Greatest Gambling Cheats Part 7: The Blackjack 10-O-5

The Blackjack 10-O-5

This is a chip-switch move in blackjack. It was made famous due to the ‘Classon Past posting Team’; a notorious group of people who scammed casino blackjack tables over a period of 25 years.

 

A team member, acting as both a mechanic and a claimer (known as an MC), meaning that they set-up the scam and claim the win, arrives at a blackjack table at a moment when the dealer is in the process of sweeping back the cards following the payment and taking of bets from the previous game.

 

The MC puts 3 chips of $5 in the first betting circle, closest to the right-hand-side of the dealer; this position is also referred to as 3^rd base. Once the MC has taken his seat, he then bets five $500 chips plus one $5 chip directly in front of him on the layout, but ensures that he keeps one hand in front of them in order that the bet remains concealed from other people. These latter chips are the chips that will be involved in the actual move, that is 2 x $500 and 1 x $5, hence the reason for the name 10-0-5 which is the total amount in dollars of the chips, i.e. $1005. The 3 $500 chips that remain are known as the ‘back-up chips’, and they come into the equation later.

 

The MC, with his remaining hand, the one that is not concealing the chips, is then used to give the blackjack signals to the dealer, e.g. hit, stand or bust. In the 3^rd base position the MC will be the last player to play his hand, however, he will be the first player to be addressed by the dealer once the round has ended and the cards all played. So if he has a winning hand, the MC will be the first of the players to be paid and also the first to have his chips swept by the dealer if he loses.

 

The 3^rd base position is important in this game because of its angle in relation to the betting circle and the position of the dealer at the moment that the dealer pays the bets placed on the layout table. The move can be carried out if the MC is sat in one of the other positions, but the most preferred position in terms of stealth is the 3^rd base. As the MC moves further from 3^rd base the move gets harder.

 

Whilst the game is being played out, the MC never removes his arm from its position in concealing the chips, the 5 $500 and the 1 $5 chips, at the layout table. At the point that he loses a hand at a particular table, he just moves on to another table within the same casino. He must not place more than one bet at any individual table as he will have been identified by the casino as a low-limit player, playing $5 chips.

 

However, at the point at which he wins a hand, he sets-up the move by removing the three top chips of his bet (that’s 2 x $500 and 1 x $5) into his grip, then waits as the dealer pays out for the bet, which will be three $5 chips. As the dealer is sliding three $5 chips into the three $5 chips of the original bet, the MC uses his free hand gently to collect the original 3 x $5 bets, but his other hand, the concealing hand, swaps in the 2 x $500 and 1 x $5 chips. The 1 x $5 is placed at the top of the stack, so that it can more easily be passed as a mistake, this top chip is known as the capper.

 

At the same time that his concealing hand is swapping the chips, his other hand is putting the 3 x $5 in a pocket, or somewhere else out of view of the casino, then quick as a flash, the right hand is making contact with the dealer’s hand to draw attention to the ‘miss-paid bet’. When the MC makes the claim, his hands are empty, and he places his hands palm-side up as an extra gesture of openness, this gesture is also for the benefit of the CCTV footage if it is examined more closely at a later point.

 

The three purple chips that the MC had been concealing are now in total view of the whole table and the dealer. The dealer will be that the MC has touched his hand, because this is not casino etiquette, and is add odds to the normal behaviour experienced- here, a gentle touch is as effective as a brick around the head.

 

The MC then exclaims to the dealer that the bet has been ‘miss-paid’, that there was actually a bet of $1005 and that the dealer had only paid a bet of $15. He has to put in a bit of acting here, for example, flicking the chips back in the general direction of the dealer (obviously not a forceful flick, more of a push, there is no point in trying to antagonise the casino’s employees that just makes the process all the more difficult- better to have people on side).

 

Part of the psychology at this point consist of the shove that the MC made with the chips towards the dealer- hopefully this incites him to replace the chips in the rack, so that when the floor man approaches to defuse the situation and sort out the error, there are only the $1005 worth of chips belonging to the MC in view- seeing is believing, and it will be much more easy to pass the scam off as true if the environment is congruent with the story. The greater the congruence, the greater the chances of success.

 

This scam is layered in psychological tricks to make it super-powerful, the gentle tap, the chip shoving, the calm demeanour of the MC, and this all helps to convince the dealer that he has made a big mistake.

 

To carry on the psychological trickery, the MC will change up one of the $500 chips into 5 $100 chips, then he will make a further bet consisting of two $100 and one $5 as a capper, giving the appearance that he has a particular betting style of two large chips and one small chip arranged with the smaller chip at the top. This avoids suspicion setting in and the management from investigating the move too closely.

 

It is important with such a move that the chip denominations are not too high, playing with $2000 chips will much more likely draw the attention of the management to the player. High-limit customers are always noticed, not because they are suspected as cheats, but because the casinos want to keep their custom and so will go out of their way to make the high-rollers experience an exceptional one.

 

This scam is a really good one for those idiots cheeky enough to try it; the chances of getting a pay-out are around 95%. The Classon group did manage to get away with using the high denomination chips, going up to 2 x $5000 with a 1 x $1000 capper chip, but they were truly versed in the skills needed to carry it out, being involved in the scam for 25 years, they were true career criminals.

 

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