yards up from

major neon signage at the nearby

traffic circle, possibly a sign that the casino

was at the traffic-circle location previously.

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Yak ambiance.

As I looked around the table-games pit,

I noticed an international flavor among the

punters.

Empty seats at my table were suddenly

filled by four young Chinese men gabbing

in Mandarin and doing a good job in

following the lead of the Spanish-speaking

dealer who was teaching the proper

hand signals.

One table over at a poker-variant game,

a 40-ish man wearing large dark

sunglasses was in action.  He was wearing

a neon-yellow nylon jacket with a deep-red

hammer and sickle design on its front.

The outfit screamed:  World War II

bomber pilot on his night off in Reno

or Monaco!

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Double down?

Dealers at some Mexico City tables are

in the habit of dealing the card face down

when a player pushes out chips for an

obvious double.

When this occurs, I ask the dealer to

turn the card face up .. and they are

complying.

If I were to ask for another player's

double card to be turned face up,

I don't know if the dealer would

follow the instruction.

An obvious solution is to sit at

first base when that spot is

available unless there is some

compelling reason not to.

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Re-splittin' Aces.

There's no such thing at Royal Yak casino

in Mexico City.

I split a pair of aces and the dealer hit the first

ace with another ace and put a deuce on the

second ace.

I immediately called to the supervisor who was

about 25 feet away in the pit. Two minutes later

he came to the table .. and then informed me

that at the Yak, split aces receive one card only

per ace, no re-splitting.

Another rule I discovered last night is that an

individual player may wager on a maximum of

three betting spots per round.  The rookie dealer

I first encountered was unaware of the rule and

I played four spots during the first 20 minutes

of my session .. until a supervisor started

paying attention and backed me down

to three spots.

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Paying tax on winnings in Mexico.

After breaking even on my first two CDMX

blackjack sessions, I had a winning session

last night at the Royal Yak.  This meant

I would be paying a winners tax to Mexico.

When I approached the cashier cage to

cash out, I was shown a form to fill out

for tax purposes.

When I explained I was a first-time winner,

a casino 'empleado' filled out the form for me.

In response to my question, he said the

tax amounts to 6 percent of a player's profits.

They mathematically deduct this percentage

and then pay the balance of a player's winnings

in cash.

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Late-night taxi from the casino area.

Unlike after my Friday night session at the Yak,

I saw there were no taxis at the casino taxi stand

at 12:20 a.m. This was not surprising since there

had been few players after my 11 p.m. arrival at

the casino and I was playing heads-up against the

dealer almost the whole time.

Putting common sense to work, I made the

five-minute walk from the casino to the

traffic circle. There, three taxis were lined up

and getting an aventón back to Ixtacalco

was a snap. Once again, the taxista required

a 100-peso surcharge for late-night transport.

The walk from the casino along Avenida

Industrial Militar to the traffic circle

seemed plenty safe due to being chock-a-block

with military buildings and the presence of

armed guards at the entrances to some of

the builidngs.

Several open-air booths were still operating at

the traffic circle -- a taquería, a shop selling

tortas (cakes and tarts) and a pulpería selling

a variety of beverages and snacks.

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Yakkin' it up.

I love the blackjack game at Royal Yak. But

they've got some rookie dealers whose lack

of judgment and experience was on full

display at my 21 table last night.

Dealer X was doing OK until a round in which

he dealt to my three spots three pairs --

sixes, nines and deuces.

Then he noticed he had apparently made a

mistake in dealing to the other player who was

also in action. In any quality casino, a dealer

knows not to back up the cards or switch

around hands to correct such an error on

his own. But this dealer skipped the part

where he is supposed to alert his supervisor.

Acting on his own, he changed the cards

in all my hands -- and when he finished, I had

two stiffs and and an eight consisting of a deuce

and a six, a definite downgrade from my

origiinally-dealt hands.

I immediately stopped the game and asked

the dealer to call over his supervisor, Julio,

to look into what was going on. The dealer

gave an Julio an explanation I could not hear ..

and then I asked Julio to allow the players

to withdraw our bets and declare the round

invalid.

