How I Got Away with It (1 of 2)

[EyeHeartHalves]

20:1 ?! How on earth do you get away with that? Sheesh, I've been worried about my 10:1 and not getting to continue playing...

First and foremost, Atlantic City security guards aren't even allowed to touch their index finger to your shoulder blade for counting cards. This leads to many differences between the New Jersey and Nevada species. They (Nevada CC's) have to act better because they have higher forms of heat. We have to use more intense tactics in a mathematical sense because our table conditions suck. (Thank you Ken Uston and Tommy Hyland.)

I wong-out at Halves TC of -1. This is approximately -1.15 for the Hi-Lo player and is also approximately QUITE OFTEN. I'm only making a 20-unit bet (I call small bets "units".) about once per hour but "ten hands per thousand" would be a better way to describe it. If there is a shoe containing one or more max-bets, I usually leave upon completion of that shoe--win, lose or draw. In this manner they are essentially seeing a very steep ramp up in my bets. That sounds bad but it's a lot better then seeing a guy bet 20 units and then 1 unit on the first hand of the next shoe. That's like a "cliff", not a steep "mountain." It is possible to con your way down a cliff but I don’t do it very well.

What else? I play 2 units at +1. Hi-Lo is 50/50 at that point and I have about a 0.15% advantage but that's splitting hairs. Really this is just another version of only betting one box. I'm using camou. which doesn't cost EV but does cost a lot of SD.

What should you look like at the tables? You should be talking as much as possible. Even if in your personal case, that's very little. Little talking is better than no talking. The most valuable person for dialogue is the dealer. SHE'S THE MARK!!! The pit critters are the enemy and the ploppies are the casualties of war. What did a civilian ever do to you? Are they spreading their bets wildly or betting black chips? Yes? Good, leave them alone! They're on your side. They are helping your fight. Are they flat-betting the min. or nearly so(?)--they deserve to die! Talk to them so much they can't even concentrate on incorrect BS. Don't just hit your 12 vs. 2,3 (4 in all neg. counts), double-down with a dollar or two! Get that two-bit bettor out of there and then be a nice soldier

Onto the mark: Talk to the dealer to see if "she'll be nice to you." How many times have you heard a ploppy say something to that effect? You see, you may think that the 10 units (By the way, you can do better than that soldier.) is the problem. Negative, it's the 2, 4, 6 and 8 that are at issue. That's where we're trying to make more money than a "back-counter." $100 can be a more difficult threshold than $500. Wait until just before she's about to deal before placing the bet. Put out four green instead of a black. This is the perfect time to bet a buck or two for her. Smile. Try to look happy and stupid. An even better trick for multiple black action... Put 3-5 greens on top of the black in such a way that she can't even see that the black chip is under there. In fact, I'll even spread up to more than 20 units by chipping it up a notch after a win, say 21 units. Or, what's wrong with 18 units? So what if you never bet these amounts before in practice. Don’t bet EXACTLY like your simulation software did!

I once hid a $500 chip beneath three green chips at a 500-max. table and got a blackjack. As the dealer (male in this case) was trying to figure out how to pay me, the pit boss finally showed up to see what was wrong. He scolded the dealer for not saying anything sooner. He tried to save face by saying he didn't know it was a 500-max. table. THE PB OFFERED TO ONLY PAY ME $750. After the shift boss eventually had to show his face at the table, the dealer AND THE PB took all the heat for the event. He (SB) actually told the dealer he just lost his day-off next Sunday--right in front of me and gave the PB a really nasty look for almost raising an issue with the CCC over $112.50. The PB looked like a fool because he never saw a single one of my intermittent black chip bets. Hence, he seemed incompetent. I kept apologizing and acting like I felt bad. I shuffle tracked those winning high cards. I flat bet a couple black chips for the first few decks of the next shoe while all surveillance eyes were on me. I won another Grand. I tipped that pit 25-$50 and left--not to come back to that casino for a while

 

[EyeHeartHalves]

How I Got Away with It (2 of 2)

Dealers are the enemy's "Privates." They are the casino's first line of defense. You want to fool them to the point where it's too late. Nice guy but a loser spreading up to $200. Oh, ****. He keeps winning and he's going to 400. Now what do I tell my Sergeant if she sees? She won't say anything. You con'd her. Stick a fork in her. You are now ready to bet as many units as your advantage and your bankroll will justify. (If you lose your intermittent bets, she won't even think she was con'd--she'll simply think "she was right." Male dealers are in fact, so stubborn, they may think their prejudice was correct even after the con is over and you were winning!) Now when the PB does finally show up to watch your huge max-bets, it's also too late. Great it's not my fault my idiot dealer didn't even tell me he was spreading his bets this high from the table minimum. Well, he's winning so let me make a call upstairs. This assumes he or she doesn't have any "men's club" buddies to worry about in the work place. If he (the PB) does, he too may say nothing about the incident to save face. If you were losing your max-bets, he or she may call surveillance to check you out but you're only going to play another hand or two anyway. "You can't take much more of this cold dealer." Plus, now is your chance to make sure you get the proper rating. (i.e.: Switch to comp whore mode.)

