Author: Arnold Snyder

Reach Out and Fleece Someone

by Arnold Snyder
(From Blackjack Forum XII #4, December 1992)
© 1992 Blackjack Forum

Technology continues to oblige our laziness. The latest gambling craze to sweep the country is betting over the telephone lines. Short on cash? No problem. You don’t even need a credit card. A functioning telephone will do. Just pour yourself a tall, cool one, sit back in your robe and slippers, and dial 1-900-SWINDLE.

Most states have strict laws against telephone “book-making.” The penalties for operating a betting service by phone are stiff, and often include various charges of conspiracy and racketeering. Interstate bookmaking will bring in the Feds. Anyone taking phone wagers on horse races or sporting events had better be ready to fly by night if necessary.

A better idea, however, born of modern technology, would be to take bets via the new, legal, electronic method. This allows you to run your gambling operation with impunity, advertise on TV, and even hire celebrities to promote your business. No one is using this methodology yet to book sports or horse races, but it may be only a matter of time.

I don’t know how long these legitimate(?) telephone gambling lines have been in operation because I don’t watch TV much. Until Alison and I moved into this apartment building, as temporary living quarters while our home is being rebuilt, we never had cable TV. The first ad I saw for one of these operations was on a cable station; it was called “Spelling Bee,” or something like that.

Here’s how it worked, as well as I can remember: You dial the 900 number advertised and you will be given a spelling test over the phone. If you can spell 21 words correctly in 6 minutes, you win $1000. The fine print at the bottom of the screen informs you that you will be charged a few bucks per minute for the call. So, in effect, you are wagering $20 or so (depending on how much talking before and after your spelling test is necessary to transfer name\address\etc.) for the chance to win $1000.

Are you a good speller? How fast can you correctly spell on a touchtone keypad?

Ha!

I’m willing to bet I could get out my Webster’s Unabridged and easily find hundreds of words in the English language that would rarely all be spelled correctly by anyone: kilooersted, ouananiche, stannary, craquelure, thremmatology, uintaite, vitelline, miscible, pentaerythritol, narghile, yttrotantalite, zinziberaceous, zygapophysis, quinquereme, phthalocyanine, fissiparous, lophodont, gneissoid, xenodochium, tshernosem, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. That’s 21 words from my Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. Try them on your touchtone keypad. Six minutes.

To run an operation like this for maximum profit, however, the trick would be to keep players on the line for the full 6 minutes. You want to start with easy words, but long ones, so that callers stay in the game while charges are mounting. I suspect many players never even get to the truly difficult words. No mistakes. They just run out of time.

It’s hard for me to view an operation like this as anything but a scam. Players may think they’re wagering $20 to win $1000, but anyone dumb enough to think he can spell every word in the English language is more akin to a mark in a carny game than a gambler.

One of the most sophisticated telephone gambling operations currently running is Monte Hall’s “Let’s Make A Deal.” Yes, that’s the Monty Hall of TV fame. If you haven’t seen the now white-haired Monte on TV lately, you must not be flipping through all 438 cable stations at 3 a.m. looking for hot TV gambles.

Here’s how it works:

You call up Monte’s 900 number, at a cost of $2.95 per minute, in an effort to win the $2000 grand prize. (The fine print on the TV ad informs you that the “average” call lasts 6 minutes.) Gee, thought I, for only $2.95 a minute I can play Let’s Make A Deal with Monte Hall. A dream come true! I don’t even have to dress like a gorilla in a tutu!

I couldn’t resist. As soon as the ad ended, I reached for the cordless phone.

Alison tried to hold me back. “Arnold,” she said, “Think of your reputation. You’re a respected authority on gambling. If word gets around that you’re playing Let’s Make A Deal by telephone, you’ll be ruined. This has got to be worse than keno, and it’s probably worse than the California Lottery.”

“It’s all research and development,” I defended myself, dialing 1-900-420-4544. (Yes, that’s the real number. Try it!)

I was greeted by Monte Hall’s recorded voice. There was a band playing. He was excited. It was just like TV! My first $2.95 was wasted answering personal questions – phone number, age, sex, and listening to various announcements, such as the Beverly Hills address where I could obtain a written copy of the rules of the game.

Then Monte Hall’s recorded voice came on to get down to business. First, I had to correctly answer a question: “Which president was the Lincoln Memorial named after?” Monte quizzed me. I’m not going to tell you the correct answer, only that I answered correctly. (Okay, here’s a hint: It’s not Jimmy Carter. And, yes, he was one of the choices.)

Monte then informed me that because I had answered the question correctly, I could now choose between Door Number One, Door Number Two, and Door Number Three. Wow! Just like on TV! Using the touch tone pad as directed (all questions are entered via touch tone), I chose a door… Big fanfare!

I won!

“Yes,” said Monte, “You’ve won a $15 bag of nickels, which we’ll send to you in the form of a check! Or, you can trade in that bag of nickels for a chance to win $25 by choosing what’s behind Door Number One, Door Number Two, or Door Number Three!” (Not verbatim, but you get the idea….)

I looked at my watch. I’d been on the line less than four minutes which meant that I was about three bucks to the good after subtracting my phone charges. I was tempted to quit while ahead. (I’m no gambler!) But I didn’t yet know how to collect my prize. I figured by the time I got this information, I’d just be breaking even. I chose another door…

Another big fanfare!

I’d won again!

“Yes,” said Monte, “You now have $25! Do you want to keep that $25 or go to Level Three, where behind Door Number One, Door Number Two, or Door Number Three there is $35?” He also reminded me again that if I made it all the way to Level Six, the Grand Prize would be $2000.

I looked at my watch.

Under five minutes.

I’m outta here.

As expected, another minute was wasted supplying me with my “Prize Code #” and the address where I was instructed to send a 3<$E1/2> x 5 inch postcard with my name, address, phone number, age and social security number, in order to claim my prize, which, I was informed, would take 8 to 10 weeks for delivery. Now, I must assume this operation is 100% legit, and that I will receive a check for $25 from Monte Hall in 8 to 10 weeks. This modest win, of course, will be offset by about $18 added to my phone bill.

But, let’s analyze this game mathematically, assuming it’s 100% legit. There are six levels of play, i.e., you must choose the correct door (one of three) six times in a row to win the $2000 grand prize. On the average, you will therefore win the grand prize once out of every 729 times you play (that’s 36), assuming you don’t quit early like I did.

Since the “average” call lasts 6 minutes, the cost of the average call is 6 x $2.95 = $17.70. 729 calls times $17.70 each = $12,903.30. So, in the long run you will win $2,000 for every $13,000(more or less) you spend in phone charges.

Alison was right. This is far worse than keno, and far worse than the California Lottery. Monte Hall’s “house” has about an 85% advantage (a sizeable portion of which is shared with the phone company).

It’s illegal to call a bookie and tell him you want to place a $10 bet on the 49’ers, yet it’s 100% legal for you to call up Monte Hall (or the “Spelling Bee,” or numerous other 900 number “games”) and bet your money (disguised as telephone charges) on far riskier propositions. Nor would your bookie take 8 – 10 weeks to pay you!

