 |
| Must be Ash! |
There is a cheat.... it's so simple...... And it's only been successfully used against me twice in my career. And it will never happen again.
It's called a shot, and the worst offender of this move became my target, and the reason it's never going to happen again. It's extremely simple. Get the dealer to do something against standard procedure, then claim the game wasn't dealt properly to either attempt to regain a lost bet, or to get paid when you shouldn't. I've heard of players doing this on $100k hands, but I'm going to focus on one particular player who would literally take a shot every 10 minutes. The casino decided to put only the strongest and most experienced dealers on his game. Aaaaaaaand I got him for my whole shift a few times. Let's call him Ash, and you'll know why in a minute.
Ash's game was pitch double deck. Due to him fighting with other players, he was told he could only play by himself. (Ash was a regular player, and would lose 10k on a daily basis, so the casino would try to keep him.)
He had three favorite moves to mess the dealer up. First, he would make verbal requests for hits. Policy states that a player must scratch the table with their cards to receive a hit, or tuck the cards under the bet to stand. We did not accept verbal requests because surveillance couldn't verify it. So a new dealer (or maybe a tired dealer who didn't know Ash) would give him a card from a verbal request, and if Ash didn't like the card he would say he never asked for a card and to call surveillance. The camera never saw a hit, so either the hand (that he would have lost) gets pushed or the hand plays out where he might have a chance to win. He never did this with me, but did it to a few co-workers.
Shot number 2 was Ash placing his cards next to his bet, (not tucked under but very close) in hopes the dealer would expose the under card. When an unfavorable outcome would happen, Ash would claim he didnt stay, but set his cards down to think. Either the floor would kill the hand entirely, or back the cards up allowing Ash to have a chance at winning. This happened quite a few times with other dealers, and once with me. And it was the last shot he every had on my game. Which leads me to his last major shot.
And this is purely evil, and a testament to this player's devotion to scamming. Ash was a very heavy smoker. Probably 4 packs from the start of my shift to the end (all comped by the casino). He would miss the ashtray regularly. And with ashes on the table, he would use his cards to clean a spot of ash, making it look like he wanted a hit. When he was delivered a card he would claim that he didn't hit, and that he was cleaning up the the table. The floors would always ask the shift manager, and the shift manager always gave the player the shot.
Then I showed up. I became his dealer. He could only play with me. I was Ash´s babysitter. He tried getting away with everything, and I shut him down every time. I would stand there for 5 minutes waiting for a signal. He would repeatedly ask for a hit and I would just look at him with a dead stare and say, "we do not accept verbal requests, sir."
He would put his cards down, and I would wait for them to get tucked. We would both be locked to a stalemate until he made the proper move. I would clean up the ashes on the table before he did anything. I kept tissues on the side to clean everything up to make all the space by him clear. And then, on my last day at that casino, I was on his table. He's up to all his old tricks, with a new one. He's trying to "micro scratch." He's scratching the cards so slow and tiny that surveillance might not notice them moving. He's baiting me to give him a card. I didnt do it. And I still won't.
I left that casino a long time ago, but I wonder if he still plays there, trying to mess up the dealer.
MY COMMENT: Great first article to start my new CASINO PERSONNEL PARTICIPATION BLOG! I was quite entertained by this article and the Ash character. I really liked Ash's little ash scam!
Posts
