Blackjack Cheating

What's the best method of live blackjack cheating?

We all know that blackjack card-counting is no longer considered cheating in any casino venue, at least not any that I know of. There are also other blackjack advantage play techniques that have passed below the bar that constitutes cheating in casinos. These are mostly the shuffle and ace tracking methods and their accompanying "steering" devices by which skilled practitioners of these plays use multiple-hand play to steer aces and tens into key hands off the first deal out of the card shoe. Early on, some jurisdictions considered those tricks illegal and actually arrested players caught doing it. But now, advantage players can do just about anything they want with not only their brains but also with their eyes to gain an edge on blackjack tables.

The fine line between advantage play and cheating is crossed when a player uses other parts of his body to gain the edge, mainly his hands but sometimes his feet as well. In short, anything done to observe and tally the cards at blackjack is not cheating. But anything done to gain an advantage through touch (except inserting the cut card) is most likely cheating. This includes, of course, marking cards, bending cards or any fashion of altering the cards even in the slightest way. And don't forget, cards can be marked in face-up shoe games where the players are not permitted to touch the cards after they are dealt from the shoe. I have seen players mark the cards through many ingenious means, one of which was a player gently touching cards with a chip that he gave to the dealer as a tip in the same motion, adding a "Thanks for the good cards" to further distract the dealers. The result was that the chip left a tiny nick in the center of the card that he could see when that card later appeared at the top of the shoe ready to be dealt.

So, what's the best method of cheating at blackjack?

It is still chip manipulation. Messing with the cards will get you caught and in a lot more trouble faster than messing with the chips. Good ol' pastposting and bet pressing when done right is the safest way to riches at the blackjack table, but unless you're really good and have perfected your craft, don't dare go out and try it. On the other side of the coin...or I should say chip...pinching or dragging, which is pulling chips off your bet when you've lost or think you're about to lose, is a little more dangerous.

If you want to see some good videos of some good bet pressing and bet pinching moves, check out You Tube