I asked Nelson Rose (author of Gambling and the Law) how this type of gambling operation could be legal in California. He explained to me that the operator must either offer an alternative method of playing which does not require any 900-line charges, or the game must have a “skill factor” – such as requiring the player to answer a question. Hmmm… I wonder how many contestants were stumped by that Lincoln Memorial brainteaser?

Now, I’m not opposed to legalizing phone betting, but somehow the current regulations strike me as less than fair to the player. The funny thing is that it would probably be possible to set up a sports betting or other traditional type of book-making operation if it were operated as a 900-line game with “prizes.”

In other words, if you cut the phone company in on your vigorish, then pass this charge on to your customers as part of the cost per minute for the call, and don’t forget to come up with a “skill” question to legitimize the payoff, then you’re a legal bookie! No illegal “bets” are made so long as it’s all just telephone charges!

Your customers, naturally, won’t like the lousy odds you’ll be forced to give, and many will abandon you for illegitimate bookies who offer fairer odds. But paying off the phone company is simply the price of legitimacy in today’s high-tech gambling world.

What I haven’t been able to figure out, unfortunately, is a way to offer electronic blackjack games over the phone. As soon as I iron out the bugs in this brainstorm, however, I intend to give Monte Hall a run for the money. ♠

Fast Action Jackson’s Distractions

by Arnold Snyder

(From Blackjack Forum Volume X #4, December 1990)
© Blackjack Forum 1990

A fixture at the blackjack tables of Las Vegas for almost a decade, Fast Action Jackson has never had much of a bankroll. Standing 5-foot-3 in his Western boots, what’s left of his hair slicked back over his tanned pate, like so many card counters I’ve met, overeducated and undercapitalized, he holds a masters degree in philosophy from some obscure east coast college. I don’t know if he’s ever been married. Every time I visit Vegas, he’s living with a different woman, always at her place. He’s not an easy guy to track down. “I’m living proof, Bish,” he says, “that you can play your system perfectly, study your ass off, know more about fluctuations and standard deviation than most statisticians, have the persistence of Sisyphus, and still never make it into the big leagues. If you can’t take the flux, you can’t make the bucks. It’s that simple.” I had asked him to write an article for Blackjack Forum on how a player with a small to moderate bankroll goes about surviving as a professional blackjack player. “You don’t want that article,” he insisted. “It’s too depressing. I once went ten weeks sleeping in my car so I wouldn’t have to use my precious bankroll on such a luxury as rent money. I’ve lost two girlfriends who believed in me enough to invest in me at the wrong time. I don’t know what it is about women, Bish, but they get very irritable if you lose their paycheck a few times. Even when you finally pay ‘em back, it’s all over.”You alienate your friends. You take chances with advances on your credit cards. It’s a rotten life. Right now, I don’t owe anybody anything. The past two months have been great. I’ve dug out of yet another hole, saved my credit rating again. My bankroll is back up to six thou. Unfortunately, in this game, six thou is nothing. I could be flat broke two weeks from now.” “The fact remains, Fast,” said I, “that you’ve been doing this for ten years. It may be a tough grind, but you’re making it. You make your living playing blackjack, and you’re not rich. My readers want to know how you do it.”Most of them aren’t wealthy, but they say they’re willing to work. What most often happens is they learn a system at home, build up their fantasies, then find out they can’t hack it in the casinos. The table conditions are lousy. They get heat when they start to win. And the casino environment is nerve-wracking—the noise, the smoke, the constant interruptions. I always tell them to play during off hours—weekdays, early mornings—in order to minimize the distractions. Am I right?” “Wrong,” says Fast. “Casinos are designed for distraction. That’s their game. As soon as you take away the noise and the crowds and the booze, you’re not playing their game anymore, you’re letting them watch your game. You’ve got to keep in mind that what distracts you distracts them. As long as I’ve been playing in this town, my action is still welcome everywhere. That’s because I follow the crowds. That’s the only way to survive, to have staying power. But, Bish, it’s a rotten life. Believe me.” I asked him if he had any favorite casinos. “My favorite casinos are always the busiest casinos,” he said. “Right now, in Vegas, the new stores are great. The Mirage. The Excalibur. The Rio. These places are attracting crowds. I used to like Caesars because that’s where the big money played. Money is a great distraction. Who’s going to look at my $50 bets when the george sitting next to me is betting table limit? It’s all over for Caesars now, what with the Mirage next door. Even the over/under won’t save them. Caesars is empty. You can’t play there anymore. They’re dying a slow death. “The Rio may be off the strip, out there next to the Gold Coast, and they canned the liberal rules they opened up with. But they’ve still got good games and great crowds on the weekends. Plus they’ve got that hot double exposure.” “Double exposure?” I asked. “At the Rio?” “Not on the tables,” he explained. “I’m talking about the cocktail waitresses. You see, Bish, I’m a connoisseur of distractions. Just check ‘em out sometime. You’ll see what I mean. I order a lot of drinks when I play, and I spend a lot of time looking for the waitresses. It’s all part of the strategy. Drinking a lot of booze is very distracting. Counters don’t drink.” “But doesn’t that affect your accuracy?” I asked. “Not if you do it right,” he said. “There’s a trick to it. Always order a drink that comes with cream. Kahlua and cream. A toasted almond. You just never swizzle it. You can be damn sure the bartender doesn’t have time to stir it. The booze sits in the bottom of the glass. You drink the milk off the top. By the time you finish the milk, the waitress is bringing you a fresh drink. I’ll tell you my health has improved significantly since I started ordering so many drinks. Lots of calcium.” “So, Fast,” says I, “Your advice to my readers who really want to enjoy that wonderfully romantic life of the professional card counter, where you lose your girlfriend only after you lose her paycheck, ever rejoicing that if you jeopardize your Diner’s Club membership, the collection agency probably won’t be able to find you since you’re sleeping in your car, all you have to do is play in the noisiest, most crowded casinos, order lots of drinks, and ogle the waitresses while playing?” “That’s my secret,” he says. “And except for the double exposure, there’s not much fun in it.” “Hmm…,” says I. “Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe the reason you haven’t made the big leagues is because the distractions are killing your game?” He shrugged. “I know what I know,” he said. “And any big time pro would tell you the same thing I’m telling you. Maybe you should stop to consider that I’ve been making my living at this game for ten years, while you’ve been writing about it.” Point well taken. Advantage Jackson. ♠

Blackjack Rules: Every Rule Option is Good

by Arnold Snyder

(First published in Avery Cardoza’s Player Magazine)
© 2005 Arnold Snyder

A player recently emailed me asking if it was better if a casino allowed players to surrender, or if it was better if this was not allowed. He wrote: “Every blackjack player I know thinks this a great rule. But it seems to me that I give up a lot of hands I would have won. Now, I hardly ever surrender unless the cards are running really bad for me in a shoe. Why would casinos allow players to surrender if the house didn’t make money on it?”

