The Flash: The Blackjack Cheating Move that Got the Money

 This week episode is ... The Flash!  This move produced thousands of dollars in our pockets each week.  It is virtually invisible.  And ... It is NOT our most powerful move.  For best your best experience watch the podcast here:  https://www.youtube.com/@cheatingatblackjack

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Nothing beats the thrill of doing something you're not supposed to be doing and getting away with it. You know this feeling. You've had it before. Now imagine taking that sensation to a blackjack table. Yeah, most people fantasize about it, but for us, it's a reality.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

We were down with over 500 cheating plays at the blackjack table in the Las Vegas casinos during the 1980s.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

And we were never caught. This is The Kaiser. Welcome to Cheating at Blackjack. This is our host, Dustin Marks.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Well, hello, I'm Dustin Marks, and what are we going to talk about today, Kaiser?

SPEAKER_02 0:49

My favorite. This is absolutely my favorite. Okay. This, as we already previewed, this is our bread and butter. This is what we did on a daily session, and we're going to cover it. It is called The Flash. The Flash. Just like the cartoon character, but much more profitable. So that's what we're going to go into. So why don't you explain to everyone what this Flash is?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Okay. In this instance, I'll be the dealer. Kaj will be the player. He's my partner, my agent. Of course, we don't act like we know each other. He's sitting at first base. So I am first base is where? The first player to receive cards. So that'd be to your left. The dealer's left, correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Okay, cool. So if you're looking at this, that'll be over here, which wouldn't be silly because that doesn't show up on film.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Yeah, well, they'll see it in a minute. So don't worry, we'll get to that part, guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

So go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

So what makes it so deceiving and powerful is I'm going to secretly expose the top card of the deck to my agent, in this case, the Kaiser. That is very powerful.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

What happens after I get my first two cards?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Okay. Now he may or may not have to take a hit. What would happen if he would know the top card of the deck before he has to make a decision? And that's the second part of the flash.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

That's what makes it a very devastating move is we get that first card and we get our first hit card. So decisions can be made very quickly on how we're going to play the hand.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

So he's getting betting efficiency in the beginning and playing efficiency on his hands, how he plays. So it's a combination move, which is very powerful. The audience is actually going to see us do it and see if we can or they can we can get away and you guys can nail the move. Makes it more fun. But basically, I'm doing it as ideal. Here's the important thing, and you'll agree a hundred percent. Only you can see it.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Only the person at first base. Now, not to not to really say I'm the only one that can see it. Other people can see it, but they won't know what they're seeing, really. They can stare right at it and not know anything. Unless you know what you're looking for, it's virtually invisible. Right. So when we say you don't see it, no one does because it's that faint of an idea.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

It kind of blends into the action, and nobody's really looking at the dealer.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

No one's even thinking about looking where we're looking at the city. They're looking at their own cards. Exactly. Bosses are looking at the general picture. Surveillance has no shot at it. And that's the beauty of the whole thing. So only one person gets to see.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

I think we should go ahead, deal the flash, you play it, and see if they can nail it.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

That's a great idea. So we're gonna play, you watch, you be the boss, surveillance, the players, the uh spectators, even the cocktail waitress. You could be all those people and watch the game and see what you come up with, and we'll touch base with you after we're done. So I landed on the table and began to play, stuck a $50 bet out there, and right off the bat, I collect some money. It's a winner. Next handout. Dealer has a six, that's always a good sign. I have a fourteen. And I hit. That's totally against basic strategy. Oh, there you go. That worked out well. That's a winner. Can the streak continue? Why not? Let's press it up. Dealer has a 10 up. And I I end up with another stiff. But I say I should be hitting that. Oh wait. Worked out well. Well, I've been on quite a bit of a lucky streak. Uh what should I do? I should press it right up, because you know, streaks are great. Ah, look at their snapper. So that $200 just turned out $300 for a payoff. Well, that's pretty good. Do we let it press up or are we just gonna let it go for another hundred? Yeah, another hundred's good. Dealer has a nine up.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Oh, I'm sorry, ten up. I got a fourteen as a nineteen. And he tops me with a twenty.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Ha! See, we do lose occasional hands. Well, I'm not really sure what I should do here, so I'm just gonna go for another fifty bucks. Kind of uh shooting in the dark here. See what happens. But we gotta hit it into that ten.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Twenty's not bad. And we are gonna push. Yeah, we don't win them all.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

So now you saw the flash, how deceptive it was, and how powerful it was. Kaiser won some money, that's for sure. Just like he did when we were playing Under Fire back in the 80s. What do you remember about dealing the flash or playing it?

