{"id":1582,"date":"2014-05-15T17:13:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T17:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beyondnumbers.lvablog.com\/?p=266"},"modified":"2023-06-21T11:27:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T18:27:57","slug":"how-we-do-it-handing-off-a-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/how-we-do-it-handing-off-a-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Do It: Handing Off a Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this first post in the “How We Do It” series, I would like to discuss an extremely important task, nay, skill, that card counters have never even considered, but which my crew faces on a near-daily basis:<\/p>\n

handing off a seat. Card counters generally have a choice of tables, and the particular seat available at the chosen table is not critical to the game. Some counters do not even sit at all, preferring to table-hop around a busy casino. Also, the majority of card counters play solo, and therefore never face a daunting seat handoff.<\/p>\n

I realize that this topic is quite narrow, but I’m so sick of amateurish handoff screwups that I need to get this off my chest. This stuff is absolutely required reading for any pro.<\/p>\n

The typical scenario we face is that an advance scout has found a hole-card game, and then needs to lock the seat and subsequently hand the seat off to the spotter who arrives later, possibly under busy conditions where civilian gamblers or competing crews may be trying to acquire the seat. Cutters, blockers, sequencers, translators, BPs, and other role players may need particular seats at a table, but the hole-card example is probably the most familiar.<\/p>\n

Obviously the situation is simplified if the spotter initially scouts and secures the seat, but that is often not feasible. Perhaps the spotter is busy scouting other casinos, or is actually tied up playing a different target, or is busy doing computer work at home. When the spotter arrives on scene to receive the seat from the seat-locker, there are three goals: 1. The spotter must wind up in the “lucky” seat; 2. The BP must also have at least one spot available; 3. The handoff can’t look like a handoff. This last goal is actually so important that I will accept a slight risk of losing the seat if it cleans up an awkward handoff that would otherwise get us picked off by casino personnel or dangerous civilians.<\/p>\n

I cannot stress the importance of eliminating handoff mistakes. Rookies worry, as they should, about betting and playing errors, but let’s look at the relative costs. Suppose we have a game with an 8% edge, and the rookie BP misses my signal to increase the bet from $1000 to $1500. That mistake costs us $40 in expected profit. Suppose the rookie BP autohits a $1000 hand that calls for a double down. Perhaps hitting is suboptimal by 20%, for a $200 cost for this error. But what about botching a seat handoff? The entire session can be lost, costing thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. A handoff error costs orders of magnitude more than any single error in playing a hand.<\/p>\n

A smooth, secure handoff requires great coordination between the locker and the spotter, and generally requires both parties to read the personalities and likely reactions of the dealer and the other nearby gamblers. The general approach is for the spotter to signal when he is ready to receive the seat, but the locker has veto power to continue to wait if he thinks the handoff cannot be secured. The locker has a better read on the other players at the table who are a threat to intercept the handoff.  Here are the steps to a successful handoff:<\/p>\n

1. When the spotter arrives, the locker must not assume that the spotter is immediately ready for the handoff. The spotter will generally want to survey the pit quickly, checking for any threats such as dangerous bosses or competing crews. I hate when I show up at the casino and the locker just gets up and abandons the seat. We actually have two signals that the spotter uses to convey to the locker: (A) Wait, and (B) I am ready to switch now. The spotter has to watch closely and be ready to jump in if the locker makes an unexpected move without signaling.<\/p>\n

2. When the spotter arrives, he should not immediately get close the table. He should approach the table from behind the dealer (on the other side of the pit), so that the locker can see that the spotter has arrived, but the dealer cannot see the spotter yet. The locker can now text or signal any special information, and the spotter is still able to leave without having been seen if there is any trouble.<\/p>\n

3. If he does not already have chips, the spotter should buy up some chips at another table. Chips are tremendously useful in a handoff. The strongest and fastest way to acquire possession of a spot at the table is to put chips in the betting circle. I once had a civilian say, “That’s my seat,” to which I replied, “Then how come my chips are in the betting circle?” (I was confident that the dealer would rule in my favor in this scenario; otherwise, I would have been nicer.) For any casino that we target regularly, I would keep a small inventory of “handoff chips” for this purpose.<\/p>\n