Here’s something to remember: Every time a casino gives you an option, no matter what that option is, it can’t hurt your chances of winning unless you misplay the option. Let me give you a radical example. Every blackjack player has the option to hit a total of 20. Not that any of us would hit a 20, but we all have the option. Because we don’t hit our 20s, the option has no effect on us. We know how to play this option. We stand. If a casino suddenly posted signs that said, “Hitting 20s is not allowed,” no player would care.

So, hitting a 20 is an option that would hurt us if we exercised the option, since we’d bust 92% of the time, but in reality it doesn’t hurt anyone because no one exercises the right. If a casino posted a sign that said, “All players are now allowed to double down on 3-card hard 16s,” it wouldn’t matter. All intelligent players would recognize the option as an option that would be foolish to exercise. So an option can’t possibly hurt us unless we exercise it incorrectly. By definition, an option means we have the right to not exercise it.

Surrender, A Blackjack Rule with Great Value

Surrender is an option that, in fact, has real value when exercised correctly, and you don’t have to be a card counter to take advantage of it. Unfortunately for most players, it probably does hurt them more than it helps. In fact, I suspect from the email I got from the reader above that he was correct in his conclusion that he would have done better if he just didn’t surrender at all. His statement that he now only surrenders when the “cards are running really bad” is worrisome.

Surrender decisions have nothing to do with how the cards are running. The decision to play a hand or give it up, along with half the bet on it, should be based purely on math. And the major problem that many players have with this option is that they surrender way too frequently.

Some players will give up on almost any stiff total against any dealer high card. That has a huge cost to the player. Purely based on the math, do you know how often you should surrender any total of 12, 13, or 14?

Never.

It doesn’t matter if the dealer has a ten, an Ace, or any other upcard. And it doesn’t matter how the cards have been running. Purely based on the math, you will lose more money surrendering any of these hands than you’ll save by giving up half your bets.

The only hands you should ever surrender are hard 15 against a ten, or hard 16 against a ten or Ace. That’s it, as far as the math goes.

One player tried to argue with me once that if he had a hard 15, basic strategy was to hit it against any dealer 7 or higher. Since seven of the thirteen possible hit cards he could get (any 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, or K) would bust him, he’d be better off surrendering 15 against any dealer 7 upcard or higher. His argument: “If I’m going to bust more than half the time, then I save money by just giving the dealer half of my bet.”

That sounds logical, but it’s a twist of logic. Let me explain…

If I were to flip a coin with the understanding that if it comes up heads, I win, and if it comes up tails, I lose, this is a dead even bet. Since I know that the odds are that I’m going to lose this bet half the time, would I have the same result if I just surrendered half of my money on every bet?

No way. Without surrendering, I’ll break even on a coin-flip in the long run. If I surrender half my money on every bet, I’m losing at a 50% rate for all the money I bet! Surrender doesn’t become a break-even bet until I know I’m going to lose twice as often as I’m going to win. It takes two half-losses to make up for one win. A total of 15 against a dealer 7, 8, or 9 may be a pretty bad hand, but believe it or not, it doesn’t lose twice as often as it wins.

Good Blackjack Rules Sometimes Entice Players to Make Bad Blackjack Plays

Some years ago, a mathematician did a study of the general public’s play at casino blackjack. He literally watched players in Las Vegas and Reno and kept a record of how they played their hands.

One of his more interesting findings was that players in Reno made fewer errors than players in Las Vegas. Why was this? Because players in Las Vegas had more options.

In Reno, blackjack players were only allowed to double down on 10 or 11, while in Las Vegas they were allowed to double down on any two cards, including doubling after splits. If you are only allowed to double down on 10 or 11, you will very rarely make a double-down error, since it’s almost always correct to double down on 10 or 11. But there are lots of errors you can make if you are allowed to double down on any two cards.

In fact, the options to double down on any two cards, and to double down after splits—just like the option to surrender—are player-favorable options. If you know when to exercise the options, and when not to, these options will make money for you in the long run. But if you do not exercise the options correctly, then you’re making the options work for the house.

Surrender is one of those options that almost always makes money for the house because most players give up too many “bad” hands too often. The fact is, if it ain’t a 15 or 16, and if the dealer doesn’t have a ten or Ace showing, it just ain’t that bad. You’ve just got to be brave and hit that sucker! ♠

My Egyptian Adventure: Casinos, Blackjack and Card Counting

by BJ Traveller (with Mark Dace)
(From Blackjack Forum XXIII #3, Fall 2003)
© Blackjack Forum 2003

I played blackjack in Cairo, Egypt several years ago in 1995. The games were mediocre, casinos small and the city dirty. My Egyptian guide asked when I would return? I replied perhaps in my next life!

However, recently, a professional gambler whom I know that is of Sri Lankan heritage, whom I will call Y, planned to go to Cairo where he had been several months prior. I desired to test my improved blackjack skills (improved relative to what they were on my previous Egypt trip of eight years ago) and decided to go with him. Y arranged our hotel accommodations at a Marriott for $120 a night. This hotel was selected as he won the most from there on his previous card counting trip. I also invited LG, an American card counter friend of mine, to join in on the trip.

After landing and checking in, my girlfriend and I headed straight to the casino in short order only to find Y already playing. Y has counted cards for only five years but with great success, winning approximately three quarters of a million US$, benefitting not only from the good rules he’s found but also from his persistence. He would try very hard to get even when losing and would sometimes play over 30 hours straight.

The Marriott game was not too attractive and LG and I quit rather quickly with a small loss. The rules included 6D, S17, D9, DAS, no surrender, ENHC (dealer takes all on splits and doubles with a blackjack) and 75% penetration. The persistent Y, however, called us half an hour later with news of winning $1,600. LG, my girlfriend and I went to check other casinos, finding early surrender against all dealer up cards everywhere.

Interestingly, there were only two casinos with early surrender in Cairo when Y had played several months prior. It appeared that most casinos, including the London Clubs (at the two Hiltons) and one Austrian Group (at Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel) yielded to the competition and started offering the good game and rules to attract and cultivate customers. Basic strategy players in Egypt have a small advantage over these casinos with their good rules. An additional reason as to why these favorable rules might have been put in place could have been that the casinos had suffered from the Middle Eastern tension and since locals are not allowed to gamble, the casinos needed to attract tourists.

We changed some money to Egyptian pounds to pay for the inexpensive taxis. We had to bargain every time but $1.50 could take us to most places within Cairo. However, being frugal with taxi fares for multiple passengers later proved to be a mistake because in scouting casinos together some casinos would later bar us based on the play of another in our group scouting party.

The Semiramis Intercontinental Casino offered the best rules on their six-deck game that included S17, ES, DAS and re-split Aces up to 4 hands. The maximums were $200 and $500 and were played in US dollars. Some tables had 9 playing spots and one can play them all, if desired. Wanting to stay closer to the better game, we moved to this hotel and got a $108 casino rate, which was more expensive than the locals paid. However, the rooms were of higher quality.

