my experiences with back offs and cheaters
I have been playing blackjack regularly since 1990. In all those years, I can only recall 2 cases of players being backed off at my table. In the first case (Belagio � shortly after they opened), the player had just started to play and was politely told that his play from that morning had been reviewed and that he had to flat bet from then on. In the second case, I was playing the double deck at Mandalay Bay. I was joined by a card counter with no cover. I stayed as this was the only double deck open and because my cover is sufficient to fool most places for many hours. Before long, a counter catcher came into the pit and observed this player from about 12 feet. It was obvious to me that this player was toast but he seemed oblivious to the counter catcher. He continued to play (and lose heavily) for about 30 minutes. He finally had a good run of cards and recouped about half of his losses. When he went to color up, the counter catcher came out of the pit and stood behind him. As the counter turned to leave, the counter catcher introduced himself and told him �no more blackjack.�
I can only remember one case of player cheating at my table. Years ago (when they had a good game) I was playing at the Tropicana in A.C. (known as Trop World back then). All of their games were face up shoe games. The dealer was one of the best (speed and accuracy) that I have ever seen. The player had an eleven vs a dealer ten up and took a hit instead of doubling. The player got a ten for a total of 21. While the dealer finished dealing to the other hands, the player must have placed a double down bet beside his original bet. (No one saw it happen). In any case, the dealer simply paid his original bet and didn�t say anything about it. The player then complained to the dealer that he did not pay his double down bet. The dealer said, "that is because you didn�t double down until after I dealt you the ten." The player insisted that he had doubled down and questioned the dealer as to how he was sure that he didn�t double down. The dealer replied that if the player had doubled down, then he would have turned the ten sideways. He told the player that he never makes mistakes but that if the player wanted to pursue it further, he could call the pit boss over and have the tape rewound to see who was right. The guilty (and very lucky) player then conceded that �maybe� he did put the double down bet up late.
Dr 21
