 
New
Blackjack Winning Techniques
by Henry Tamburin,
published on Monday, October 15
2001
Most blackjack players know that
the fundamental techniques to win
at blackjack include basic strategy
and card counting. By learning both
of these techniques the player will
have the long-term advantage over
the casino. The advantage is slight
- about 1% - which means over a
day, week, or even months the typical
card counter can lose. But given
enough time and bankroll, the card
counter will eventually generate
a profit.
Skilled blackjack
players however, are never satisfied
with today's winning techniques.
They are constantly developing and
testing new techniques to gain the
advantage. John May, an advantage
player who makes his living beating
the casinos at their own game, summarizes
these new techniques that he and
other pros use in his book "Get
The Edge at Blackjack". I will
give you a brief overview of some
of these techniques; for more details
I highly recommend May's book.
Card Steering
This is not a new
technique but it requires a team
of highly skilled players to pull
it off. In fact, this technique
was recently covered in a gaming
protection seminar given for casino
industry security personnel that
I attended. Basically a team of
players take over a blackjack table.
The player at first base is trained
to cut a specific number of cards
from the back of the shoe (say 25
cards). He could do this consistently
every time. The rest of his team
would note what the bottom card
of the shoe was (requires a careless
dealer). This last card would now
be the 25th card out of the shoe.
The team of players would play their
hands such that they knew beforehand
which player would get that 25th
card. If the 25th card were an ace
or ten-value card that player would
make a very large bet. This technique
is powerful because if you know
your first card is an ace, you would
have a 50% edge over the casino,
and if it were a 10, the player
would have 13% edge.
Card Sequencing
This technique involves
memorizing a key card that goes
into the discard tray before an
ace, and then watching for the appearance
of the key card after the shuffle
knowing that when it appears the
ace will not be far behind. Players
who use card sequencing have to
be selective about the dealer. They
basically look for dealers that
shuffle the same way every time
since cards that are riffled perfectly
will generally remain in the same
order in close proximity. Once a
card sequencer has memorized the
key card and it appears on the table,
he will spread to two or three hands
with big bets to ensure that he
is dealt the ace. The very good
card sequencers can memorize 4 or
more key cards in a shoe and their
associated aces.
Shadow Play
This technique involves
visually observing flashed cards
without the dealer's knowledge (therefore
it is not cheating). Sometimes dealers
will inadvertently flash a card
when they riffle or strip the cards
too high off the table. Alert players
seated in the third base seat are
trained to note the card and it's
location in the pack of cards. Sometimes
this requires the player to sink
low in his seat. By knowing when
the flashed card will appear out
of the shoe, the shadow player can
adjust his betting and playing strategy
accordingly. Shadow players who
are very good can often memorize
the location of several cards.
This technique can
give the player a big edge so much
so that often players use illegal
methods to observe a flashed card.
At a casino industry conference
last year I learned about a team
of players who pulled off the following
scam. One player had a tiny video
camera in the button of his suit
jacket (fiber optic technology was
used) and while the dealer was shuffling
he placed his arm directly on the
table and positioned the camera
so that the cards could be seen
by the camera while the dealer shuffled
the cards. The information was transmitted
by satellite to a confederate who
was in a truck that had a satellite
dish. The confederate used high
tech video equipment to rewind the
tape and watch the dealers shuffle
in very, very slow motion (the cards
were literally floating in the air
as they were being shuffled) so
that he could literally see the
sequence of each card in the pack.
He radioed his partner at the table
(through a tiny earpiece) what the
sequence of the cards would be as
they were dealt from the shoe. These
guys won several hundreds of thousands
of dollars before the casinos finally
figured out their scam.
Big Player
This is a modification
of the technique made famous by
legendary blackjack player Ken Uston.
Teams use several spotters to back
count several blackjack tables.
Whenever the count goes positive,
the spotter signals the big player
into a positive shoe. The big player
then makes large bets when the edge
is in his favor.
There are other
techniques covered by May in his
book such as exploiting the Over/Under
side bet, forcing the dealer into
making mistakes, and stacking the
cards before they go into the discard
tray. Certainly these techniques
are not for the average player.
And casinos are not sitting still
and doing nothing about this. For
example, many casinos now have rules
that do not allow players to enter
mid-shoe or players must place the
cut card at least one deck into
the pack or they are using continuous
shuffling machines that reshuffle
the cards after each round. But
still, advantage players continue
to look for ways to exploit the
game of blackjack and in fact May
describes how the pros have already
figured out a way to beat the new
continuous shufflers.
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