When LG and I arrived at the Semiramis Intercontinental Casino on the second morning of our stay there, we found Y already playing. He had lost $5,000 there on the previous evening and, as per his style, had returned early the next morning where he got some of his losses back.

LG and I won $1,000 each and left for other targets. We found that the Ramses Hilton Casino in Egypt was run by the London Club and offered a bigger table limit of $1,000 maximum as well as good rules. The smaller Nile Hilton was also nearby. We also discovered the largest table limit of $1,500 to be at the Conrad, another Hilton property. Both Hiltons had 9 playing spot tables. I believe that these types of tables were reflective of the “good old days” before the 9/11 incident and the Iraqi invasion when the casinos in Egypt were much more heavily populated with Western visitors.

Three of the four Sheraton hotels in Egypt have casinos. Of those three, one, the El Gezira, does not have early surrender. LG won $2,000 from there with his special counting system which exploits some card combinations. The Casino Sheraton offers early surrender but doubling on 9, 10, 11 only. The Heliopolis Sheraton offers early surrender and double on any two cards.

LG’s counting expertise failed him at Cairo Sheraton where he lost $3,000, although he would win back $5,000 later. Y wanted to settle in and did not want to play only a short session so I left them playing at the Cairo Sheraton and went scouting on my own. They ended up playing about 15 hours there, winning a net of $6,000. After that session, none of us, my girlfriend and I included, were allowed to enter the casino.

My girlfriend and I went to check the Four Seasons hotel but found that they did not have a casino. All of the casinos in Egypt were at the bigger hotels. We then went to the Mena House Oberoi Casino where I played on my previous trip eight years ago. The hotel was near the Great Pyramid. When we told the taxi driver where we wanted to go, he signed us in without discussing the fare. I suspected we would be charged a very high fare later. Most drivers would negotiate the fare with us without even knowing the whereabouts of the destination. This particular taxi took us to the Mena House Oberoi Hotel for one-third of the usual price. In order to find this hotel our driver drove us all over town, stopped and asked three people for directions, and after our one hour adventure, charged us a fare of less than $1. The cheap gas price, about half that of gas in the US, obviously helped.

The Mena casino opened at 3PM and closed at 7AM. Most other casinos in Egypt are open 24 hours a day. It offers good rules with a bad cut. On my last session of the day, I won $2,000 from one table. The casino then asked me to change tables. I didn’t know if this was out of superstition or for some other reason. I went to see an Egyptian Museum while my friends were busy playing. Ancient Egyptians greatly valued their afterlife. The Book of Death says a deceased person’s heart is weighed against a feather. A person with a heart lighter than a feather is received by the Ruler of the Underworld. On the other hand, Ammut—who is described as a monster with a hippopotamus head, leopard claws, and alligator feet—would eat sinners, those with heavy hearts.

Also within somewhat close proximity was the tomb of Tutenkaman, as well as some gaming opportunities in the same vicinity. By seeing the treasures of this intact tomb, one could only imagine the lost treasures of other bigger Pharaohs. Ultimately, most of my friends only saw the casinos on this trip. My girlfriend and I won $400 from the nearby Nile Hilton after our sightseeing tour, which was 80 times the museum entrance fee.

I found another casino listed in a guide book and went there. The Sofitel Casino, which didn’t open until 5 PM, offered low limits with a $200 maximum bet but had good rules. We won $300 at this stop. We then went to the Heliopolis Sheraton. The casino, called the Kings and Queens, might be run by the Starwood Group, Sheraton’s parent company, as its chips carried the Sheraton logo. The casino managers there were very nervous about our play and wore long faces during our session. Like many other Egyptian casinos, they offered good rules. We decided to leave after winning several hundred dollars for sympathetic and humanitarian purposes to prevent several of the managers having heart attacks.

The Conrad Casino was the only one in Cairo that issued VIP cards, and immediately at that. We went straight for its buffet, which apparently offended a young pit boss. He sent a waiter over to ask whether or not we intended to play. I immediately went back to the tables and bought in $2,000 on one of his tables to demonstrate to him our sincerity to play and to put into motion my desire to take their money.

Y started playing while we ate. I finished my soup and went to join him. He told me the running count was minus 2 so I started out playing only one hand. Small cards poured out like waves in the ocean. The running count ran wild to a plus 15. We piled the bets up until they reached $500 on three different hands. The count dropped back to minus 2 but I still lost $200 in the process. I returned to the buffet for another very tasty soup and when I arrived back at the table, I was pleased to be told that I was being greeted by another plus 15 count. I back-bet Y’s two hands. We pushed the bets to the table maximum of $1,000, losing $3,000 in the process and had to obtain money from our friends in order to continue. The results of the hands finally turned, making us $3,000 richer by the end of the session.

My next stop was an Internet cafe. A friend asked me about the games in Cairo. I told him about the good rules but requested that he not share the details with others. Many people have expressed a lack of comfort regarding my writing of good games. Many have questioned my motivations for being so forthcoming. This list, most notably, includes my girlfriend and my good friend and travel partner Mark Dace. For the record, let it be known that I choose to write about the less sensitive parts of my tales. The better and more lucrative games I now keep private, primarily at the insistence of the above two mentioned individuals.

LG had played mostly hit-and-run, mostly in Las Vegas, using a big spread that attracted a great deal of attention at the much smaller Egyptian casinos. Counters can profit with small spreads when playing games with good rules such as those in Cairo and Moscow. His style of play affected us since we would arrive together and were all of Oriental heritage. He would also wong in, opening new boxes, then, after enjoying some large card production, wong out, leaving the less attractive cards for us. I informed him that such conduct was impolite. He acknowledged my words and made some adjustments. LG lost his big win from Cairo Sheraton to Nile Hilton. This play was not only costly from a financial standpoint in the short term but in the long term as well as this casino eventually started cutting 4 decks out of 6 on us. At about the same time, the Ramses Hilton gave us only a half a shoe between shuffles.

We next went to play in a casino near the Cairo Sheraton. The first shoe was very positive but we I lost $2,000 and, in the process, attracted much attention. The casino manager told the dealer to ignore Y’s fake attempt at surrendering with three cards. Although the manager portrayed himself as knowledgeable and he was pointed in his comments, we didn’t take his hint and recovered our loss. He came to the table again and commented loudly that, “You lost on small bets but are winning on big ones.” He asked us semi-jokingly to play smaller. We ignored him again, won $2,000 and left. We later discovered he sent a blacklist about us all over Egypt including to the Sinai Grand, a casino on the Sinai Peninsula.

After I won $9,000 in five days the casinos turned their backs on us beginning on the sixth day, which was an eternity compared to a Hong Kong counter’s fate. He survived Cairo only hours. The Cairo Sheraton stopped us at their entrance after checking a blacklist and refused our entrance. Additionally, the Ramses Hilton half-shoed us, the Semiramis Intercontinental Casino stopped me after I played several shoes, asking me not to play blackjack. Y was simultaneously barred at the Conrad. We certainly had made a mistake by scouting the casinos together.

