RetiredBlackjackGuy: MN and WI conditions?

[alienated]

How many times do you see a post saying something to the effect of "Humble and Cooper's book is pretty good, just ignore the complete paranoia over cheating..."? I really think cheating is far more widespread than many players seem to believe. I'm not about to go into details any more than you did (actually, I would never post an even slightly accurate description of anything real that has ever happened to me in a casino, no matter how long ago), but I have no doubts I have come up against cheating, including in jurisdictions where the very suggestion might seem fanciful to many. The tough part, of course, is that unless the cheat is unusually incompetent and, say, stumbles over cards while turning your prospective pat twenty and doubling opportunity into two stiffs, we are unlikely to spot the mechanic's critical moves. The dealer following us from one table to another is actually a god-send - one of the few easily discernible tipoffs - and only a fool would not heed it.

[Parker]

> ... a dealer hops around a casino, following
> you (a known counter in a region where it's
> illegal to bar counters) from table to
> table, pit to pit, with the regular dealers
> leaving and returning on cue. And let's say
> each time this fellow (who gives great
> pen, BTW) starts dealing to you, you lose
> 90+% of hands. You start betting table
> minimum, and hop from table to table for
> another 90 minutes, just to see what
> happens. Pattern continues. SD is over 4 to
> the left of the curve. You get to play
> dealers other than Mr. Razzle-dazzle a total
> of less than 20 minutes on 13 different
> tables.

> Would you think, "Gee, they must really
> LIKE COUNTERS here, since they sent this guy
> with really good pen to follow me around
> constantly??"

It's no secret that I'm generally pretty skeptical of accusations of dealer cheating. However, one thing that immediately arouses my suspicions is any variation in the normal rotation of dealers at the tables.

What you describe is beyond suspicious, it is downright bizarre.