The Tactics of a Professional Blackjack Cheat part five

This is something that I mentioned in my blackjack book but it needs to be repeated here. Many blackjack dealers and especially fast dealers are prone to exposing the next card to be dealt from the shoe. This is why you need to have an array of weapons at your disposal because some are better on third base and some better on first base.

Quite often you will go into a casino and not have a choice where you can play. If you only had tactics that worked on a certain part of the table then you would be wasting much of your allotted playing time. Many casino dealers are careless about exposing cards from the shoe. It does not have to be the entire card either, with practice you will become very good at spotting the merest fraction of a card and identifying it. This kind of skill is also very useful to have in other areas of casino games like dealers on Caribbean stud poker for instance.

It is perfectly possible to perfect this technique by using certain methods that increase the speed of your sensory input. A device that issues flashed images at speed like a “tachistoscope” is very effective. But we used a simple device. We took a deck of cards and merely had someone select a card at random in the pack and then turn it around so that it was back to front.

If you then fan the edge of the playing cards at great speed you will no doubt not see the card or see a card but not be able to recognise it. Keep practicing this and something amazing will happen, your sensory input levels slowly increase without you even realising it and you will start to see the card almost as if it has appeared out of thin air. These techniques do not help you see better…..just faster!

Many dealers have what is called a “faster than eye hand action” which essentially means that they are pulling cards slightly faster than what they are adding them up. More experienced blackjack dealers are prone to making this mistake as it is they who have the necessary experience to be able to deal that fast.

It is when you can spot the next card after a blackjack dealer has slightly pulled it from the machine and it is an ace or a picture card that you can really profit. You have a 51% edge when you know that your first card will be an ace and a 13% edge if that card is a ten value card. Even if the playing card is bad like a stiff (2-6) then you can take a walk on this hand as though you are going to the toilet and save a little money. It all adds to your hourly rate and at only a -$5 per hour base figure, you do not have to claw much back to be ahead.

If you were to get a situation where you knew that the next card was going to afford you a massive edge then you cannot just let this situation pass b playing the same amount of money. If you have been playing blackjack at £20 maximum and you know that the next card is an ace then you need to increase your bet but you must do this in such a way as to make it look natural.

You will know the dealers and supervisors in your casino better than me but let me make a suggestion here. Put on an act that tells them that you are leaving and are just lumping on about £100 just for the sheer hell of it. You need a reason to be increasing your bet in this way and you need to give them a very good reason so that they do not suspect you and you can keep on going back there to play.

If you are making enough money then it is perfectly possible to have a minimum betting team member do this for you if you can trust anyone. You can also manipulate this error as well by commenting on how wonderfully fast the dealer is. When you say something like this, many dealers will attempt to deal the game faster and this mistake will increase in regularity. Boosting certain peoples ego can be very profitable.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Play blackjack and other casino games at bwin.com