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| Blackjack Counter Measures - Internet Casino Blackjack |
| Blackjack, also known as twenty-one, is one of the most popular casino card games in the world. Its precursor was "vingt-et-un" which originated in French casinos around 1700, and which did not offer the 3:2 bonus for a two-card 21. Much of blackjack's popularity is due to the mix of chance with elements of skill and decision making, and the publicity that surrounds the practice of card counting, a skill with which players can turn the odds of the game in their favor by making betting decisions based on the values of the cards known to remain in the deck. |
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| Blackjack hands are scored by their point total. The hand with the highest total wins as long as it doesn't go over 21, which is called a bust. Cards 2 through 10 are worth their face value, and face cards (jack, queen, king) are also worth 10. An ace counts as 11 unless it would bust a hand, in which case it counts as 1. |
| Blackjack |
Basic Strategy |
Card counting |
Counter Measures |
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| Blackjack Counter Measures |
Casinos can counter card counting by using large quantities of decks in dealing cards. "Shoes" consisting of 6 or 8 decks are common. Increasing the number of decks decreases the tendency of the count to vary widely, offering the card counter fewer opportunities to take advantage of a player-advantageous count.
Player advantage can also be decreased by more frequently shuffling the cards. The shallower the "penetration" (the proportion of the shoe consumed before reshuffling), the less opportunity there is for the count to vary.
However, for the casinos there is a downside to frequent shuffling: It reduces the amount of time that the noncounting players are playing and consequently losing money to the house. It has become common for casinos to use automatic shuffling machines to compensate for this. Some models of shuffling machines shuffle one set of cards while another is in play. Others, known as Continuous Shuffle Machines (CSMs) allow the dealer to simply return used cards to a single shoe to allow playing with no interruption. Because CSMs essentially force minimal penetration, they remove almost all possible advantage of traditional counting techniques. As a result, some blackjack players call for a boycott of tables using CSMs.
Many casual card counters make small mistakes that cost the advantage they gain by counting. Two or three mistakes per hour may give back all of the counter's advantage. Even if you can count perfectly when practicing at home, it is much more difficult in an actual casino. The loud, distracting environments of most casinos, and even the availability of complimentary alcoholic beverages , play roles as casino counter measures.
Casinos also look out for known card counters, who may be banned from play depending on regulatory commission rules. They also look for suspicious actions such as a long series of small bets followed by large one. Monitoring player behavior to assist in this identification falls to on-floor casino personnel ("pit bosses") and central security personnel who may use video surveillance ("the eye in the sky ") as well as computer analysis to try to spot playing behavior indicative of card counting; early counter strategies featured the dealer learning to count the cards themselves to recognise the patterns in the players. In addition, many casinos employ the services of various agencies who claim to have a catalog of advantage players. If a player is found to be in the Griffin Book or Biometrica, he will almost certainly be stopped from play and asked to leave regardless of his table play. For successful card counters, therefore, skill at "cover" behavior to hide counting to avoid "drawing heat" and possibly being barred, may be just as important as playing skill.
Casinos may alter the game's dynamic against card counters by raising the minimum or lowering the limit on a table with a suspected counter, or by reshuffling sooner than the normal end of the shoe if they think that the player is offering a large bet on a positive count.
There have been some high-profile lawsuits involving whether the casino is allowed to bar card-counters. Essentially, card-counting, if done in your head and with no outside assistance with devices or additional people, is not illegal, as working figures within one's own mind is not an arrestable offence. Using an outside aid, though, is illegal. However, the casinos despise counters and, if permitted by their jurisdiction, may ban counters from their casinos; in Nevada, where the casinos are ruled to be private places, the only prerequisite to a ban is the full reading of the Trespass Act to ban a player for life. Some skilled counters try to disguise their identities and playing habits; however, some casinos have claimed that facial recognition software can often match a camouflaged face with a banned one. Whether this is true is unknown.
Most casinos now hire consulting firms to help them track card counters.
Finally, the simplest countermeasure the casinos use in order to thwart card counting is simply to offer an inferior blackjack payoff of 6:5 instead of the standard 3:2. 6:5 blackjack is over eight times worse mathematically for the player than in a typical game with a regular payoff, expert player and novice alike cannot beat the game as a practical matter. The casinos offer this game using a single deck, which attracts players who think this gives them an advantage, when in fact the benefit of a single deck is outweighed several times over by the short blackjack payoff. |
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