Having been barred by most big casinos, we went to play the Movenpick Heliopolis Casino which opened at 8PM. The casino had only one $3 to $50 table. It had the same good rules as most other Egyptian casinos. We were given four decks to play out of six initially. Suddenly, the dealer moved the shuffle point up to two decks without the pit boss’s instructions, following a shoe where we had jumped our bets. The pit boss noticed the bad cut, and asked the dealer to cut deeper for us. I tracked a shoe successfully only to lose hand after hand even while the large cards were produced. We won the last hand betting nine boxes of $50 which gave us a small win of $125, much to the disappointment of the casino staff as we were the only customers all night.

We discovered three casinos in Sharm El Sheik, a beach town on the Sinai peninsula, and decided to give them a try. It was easy arranging a ticket and we made a decision to go there in the morning and flew there that evening. The 500 kilometer flight cost us $181 round trip. The town is on the shore of the Red Sea. We choose to stay at the Movenpick as it had a casino. A twin room cost us $110 although locals paid only $67. The casinos opened at 9 pm.

The Movenpick’s Royale Casino was affiliated with an Austrian Gaming Group. We were a little nervous about entering the casino given our experience from the Austrian-backed Semiramis Intercontinental Casino in Cairo. Nobody seemed to care about us. While we were entering, LG was on his way out. The game was poor with bad rules that included no surrender and only 66% penetration. I, however, found the game playable. I played one shoe then went to check other places.

We were stopped at entrance of the Sinai Grand Casino. Y went and chatted with the pit bosses, discovering that the casino received a flyer from Pyramisa on us. Accordingly, no play was available to us there. The last casino in the city was Sharm, an independent casino that was not tipped off as to our expertise. It sported bad rules and low limits with a $100 maximum wager versus the Royale’s $200 maximum. I left with small win from this trackable game for the higher limit at the Royale.

We were lucky at Royale, winning three rounds during which we wagered an aggregate of $500 (5 boxes of $100 each, having jumped from $20 on each hand). We quit after the win. It was 2:30 AM but the streets were lively with many tourists sipping water pipes at roadside cafes. I could even check the Internet at this hour.

The Vacation Village had a good buffet breakfast, which pleasantly interrupted our intended sleep time. The village was big. It provided carts that took guests to restaurants and the beach, a semi-necessity considering the 37 degree centigrade (99° F) heat. In view of the poor games, I tried to arrange for a flight to the Luxor through the nearby mall. A merchant invited me to his new shops that had opened that Friday, the Muslim weekend. The merchant lied shamelessly claiming that he painted the papyrus himself. I inquired about a glass perfume bottle. He asked for $25, claiming it to be crystal. I had bought the same one in Cairo for $2.

We went for a glass bottom boat ride. There are coral reefs very close to the shore. Swimmers could enjoy watching colorful fish easily. Amongst the travelers on the boat was a large Egyptian family who danced joyfully during the boat ride. Y and LG regretted wasting time here and leaving the big city in light of Cairo’s good games.

We went together to check the last local casino, Casino Aladdin at Domina Coral Bay Resort. We were pleased to find the casino offering ES10 and re-splitting of aces. Penetration was also acceptable at 75%. The table was in Euros, $5 to $200. We bought Euros from the MISR Banks counter in the casino at very bad rate (6% below the market rate). The bank clerk said we could buy our dollars back at a 2% fee. LG didn’t want to play but jumped in opening new boxes when the count shot up. We won close to $1,000 Euros in one shoe. The casino sent in an eagle-eyed manager. We used fake names entering the casino and weren’t looking for longevity so played aggressively. My partner and I moved to another table, thereby avoiding jumping bets in unison with Y and LG. I lost back most of my win rather quickly. Y won 900 Euros and quit. LG won 1,300. We borrowed their Euros before they left. The casino was not happy with their winning and instructed the dealer to half-shoe us. We still won 1,100 Euros with shuffle tracking.

On returning to exchange the Euros back, the bank clerk asked for a higher than the originally quoted 2% fee. I guessed that he might make more than his bank’s president with his powerful laundering position, since he gave no receipts for our transactions. On exiting this “chamber of cons,” we declined the taxi standing by at the casino exit that was asking three times that of the meter. At least the Egyptian people were consistent with their attempts to rip us off in all facets of their business dealings. On a more positive note, the resort was very romantic under moonlight.

We went to the Aladdin early on our last evening in the country. The eagle-eyed manager was waiting for us, and informed us that we were on Austria Casino Group’s blacklist and were no longer welcome. Aladdin had gotten the list from the Royale, obviously, as we were not allowed to enter that location. We went to the last playable joint, Sharm, and, with aggressive betting won $100. Then the casino half-shoed me. We left.

We headed back to Cairo for the last 10 hours before leaving the country. My partner had hidden some chips from the Hiltons, so we went chip cashing. We were barred there but able to cash the chips. I exchanged some money at the National Bank of Egypt. The clerk used 5.69 as the exchange rate instead of the posted 5.96 for me. On purpose? When I pointed this out to him, he said “Oops.”

That aside, I won $9,870, Y won $12,000, and LG $7,000 from casinos in Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt in 10 days. I am sure I will not play blackjack at casinos in Egypt again unless my heart is lighter than a feather! ♠

Exploiting Dealer Error

by ETFan
[From Blackjack Forum Vol. XXVI #2, Summer 2007]
© 2007 ETFan

Counting cards at blackjack is a fun, simple way to get an advantage over the house. But counting cards for a living is a tough row to hoe and for one simple reason—the casinos are fully aware of this technique and allow it to continue for their own selfish reasons.

They enjoy the word-of-mouth advertising that goes along with the “counter culture” but they don’t want serious winners taking up space at their tables. With the heat that inevitably results, if all you do is count, you’ll just b-a-a-a-r-e-l-y eke out a profit after expenses. You need more. You deserve more. You can get more by exploiting dealer error (DE).

However, some people in the “counter culture” object to accepting any of the fruits of dealer error. They take the position that this is akin to accepting change for a twenty at the supermarket when you handed the cashier a ten.

I feel this is a misguided analogy for several reasons, though I can respect that point of view. But these people must recognize they are relegating their play to amateur standing. Every advantage play in blackjack beyond simple card counting, from holecarding to steering to shuffle tracking, involves exploiting dealer or house error in one form or another.

Professional advantage players have few qualms about exploiting dealer error; it’s the part-timers that seem to object. Professionals seem to agree with Stanford Wong who wrote in Basic Blackjack: “When a dealer makes an error in the casino’s favor, speak up and get it corrected… When the dealer makes an error in your favor, overlook the error and forgive the dealer.”

In fact, most pros have a trick or two up their sleeves to unsteady the hand of the dealers they face on a daily basis. This can be quite lucrative for an alert player, and will be the subject of this article.