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Well, playing it, I can remember just having heaps of money in front of me.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Which is a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

That's how powerful it was. Dealing the flash, it was very easy to do. Uh very confident about it and the whole thing. And you go about your business, you look like you're dealing, nothing draws attention to you. Meanwhile, my agent is just pulling in money left and right. And it's it's really cool. It's a good feeling to have that kind of power. Yes, it is. So break down what the advantage is of seeing that first card before I make a bet, and that second card if I want to hit or not.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Okay, so the agent, Kaiser, is gonna see his first card before he has to make a bet, which is huge, almost like playing a face-up game. So if he sees a two through nine, we'll consider this a small bet, $25. Okay. Now he sees a 10. So he's gonna bet more. Let's say $75. Because he has a 12% starting advantage with that king. That's true. If he sees an ace, he's not gonna see it that often. But when he does, he has a 52% starting advantage. So he'll try to bet bigger. Now, this depends if we're getting any heat, if he won the last hand, etc. But with a 52% starting advantage, he wants to try to put a lot of money out there.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

As much as I possibly can. Again, he brings uh Dustin brings up a good point, is it's all based on the environment. If I have a boss hanging around, keeping an eye on my play, I'm not gonna make big jumps. I'm just gonna grind out and gradually increase my bet because I know in the long run we're gonna pick up a lot more than this, you know, pity patter back and forth. Um, so the flash is good for that. If I'm not being watched or the boss is watching sports on TV, then I can take advantage of these jumps, but not enough to draw attention. So you just want to grind and end.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

So yeah, that's a key thing. Don't draw attention. And again, the bosses have to watch back in the 80s, four to six games. So he doesn't have time to watch the codes the entire time, unless the Kaiz would be betting cable max, which we never did, or almost never did.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Rarely did we do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Yeah, because that draws attention.

unknown 8:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Well, we could tell a couple stories, but that's later.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yes. Now the flash gets better, as you will agree.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yes, the flash did get better. And what I understand when it was used earlier than we used it, it was a very exposed method of cheating that to the point where if you were walking by the game and happened to glance up, you could see everything that was going on. They were, it was definitely handcuff bait. So, how did you change that?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Well, first of all, here's the move Kaiser's talking about. I don't know if you can see it, but I got a gap between the top card and my index finger. I'll make it really obvious here. So I'm flashing to about from there to here. Kaiser's sitting here, but how about these players? They could see that. That to me is very dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Very dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

So we never did that, but it is a farm of the flash.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

That was the predecessor.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yeah. The flash could only be seen basically by the guy at first base or somebody behind him. Couldn't be seen out here in the middle of the table. Impossible. Couldn't be seen by the sky, and only if a boss was at the right angle uh away from the game.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah, only if the boss was at the right angle looking in the right spot at the exact moment.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah, which is a lot of yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Yeah. We're talking a pit boss. They're not that in tune to anything except the sports on TV or the cocktail waitress on the other side of the pit. That's all they cared about. So they were out of the picture completely.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Now, I want to emphasize we did flash twice. Once, as you saw, when you were gonna make a bet. But the second time.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Yeah, what's about the second time? What's the advantage of knowing my next card? Yeah, Kaiser never busting.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Kaiser and the or the agent, same thing, will see their first hit card before they make a decision. So imagine that you're never gonna bust on that first hit card unless you're a moron, right? Right. And you're gonna all your double downs, you're gonna get a 20 or 21 every time. So basically, you're gonna win all your double downs. That is super, super strong. So you have 50 years of experience. Would you agree with this? The bosses, especially in the 80s, weren't trained very well.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

No, but they were not.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

So it takes a lot of balls to accuse somebody of cheating.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

It does. I mean, you really got to know what you're doing because what happens is if you're one of those overzealous, I know everything, I'm the God type boss, which most of them had that attitude. You come out and say, he's cheating. Now you get that big will spinning, other bosses come down, higher ups come down, the casino manager's watching on his monitors, surveillance, the big evil in the eye, is staring down on the table. And guess what? Nothing's happening. Now you look like an idiot. The boss never wants to feel like that. Yeah. So they're not going to put themselves out there for what they want, you know, for that uh power trip. Look, I caught somebody. They don't do that. So they just sit there and shut their mouth.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yeah, I guess unless it's a very overt. Obviously, like reaching into the rack and grabbing chips.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

If it's something that is really visual and overt like that, yeah, that's definitely you can do that. But just sit there and call and make the ball roll and saying this guy over here is winning lots of money, and I think something's going on. Now everyone's investigating, they go, nothing's going on. Now you're an idiot. And that's not good for bosses back then.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

