Hand Held Multiple Decks

Recently I played some of the joints on the strip with a couple of other low roller counters. I attempt to use AO2, and they use other counts. We use little cover other than attempting to have a good time. Sometimes an argument ensues about whether a large bet should really be placed, about whether a hit, double down, or split should occur, or even about the quantity that has been used up of a specific card type.

We happened across a double deck game in Casino Royale. It was a weird $2 minimum table with 9 spots that were generally filled. On the 9 spots we were dealt 3 rounds and we considered this excellent. On at least one occasion, I opened with $2 on the first hand, jumped to $10 for the second hand, and then to $50 for the final hand. We were quite amazed that we received so little attention, and no short shuffling. The table had an auto shuffler that we were happy to see because we had just experienced a dealer at the Boardwalk who didn't really shuffle, and who received way too many 20s and 21s.

After an hour or two of play, our guy on third base noticed that the auto shuffler actually had six decks in it, in addition to the two decks that were already shuffled. Only then did we really notice a sign at the table saying "Hand Held Multiple Deck". Despite all three of us being up for the session, we were appalled by our ignorance and the casino's apparent deception. We immediately cashed out and left.

Oddly, the table played as though it were a double deck with 75% penetration. It did not seem like a 8-deck shoe with 20% penetration. We never observed more than 8 aces played. Three identical cards were never observed (although we were not looking). Our high count bets seemed to follow expectations, and we were quite generous with tip bets.

A couple of us felt especially bamboozled, because we had already known about a similar thing at Ramada Express in Laughlin. In my experience at Ramada Express, their "Hand Held Multiple Deck" sign was obstructed, but they only held a single deck. Within 15 minutes five red aces appeared, and I was no longer playing �without a clue�. Oddly, I was also ahead when I discovered the deception and left that game. I don�t recall whether 6 or 8 decks were involved, but I do recall that re-splitting aces was not allowed.

Does anyone have similar experiences? Did the Casino Royale shuffler somehow keep double decks intact? Are there other casinos that currently employ "Hand Held Multiple Deck" deception?

Lot's of us have gotten caught on it, although generally not a couple of hours. I lost about 5K on one once before I noticed. I figured it out because I jumped the bet pretty big near the end and they didn't shuffle nor did the pit come running over to look... and this was a place that usually sweats. I think the staff was sitting over there laughing as they already knew I was a counter. That was at Imperial Palace. A real double deck game with a shuffler will nearly always have alternate color decks. If the new cards come out the same color then it is probably one of the fakes. "Handheld Multiple Deck" is their tricky word for it. Two is multiple deck, but they don't tell you that it is usually eight.

how you could go even 5 hands before determining that this is what you were playaing. Did you see the shuffler? How is it possible to not see this very fast?

From the outside, the Casino Royale shuffler resembled other shufflers --- perhaps similar to what El Cortez uses for single deck. A used double deck was deposited in the back and a visible shuffled double deck was retrieved from the front. It was only on the one occassion where the box was opened briefly that third base observed that the deposited double deck was actually joining two other double decks. This opening happened so quickly, I doubt anyone but third base noticed. I did not see anything as I sat at the middle of the table.

Again, from the cards played and from our results, one could believe the shuffler was keeping the four different double decks intact. I suspect we only played for about a hour or so, but we did not notice unusual multiplicities of cards. It is possible that because I knew that my third round bet would be my last of the deck, I didn't pay that much attention to how many aces surfaced on the third round. However, I do honestly believe that I would have noticed if there were ever more than eight.

But I was in more of a hurry to quickly get some heads up play in than giving the machine a close examination. A few people had just joined the table I was playing, a real double deck, which slowed it down tremendously. I could see this dealer right on the other side of the pit all by himself. The dealer really gave it away by dealing down about 90% of the cards he was holding. This is about a 50% pen shop at double deck. I bet very heavily into a slight advantage that I thought was a big advantage... about a +6 running count with a deck dealt. The TC was actually about +1 if they were using 6 deck, and still negative ev if it was 8 decks.

This was a while back when IP actually used to take black action pretty well. That's no longer the case since the old man died.