Are you a Savvy gambler?

[blackchipjim]

Afternoon to all, I was posting the question to see if anyone was able to pick up on the dealer or another gambler that was cheating. I have in the past noticed a few times when things didn't quite seem right. I know casinos employ dealers that can bust a table of winners up faster than a blink of an eye but wonder if anyone can relate to outright scams. I sat at a double deck blackjack table and was having a tough time catching any decent cards. The people at the table that I had joined seem to be killing the dealer,when the relief dealer came in he was fast and no nonsense to a tee. Needless to say I figuired he was a card mechanic and did a heck of job busting those winners up to point that they all packed up and left.I just smiled and kept playing. He just returned the smile and we continued a much slower and enjoyable game after that. Blackchipjim!

[Victoria]

Cheating today by a casino appears to be rare especially when you compare it years ago.
I have an uncle who has been a cardcounter since the early 70's. What you mentioned about a mechanic in a pitch game is still possible today. You can do a search on the mechanics grip on the internet and if you ever see a dealer holding the deck this way, leave. You will also often hear a distinctive click as the second card is dealt instead of the first. This was quite common 25 years ago or more but I doubt that is what happened in your case.
My uncle recalls a dealer at the Sahara that was flashing the top card to the player at first base. Player/dealer cheating like that was not uncommon back in the 70's and early 80's. Since my uncle could see it also, sitting next to first base, he figured at some point someone from the casino would notice, so he left.
It is harder to cheat from a shoe but there was a cheating shoe developed, where seconds could be dealt. It is kind of prism shaped in the front.
Today, bad blackjack rules and big corporate ownership, the chance that you would run into a cheating situation is slight. More often you just run into the crazy flux of the game.

Most common way of cheating today is the short shoe I think. My uncle plays all over the world and has stated that it is known that several casinos in Eastern Europe will pull tens out of the shoe giving the house a bigger advantage. An Indian Casino in California a few years ago was accussed of doing the same thing.

Victoria

[Mr.C]

Casions do not have to cheat, since the odds are always in there favor. The State of Nevada imposes very stiff penitalites to cheaters of any kind! With modern day technology,they who attempt to cheat are only successfully, until they are caught, then they pay the price!!!

[Victoria]

Casions do not have to cheat, since the odds are always in there favor. The State of Nevada imposes very stiff penitalites to cheaters of any kind! With modern day technology,they who attempt to cheat are only successfully, until they are caught, then they pay the price!!!


You reminded me of something. Earlier I was keying in on table game cheating and yes casinos do not cheat today, especially in Vegas on table games but individuals within the casino might.
About a year and a half ago, three executives at the Venitian were found out to have cheated on a money giveaway promotion, giving the grand prize not to a person chosen at random but to a favorite player. The casino paid a fine (which for the Venitian was not "stiff". The three cheaters were not prosecuted for a gaming crime but instead were fired and immediately hired by other casinos.

Not cheating but unethical: Harrah's when it managed Binions let a fall down, sic, drunk continue playing poker even after a player at the table asked the manager to take the guy away. That player called the gaming board who sent agents there. The agents told Binions to stop letting the man play and the agents left and they continued to deal to this person. Whe the gament agents returned they finally removed the man from the table. Result a fine that you or I could pay. The player who called the gaming board was barred from Binions and the real result is those addicted gambling commercials that Harrah's CEO does on TV. They do these because they were told to.

Golden Nugget about a year ago refused to pay a sports bet player a win of about $50,000. Were forced to pay by the gaming board and then fined only $30,000.

MGM refuses to redeem $8,000 of their chips to a blackjack player who played without a players card. Forced to pay him after months of delay by the gaming board. Fine 0. They called it a player/casino dispute.

Remember always. The bills of the state of Nevada are paid by the casinos. The jobs of the state are provided by the casinos. The Nevada Gaming Board and their agents are nothing more than agents of the casino.

