Even though blackjack offers some of the best odds in the casino there are those who still find it necessary to attempt cheating in order to win. Throughout the years many individuals have used a variety of creative methods to try and cheat at blackjack.

Early Methods of Blackjack Cheating

In the earliest days of blackjack, back when the game was played in the old west saloons of Arizona and California, the most common form of cheating was to conceal an ace or to score the deck. Scoring the deck was using an object, most often a fingernail, to make a small indentation in a card so that it could be easily recognized when it was dealt. Remember, in these early days of blackjack all the games were dealt with a single deck. If a player could mark an ace or a ten-value card so that it could be recognized, he would know when the dealer held those cards.

Concealing aces or tens was rarer in blackjack than in poker, but it did happen occasionally. In this situation a player would simply substitute his concealed card for one in his hand in order to make a total of 21.

When a player was caught cheating in the old west saloons the matter was rarely brought before a judge. Most cheating disputes were settled right there on the saloon floor with one unfortunate individual left dying from a gunshot wound. Whether you were guilty or innocent didn’t matter nearly as much as how fast you could draw your gun.

Modern Blackjack Cheating

With the advent of legalized gambling in Las Vegas, a new generation of cheaters emerged who took great delight in devising new methods of cheating. All gambling games entice cheaters and Las Vegas was one gigantic candy store.

There were many ways that people tried to cheat while playing blackjack, but perhaps the most enduring one was a technique known as pastposting. In pastposting a cheater will slyly add chips to their original wager whenever they have a winning hand.

Here’s how it works, and remember that this description is for informational purposes only. Don’t try this at the casino. The cheater places an original bet, let’s say $10, before the cards are dealt in the standard fashion. The dealer deals the cards and the player sees they have a total of 20. As the dealer is dealing the remaining hands or waiting on the other players to act on their hands, the cheater then adds chips to the original stack. The dealer returns to that player and is unaware that the original bet has been changed.

It may sound improbable, but before the days of high-tech security cameras in the casino pastposting was the most prevalent form of cheating. A few individuals became legendary in how well they were able to pull it off.

Joe Classon, Jerry Palmer, and Dustin Marks all ran successful pastposting teams which cheated the casinos of millions at the blackjack table. These men operated their teams like the famous card counting teams ran by Al Francesco. Their accomplishments paled in comparison, however, with a woman named Sherri Schoons.

Sherri Schoons became famous as one of the most deadly pastposters in the business. She had perfected her pastposting moves to the point where even the sharpest casino dealers and pit bosses could not detect her cheating. Sherri worked as a member of several big-time pastposting teams. Her position on the team was always that of the “claimer.” The claimer was like the Big Player on the blackjack counting teams. They were the one who took the big risks at the table. It was also the most dangerous role on the team.

Schoons made thousands, maybe even millions of dollars, before giving up cheating in 1995. Ironically, she used a large part of her winnings to return to school and become a forensic criminologist. Go figure.

Blackjack Cheating Online

The most common form of online blackjack cheating is using special software to read the dealer’s hole card. This has been a successful method for many online cheaters, but it has largely been used in online poker more than it has in online blackjack. The most notorious example was the poker site Ultimate Bet, which was eventually closed down in the wake of a cheating scandal.

Some online players claim that it is the online casinos doing the cheating. They say that the online blackjack games are like a slot machine in which the decisions you make do not matter. Whether or not the player wins is randomly predetermined.

This may have been true with some early online casinos, but this is not the case with the online casinos today. Most of them are highly-regulated and monitored by various gaming commissions. You can play with confidence at this online casino recommended by Counting Edge..

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1 Response Comment

  • Roulette PhysicsJuly 30, 2014 at 12:15 am

    card counting is not as popular these days because of the automated shuffle machines. But those machines tend to make casual players lose trust in the game, which costs the casinos more in the long run. Casinos are realizing this, so some casinos have stopped using auto shufflers. Its not worth it for them to protect themselves from the minority which count cards

    Reply

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