To Find Dealer Error, Pick Your Casino

The casino gets to choose their opponents. If they don’t think they can beat you, they’ll show you the door. When possible, you should exercise the same discretion. Here are some desireable traits in a casino:

• Any casino less than a year old still has a few dealers in diapers.
• Any casino that has recently undergone expansion in size, hours of operation, or number of table games will have more than its share of error-prone newbies.
• Any casino that supports many different table games, and rotates dealers amongst the games—well, you have to feel sorry for those crazy, mixed-up nerf herders.
• Any casino on the weekend or a holiday will have some part-time dealers working the extra tables.
• In particular, a casino that stays open all night, just on the weekends, will have some tired unhappy dealers working those shifts. (How well do you function at 3:00 in the morning?)

Desireable Traits in a Dealer if You Want to Exploit Dealer Error

Once you’ve chosen your casino, and enter the belly of the beast, you still have several choices to make. You get to pick out your table, your seat, and your dealer. Perhaps 90% of dealer error earnings comes from choosing the right dealer. Try to choose a dealer with one or more of the following characteristics:

• Dealers who seem unhappy in their work.
• Unkempt or harried looking dealers.
• Dealers who seem to be “steaming” after a confrontation with a supervisor.
• Very young or very elderly dealers.
• Dealers with hands that literally shake.
• Very fast dealers.
• Dealers who seem to be on autopilot. No “pace in the face.”
• Dealers who seem pleased with big player wins (subconscious bias).
• Dealers who are “yucking it up,” and having a lot of fun with the players.
• Very attractive female dealers. (They may be extremely competent, but there’s also a chance they landed their positions for reasons other than skill on the job.)
• Dealers who like you, personally.
• Just plain crazy dealers.
• Dealers with less than six months of blackjack dealing experience.
• And (most important) dealers you’ve observed making errors in the past.

A word about fast dealers: Inexperienced counters may find rapid-fire dealing unsettling, but as you gain experience, you will find this a lucrative source of revenue. These people deal fast to escape from boredom, and often they are bored because the possibility that they could be making blunders right and left has never occurred to them. Here is my favorite story about a fast dealer:

Somehow, I found myself in this real dump of a casino. They have opaque covers over the shoes and the discard trays just to thwart card counters. They truly deserved this high and mighty dealer who pumped out about 700 hands a minute and honest-to-god believed she never made a mistake in her life.

The guy sitting next to me hits hard 13 and gets a 9. He waits for dealer to sweep up the cards, but instead he hears, “Sir, you have to make a hand signal.” The guy just replies “Look at the cards!” Dealer says “Yes, I know sir, but you have to give a signal.” … “What signal? Just add up the cards!” … “Sir, if you don’t give me a hand signal, I’ll have to call over the pit boss.” … At this point, I’m getting ticked off, because this is holding up the game. In unison, he and I together practically screamed “LOOK AT THE CARDS!!”

You guessed it—she didn’t look. She was sure it was 21. Instead, she called over her boss. I swear on a stack of bibles, neither pit boss nor dealer ever once looked down to add up the man’s hand. Boss looks this guy straight in the eye and intones: “Sir, the dealer can not move on until you give a clear hand signal.” He shook his head while making frustrated waves in the air, which they took to mean stand.

The dealer eventually broke and payed off the 22. Man said: “I don’t want this. I don’t deserve it.” They practically crammed that $20 down the poor man’s throat.

But whatever dealer you choose, if you sit there for thirty minutes and don’t observe a single error in any player’s favor, you’re at the wrong table. Professorial types may be surprised to learn this factor is even more important than penetration.

If you’re in an unfamiliar casino, you may be wondering just how to tell whether a dealer has been working there for three months or three years. There’s a less obvious way to ask besides just coming out with “How long have you worked here?” (although there’s no law against asking it like that). However, it involves telling a little white lie. I’ll leave it to you to figure out, and to decide whether white lies fall within your moral calculus.

While you’re picking out a dealer, you also get to:

Choose Your Table

• Choose a table in the region of noisy slot machines and distracting sirens, or where the dealer must stare right across at blinking neon lights. Anything to distract her! You may be distracted as well, but remember—her job is much more difficult than yours.
• Choose a table where the players themselves are distracting.
  1. Attractive, scantily clad female players, with a male dealer.
  2. Drunk players who are giving the dealer a hard time.
  3. Players just generally raising a ruckus. Balloons, crazy hats, noise makers, the more the merrier.
  4. One player who chatters constantly about everything under the sun except blackjack. You know the type—borderline schizophrenic. It’s best if this sad case talks in a loud voice and insists on engaging the dealer in dialogue. No normal dealer can maintain his equilibrium in this situation. If the guy starts talking to you, offer him five dollars to talk to the dealer. Explain that the dealer is having personal problems and “really needs to talk.” In fact, it might pay you to find such a person and pay him minimum wage to travel from casino to casino with you. (Untested by the author.

Choose Your Seat

The ideal seat is to the right of an attractive player, and to the left of an obnoxious player, or that flashing neon sign I mentioned before. You want the dealer to rush past you to attend to the hottie sitting next to you.

All else being equal, it’s generally best to sit at first base or third. It’s an uncomfortable viewing angle for the dealer, and he may be distracted by action at an adjoining table. Also, several DE ploys depend on sitting at first or third.

At The Table

Once seated, the general idea is to tally all your totals, plus every dealer total, and watch every payoff like a hawk to make sure no errors work against you. If you are very quick at this, you may save the dealer the embarrassment of calling over her boss to fix the goof. (A grateful dealer may be subconsciously motivated to make future errors in your favor. She may even relax a bit, if she has the impression you’re watching out for her.)

But just staying on your toes is only the tip of the iceberg. In Cheating at Blackjack, Dustin D. Marks (you gotta love that handle) describes a few “OEMs,” which stands for “Oh, excuse me.” He claims there are hundreds of them.

Now, being a crook, Marks has a guilty conscience and instictively gravitates to the illegal types of OEMs. He describes them as “a con game” where you “play the part of a beginner.” But for most OEM, there is a perfectly legal, moral variation (advantage ploy?), assuming you agree with the court rulings that say it’s legal to take advantage of dealer error.

I don’t have a guilty conscience. I never say “Oh, excuse me.” I say “Oh, I noticed the dealer made a mistake, but I didn’t want to embarrass him.” For example, Marks describes a con where he places a large bet half-in/half-out of the first base betting circle. Then, if the dealer mistakes this for a bet and the first card isn’t to his liking, he claims he “asked for change.”

There’s no need for that. What you do (while sitting at first base) is wait until the dealer seems distracted, then place the large bet clearly outside the circle, but also outside her viewing angle. Then when you get a bad card, you’re clearly entitled to bow out of the hand completely (though it would be a courtesy to place a minimum bet, so the next player isn’t stuck with your bad card). And if you get an ace or ten, there’s a chance your dealer will call over her boss. But whether she does or she doesn’t, there’s an excellent chance you’ll be able to bet whatever you like—even more than the change amount—on that hand.

There’s no need to lie; no need for a guilty conscience. Merely placing the bet outside the circle constitutes a request for change in every casino I’ve played. It certainly doesn’t constitute a bet. If asked, you honestly, legitimately reply that you never intended to bet that amount.

