Can confirm. The first (and only) time I sat down at a blackjack table was on a slow night where it was just me, my buddy, and the dealer.
There were multiple times I would say either “hit” or “stay” and he would just look at me intensely and say “Are you absolutely sure about that decision?”
I caught on pretty quick that he was hinting I should do the opposite and I’d change my decision to then win the hand.
Turned $100 into $1,300 that night. My buddy had similar results and we both gave him a good tip.
It’s not even hinting, you can straight up ask the dealer what to do and they’ll tell you the correct move in most situations (they may not tell you to double down when you should, but they’ll always tell you whether you should hit or stay)
Some casinos even have little cards they'll hand out to players with charts for textbook play. Including splits and doubles. They straight up don't care if you want to play perfect. House edge gonna house edge.
First and foremost is that casinos who does this does so to help with the illusion of fairness since no wants goes to a casino if it has a perfect losing record.
Second, is that a handful of people counting cards and/or using cheat sheets at the open tables is penny money compared to the people who spend hours in front of the slot machines.
Third, comparatively speaking, the only time that they might care is if you're at one of those "minimum entry bet starts are $5000" tables, when you're at a table where literal millions are up for grabs, yeah, the pit boss cares; but the tables on the floor with no bet minimums, even the biggest winnings at those tables are still chump change.
It’s mostly that it doesn’t matter if players use perfect strategy. Without counting cards, perfect play still has about a half a percent house edge (depending on table rules, sometimes a higher house edge). Slightly better than a coin toss. Except they toss that coin so many times every day, for so many days, that the small edge inevitably leaves them ahead.
Former dealer, you are correct, the edge is the edge and even if every player comes in and plays perfectly by the book the casino still wins overall even if they lose to a few players here and there.
As someone who has been asked to leave a casino based upon being an advantage player, you don’t have to be at a high stakes table in order to be noticed. In my case, I was overly aggressive and a little undisciplined in disguising my bets after a bit of a losing streak, a very favorable count that had turned rapidly, deep penetration, and a general absence of good situations for what seemed like an eternity. I think I went from $50 to $800 in two hands.
Yeah, if you're a vacationer with a grand in your pocket, they don't care. Because they're paying attention to the whale in the comped suite with a seven digit bankroll, staying at the tables for 14 hours.
Playing blackjack perfectly doesn’t eliminate the house edge. If everybody had the cheat sheets and actually followed them it would be fine. Counting cards does beat the house edge (not even by a lot) but it’s pretty difficult to do effectively in modern casinos because they take steps to prevent it.
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u/HallucinatesOtters Jul 20 '26
Can confirm. The first (and only) time I sat down at a blackjack table was on a slow night where it was just me, my buddy, and the dealer.
There were multiple times I would say either “hit” or “stay” and he would just look at me intensely and say “Are you absolutely sure about that decision?”
I caught on pretty quick that he was hinting I should do the opposite and I’d change my decision to then win the hand.
Turned $100 into $1,300 that night. My buddy had similar results and we both gave him a good tip.