Victoria

[blackchipjim]

Since we are on the subject of cheating not so much as a point of contention would be the shuffle. I notice the way a dealer may shuffle the shoe and a bad shoe can stay a bad shoe for the whole evening. I have tracked the clump as we call it and you would be surprised as to the lack of variation in the cards dealt one shoe after another. I got so fed up after a while I just walked. I found out that complaining about the lack of shuffling does more harm than good. The pit boss thought I was nuts until I started calling the dealers twenty ones and twenties with amazing accuracy.He thought I was counting cards but assured him that the cards were clumped from the shoes before and the series were the same as the one before. I know it's not really cheating but darn the house has enough of an edge already. blackchipjim!

[Victoria]

Since we are on the subject of cheating not so much as a point of contention would be the shuffle. I notice the way a dealer may shuffle the shoe and a bad shoe can stay a bad shoe for the whole evening. I have tracked the clump as we call it and you would be surprised as to the lack of variation in the cards dealt one shoe after another. I got so fed up after a while I just walked. I found out that complaining about the lack of shuffling does more harm than good. The pit boss thought I was nuts until I started calling the dealers twenty ones and twenties with amazing accuracy.He thought I was counting cards but assured him that the cards were clumped from the shoes before and the series were the same as the one before. I know it's not really cheating but darn the house has enough of an edge already. blackchipjim!

You do relalize that just by either taking a hit when you should not or not hitting when you should and doing this just once would give all those 20's and 21's to someone other than the dealer.

If you are capable of shuffle tracking, then winning at that casino should be extremely easy.

If you play enough blackjack, you will see everything. I witnessed the dealer getting 7 straight aces for a total of 17 at the MGM, losing to everyone.
I have lost 20 straight hands.
I have won 12 straight during a negative count.
I have seen two different players double down on a blackjack the same day.
I have played a whole shoe heads up with a dealer and only lost four hands.
I have played a whole shoe heads up and only won three hands.

Nothing ever surprises me on the tables.

Victoria

[legalois]

Afternoon to all, I was posting the question to see if anyone was able to pick up on the dealer or another gambler that was cheating. ..........Blackchipjim!

A couple of years ago my husband noticed a dealer dealing from the bottom of the deck. It wasn't helping the house any, though. :p

[Victoria]

The El Dorado in Reno until settling a lawsuit was cheating every player on their Mindplay21 blackjack tables.
Besides reducing your comps, catching cheats, and firing pit types, one of the main abilities of Mindplay21 is it's ability to know the exact order of the undealt cards and relay this information to the pit. Now when the remaining cards are heavy in aces and faces, it favors the players and the El Dorado would shuffle early. When the cards favored the house, they would continue to deal. This cheats everyone at the table, it cheats the non cardcounter more than the counter. The counter will know why they shuffled and leave. The non counter has no way of knowing and will continue to play that cheating game.
The lawsuit was settled by forcing an 8 hand delay before composition information can be relayed to the pit.
No pentaly, no fine. They should have been shut down!

Victoria

[blackchipjim]

I geuss we all can relate when things seem awry at a table be it cards falling the same order over and over again. I did have an unusual occurence happen awhile ago at an unamed casino. The dealer was a fast dealer and the casino was very crowded and the dealer I think was peeved at the pit boss that night,well he started paying losing hands more often than I could stand I was paid a few losing hands and tried to bring it to the dealer's attention a few times but the guy was so stinking fast at removing the cards after paying it was sometimes a blur. Needless to say I was so rattled and started to get really nervous for fear that the casino would think I was a part of some sort of scam I cashed out and got the heck out of there. Blackchipjim

[Pops904]

Fast, aggressive dealers are not your friend! They can only be fast if you let them rush you! Try slowing the game down by pausing to think before every hit or stand. ...particularly useful if others at the table pick up on it and start doing it too...slows down the game, takes away the added advantage by the confusion that the dealer can cause, makes it much harder for anything "Funny" to go on with the cards, and can often turn a game more fun and more profitable at the same time... Drives the pit boss nutz, because he wants to see as many hands and as many losers per hour as possible...so the fat guy with the southern drawl and the Hawaiian shirt may not be a bumbling country hick, may just be me, slowin that hot-shot dealer down to more my speed....

But that's just me.....