Aug 20, 2016 If you want to play online blackjack with a live dealer, I highly recommend Mr Green Online Casino. I never recommend live casinos I haven't played at myself for real money.
If a game’s been invented, then someone’s tried to invent a way to beat that game. While uncommon and difficult, cheating at the casino does happen. It’s less common than it was in the early days of Las Vegas and Atlantic City, before casinos became more heavily regulated with more sophisticated surveillance equipment and techniques.
Nevada State law defines cheating as “to alter the elements of chance, method of selection or criteria which determine the amount or frequency of payment in a game, the value of a wagering instrument, or the value of a wagering credit.”
The real question is who is cheating whom; is it the blackjack players who cheat the casinos or vice versa? Since it takes a cheater to spot a cheater, listed below are methods and terms people use when rigging the game in their favor
Ways Blackjack Dealers Can Cheat Players:
Stacking the deck: A good dealer will have developed the kind of hand dexterity that makes sleight-of-hand manipulation of the cards seem like child’s play. There are many different ways the dealer can affect the outcome of the hand by slipping in the “correct” card at the correct time. Two of the more common methods are dealing from the bottom of the deck or dealing the second card from the top (second dealing). These work when the dealer has had a chance to sneak a peek at the bottom or top card, depending on which method is in use.
The high-low pickup: Another method of stacking or setting the deck is to pick up cards in a round in alternates of high and low cards. A savvy (and sketchy) dealer will have developed a fake shuffle move that keeps the cards in the order the dealer picked them up. Then when the cards are dealt out to players they come in pairs of high and low cards, the type of hands that are more likely to bust.
Swapping hole cards: With quick hands, a dealer may replace a low hole card with a high one, and even if this type of cheating is rare in regulated casinos with decent surveillance, it is probably good strategy to assume the dealer has a ten as the hole card, as a matter of form, since there are more cards with that value than any other in the deck. There are only four cards of each value one through eleven, with the exception of ten. There are twenty cards in a standard deck that count as ten.
Mishandling Money or Chips: A dealer could fail to pay off a winning bet correctly or give the wrong change back. This is not necessarily cheating and could be the result of apathy or inattention. Players can help avoid this and be better at casino games by remaining vigilant.
Holdout shoes and other devices: Since much of the above can be counteracted with shuffling machines and dealer shoes on the part of the casino and keen observation by the player, devices such as holdout shoes are particularly insidious. Nearly identical to a normal dealer shoe, a holdout shoe will second-deal a card. A prism or mirror is positioned in such a way in the shoe that the dealer can see the top card, but no one else can. Other devices use the same basic premise, combining second dealing with a mirrored surface. Some shoes are designed to allow a dealer to shorten the deck as well. Using a holdout shoe or any of these devices is also a sure way to lose a gambling license so that regulated casinos will stay far away from this practice. However, it is best to remember that not every gambling environment is strictly regulated and be certain you know what authority does regulate games before you play.
Pegging: Pegging is a catch-all term that refers to dimpling cards subtly to mark out various high cards. Casinos that change decks frequently make methods of card marking on the part of either the dealer or players a difficult grift to sustain.
Ways players can cheat the game, the dealer, or the casino:
Palm and switch: Grabbing winning cards and swapping them out with losing cards used to be one way in which players could cheat their way into money, but casinos are wary of palming methods and have many eyes trained on the tables, and many casinos will not allow blackjack players to touch the cards, rendering this method obsolete.
Daubing: This one is old and, like the palm and switch, nearly extinct. Daubing is another method of marking cards (see pegging above), but this one uses dirt or ink or whatever is available to mark the high cards. A more high tech variety involves marking cards with a substance only visible with a special kind of eyeglass worn by the cheater.
Two-man teams: Two-man teams have many variations but all involve one person to spot the dealer’s hole card and signal it to the other player who makes playing decisions accordingly.
Spooking: This version of a two-man cheat has the spotter lurk behind the dealer like a ghost or a spook and signal to the player from there.
First Base Play: The spotter sits in the first place that the cards are dealt – first base. The player sits at the anchor or any other later position.
Front Load: To front load is to spot the dealer’s hole card when it is slid over the up card rather than when the dealer peeks at it.
