Casino shills?

I am wondering if anyone has had a bad experience with a shill at the blackjack tables? They were used in the old days to fill up empty tables, and thus, attract players. However, I also think the casinos use them to break up the rhythm of a player on a hot streak. I say this because whenever I used to do well at a table, some player would come to the table and change the rhythm of the cards. I know this might sound hokey to the mathematically-inclined counters and those who use the "wonging" technique, although I do believe that each shoe, especially the 6 & 8 deckers, do indeed have a rhythm of their own.
But the shills seem to know how to sabotage a winning player's rhythm through a variety of strategies, such as unnecessarily taking a dealer's bust card by hitting a stiff, in much the same way that the casinos will change dealers, bring in fresh cards, do a check change, or bring in a pit boss to provide the heat. In short, anything to break up your rhythm.
Do shills exist or am I paranoid? Your insights will be appreciated.

the casino is required to tell you who they are if they have one. Shills were used in Vegas mainly at Baccarat. They are illegal, I believe, almost everywhere else.

Regarding 6 & 8 Deck games being more or less likely to have good or bad streaks...that's absolute bullshit. There is no such thing as "rhythm" or whatever that can in any way be used as a predictor of cards to come. That is not to say that you cannot have a hot run of cards, it's just that a hot run over the last 10 minutes does not tell you anything about the next 10 minutes.

you dont know its a hot streak until its over.if shills knew what was coming they wouldnt be shills-they would be owners of alot of real estate and stocks.

...you're superstitious.

Voodoo poppycock isn't a matter of "belief" or personal feeling or opinion or anything subjective. We have computers; we can find concrete, decisive, objective, quantitative answers to just about any question. And for the question of whether shoes have "rhythms," the conclusive FACT is that they don't. The only thing that affects your EV is the proportion of high cards to low cards remaining in the deck. The previous hand is no more influential than any other previous hand. Again, this isn't a matter of sense or opinion any more than the Pythagorean Theorem is. It's fact.

"Shills", or the more modern term of prop players, are still used in casinos today. Although I haven't heard of a BJ shill, they are hired by poker rooms to start and fill up games. They are commonly used in California cardrooms and most other poker rooms and they are required to wear ID identifying themselves as prop players.

Casinos no longer use shills in blackjack. They don't need to; card counters are happy to sit down at empty tables and in effect act as unpaid "shills." Furthermore, the present bean-counter mentality of the casinos is to shut down a table that is idle for any length of time and send the dealer home.

I do believe that each shoe, especially the 6 & 8 deckers, do indeed have a rhythm of their own.

You are free, of course, to believe anything you want. Just be aware that this belief has absolutely no basis in fact.

But the shills seem to know how to sabotage a winning player's rhythm through a variety of strategies, such as unnecessarily taking a dealer's bust card by hitting a stiff, in much the same way that the casinos will change dealers, bring in fresh cards, do a check change, or bring in a pit boss to provide the heat. In short, anything to break up your rhythm.

This is all superstitious nonsense. I do not mean that as a put-down. I once held many such beliefs, before I started studying the game.

If you want to master the game of 21, or expect to learn anything from this website, you must be willing to give up these superstitions, none of which have any validity. Start by reading a few books on the subject. Knockout Blackjack, by Ken Fuchs and Olaf Vancura, has sections throughout it debunking blackjack myths.

You should consider another game. This line of thinking means you're
not going to stand up well to the rigors (e.g. getting your ass
whipped like a donkey for many sessions in a row) that the game
offers. This is a game for dispassionate, calculating people who
understand the potential of advantage play and can filter out all
the extraneous inputs.