Since I am completely new at counting, and we are only in the process of training, my brother and I did think of new ways to disguise bet spreading once we 'get there'.
So this one only works if you are working with partners but I quite liked his proposition: 'The Gamblers'. The nice thing about it is that you don't have to pretend not to know eachother. You assume the role of two degenerate gamblers that will bet on anything, any time (think Esfandiari v Laak in 'I bet you' for ideas, youtube it!). Since you're betting your combined bankroll on these props, the net result to you is 0. But the more open and outrageous you and your bets are, the more the casino's will think you are just degenerates having a good time. At the table, eg. ask your partner to pay you the bet you won from him for standing on your head for an hour, bet you can get closer to the dealer's age/weight/# of kids, ex-wives etc. banter back and forth. Then when the count is high, bet that you can make more in x hands than your partner. The trick is to come across as your idea coming out of the blue, so the hard part is keeping the count while seeming uninterested (we are training hard as you can imagine!) Your partner accepts. Increase your betsize. Your partner then throws a fit saying that there was no agreement on increasing betsizes. On the next hand your partner can now increase the bet even more untill you reach point X, all the while trying to outdo eachother within the spread. The downside is that regardless of the TC you will have to stop at X and that if you keep doing this each time will eventually clue in the pit, but scenario's can be devised to counter that as well. It might even be possible to have a non-counting partner play out this scenario, given the right cues it should work.
Now nobody will want to hear this, but on a particularly good night, you might want to give up some winnings in order to seem loose. For example, on occasion, spend a percentage of your winnings at the craps or roulette tables. If you are a welcome guest by this point, the pit will recognize you and just think you are gamblers. These are just a few scenario's we built on 'the Gamblers' and short term -EV long term +
Shoe skipping, or purposely not increasing your betsize on a +TC game is something else we thought might keep the heat down if you feel you are being watched or just to keep a seeming variance in your game.
Andy Bloch's DVD suggests making bonehead plays every now and then, especially when you are betting the minimum.
The next one might seem childish, but have your girlfriend (not playing BJ) order drinks: one apple juice and a scotch. Then simply have her dump out the scotch (hey, she can drink it if she wants!) and pour apple juice in the tumbler far away from the pit or table. Diluting cokes with water to make them look like mixers is an other idea. We're working out how to do this as smoothly as possible.
We hope with proper role play scenario's and casino observed false variance (-EV/+EV again) never to get there, but ultimately there will be that pesky realm of physical disguises... hope it won't come to that.
Also, flame away if you think our idea's are dumb and we don't know what we're talking about. You might even be right!
