Casino Cheats Q & A's: Part 9.

When you play poker you must ensure that you are playing at a table where all your opponents are speaking the native language of the casino in which you find yourself- except in cases where all players agree to speak the same language (English or another commonly spoken language):

 

This piece of advice is relevant when playing poker because when you do not understand the language that the players are speaking then they could very easily be exchanging significant information relating to the game, and are much more likely to collude against the players who do not understand what is going on. Interestingly, such individuals may not even set out to cheat; they may just fall into patterns whereby they discuss their cards with each other, just because they are feeling a connection to the other player.  In some casinos, the staff may demand that players speak in a particular language and if you find yourself at a table where the players are speaking in a foreign tongue you can ask the floor manager to ask them to speak in a relevant language. Incidentally, cheating by such means is fairly common in the UK.

 

 

When playing craps, and in the position of shooter, watch out for that pretty woman who is snuggling up to you:

 

You could be lucky and she is just flirting with you, however, another scenario is that she is distracting your attention while on the other side of you her partner in crime is chipping away at your stack. Keep your eyes on the game, and on your chips, or at least cover them with your hand while you flirt back.

 

 

When playing blackjack make sure that you keep an eye on your winning bets and your cards until the bet has been paid:

 

Occasionally in blackjack the dealers make mistakes with the winning bets, on average they get it wrong around 1.5% of the time, although the majority of these mistakes do not go in your favour. And, believe it or not, it is the most experienced dealers that make the most mistakes- probably because they become complacent over time- it’s the same with taxi drivers, they make the worst drivers because they drive so often they take for granted their driving and end up making mistakes.

 

When playing online poker, always use a Tracking Program:

 

Take Poker Tracker for example, with this software players are able to monitor the hand histories at the various poker sites linked to the system in great detail. The software creates a database of games that are played at the site, then they analyse the results for statistical anomalies; they check for deviations in shuffles, draws and other types of data. By incorporating the use of a tracking programme, players are able to analyse and improve their own play, as well as the play of your opponents- noticing their weak points so that you can then exploit them. Additionally, these trackers can let you know when a cheat is around because the data will be significantly skewed and you will know to avoid such players.  

 

 

When it comes to card counting, the professionals no longer make use of the counter/big play methods:

 

The famous, decades old, scam by the mathematicians at MIT put paid to the possibility of using a card counting system in blackjack. They got away with hundreds and thousands of dollars, which they got legitimately because there were no laws against card counting, but the casinos cottoned on to the use of card counting and took the necessary steps to counteract it- changing the rules of the game.

 

Now professional card counters use the following method: A team of card counters sits at the table and play as if they are one entity. They all make bets on their rounds, but as the count increases the different individuals will vary increase the increments of their bets in different ways to reflect the count. For instance, one person who will bet 3 units, another will bet 2 units and a third will bet 1 unit. On the following bet they may swap units, so the guy who originally bet 3 units is not betting 1, the guy who bet 1 is betting 2 and the guy who bet 2 is betting 3 units. This means that they can keep the same total, if the count increases then one player can decrease their bet, while the others increase their bets three or four fold. This method means that the team can pass unnoticed, if the security are suspicious of a count, they normally just focus on one person, this technique even fools card-counting detection technologies.

 

 

 

Avoid poker tournaments that use open seating:

 

In these types of tournament it is easy for teams of people to work in collusion. Many real-world casinos use a policy whereby seats are pre-assigned to players, they are unable to select the table at which they play, however not all casino do this- avoid the ones that don’t.

 

 

Avoid playing hand held blackjack games:

 

It is rare to find a blackjack dealer involved in cheating nowadays, however, it can happen and when it does, the majority of the time cheating occurs in hand held games. Here, a cheating dealer may be able to look at the top card or deal seconds, often with these sorts of scams the dealer is working with another individual at the table. Unless you are trying to cheat using a card counting technique, you really have no business at a single or double deck game; rather you should find a table that uses card shoes or an automatic shuffle.

 

 

 Only look at your hole cards when it is your turn to make a move:

 

This is a good habit to get into, if you are constantly checking your hole card, you are giving others around you more opportunity to cheat by accidently showing them your card. There is no benefit to you in knowing what your hole card is before it is your turn to move. You do not need an especially long time to make any decisions; this is particularly true for skilled players. Because people may use hidden cameras to spy on your card, give them as little opportunity to do so as possible.

 

Many poker player believe they have their body language honed to a fine art, that they never give anything away, and that they have no tells- this just isn’t true, if you’re human, you give something away about what you are thinking or feeling at all times. Even professional poker players can’t hide themselves completely and the keen observer will notice their tell-tale signals. This then refers to you too; you do not want to know your hole card because you will probably give away to your opponents its relevance to your game.

 

Keep tabs on your online poker hands:

 

Use your poker tracking software to track your own hands in order to establish the rate at which you are losing pots on the river to two or three opponents, in spite of whichever one may be winning. Next consider the hands that you have folded on the turn following a raise or a re-raise. If it is the same two or three players that normally raise these pots then you might be the victim of a team collusion aimed to rip you off!

 

 

Is it possible for CCTV to capture the marks on a marked deck of cards?

 

The answer is that with state of the art surveillance equipment they can, but they have to be looking for the marks, focusing in on the deck using a zoom. It would take far too much effort for the casino to do this, they need their cameras to see the whole picture and zoom in only when they are suspicious, not on every deck of every game the casino has running- they would need to employ a lot of extra staff and purchase a lot more equipment if they did this. It is the anomaly in the results of a game, if a person is winning far more than the odds dictate then they may become suspicious and focus in on the game, equally, however, people who mark cards exhibit particular behaviours that the casinos are aware of, so the surveillance will be looking at the players behaviour for clues rather than the cards. 

 

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