Hi all,

I just got back from a casino where something rather unexpected happened. I had been backcounting for some time while pretending to watch TV at the nearby sports bar. A high count developed and I wonged in, bet big, and won the first hand. The dealer smiled and passed me my winnings, saying something to the effect of, "I like your style. A count of +14, I knew you would be coming in strong." I was a bit taken aback from this--at this particular shop, most dealers never mention anything about counting, and if they do, they tend to have some sort of grave misconception about it, thinking that someone who counts can predict every card that comes out. At any rate, I just chuckled a bit and said, "Man, if I could count, trust me, I wouldn't be working 80 hours a week at my ****ty job." I then tried to steer the conversation with the dealer and the drunk players next to me to the sports game that was on.

The count remained high, and I thought that the way I handled it put him off the scent, but a few hands later he has an Ace showing. I put up my insurance, and he nods, saying, "Good call, count's way higher than plus 3 now." He doesn't have it, but I have an eleven. He then says, "It's ok, you're bound to get this double down." I do, and all I can do is smile and high-five the drunks next to me, pretending that I just got lucky. Anyway, the count drops dramatically the next few hands, so I say that I need to meet my buddy at the poker tables and I wong out. The dealer winks at me at me as I collect my chips and get the hell out of dodge.

My questions:
1) Do you think I handled this correctly? I really didn't know how to respond in this situation other than to joke around. If I tried to claim to not know what he was talking about completely "i.e. What do you mean, what's counting?", I feel like it wouldn't be credible, as card counting has been in the media for awhile now.
2) The dealer really did seem like a friendly enough guy. I don't think he was trying to intimidate me or extort tips, but I wasn't about to out myself. Do you think he was trying to get a read on me, or was he just a dealer who happened to know how to count? Have you guys ever met a dealer like this?
3) From what I just described, do you think I should avoid the shop for awhile? I didn't catch any heat from the bosses, no suits confronted me or anything like that, and like I said, I don't think he would rat me out or something. Am I just being paranoid?

Any advice is welcome.