What if the Private sees through your ploys? What if she keeps arrogantly yelling to her Sergeant, "black action" or even, "hitting soft-18"? Well, wearing a stupid smile and tipping her two pennies isn't a good idea. Look around. (Not at the cards:whip Is there some awesome reason why you should stay at the table? (A moderately positive count is not an "awesome reason":flame: She may be showing a hole card occasionally, the RC may have just dropped by 10 in half a deck of this manually shuffled shoe, etc.) Okay, so there's no civilians and she's also "arrogantly" dealing at a lightening fast pace. You stay. The enemy hears her dealer's cries for help and comes over to watch you like a hawk. Screw her. Stand up! Bet five green instead of four. Keep talking to that dealer but act mad. (LET ME SEE YOUR "WAR FACE"!) Let them see you don't like the "pressure". The floor person should leave or even whisper something to the dealer. Then, keep playing and calm down A LOT if the dealer calms down a little. If the enemy doesn't leave or if the dealer doesn't budge with the attitude, surveillance may be about to move the camera in a couple minutes. Don't worry--they're not good at stealth tactics. If the floor lady isn't fooled by you, she'll do something blatant like talk to the pit boss while looking in your direction or make a phone call upstairs or look up at the ceiling, or ask you if you are a card counter(!), etc. Listen to me. Leave only after you're sure that surveillance has watched your play for at least a few minutes and DO IT WHILE THE COUNT IS STILL MODERATELY POSITIVE. Make them feel like they may have just put too much pressure on a civilian. ASIDE FROM JUST LEAVING, THIS IS HOW A NORMAL GAMBLER WOULD REACT.

How else do I (or did I?) get away with a 20:1 bet spread? Is there a table full of Asians? Play there. Try not to make these civilians "casualties of war" like mentioned earlier. Is there a rowdy, rowdy (like the Piper) drunk guy in the casino? PLAY IN HIS PIT BUT NOT AT HIS TABLE. Is their a guy who's ABSOLUTELY LOSING HIS SHIRT at a low stakes table? PLAY AT HIS TABLE FOR SURE!!! Like the poppy farm owners in Afghanistan, these people are your civilian allies. Who else? Hustlers, hookers, small gangs of thugs--the list goes on and on.

I was once playing with THREE OF THE ABOVE EXAMPLES, ALL AT ONCE. There was a screaming/jumping diabetic drunk man at another table, an Asian man was losing his life's savings of 10 or $20,000 at this $10 table's first base, and some gangster hustler was walking around the pit whispering to us to give him a green chip. I shoved my comp card in the floor lady's face right away. I was in for $900, I lost half of that, I think the critter only really input my first $300 into the system, AND THE COUNT WENT NEGATIVE. I went outside for a cigarette and decided to do something I never would've considered before. I WENT BACK IN AND SPREAD FROM 50:1 FOR HOURS:joker: I won a few thousand dollars and get this--no one had any clue how many $500 chips I had in my pocket when I left! I tipped zilch, nada, nothing and really think that pit lady was about to cry right there in the pit. Admittedly, the card counter probably contributed the least to her MONDAY FROM HELL.

To recap: If the casino keeps giving you heat during all your intermittent bets, you got a problem. Do a better con, play on a better shift, do a better parlor trick, etc. If this doesn't work, you have few options. You could get comfortable with the idea of getting 86'd or receiving severe countermeasures; you could learn a different game where you have the advantage; you could learn a different technique for BJ other than CC'g; or you could simply stop playing there for the foreseeable future. On a positive note, YOU KNOW YOU'VE PERFORMED MY STYLE OF CARD COUNTING CORRECTLY IF A PIT BOSS JUST CAUGHT YOU MAKING HUGE MAXIMUM BETS AND HE JUST STANDS THERE LOOKING "S***-FACED"!

I will leave you with a quote from Beyond Counting:
"...the trained player is like a virus--opportunistic, unemotional, tenacious, deadly. The host eventually will discover the virus, but by then the damage is extensive."
--James Grosjean

--Halves

 

[LordDante]

Amazing stories!
very helpful and instructional
thanks halves!!!:whip::whip::whip::whip::whip::devil:

 

[kewljason]

First and foremost, Atlantic City security guards aren't even allowed to touch their index finger to your shoulder blade for counting cards.

They can't 86 you, but they can and do shuffle up at will or restrict your bet spread all but eliminating any advantage. Once this happens, it can be a problem, since there are only a dozen properties in AC, 10 of which are owned by 3 parent companies, especially if you play 3 or 4 days a week as I do.

