There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

By Carl Van Eton

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"There's a sucker born every minute," is a phrase allegedly coined by world-class showman P.T. Barnum.  While Barnum's business revolved around the circus, old P.T. would have fit right into the avaricious world of casino gaming.  Like it or not, the casinos are all about getting players to let their guard down.  Everything from the color of the carpets to the use of chips, not to mention free drinks, is designed to seperate players from their money.  No amount of glitz and glamour can do more than gloss over the fact that when you get right down to it, every casino is nothing more than a giant Hoover vacuum cleaner that tries its best to plug its snout into your wallet.

Of course, it doesn't help that most players make the casino's job easy by playing games that they know little or nothing about.  Whether it's a greenhorn player that wanders over to the roulette wheel, or a craps player who insists on betting the prop bets, most players are sheep that are sure to get sheered.


Even worse are systems players who think that a betting progression is going to save the day, or make them a fortune.  These misguided souls think that by betting more after a win, or by doubling up after a loss, they can keep the hounds of insolvency at bay.  What they don't realize is anytime you use progressive wagering against a negative expectation game, all you are going to do is tap out faster. That's why pit bosses love system players.

Is Blackjack Any Better?

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Anyone who knows anything about casino games knows that blackjack is a better bet, right?  I mean,
the game of 21 is the only game in the casino where the player is not up against a fixed house edge.  Heck, sometimes when the dealer is wheeling out the cards, it is the players who have the edge.  So why do so many blackjack players get taken to the cleaners on a regular basis?  Because there's more than one way to skin a player.

Poker players for the most part are savvy as to what constitutes an honest game.  The next time you
visit a casino, wander over to the poker pit and make like a railbird.  Note how many times every dealer riffles a single deck.  They are all trained to riffle the cards precisely six times.  Not four and not seven.  Why six?  Becasue that's how many times it takes to randomize the deck.  Try to shortsheet the players during the shuffle in any poker pit and gunfire is likely to erupt.  That's becasue  poker player won't abide a cheater, especially when it comes to the dealer.

You Can't Beat a Cheat

Next, saunter over to the blackjack pit and take a look at the way they shuffle a shoe.. That is, if you can see the shuffle at all.  Many casinos use roboshufflers where you can't see what is being done to the cards.  Even if you do see a manual shuffle, I'll bet you the dealer isn't riffling six times.  You're lucky if they riffle three times.  Yet this doesn't seem to phase the players. Nope, they'll line up like good little lemmings looking for the nearest cliff.  Then they'll wonder why the dealer seems to hardly ever bust.

While an insufficient shuffle is not good for the players, I have yet to hear one complain.  The worst thing is that this is hardly the only way a casino can cheat the players.  Ever watch where the dealer puts the cut card?  It is rare that the house will deal more than four decks into a six deck game.  That means that even if the players do get an edge during a shoe, there is a 33.3% pobability that they will never see the big cards.  Now the pit boss will have you beliee that they do this to protect the house against card counters.  But in reality only one player in a thousand knows how to count cards.  The real reason the casinos do it is because most blackjack players will play any game you put in front of them.

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One of the first things I teach my students is how to scout a casino.  By looking at a number of factors like depth of penetration, shuffle and rules, a knowledgeable player can weed out the clip joints from a playable game.  This tactic is so important that we teach this to basic strategy players who know nothing about counting.  It's crucial to every player's success or failure at the blackjack table.

Many times when I walk into a casino, I am appalled by what I see.  I have encountered casinos that deal from two shoes; a blue shoe and a red show.  What this means is if by the grace of God you happen to win while playing the blue shoe, what do you think the odds are that you will beat the red one as well?  The very virtue of a shoe is that the prevailing conditions can continue for some time. The biggest wins I ever amassed were by sitting through shoe after shoe where the dealer busted two out of three hands.  This can't happen if the players let the casinos swap shoes on them.

Of course, my grads and I would never play in a casino where the house tried to pull a fast one on us. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the majority of players.  The majority of blackjack players either don't know or they don't care.  Somehow I think I can hear the ghost of P.T. Barnum chuckling.

Want to learn more?  Carl Van Eton has more than 20 years of professional playing experience.  If you want to stop visiting your money every time you go to the casinos, check out his website at http://biggameblackjack.com