The short story:
Las Vegas was INFESTED with cheating dealers this Labor Day weekend. Be careful!
The more informative story:
So my boyfriend and I just got back from a few days in Vegas, and we're relatively new to the BJ scene (this was our second trip). We've read many books, can count fine using Hi-Lo, and know major strategy & betting variations. We usually stick to the $5 tables, varying our bets from $5 - $40 ish. What has saved us was reading Cooper and Humble's book, specifically the part about cheating dealers. They were EVERYWHERE in the handheld games. There were only four dealers out of the 50 or so that we observed in handheld games that weren't cheating. At the honest dealers, I was able to multiply my bankroll by about 10! But the other dealers would have cleaned me out if I hadn't known better. Most common were the no-bust dealers and the aces & tens dealers. It was so bad, and they were so blantant about it, possibly because of all the tourism that weekend. For instance, here's just a few of the things we experienced:
-One dealer seemed to know whether or not he had a BJ without checking the hole card first when he had a 10 up. I called him on it. "Aren't you supposed to check to see if you have a blackjack?" He smiled and said, "I don't have a blackjack." I was experiencing heat at that casino from my session with the previous dealer, and when I got up to leave the cheater followed me to the next table! I played ONE hand again with him and he got another BJ right away. I got mad at him and left. "You leaving?" "I've had enough of you and your blackjacks." The player in 1st asked if he had been doing this at the other table, and I said yes.
-One dealer was very experienced but not cheating... very much. I won with her (I was stashing my green chips in my purse when she & the pit boss weren't looking inbetween shuffles to avoid heat), but for the 2 hours I was there no one got ANY blackjacks... except for the man in third base. He got at least ten. I think I was just lucky to go along for that ride. The dealers hands were normal.
-My boyfriend and I were at the stratosphere and there was a nerdy sort of dealer there that was pretty much asking for tips in exchange for good hands. We had figured this out after we were down a ways. I was at 1st and my boyfriend was next to me. When we both had tips out, the dealer would ask us what cards we had, and did his magic. He usually dealt us stiff hands and then made up the difference to 20 or 21. He must have been dealing 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, etc to be able to work his hand, my hand, and my boyfriend's hand, and the cards weren't coming out all that smoothly... "I have to remember not to use sticky glue before coming to work," he said. When we quit after a few hands of this, he was upset that we were leaving; we weren't sure what his motives were, and whether or not the situation was in our favor.
-An older asian woman at Circus Circus (every single one was cheating there on Sunday) who was not cheating Friday decided to cheat me when I found her again on Sunday. My boyfriend and I tipped and we got 21 and 20 against her 19, everyone else lost. When we didn't tip we lost. "How you win if you don't tip?" she said. And that's when we left. I thought she was a sweet old lady, but I was wrong. Cheater.
-I played head on with another older asian woman at Circus Circus dealt herself about 5 BJs in 7 hands. She must've thought I was friggin stupid. Well, maybe, since it took 7 hands for me to get mad enough to leave. No wonder that table was empty. She'd cheat her own grandkids.
-Then there was the normal stuff we've learned to watch out for. One male cheater was wearing a fancy ring with a big blue rock in it at Circus Circus. Some of them you could hear the shh-flap noise of 2nd dealing. About all of them wore watches. Most of them NEVER BUSTED. All of them consistantly got 18-21 on the first couple rounds. Also, all of them held the deck at an angle, used their thumb to deal, and when they dealt their hole card they straightened the fingers on their right hand, almost cupped the deck, and even though I was always watching for it, I could never actually SEE them doing any thing wrong. I swear my face was like a foot away from the deck but I could never actually see it happening, but whatever it was it was suspicious and none of the honest dealers (all 4 of them) dealt like that. Sure saw the effects, though. Also, I don't know if it is procedure or not, but whenever someone colored in or up or otherwise made the dealer touch the chip rack at the end of a shuffle, they would always shuffle first before dealing with the chips, which meant they had the deck in their hand while they were picking up chips. Possibly enabling them to take a few peeks?
Then I got a new, inexperienced dealer and was reminded that dealers do actually bust sometimes, and don't always have hands totalling 19-21. From then on we were very careful. We'd watch at least two shuffles before sitting down. If they always got a 18-21 on their first hands then they were cheating. We learned the hard way that that doesn't happen. (My boyfriend and I could even start guessing pretty accurately what the dealer's hole card was!) And if I wasn't sure, I'd sit down for one or two hands, lose both times, then grumble about it and leave. I got a couple non-cheating dealers, but the reasons were:
1. One was frail looking and said her hands hurt, her little hands couldn't manipulate the 2 decks, but they sure did the next time I played with her with 1 deck.
2. One had a headache and complained about how she wanted to go home.
3. One I suspected was helping the man at 3rd base get all the BJs.
4. One was inexperienced.
Total: 4 honest dealers out of the whole strip + downtown out of the entire weekend? WTF?! It is very discouraging! I never liked shoe games, but when we gave up on handheld and started playing shoe, it was such a relief to see what the dealers hands are really supposed to look like!
I'm curious to hear if anyone else had similar experiences this weekend.
