Oh how mean

[IcyM]

Playing at a new store today, DD more specifically. 2 of us were at this table, and I went to the bathroom during the shuffle. I come back during the first hand of the new shuffle, and look at a guy who has 3 split hands out, and hitting his 3rd. I'm staring down no paint or aces; the dealer has 8 and 8, hits a 2. The running count is +12 and the table has a nice sign on it -- "No mid-deck entry."

I was so sad, I wanted to max bet the next 10 hands but I had to watch the ploppy play it out Floor sweat this table 65% of the time too, was weird. It was almost so much sweat that I bet from a ploppy-perspective he's like "geez, this woman is really watching this table." Only 2 of us most of the time and I would say nothing seemed suspicious at all. I was only spreading 1:4 and other guy not doing anything crazy either. Won 45 units eventually, so that was fun.

Also, some old-timer was at the table at 1 point and a deck or so before he leaves, I spread my max bet on +6 TC. He verbally says "he knows the deck is gonna be hot I guess, his bet went up." Oh ploppy. Why are you such a genius?

-Icy

 

[aslan]

Ploppies are always saying stuff like, "You must be a counter. Every time you raise your bet, you win." -or- "Are you a counter? You always know when to raise your bet." But, hey,... i t... i s...t h a t...o b v i o u s. That's why counter after counter advises you leave after a plus count, or at least, after one hour or less of play in which one or more plus counts occur.

 

[IcyM]

Ploppies are always saying stuff like, "You must be a counter. Every time you raise your bet, you win." -or- "Are you a counter? You always know when to raise your bet." But, hey,... i t... i s...t h a t...o b v i o u s. That's why counter after counter advises you leave after a plus count, or at least, after one hour or less of play in which one or more plus counts occur.

Is that a standard consensus? If it is, I haven't been abiding by it I'm not playing crazy-high limits and was under the impression spreading light (1-4) would be totally fine. Everyone varies their bets at some point, that is why a casino can't just mass bar everyone who doesn't flat bet every round. Their profits come from bad players/tourists/etc, they'd lose more than they'd gain if they had that thought-process of instantly barring a bettor who doesn't bet the same number every hand[or more specifically harass a player who changed a bet from 1x to 2x]. And ploppies use spreads too; they just usually spread a lot higher than they should ever want to on negative counts. That, and they might only play 90% of basic strategy is why they're losing players, AKA ploppies :x Even if they're betting 2x, 1.75x, 2.75x, 2.5x, 1x, 4x in that random order, any1 could make a perceivable observation that "Sir, you increased your bet, I bet you know the cards are coming hot." Or conversely "Sir, you dropped your bet; is that count becoming negative?" That's a ploppy mentality. For all that old-timer knew today when he said that, I could be king-ploppy and felt like gambling on my bigger bets @ hugely negative counts. Specifically at that table, a guy when I first sat pissed away 50 units, betting 5x at -9 TC, doubling his 10 against dealer 10, etc. It's tough for me to want to naturally agree with you 100% but I do see what you could mean. I just can think of so many situations[this week] where players are increasing bets on negative counts. The 1 girl at the store I play regularly is a dealer, and she is 1 of those people who knows her 90% basic strategy and bets very high on hugely negative counts; I'd be wrongly calling her out if anytime I saw her bet increase, I thought she was an AP and made a verbal remark to "counting" or something etc. I know she is a regular losing player, but I've seen her scrape profits before also. Any1 can scrape profits over the short-term, or win 8 hands in a row etc.

I'm just not convinced about the 1 hour or 1 shuffle of a good positive count then bounce out of there; maybe I'm ignorant or maybe I'm just confident a 1-4 spread @ fair limits won't draw too much attention; if I'm in the wrong or you're in agreement, speak up either way. Never hurts to discuss.

-Icy

 

[blackjack avenger]

Size Matters

Icy

It's matters a lot how big your bets are.

Yes 1 to 4 spread is not aggressive

 

[tthree]

The idea is your big bets do correlate to the count so you don't look at all like these to anyone that can count. Believe it or not the casino has been known to hire or train people to count. That is why you leave after a big count. Then they wonder, Did he know that was a big count or was that just a ploppy getting lucky on when he raised his bets. If they have more than one monster count they can be fairly certain it was not a coincidence.

 

[Gamblor]

Ploppies are always saying stuff like, "You must be a counter. Every time you raise your bet, you win." -or- "Are you a counter? You always know when to raise your bet." But, hey,... i t... i s...t h a t...o b v i o u s. That's why counter after counter advises you leave after a plus count, or at least, after one hour or less of play in which one or more plus counts occur.

Ploppies also freak out if you all of a sudden spread to two hands and play the LL and catch two suited 20's :laugh:

They also curse you out when the table starts losing. Old asian lady to me after a bad shoe "Why you spread two hands! You make everyone lose!"

 

[aslan]

Ploppies also freak out if you all of a sudden spread to two hands and play the LL and catch two suited 20's :laugh:

They also curse you out when the table starts losing. Old asian lady to me after a bad shoe "Why you spread two hands! You make everyone lose!"

I know her.

 

[aslan]

The idea is your big bets do correlate to the count so you don't look at all like these to anyone that can count. Believe it or not the casino has been known to hire or train people to count. That is why you leave after a big count. Then they wonder, Did he know that was a big count or was that just a ploppy getting lucky on when he raised his bets. If they have more than one monster count they can be fairly certain it was not a coincidence.

Surveillance may in fact see that you are counting and do nothing if your betting spread and overall game are weak enough. I would say that if you spend a lot of time in the same store, and if you consistently raise your bet a smaller than recommended amount without being backed off, it's not that they don't know you are counting, it's that they don't perceive your game as a large risk to the house. Flying under the radar can not only mean that they don't suspect you, but that they do and don't care.

Also, if you (not YOU, tthree) raise your bet sub-optimally and eventually you have a nice long plus run in which you really crush the house, on-the-ball surveillance will evaluate the shoe, and maybe past shoes, and see the direct correlation of your betting pattern to the positive count.

The worst thing that can happen to you is that they evaluate your game as weak and allow you to play, but then one day, when you amass a really large loss, they will back you off. Don't say that it doesn't happen. In a cat and mouse game, you want to make sure that you are always the cat. View attachment 8280