I don't think coolers or clumping are necessarily as an explanation.

A week or so ago I tried to show my wife how powerful BS was compared to just guessing with a kitchen table demonstration. She knew almost nothing about BJ. Simple plan, I gave her $5 in chips and she was going to gamble them away. Then I was going to play with $5 using only BS and she would marvel at the power of gambling math!

Uh....

She won and she won and she won. She started with 50 chips and an hour later we quit when she had 300 (my chips ran out).

She made almost every bad call you can think of, standing when she should have hit, hitting when she should have stood, etc. etc.

She actually wanted to quit. I must have looked glum as my chips (and money) dwindled. I wanted to keep playing to demonstrate that "streaks" are only in the imagination, and to get my money back...

If I'd been watching the game I'd have sworn that the deck was rigged or she was cheating in some way.

As the dealer I can tell you there was no cheating. Single deck, frequent double riffle shuffles, all the best rules minus surrender and insurance (I wanted to keep it simple).

It was unbelievable, and I'm glad I saw it with my own eyes.

Anyway, a relentless one hour winning or losing "streak" doesn't need gaffed shoes, daubed cards or prisms in ice cubes. Sh!t really does happen.