Arundo: Losing streak

[Arundo]

I have a question regarding how to tell the difference between a legitimate losing streak and cheating. I am not claiming I was cheated. I am 99.9999% sure I was not. However, it did get me thinking about the things a casino could do to you. I was playing at a smaller Mississippi casino yesterday, and I walked in early in the morning, still on the grave shift, and managed to get a heads-up 6D game with decent rules and 75% or so pen. The count went up immediately, but never got really high. It stayed in the TC +3-+4 range for a long time before going down, and I lost most of my bets because the dealer never busted. In fact, he busted only once during the entire shoe. I will again say that I don't think I was cheated. But, how can you tell if the casino has stacked the shoe with a bunch of extra small cards? Wong says that if the TC gets up to +10, you should seriously question it. Would a casino be more tempted to risk doing this on the last couple days of a month if their bottom line on BJ hasn't been good enough? Any ideas or comments about this?

Thanks-I am getting a lot out of this website!

[Brick]

If the running count continuously gets high,stays there shoe after shoe, and never seems to go into negative territory, then this is a good iindication of a stacked shoe.

I doubt if you were cheated. I experience what happened to you all the time. It's just a typical bad swing.

Brick

> I have a question regarding how to tell the
> difference between a legitimate losing
> streak and cheating. I am not claiming I was
> cheated. I am 99.9999% sure I was not.
> However, it did get me thinking about the
> things a casino could do to you. I was
> playing at a smaller Mississippi casino
> yesterday, and I walked in early in the
> morning, still on the grave shift, and
> managed to get a heads-up 6D game with
> decent rules and 75% or so pen. The count
> went up immediately, but never got really
> high. It stayed in the TC +3-+4 range for a
> long time before going down, and I lost most
> of my bets because the dealer never busted.
> In fact, he busted only once during the
> entire shoe. I will again say that I don't
> think I was cheated. But, how can you tell
> if the casino has stacked the shoe with a
> bunch of extra small cards? Wong says that
> if the TC gets up to +10, you should
> seriously question it. Would a casino be
> more tempted to risk doing this on the last
> couple days of a month if their bottom line
> on BJ hasn't been good enough? Any ideas or
> comments about this?

> Thanks-I am getting a lot out of this
> website!

[Count of Montecristo]

One thing you can do is to keep a side count of fives from the beginning of the shoe. If a casino were to stack the deck with low cards, the five is the most likely card they would add in. I have actually had two instinces where I thought they might be adding low cards to the shoe. One was in an Indian casino; I decided to sit out a shoe and watch a friend of mine play while I counted the fives. It was 6 decks with 4.5 dealt out. I counted 22 "5's" in that shoe so I decided to count the next shoe and there were 21 "5's" dealt in the 4.5 decks. I suppose there could have been only 2 "5's" left in that first shoe's remaining deck and a half but I don't know, so I chalked it up as inconclusive. The second instince, I'm sure they added fives. It was in one of those mob club games posing as a charity game. They dealt out 4 of 6 decks and during those 4 decks I side counted the "5's" while playing. I ended up counting 23 of the possible 24 "5's". Amazingly enough, I did end up on the positive side for the shoe and a half I played but even if I didn't I certainly wasn't going to make a stink about it. Your question does however lead me to a question I've always wondered about that I'd like to hear some opinions on; If you know for sure that they have added fives to the shoe, is there a way to turn the tables on the casino? In other words, could you adjust your index #s and maybe hit a 13 vs 2, 16 vs 10, 12 vs 5,6 etc.. at +1 or so and still get any kind of advantage?

> I have a question regarding how to tell the
> difference between a legitimate losing
> streak and cheating. I am not claiming I was
> cheated. I am 99.9999% sure I was not.
> However, it did get me thinking about the
> things a casino could do to you. I was
> playing at a smaller Mississippi casino
> yesterday, and I walked in early in the
> morning, still on the grave shift, and
> managed to get a heads-up 6D game with
> decent rules and 75% or so pen. The count
> went up immediately, but never got really
> high. It stayed in the TC +3-+4 range for a
> long time before going down, and I lost most
> of my bets because the dealer never busted.
> In fact, he busted only once during the
> entire shoe. I will again say that I don't
> think I was cheated. But, how can you tell
> if the casino has stacked the shoe with a
> bunch of extra small cards? Wong says that
> if the TC gets up to +10, you should
> seriously question it. Would a casino be
> more tempted to risk doing this on the last
> couple days of a month if their bottom line
> on BJ hasn't been good enough? Any ideas or
> comments about this?

> Thanks-I am getting a lot out of this
> website!