Julio made a phone call from his supervisor podium,

probably to surveillance, for at least five minutes.

He came back to the 21 table and allowed us all

to withdraw our wagers as I had requested.

The dealer was tapped out by his relief

and Julio spent several minutes with him privately

near the far end of the gaming pit,

probably reminding him that dealers do not

properly correct their own errors, They need to

have a superior supervise the situation and

direct the correction, checking with surveillance

if necessary to verify what had occurred.

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Coloring up when the dealer can't count.

A second error occurred at the end of my session,

now with Dealer Y.

As is customary, I pushed my chips to the

Insurance line and asked that they be colored up

to higher-denomination chips to take to the

cashier cage.

What followed was the worst color-up job

by a dealer that I have ever seen. Not only

did he fail to add the incoming chips correctly,

but when I pointed out that the converted chips

totaled less than I had presented, he made the

cardinal sin of moving chips between the two

sides of the layout, making it nearly impossible

to ascertain the correct amount I would receive.

Again, Julio had to be called over. He did a

classic eye roll, having found that, inside

one hour, another of his dealers had messed up and

then further complicated the situation in the

absence of supervision,

Based on where the chips were now located

on the table, I don't think Julio could have

confirmed (without surveillance input) the

exact amount of high-value chips I deserved.

Since the discrepancy was only a few hundred

pesos, I think Julio did the right thing by

refraininig from making another call to surveillance,

instead taking my word for what I was due .. and

having the dealer give me the full amount.

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A few observations...

Here are some other observations I have

made this week at the Royal Yak casino

in Mexico City.

There are five spots at each of the 21 tables,

not six or seven as is generally the case

in the USA and  other Latin American cities

where i have played.

When I first played at the Yak on a weekend,

the minimum bet was 50 pesos at Table 1

and 100 pesos at Table 2. Although still

indicated that way on Thursday night,

the actual minimum at Table 2 was 50 pesos,

despite a posted electronic sign saying 100.

Both tables were full with players when I

arrived Thursday night around midnight.

I left the casino at 2 a.m. on Friday, and

the lone taxista at the taxi stand surcharged

me an additional 50 pesos, probably due to

the hour. For my various comings at goings from

Royal Yak to my hotel, I have paid either

250 or 300 pesos per trip. My trips from my

hotel to the Yak have ranged in price from

150 to 300 pesos.

The restaurant in the casino apparently operates

around the clock or close to it. Last night

I ordered a mushroom omelette around 1:30 a.m.

and they cooked it for me although the waiter

made it clear they don't usually cook breakfast

foods at such an hour .. and he had to ask

special permission.

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Fruity find near casino Royal Yak.

After my Friday night session ended at 2 a.m.,

I walked down to the traffic circle near

Hospital Militar.  As usual, nobody was about

except for a rifle-carrying guard at the

big parking facility.

At the circle, I found a booth I had missed before

where breakfast cereals, fresh-cut fruit including

piña y mango  and juices squeezed and mixed

to order were available.

After picking out such merchandise, I walked a

few steps further to the waiting line of taxistas,

one of whom drove me back to the hotel for

the going price from there to Ixtacalco, 250 pesos.

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Taking charge when the dealer is clueless.

Don't get me wrong, several of the dealers at

Royal Yak have dexterity and know how to

deal blackjack well.

But, frankly, most of them are either novices

or just clueless.

Among the multiple mistakes I spotted on

Saturday night, one was committed by an

impatient dealer whose error I made sure

to point out to the supervisor.

Playing at third base, I hit my hand

to a three-card total of 14

against the dealer's high-value up-card.

Instead of waiting for my ensuing

hit/stand decision, the dealer rushed to

complete his hand, giving him a

two-card total of hard 18.

I immediately had the supervisor

come by and I explained, "Iba a

pedir más una carta, pero él no

esperó para mi señal."

I was going to hit my hand again,

but he didn't wait for my signal.

Then I tapped the layout to

emphasize that I still wanted a card

to potentially improve my 14.

The dealer delivered me a five, turning

my hand from a loser 14 into a

19-18 winner.

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