I finally get around to reading Ian Anderson's "Burning the Tables in Las Vegas". For those that haven't read it yet, this is a masterpiece on how the card counter can camouflage his playing and betting strategies and still maintain some decent EV. So I'm all fired up. I head to the $25 DD game at my local store tonight. The first time the count goes high, the guy next to me has big bet out. So my radar is up - maybe an AP sitting next to me. I watch for a few cycles and it's like clockwork - he's betting $25 min, $25 min....count goes high - he bets $250. Nothing in between. So now I'm thinking ...lighten up Ace, get an act. I came to play a little bit tonight and I don't want to get tossed with you.

So we go like the bobbsey twins for a couple of high counts (this is a very tolerant, player-friendly place, otherwise I would have left the table right away), and we and do very nicely. On one high count climax we all kill it with big bets, splits, doubles, etc. The whole table goes into high-five mode after the dealer busts.

Now the point of the story. This no-act AP sitting next to me decides it's time to make a camo play (better late than never - right?). So on the next hand (low count, min $25 bet) he is dealt a 13 against a dealer 4. He doubles for less ($10). He loses this idiotic bet and tries to make a big show out of it. The slightly overstuffed pit boss waddles over and says that he better be careful because that type of play is the sign of a card counter! The pit boss says that a card counter might take advantage of that double-down play if he knows that there are a lot of small cards left in the deck! Holy back-fire Batman! Of course the AP did his best to point out that a card counter would never do such a thing.

He was out of there after the next hand. Other than winning a few bucks, that's the only thing he did right....