How To Win Casino Blackjack
Card counting and advantage gambling: The number of high cards in the deck – twenty valued at ten (K-10) and four at eleven (the aces) for a total of twenty four out of fifty two cards accounts for nearly half the deck and when you add in the four nines as well than it is just over half the deck. Card counting need not be as complicated as it might seem to the uninitiated, since most methods of card counting involve calculating the ratio of high cards to low cards rather remaining in the deck rather than determining the exact suit or ranking. Whether this is cheating or not is often in the eye of the beholder. Is it a skill to be be developed alongside playing strategies in order to be a better player or is it another way of gaming the system that is itself predicated on the notion that the house ultimately wins? The debate may rage on, but many casinos watch for signs of card counting and will ask you to leave if you are caught and put you on a list. They may even share that list with other casinos. Even if it is not cheating, casinos also have the right to refuse service to anyone.
Improved computers and higher bandwidth broadband connections make it possible to play casino games against live dealers nowadays. For live dealer blackjack, you’ll sit at a table with 7 players and watch as the cards are dealt – generally by an attractive lady! These games have an interactive chat element, and while not quite ‘real’ they are an entertaining gambling experience that was simply not possible until a couple of years ago.
This article explains how live dealer blackjack games work for players who are new to this format. I’ll start with finding and starting your live dealer game – including options for stakes and variations in blackjack rules. Next some information on card-counting is covered – many people incorrectly assume that the live game gives them an opportunity to do this. After that a note about free live dealer blackjack, before I note some of the options available for US-based players.
Playing Real Money Live Dealer Blackjack Games
You’ll find live dealer games at many online casinos these days. I recommend using the download version for these games for a smoother experience. Once you download the casino and click the live dealer blackjack option – you will be taken to a separate lobby listing the tables along with the number of players on each. PlayTech casinos will also show you a picture of the dealer for each table. You can choose to join a waiting list for a specific game or if all the games are full a waiting list for the first seat to open up.
The online live-dealer blackjack tables are played with 7 players against the dealer. This does make them slower than the usual tables you play against the computer – as everyone needs to complete their play before the dealer completes her hand. There is a chat window to the side of each table, where you can interact with the other players. Some tables can get quite sociable, while others are quiet – or stick to compliments for nice hands or big wins.
Stakes are higher than for the standard online games, with a minimum of $5 and table maximum ranging from $50 up. Remember that you need some extra chips for when you have the potential for doubling-down or splitting hands. Since the dealer wages and setup of the live casino is an extra overhead for the casinos, these higher stakes help to balance their books.
I recommend you make sure you have a fast and stable broadband connection before you sit down to play live dealer blackjack. The only thing more annoying than having to repeatedly wait for a player with connection issues to act is to be that player who is disconnecting yourself!
Blackjack Dealer Training
Live Dealer Blackjack – Can I Count Cards?
Card counting has been around since the early 1960’s and involves keeping track of the proportion of small to large cards in the deck. When the big cards are the majority, a skilled player can turn the house edge into an edge of their own – and will increase their bet sizes to make a profit.
With modern live-dealer online blackjack games, 8 decks are used. With so many decks getting what is known as a good ‘true count’ is very hard. What methods like the Hi Opt 1 and Hi-Lo System do, is to divide the running count by the number of decks remaining. It is very rare to get a good enough count to make a profit when you have to divide by 6 or 7 each time. To make sure this stays difficult, live dealer blackjack games reshuffle the decks after 4 decks have been dealt.
Even if you did succeed in getting a positive true count, your sudden increase in bet sizes would be so obvious that you would be instantly caught.
As much as I’d like the answer to be otherwise, these games are simply not suitable for card counting players.
Free Live Dealer Blackjack Games
Since the casinos have to pay their dealers, you can’t play live dealer blackjack for play chips at the current time. Instead, I recommend that you use the welcome bonuses and free chip offers handed to loyal players as part of comps schemes to check out the live dealer games.
How To Play Blackjack
You’ll need to check the terms of your bonus first, as many casinos do not allow free play with bonus chips in these games. For those that do, you can check out the action with the casino’s money – and only use your own if you enjoy the game. With a solid strategy, you should be able to keep the house edge under 1% in this game – which makes it ideal for clearing bonuses or meeting play-through requirements on your promotional chips.
Live Dealer Games For US Players
US based players do not have the wide choice of casino software providers available in other geos. Fortunately, there are still some solid options based offshore who are welcoming US players into their live dealer games. Two big name brands where you can find live-dealer blackjack action are BetOnline and 5Dimes. As the states individually allow online gambling with their own legislation, the number of casinos offering these games can only increase.