It seems like a long shot, but....

[blackjackomaha]

Does casino management instruct colleagues or employees to play at tables with the sole intent to strike a conversation with a suspected AP and attempt to siphon personal information out?

[Baberuth]

An AP would never give that info so it would be a waste of time. A good eye could do much more.

[blackjackomaha]

An AP would never give that info so it would be a waste of time. A good eye could do much more.

Correct. It most likely was an over-reaching ploppy. But he was persistently always asking "are you from around here?" "what do you do for a living?" "have you played blackjack before?". On top of that, he was always alerting the floor "omg look he is splitting 10's against X" or "wow, you act like you're dumb but you always know what to do."

After ignoring or giving him false information for a while, we told him to shut up and mind his own business. He left for 45 minutes...came back...asked no questions and did not play, yet was sitting and watching for another 15-20 minutes, and then eventually left.

Seemed odd to me.

[Al Mucous]

Correct. It most likely was an over-reaching ploppy. But he was persistently always asking "are you from around here?" "what do you do for a living?" "have you played blackjack before?". On top of that, he was always alerting the floor "omg look he is splitting 10's against X" or "wow, you act like you're dumb but you always know what to do."

After ignoring or giving him false information for a while, we told him to shut up and mind his own business. He left for 45 minutes...came back...asked no questions and did not play, yet was sitting and watching for another 15-20 minutes, and then eventually left.

Seemed odd to me.

Sounds almost as if this person had business at the table question and found you to be interfering with same.

[flyingwind]

Shills. Better to play it safe.
Even if it's just a strange ploppy, get rid of them to avoid the unwanted attention (which you did).

[Ouchez]

BJO

Sounds very fishy to me................proceed with caution.

Ouchez

[metronome]

Yeah... sounds fishy... really weird behavior.
I woulda' been lookin' over my shoulder in the parking garage when I left.
Remember, if your gut feels odd, it probably is odd.

[Memphis10Tigers]

Yeah... sounds fishy... really weird behavior.
I woulda' been lookin' over my shoulder in the parking garage when I left.
Remember, if your gut feels odd, it probably is odd.

Not necessarily true...I've had that feeling before, but I was just hungry.

[Lowrider]

Next time hit on him..be vulgar...tell him what you want to do him upstairs in your room...tell him you'll pay big bucks to do some really nasty painful things...that should take care of it

[somtum]

Playing at the Beau Rivage down in Mississippi a dealer once told me that his former employer, the Belligio trained him as well as other dealers to card count while dealing. If he suspected the player of CC, his job at the Belligio was to make as much conversation as possible to distract the player.

[Ouchez]

Playing at the Beau Rivage down in Mississippi a dealer once told me that his former employer, the Belligio trained him as well as other dealers to card count while dealing. If he suspected the player of CC, his job at the Belligio was to make as much conversation as possible to distract the player.

Somtum,
I wonder what he meant by "trained"? The cost of training in business is very expensive and I doubt any casino would spend the money to make this even a slightly worthwhile venture. Most likely a 20 minute meeting of the most rudimentary CC topics.

I have met very few dealers that knew much about even the basics of correct BJ play and those who say they count while dealing are mostly full of S##t. Also keep in mind counting alone will get you no where, it is what you do with those numbers, that is the "SKILLZ" factor.

I have met many dealers that I liked and some I could not stand, but the vast majority know nothing even close to what you or I or many more on this board bring to the table.

Ouchez

[moo321]

Playing at the Beau Rivage down in Mississippi a dealer once told me that his former employer, the Belligio trained him as well as other dealers to card count while dealing. If he suspected the player of CC, his job at the Belligio was to make as much conversation as possible to distract the player.

Name and shift? And could the guy actually count? There's one half-sharp asian male floor down there on day shift.

[somtum]

Name and shift? And could the guy actually count? There's one half-sharp asian male floor down there on day shift.

Hey Moo,

Don't recall that information as it was over a year ago. The good news is that i'm pretty sure this dealer was more on the players side. The original conversation began when he said something during the middle of a game in a very low count such as "Wow! a lot of 10's so far .. 22 10's have already been dealt." (This was in a DD game) Another player asked the dealer "How do you know how many 10's have been played." He responded that while working at the Belligio him and some other dealers were trained to count cards using the Hi-lo system in order to spot counters. I didn't say anything but I thought .. how could he know the exact number of 10's using hi-lo unless he was side counting them.

He said now.. keeping count and dealing has just become a habit wherever he goes. He also stated" When counting you have such a small edge. I don't see why casinios make such a big deal about it. If a player is able to do it.. I say more power to em'. Good for them."

I wanted to get more of a feel, and see how much truth there was to what he was saying... Some point later, the count rapidly jumped and I synchronized the count with my bet. I had previously been betting 1 or 2 units as there was nothing that called for a larger bet before this. The dealer looked a little surprised.. and said "Oh, you decided to jump up your bet on this one"... I got the feeling that he might have some suspicion about me but yet maybe he doesn't really care and I wasn't convinced yet of his skills.

Now sometime later, I had a large bet.. the count was very high and I had 16 vs 7. I stopped to think for a bit as it was a close call. I said out loud.. "I hate 16's.. I know i'm going to bust" and proceeded to take a hit and I did bust. Then the dealer replied "You know I think I might have stayed on that one"

Also, as he dealt to me the next day I made a comment stating that I was down trying to get back even. He replied "Don't worry.. just keep practicing.. you'll make it back in the long run"..