In recent publications on Casinoz, we discussed how you could guess the value of the hole dealer's card in blackjack by analyzing his behavior. It was about the varieties of blackjack where the dealer takes two cards, opens only one of them, and checks the second one if the face-up card is an ace, king, queen, jack, or ten.
The methods discussed in that article do not allow us to know with absolute accuracy what card the dealer has, so some players prefer more reliable methods, not worrying about their legitimacy.
History of Hole Carding
The art of checking the dealer's hole card began to develop immediately after opening legal casinos and introducing blackjack to them. In the thirties of the twentieth century, there appeared the first cheaters who mastered these techniques in many American casinos. Then, blackjack was played with a single deck the dealer had in his hand.
Electronic card readers, which check dealers' cards, appeared only in the nineties, and not all casinos still use them. All this continues to provide the opportunity to practice the illegal skills of cheaters.
Before, the bottom card of the dealer was checked in two main ways.
- The first was that one of the cheaters sat behind the dealer at another gaming table. He chose a position to see the same as the dealer sees when he looks at his cards. He somehow notified his companions, playing at this table if he succeeded. Then they could only adjust their game. Knowing the dealer's first two cards, it's easy to do.
- The second method allowed seeing the dignity of the secured card of the dealer when he took it from the deck and shoved it under the first card. Scammers looked for a dealer who raised cards high above the table. Then one of the cheaters held the position of one of the last boxes depending on the dealer's style.
Typically, these cheaters tried to hide their eyes behind dark glasses or caps so that a dealer could not recognize what they were doing. Also, they had to stoop low to the table to look at the card. To accomplish this, they had to be very creative and artistic. In some cases, they peeped at the hole card of the dealer's hands in half. With this information, it is practically impossible to lose.
Hole Carding in Modern Casinos
You may think that when almost all reputable casinos have electronic readers and dealers do not need to determine the dignity of the hole card, such cheating disappears. Yet, it is not so—the most experienced and professional cheaters. Still, successfully use the second method described above and seek out dealers with imperfect techniques.
Moreover, some of them use technical means. For example, a miniature camera inserted into rings or watches. With its help, you can easily see the dealer's cards not only in blackjack but also in stud poker or oasis.
Cheaters use such tricks for spying cards without technical means not to meet serious accusations.
In extreme cases, they may be asked to leave the casino. After all, they only use the dealer's mistakes, not pushing him to commit them, and without agreeing with him. That is, it is not a violation of generally accepted rules of the casino.
Thus, without actually violating the law, professional teams of cheaters regularly win at casinos much more than the best card counters. Anything that can make the casino install card readers requires dealers to work more carefully or opt out of such varieties of blackjack. The last method is the only one that will undoubtedly help in this situation.
