To Spot a Counter

I remember a very interesting incident that happened back when I was in gaming. I had just come back from my lunch break when the pit boss asked me to and go and watch a blackjack table where they suspected that a player was actually a card counter. This excited me somewhat seeing as I had a very keen interest in blackjack.

I went up to the table and took my place and straight away I was watching his basic strategy. It seemed fine for a while but then he stood on sixteen against a ten, that still didn’t prove anything as the strategy deviations when the count gets to a certain level dictate that standing and not hitting is the proper play.

So the shoe ended and when the next one began, I started to count the deck. Even if this guy was using a different system to me then he would still be increasing his bets at about the same time that I would have been increasing mine had I been on the other side of the table.

Halfway through the next shoe and the running count was at +16 with two decks dealt so the true count was at a massive +8. This is rare for any blackjack shoe and this time the dealer had cut the deck deep and another full deck was due to be played out. This player made no effort to increase his action and went all the way through the shoe without increasing his bet at all.

In no way was this guy a card counter and what happened next was one of the funniest things that I ever saw in all my years in gaming. This player increased his bet from the minimum of £2 to about £30 or so. This was the first hand of the next shoe so no card counter does this for the simple reason that they have no count information to base their decisions.

The only other possible explanation was that this guy was shuffle tracking and had detected a high card segment. But to do that then he would have to be watching the dealer shuffle very closely and he wasn’t doing any of that. The undeniable truth was that this guy didn’t know what he was doing. The first hand of the shoe dealt him a seven and the dealers card was a five.

He was then dealt a ten to make seventeen and at just that precise moment in time, a gaming manager came and watched the game. The player made a big show about being a “pro” and promptly took a card on seventeen…..it was a four.

The player won the hand and the manager quickly hurried away and was then in deep discussion with the main general manager. I was almost on the verge of laughing because I knew full well what they were not only talking about but also what they were contemplating.

I knew full well that this player didn’t have a clue about advanced blackjack and by being concerned about what this guy was doing, the management were also demonstrating massive ignorance. After five more minutes of discussion, the general manager came across and had a quiet word in the players ear and asked him to escort him to the cash desk.

They promptly barred him and the reason why they barred him was for being a “card counter”. The real reason that was unknown to them was that they had just barred a player for being stupid enough to take a card on seventeen and unluckily for the guy, he made twenty one. He sure did act the part though when he was escorted out, he will probably still be telling that story even now.

By: Carl “The Dean” Sampson