I’m not sure there are “hundreds” of ways to encourage dealer error, but I have have dozens on file in my computer. I will only list those executed successfully by myself or other advantage players I know.

Dealer Error and Getting the Dealer on YOUR Side

• Give the dealer an extravagent compliment after you play for a few minutes. Make her blush!
• When it fits into the conversation, stress that everyone makes mistakes, and how we all hate people who claim to be perfect. (Give the dealer a subconscious excuse to screw up—but don’t buy your own spiel.) This comment isn’t about this dealer in particular, of course.
• Ask the dealer how he can work when it’s so hot/cold/dry/humid/nice outside—whatever! Anything to give the dealer an excuse for lapses.
• Assure the pit boss that this dealer is quite efficient. (Reduce perceived or real pressure on the poor girl to perfect her skills.)
• React with anger toward the pit boss if you witness a dealer reprimand. “Who does he think he is, yelling at you like that? How do you get to be a pit boss, anyway??”
• If there is no job-related acrimony, it might pay to create a little. Mention you heard about the personnel cutbacks. “How can they cut five dealers, like so-and-so said, and still keep all their tables open??”
• Ask about work rules for dealers. “You mean you’re not allowed to have a drink at the table?” (Subtle message: dealers are good; the house deserves little consideration.)
• On the other hand, if the dealer seems like a total house lackey, mention what a great place this is, what a nice guy the pit boss is, etc. Obscure the line between the cowboys and the Indians.
• It helps if others at the table mention that you deserve a break, with all the bad luck you’ve been having. To say it yourself out loud draws too much attention.
• It’s ok to say “now be good to me!” once per dealer.
• There are recent experiments from Princeton, Edinburgh and elsewhere that suggest there may be an unexplained form of communication between humans. Here is a fairly thorough popular exposition: http://www.dichotomistic.com/mind_readings_psi%20ganzfeld.html

It may simply be poor test design, but in any event it can’t hurt to project the thought, the image if you will, that you deserve the benefit of dealer error.

Blend In

Although you’re a nice guy(irl), you’re not so obviously great that the dealer wants to spend all his(er) time on you. You don’t need the attention.

• Don’t be loud or abrasive. Elicit sympathy when you lose, but don’t swear. Give off good, friendly vibes when you win.
• Don’t let the dealer add for you. Release the dealer from this “obligation” by intoning “I know” if she announces your total.
• Avoid heat like the plague. Even before getting “the word” from the boss, your dealer will sense heat and tighten up.
• You don’t need to telegraph the fact you’re a big winner with huge mounds of chips. Color up often. Keep blacks and above in your pocket. Everyone knows they can be snatched right off the table.
• Sit at a high rolling table with slightly higher limits than you’re accustomed to.
  1. You can afford to bet a little more when the dealer is a dufus.
  2. Your bets will seem small to the dealer, not worth special attention.
• If a player points out an error by the dealer to your spot, it’s probably time to move on to another table.
• On the other hand, if a dealer catches her own error to any spot, stick around! You know she’s prone, but she’ll be giving herself big strokes for catching the goof.

Increase Your Chances of Valuable Dealer Error

• Play toward the beginnings and ends of shifts (but not through a shift change), when dealers are likely to be fresh, or tired.
• In head-to-head play, try to quicken the pace to increase DE (but maintain your own accuracy).
• Sit at a table where the cards are “sticking”. This can disrupt a dealer’s natural rhythm and enhance DE.
• Playing on humid days enhances the sticking possibility. (It’s especially nice if the air conditioning is on the fritz.)
• Every dealer has a certain amount of time/energy she habitually devotes to mental arithmetic. Get the dealer busy calculating anything other than your total. Eg. ask how much profit the average blackjack table pulls in for the house per month. Or how much she made in tips last week.
• At the end of a hand with many hits, as dealer is making payoffs and before hands have been collected, point at another player and say “Wait, she has X, doesn’t she?” (where X would win), forcing the dealer to add up that total a second time. Time/energy again. In my experience, the time/energy factor outweighs the extra attention you receive—as long as the dealer continues to like you. Don’t do this when the total is really wrong. That can slow down the dealer and make her more cautious.
• Cap your bets with two reds or a red and a green, so you need to color-up often. The red on top makes your spot look less important, at first glance. And more color-ups means more chances for DE on color-ups. The impact on time/energy is inexorable. Most dealers are under pressure to deal a certain number of hands per hour.
• Every time the dealer’s total comes within one point—plus or minus—of your 4 or more card hand, quietly express satisfaction (smile and exhale). The idea is to get the dealer to have faith in your reaction, on the minus hands, so she pays off pushes, or pushes one-point losers, on the plus hands.
• At a loose, happy table, try adding the dealer’s total for her. Announce her first hit correctly, but one point low thereafter. This technique can draw the wrong kind of attention, so discontinue immediately when it fails (and it usually will fail).
• On a round where there’s a fair chance for DE in your favor, look like a winner—subtly smug, and pleased with yourself. Whatever you do, don’t look chagrined when you lose by one point.
• One $1 tip, along with the question “is there any way I can give this to you, personally?” will have more positive effect than two $2 tips. It’s usually not advisable to place bets for the dealer. It draws extra attention to your hand.
• After one or two hits, ask for a card that would make 22. If you actually get that card, the dealer may think you have 21.
• With three or more cards that add up to 12 vs. a 2 or 3 upcard, jokingly ask for a ten without giving a hand signal. If the dealer gives you a ten, truthfully explain it was a joke. After all, the dealer is supposed to wait for a hand signal. For any card other than a ten, ignore the dealer’s error, unless you happen to be sitting at third base, and the card would make the dealer bust.
• When dealer is making payoffs, and you think she might push your one point loser, stare intently at the hand to your left. Deepen the impression your own hand holds little interest.
• If you think dealer may push your one point loser, act like the winner you normally are. For example, stretch out your hand as if you’re getting ready to pull back those chips!
• When you do get payed on a push, or push a loser, always withdraw your money immediately after the dealer passes you—especially if some do-gooder is pointing out dealer error that hurts the house. Save the dealer some embarrassment; remove the evidence.
• Many people realize that odd sized bets can increase the chance of certain payoff errors, but it’s also true this can decrease your odds of getting paid on pushes. Adjust your approach to the dealer before you.
• Strategy indices should be adjusted with an error-prone dealer. Doubling and splitting numbers can be lowered two points or even more versus a 2 through 5 (more likely to force multi-card arithmetic) and especially versus an ace. Double that hard eleven!
• When the dealer makes an error in favor of the house, do NOT touch your chips. Speak up immediately. If you wait two seconds too long, you may wind up waiting a half hour for them to rewind the tape.
• Any subtle odor the dealer doesn’t care for may cause her to move her nose (which happens to be a fixed distance from her eyes) quickly past your position, increasing the error rate. There are several possibilities … a touch of garlic … a hint of musk. I don’t suggest you take up smoking for DE sake. This is a game—not life and death.
• If you get the cut card deep in a juicy shoe, cover it up with your hand or some chips. (Hey, you have to put your chips in neat stacks, don’t you?) Dealers seem to use the cut card as a visual cue to remember to shuffle, but that’s not your fault! I’ve seen dealers go all the way to the end of the shoe.
• DE deja vu: If the dealer makes a mistake on a particular color-up, wait until you have that exact combination of chips, and color it up again! If the dealer pays too much on a natural with a $40 bet, bet $40 all the time, or if you have a strong count, try $140! If the dealer paid off once on your 3-4-5-T, you should be hitting your three and four card twelves vs. 4, 5 or maybe even a 6. You get the idea.
• Some people consider this to be cheating. I don’t do it, but it’s between you and your conscience: In a pitch game, don’t throw in your four or more cards totaling 22. Especially if the dealer busts, there’s a fair chance he’ll just scoop up your hand netting you a 200% profit.
• This one is even closer to the edge. I call it “Surrender for less.” If you decide to use it, use it only on your last day in a given casino for several months. With an even sized bet out, if you would normally surrender, remove half the bet while the dealer is occupied with players to your right. When it’s your turn say “surrender” and if the dealer only takes half the remaining chips, according to one guy I know, proper etiquette is never to point out an error unless it hurts you personally. (Any lawyers in the house?)

