Casino Surveillance Pro

I had a reader ask, so here is the house rules at the single deck Blackjack game that we offer at the casino that I deal at. I've also included a basic strategy chart for those rules.You should know that our table limits are very low, usually $5 to $50 per hand. And unless there's only one player at the table we shuffle after just two rounds. A single player will be able to get in 3 rounds before a shuffle.  This low deck penetration pretty much negates any advantage play techniques that a player might use, such as card counting or tracking Aces.  But, if you know your basic strategy, and especially know how to use surrender properly, it's not a bad game. A 1.5% house advantage is actually pretty good these days. Especially in a table with only a $5 minimum bet. No I'm not going to tell you exactly where I work, but without too much trouble you should be able to figure it out. I will tell you that it's in Northern Nevada, as opposed to the Vegas area. Anyway  here ...

So last month I posted about some questions that I get from people when they find out what my job is. This is the follow-up to that post and it’s mostly going to be about what cheating from the inside, or cheating by the dealer, would look like if it was going on. The easiest way for a dealer to cheat, on the player’s behalf, would be simply to dump the game. Dumping the game is when you pay the player for a losing hand or overpay the player on a winning hand. If you’re in surveillance and you happen to see this happen oh, the best thing you can do is keep quiet at least for a moment or two and see if it continues. It’s possible that the dealer just made a mistake and paid a losing Hand by mistake. If you continue to watch you’ll see if he’s doing it on a regular basis and if so if he’s doing it to a specific player. This would indicate collusion, or a conspiracy between the player and one or more players to do so. It’s always best to have plenty of information and evidence before movi...

These numbers are for a single deck game, with standard house rules (dealer must hit soft 17).

To paraphrase Glenn Frey, it's the lure of easy money, it's got a very strong appeal. When people find out what I do for a living I get a lot of questions. When I was in surveillance, I would get a lot of questions along the lines of do people cheat and or how do people cheat. Now that I'm dealing again I've been getting a lot of questions along the lines of do card dealers cheat. Short answer: no. Long answer: rarely, but occasionally it happens.  But only if the dealer has a certain set of skills and the proper motivation. What is the proper motivation? Money. So let's talk about cheating. In broad terms, Casino cheating can be broken down into two categories, stealing from the inside and stealing from the outside.  Stealing from the outside is when a customer does it. It can take the form of slot machines or cheating at table games for the most part. Slot machine cheating is just about a thing of the past and has been ever since they started doing bill in/ tick...

OK, so i havent been blogging as much for the last month or so. Here’s why.  I am back to dealing blackjack and it is taking up a lot of my time. I got a new job at a small, northern Nevada casino (you could track me down without too much trouble, but i am not going to just come out an tell you which one) as a dual rate Manager on Duty and Dealer. Having not dealt cards for over three decades, I have had to do some on the job training to get back in shape.  It’s not quite like riding a bike, in that you never forget how to do it, but it is close. Having spent many of those years in surveillance I still have the mental chops to do it, but the muscle memory is long gone. Throw in some arthritis in my knees (plus chronic leukemia) and standing at a table for 40-60 minutes at a time has been a challenge also.  But enough about my troubles, what I really want to talk about is the “typical” blackjack player that I have been running in to. If I were going to describe them in jus...

I found an awesome house edge calculating webpage online. Click  here  to go to it. If you have a smartphone you should consider placing a link to it on your desktop for quick reference. I’m going to use it to calculate the house advantage at the casino that I deal cards at. Here is the breakdown of our single deck ($5 to $50) Royal Match game rules: Dealer peeks. DD on any first 2 cards. Split Ace’s get one card only. Double after split allowed. Split up to 4 hands. Early surrender. BJ pays 6 to 5 (sorry). 6 card Charlie (6 cards w/o busting wins automatically). Add it all up and you come to a house advantage of 1.121%. the only really disadvantageous role is the 6 to 5 payout on a blackjack. Is it was a standard 3 to 2 payout the house advantage will be down to 0.239%, which on a single-deck game is about as close to even as you can get. At any rate, please use this blackjack House advantage calculator to your advantage, no pun intended. It’s important to know just how much ...

OK, here is how I would go about masking the fact that I am counting cards like a madman.

Read my booklet on how to be a better blackjack player. Available on eBay by clicking here .