4. The locker needs to be mobile, ready to leave the table immediately when the moment is right. So, the locker should not have piles of chips on the table. It irritates me when I show up and see that the locker has $1500 in piles of green and red all over the table! At this point, the locker should color up MOST of his chips, but not all. Coloring up will give the locker an indication of whether any other civilians at the table are trying to move to the lucky seat. The civilians might ask if the locker is quitting, or might actually make a physical move towards the seat. If that happens, the locker can say that he’s going to keep playing a bit longer (and then communicate to the spotter that there is a possible interceptor). That’s the reason the locker should not color up all of his chips. He’s now mobile, but still has a handful of chips to play a few hands.<\/p>\n

5. The locker should start intermittently sitting out some hands. Ideally, the locker would have been doing this for a few minutes already. The other players then see that the locker doesn’t play every hand, so they do not realize, when the time comes, that the locker is actually quitting the game and that the handoff is going to occur.<\/p>\n

6. The spotter should approach the table and signal his readiness to receive the seat. If there are any civilians standing around the table, it is safer to wait until they are gone. Sometimes a simple invasion of space such as walking through their field of view can snap them out of their hypnotic trance and get them to move along to watch some other table.<\/p>\n

7. When both parties are ready, the locker should remain seated but sit out the hand. When the dealer puts the cards on the table, and the civilians are in the middle of playing their hands, the locker should quietly get up and walk away, and the spotter should immediately put his chips in the vacant betting circles and sit down. Because this is done quietly while the civilians are involved in a hand, they may not even realize that the handoff has occurred! I have had the dealer and the civilians look at me after a hand or two and then say, “Oh! Where did the other guy go?”<\/p>\n

8. When the locker gets up, he should not immediately leave the area. He should quietly get up and step away from the table to make room for the spotter, but he should be prepared to defend the handoff. If another civilians tries to intercept, or makes a claim that he was next up waiting for that seat, then the locker can defend the seat and say, “I wasn’t quitting. I just had to check my phone. I’m still playing.” The locker still has first claim to the seat, and should remain closeby to reclaim the seat. I hate when the locker runs away and doesn’t stick around to defend the handoff. A trick here is that the locker can leave one white or red chip discreetly to the side or near the rail. If the spotter secures the seat with no problem, the spotter can just say, “The other guy forgot this chip,” or tell the dealer, “That guy left this for you.” If a civilian tries to intercept, the locker can say, “I’m not done playing; that’s why I left my chip there.”<\/p>\n

The safest thing to do is to execute the handoff when no civilians are around. If there is someone threatening to intercept, it is best to wait until that person goes to the bathroom or gets distracted on the phone. Every little step is important, but I would say that the main details where most rookies fail are: (1) the spotter should have chips ready to place in the betting circles, (2) the handoff should occur while the civilians are involved in a hand that the locker is sitting out, (3) the locker should remain close to reclaim the seat if necessary.<\/p>\n

If necessary, the locker can execute a partial handoff as part of a two-step process. First, the locker needs to acquire two seats. So, if the locker is playing both the last seat (third base, anchor, “button” as we call it) and the next-to-last seat (we call it “the cutoff”), he starts intermittently sitting out on the cutoff spot. The spotter then walks up and tries to place a bet in the cutoff. The dealer will say that the locker is playing both spots, but the locker can relinquish the cutoff. It is very unlikely that any civilian will try to intercept this handoff, as the cutoff is not so desirable to them, especially with the locker still sitting on the button. To us, though, the cutoff is tremendously valuable, because it is physically adjacent to the button.<\/p>\n

Now the spotter is seated in the cutoff with the locker on the button. When the locker then abandons the button a few hands later, the spotter has chips ready to immediately spread out to the second spot. It is much easier for the spotter to do this quickly and naturally since he is playing in the adjacent seat. As the adjacent player, he has a much stronger practical and procedural claim to the button than any of the civilians do. For the actual handoff of the button, the same safeties are in place. The locker can leave an insurance chip behind, and he should remain close by if he needs to reclaim the seat to wait for a safer moment.<\/p>\n

The process can be a thing of beauty when executed by professionals. The analogy to a track relay is quite accurate. If a runner is a tenth of a second faster or slower running his leg, that may not affect the outcome much at all, but if the baton handoff is botched, the race is lost. Like a track team, your crew should practice the critical details to ensure a smooth, secure handoff.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this first post in the “How We Do It” series, I would like to discuss an extremely important task, nay, skill, that card counters have never even considered, but which my crew faces on a near-daily basis:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[96,165],"yoast_head":"\nHow We Do It: Handing Off a Seat - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/how-we-do-it-handing-off-a-seat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How We Do It: Handing Off a Seat - 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