An extra benifit to leaving after a shoe that ends with large bet rather than droping back to one unit is when being rated, your last (larger) wagers are fresh in their mind.

 

[RingyDingy]

nice one

great stuff halves, love it!

anyone got any good recomendations on counting stories? good, bad, ugly?
enjoyed the links here to things like the zen interviews etc, all make for an awesome read!

keep it up Halves, love ya style!

 

[creeping panther]

EyeHeart

Very nice post with much good information, very good indeed.

But now we have a problem don't we. This is the same problem that has been repeated over and over again by many others. Spilling ones guts in an open public forum and then that powerfull info falls into the casino hands, because they read these forums. Many casinos will print out what you just wrote and distribute it to dealers, pit, security etc. And...what do you think they will do...feel? Not pretty.

I personnaly appreciate the info, it is now out in the open, but it should never have been. This is why things are going to hell in the BJ pits.

My secret bag of tricks is disseminated only to my close cadre of teammates and AP's.

All the book writers are guilty of this, they need approval, attention, so they spill the beans for a very little profit, maybe because they were never that good to begin with.

The true "BJ Wariors" have never written a book, they know better and are busy making money, on BJ and other advantage games.

But thanks again, I will print off and study your dissertation.

CP.

 

[BJinNJ]

Too much Attention

Sounds like you're attracting a lot of attention
to yourself. Lucky you can't be 86 in AC.

BJinNJ

 

[johndoe]

Great post! I learned a heck of a lot, this is really valuable for us newer folk. Thanks a ton.

 

[gus]

Why is it common to say "86" as a short?

 

[MAZ]

Hey this is a cute story but is just not needed in A.C. You can spread a hell of a lot more than 20:1 without the theatrics. The truth is if you are aggressive and move around a lot, wong in and out, change pits, and casinos often nobody gets a bead on you or even has a clue what your bet spread is because no one table should ever see both ends of the spread. You don't need to be a big mouth to fit in. Shut up and do your job talk when you need to and be just like the average joe. That way you can spread as much as you want. Just don't be friggin lazy and A.C. is one of the easiest places to play with an advantage and no worries. I have spread as much as 100:1 and nobody ever could tell what my min or max bet was because being aggressive with wonging creates a cloak of invisibility, not playing war games in your head with the casino personnel.

 

[gus]

Great post! I learned a heck of a lot, this is really valuable for us newer folk. Thanks a ton.

I think so... It was valuable 4 sure.

But I thought, too, about the problem to show these "secrets" in public. I mean, not only this post but forum and books in general.

 

[cardcounter0]

The term "86'd" means to kick out or ban someone. It is American in origin, coming from Cowboys in the Old West. Whiskey in old saloons was usually 100 proof in strength, and when a regular was known to get disorderly, he was served with spirits of a slightly lower 86 proof. Hence he was "86'd."

 

[shadroch]

The term "86'd" means to kick out or ban someone. It is American in origin, coming from Cowboys in the Old West. Whiskey in old saloons was usually 100 proof in strength, and when a regular was known to get disorderly, he was served with spirits of a slightly lower 86 proof. Hence he was "86'd."

In NYC,there is a different version. There was supposedly a famous watering hole that had its main entrance on Madison and a side door on
86th street. Rowdy patrons were ejected via the side door,hence 86'd.

I imagine there are numereous other versions as well. I've also heard it originated by people jumping off the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building during the Depression. It's the 86th Floor.

 

[gus]

Now that I think it, had already heard the history of the west!

Tnx guys!

 

[Kaiser]

There are also a couple other explanations.

Article 86 of the New York State Liquor Code outlines the circumstances in which a bar patron should be refused alcohol or removed from the bar. In the restaurant culture, the theory goes back to the Great Depression and the soup kitchens. The legend goes that soup kitchens were limited to 85 patrons at a time so number 86 in line wouldn't receive food.

Found these doing a Google search. Funny there are so many stories about it.

 

[EyeHeartHalves]

Thank you.

Thanks to everyone for your positive reinforcement. It was nice to wake up to. Especially, thanks to those with the constructive criticism--everyone deserves to hear a difference of opinion.

For the newbies: Take what I said with a grain of salt. I poured out my steely little card counter heart in that post. I want you all to develop your own style in your own cities and take as much money as possible away from the casinos. At the time, I was successful with that style but it didn't last forever. If it did, I wouldn't have wrote the post. I would have still been using it. Just remember to put yourself in the shoes of your adversary. Know thy enemy. Imagine how to fool him. Then, try to make sure you aren't falling victim to a cycle of fear and greed. These are symptoms of a recreational gambler (not necessarilly a "problem gambler" but maybe?) Know thy self!