Types of Dealer Error: Misdeals

Any time the dealer deals an extra hand, or misses a hand, or any of a number of other things, the pit boss will be called over, and generally you will have the option to play your hand, or call it dead. Over half the time, your hand will be a net loser, so you should drop out.

This is like surrender without having to surrender anything. Many people are surprised to learn any hard 17 is a loser, even against a 5 or 6 (so toss it in!). Any 18 should be abandoned vs. a 9, T or A, and soft hands below 18 should generally be dropped unless basic says to double down. And other than T-T and 5-5, pairs that aren’t supposed to be split should be abandoned. Also abandon 8-8 vs. 8, 9 T and A. The precise strategy for handling the dead hand decision is given in Basic Blackjack.

Exposed Cards

Any cards exposed during the shuffle, the cut, or the play of the hands other than player hands and the upcard is a dealer error. There are strategies for playing exposed cards in several places, such as Basic Blackjack by Wong, Beat the Dealer by Thorp, and Beyond Counting by Grosjean. It’s possible to get an edge over 10% with optimal hole card play.

One card that’s often neglected is the bottom card after the shuffle and just before the cut. For example, if you know the bottom card is a ten, in a 1d game, and you can cut exactly in the middle, you know the 26th card dealt will be a ten — and that can be very precious knowledge. Even if you can only cut to within one or two cards of center, you could profit handsomely.

Occasionally, the dealer will expose the hole card in plain view for all to see. In this case, don’t be shy about hitting your hard 19 vs. the dealer’s 20! If the dealer’s two-card total is eleven or less, you should follow basic strategy for the corresponding upcard. Eg. if the dealer has 2-3, then you should play as if he has a 5 up. And if the dealer is stiff (total hard 12 – 16) you have only yourself to blame if you bust.

Much has been written about hole card play. James Grosjean has determined that perfect hole card play can net you +13% against the house, but that assumes you have perfect knowledge of the hole card 100% of the time, and you never make cover plays. If you forego the obvious giveaways, like hitting hard 17 or higher, you should net around 10% with perfect play.

If you know the top card of the deck or shoe you also have extremely valuable information. For example, if you’re sitting at third base, and you know the next card is a ten, there are many counter-intuitive situations where you should stand, rather than hit.

Broken Equipment

Any faulty equipment can put the dealer off kilter and increase errors. My favorite is a broken card reader—often advertized by tape over the hole. You may have thought the information in Read The Dealer by Forte was obsolete, but the first thing I look for as I case a casino is that tape.

You have a dealer with zero experience in hiding her reactions, manually peeking at hole cards. They won’t know the procedures, so you can be quite brazen. If you have a questionable play after a peek, look them straight in the eye and say “what do YOU think?” They won’t tell you, but if they like you and their hand is poor, they will look pleased. More likely they will hate you, since you’re a counter, so if they think you’re in a spot, they won’t be able to supress a slight grin.

Competent Dealer Incompetence

There are many players with a good knowledge of basic strategy who aren’t professional card counters. The dealer begins fitting you into one of her pigeon holes the minute you sit down to play. But you are going to be a square peg. Once the dealer has you down as a nice guy … knows his way around the table … unlikely to cause any problems … she will relax.

Here are some plays you should try only after the dealer has you categorized. They involve a higher level of deception than previous ploys, and may have more serious legal and moral implications. We list them for purely educational purposes without recommending them. They can work only once per dealer.

• The ambiguous hit: While playing two hands, or with split hands, when you are done hitting the first one—or even if it’s stiff with a high upcard—don’t wave it off. Instead, wait half a second after the dealer gets distracted then make your next hit signal exactly in the middle between the two spots. If it looks good for hand #1, claim it was intended for hand #1. If it’s good for hand #2 … get the picture?
• The hit/stand: To perfect this move you need to imagine what it looks like to the eye in the sky. It should clearly look like a hit to the camera, but like a probable stand to the dealer. You’re on third base. The dealer knows you. She knows you’re going to stand on that hand, and barely looks at you. She’s still talking to somebody on first base about that thing that happened day before yesterday. She hits her hand and it’s the seven that would have turned your 14 into 21. “Hey wait! I signaled for a hit!!”
• The double/hit: This is a dealer on speed. He hits your hand the instant you give a signal. You have a few chips in the palm of your hand equal to the bet in the circle. You signal for a hit and simultaneously let go of the palmed chips, which fall in the vicinity of the circle. The instant you see the hit, if it’s no good you say “Oops!” If it’s a nice one, shout “Double!”
• The quadruple down: All chips in the betting circle are the same color. You plan to double down. While the dealer is preoccupied with players on your right, add your doubling amount to the top of your bet. When it’s your turn, incompetent little you asks “how much more do I need to bet to double down?”. If the dealer says anything other than “zero,” you follow his instructions. He is, after all, the boss. [There are specific laws against “capping your bet” in many jurisdictions, so this play is included only for completeness. Not recommended.]

Summary

In general, every picayune procedure, every little nit you observe in the most paranoid of casinos, has a reason borne out of experience with the small con artist. If you think about those reasons, you will know what to do when you encounter a dealer who takes short cuts.

There’s not much in the literature on DE because mathematically it’s, well frankly it’s uninteresting. It’s also uninteresting if someone just hands you $25 an hour because you look pretty, but that’s no reason to turn it down. Nor is it a reason to stop shaving.

Over time, maximizing dealer error can have quite a salutary effect on your bankroll. In general, the win rate is increased with little negative consequence in the variance column. In fact, if you know for sure the dealer is a klutz, you may be justified in increasing your bets by 20 – 50% across the board.

Christmas comes early when the dealer is on your side. Always remember: “If the boss didn’t see it—it didn’t happen.” ♠