The Ways of the Blackjack Cheat

When you think of a casino, you picture a place with lots of people, noisy slot machines, big and small and the roulette. While these games are considered the real games of chance in the casino, it is in the card tables where you get to see real serious thinking and gaming. And one of the most popular, if not the most popular, card game is the Blackjack. Since card games like blackjack require skill to play, many players venture to try their luck in this game thinking that the odds of winning is far better than in other games that rely mostly to chance. Many skilled players, those with sharp minds and great math ability, do great in blackjack. But there is another “skilled” player who sometimes gets the chance to “laugh all the way to the bank”- the Blackjack Cheat.


What is Blackjack and how is it played? Basically blackjack, or sometimes called “twenty-one”, is a game played by at least 2 players, the dealer and the betting player, with a deck of 52 cards. Each gets two cards at the start. If the betting player gets 17, which is the safe value, or more he can call a stand and the dealer will stop giving him a card. The dealer usually gets another if he has less than 17 to increase his chance of winning. Whoever gets twenty-one or nearest to it without going over, or busted, wins. Faces have a value of 10, aces count as 1 or 11 and the rest of the cards are equal their numeric value. In casinos, a table usually has 5 to 7 players and uses more than 1 deck of cards.

How does a blackjack cheat get to do his stuff?  How does he differ from an advantage player? First, an advantage player is not a cheat but a skilled player who is very adept at math and in card counting using his brain. Some are extremely skilled that they can count the cards even in if the table is using more than 1 deck. They are not considered cheats and although some casinos frown upon them, what they do is perfectly legal. But when they start using external devises, it is already cheating. A blackjack cheat uses many techniques but the most common are:

•    Connivance with the dealer

•    Use of electronic devises and computer aids

•    Card marking or the “Daub” Technique –using an invisible mark which the player sees with a special lens.

•    Card substitution or the “hold out” technique –using the palm to hold the card then substituting with a better card.

•    Spooking or using another person who stands behind the dealer and “peeks” at the hole card   then sends the signal to the player.

Some crude techniques are sometimes used by cheats like using counterfeit chips or quickly adding chips to your bet before the winning hand is paid. These styles however can go unnoticed only if the dealer is not diligent with his job. And with modern technology like surveillance systems it is almost impossible to get away with these techniques. There are also other methods which a player uses that can also be considered cheating like knowingly breaking casino regulations and bending rules to gain an edge over the casino.

Many casinos have adopted several measures to strengthen their protection and avoid losing out to these cheaters. They have tighter securities now and have employed every available means of guarantee that they will not fall victims to the cheat. However, the players themselves can also be at mercy of the dealers and they can be the one who could be cheated out of the game. But then again it is highly improbable that the dealer will be acting on his own and without the express approval of the casino. In this case, the casino is now the blackjack cheat. Are you then protected from this?