And that's a great thing about casinos. Somebody's always winning. Always winning. And probably what, 99% of the time it's on the square.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Oh, yeah, absolutely. There's very little going on. You got your counters, and that was the big thing back then because it was all handheld, it was single double deck.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Right, all right.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Very few, very few shoes. So it was advantageous to count. And of course, Vegas looks at counters as the big evil. They're they're cheating legally. So they did more about that than they did us because we were actually cheating, they had no clue. We'll figure that one out. So they were overzealous of many times, so they focused on stuff they could say was happening.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Kind of justifying their job.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Justify that job, exactly. I'm back here because I'm knowledgeable. Which most as Dustin pointed out, most of them were not.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Because back in the 80s, there was no real training, right? No, there wasn't they just could you spell your name half the time.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Then you can be a boss. I mean, it's that simple. Isn't it kind of like the dealers they like, they promote they like, if you had experience, or if you are a kind of a sharp guy, you pay attention. Don't get me wrong, bosses do a lot of stuff. They got a lot of stuff to keep track of. But picking us the needle out of a haystack, impossible. So they do their job, they do it well, they're just not equipped to deal with people like us.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah, if they don't have the training, then yeah, it's gonna be very difficult. We were very good at what we did.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Very it's shorty time.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

I love shorty time.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yes. This is where we tell you a story from the old days. And this is one of my favorites. So after we made a play, I was the dealer, Kaiser was my agent. We agreed to meet at a certain spot, let's say a restaurant. And I'd always get there early, and Kaiser wasn't there. And the thing you got to remember is once Kaiser left my table, I didn't know what happened to him. And no cell phones back then, so we couldn't stay in communication. So I'd be sitting there a little nervous. That's kind of me, waiting for the Kaiser, waiting for the Kaiser. All of a sudden, here he comes walking in, big smile on his face, and he always had this big gulp with a straw that looked like a dog been chewing on it for about a week.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Yeah, it was one of my biggest things was chewing on the straw. And I've these things were glued to my hand back in those days. I never was without them. And you know, neurotic habit. He said something about uh straw chewers, and I'm definitely one of them all the time on these things.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Nothing worse than a straw chewer. Nothing worse.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

I don't know what's worse, me or a dog. It's one of the two. It's it's just like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

And I see you haven't changed much.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

I haven't changed. Nope. Still chewing. 40 years later. Or I tell you, give me a straw and I'll chew the hell out of you.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Now it's magic minute. Kaiser's gonna do a magic effect for you.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yeah, this is just a quick and easy throwaway. There's nothing mysterious about this. And the story behind this is when I was dealing, I didn't let anyone know I was a magician. Because back then, if you were a magician, that's smart. You were a cheat.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

And well, I was, but they didn't need to know that I was a real cheat. And so I came up with a quick throwaway when the people would find out in the back of the card rooms. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Break room, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:24

In the back of the break rooms, there was always a deck of cards. Oh, yeah. We used to gamble on our breaks, which is kind of funny. And so there was always a deck of cards, and it would come up and say, You're a magician, you cheat. I said, Well, let me show you this then. You know, you're at the table and the dealer starts dealing, the dealer gets a 10 up.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Now, this dealer's been around for a long time and very sloppy. Happens to show you the whole card. All right, yeah. You know, it goes under there. So you're sitting there with a 20, dealer has a 19, you're feeling really good. Now, back in those days, they used to check the card.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah, check their whole card, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Well, you should actually lift up and look.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

This guy, this dealer, this guy. Just go and went and touched them like that. That's all he did. Do you feel comfortable? You shouldn't, because that's what magicians do.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Ah, nice.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yeah. That's how I got away from that. So if you want to know this quick throwaway and give yourself instant skill, this is it. I used it for decades and always left with a oh god, I want to play cards with you. I'll have a link in the description of where you can download this. It's very simple, basic magic skills. I mean, if I can do it, anyone can do it. This is some really good stuff coming up. And this, here, let me not spoil anything. We're gonna get into the guts of the flash. And you're gonna be sitting there going, oh my god. That's impressive. That's scary. But here's the thing it doesn't even scratch the surface of how we got the money off the game. Like I said, this is our bread and butter. It's what we did on a daily thing, it's like a daily bus commute. It's what we did. But when we really wanted to show off, we brought out the Ferrari, and there's a lot of those coming.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

So But next week, we're gonna go into the psychology, which I'm sure you'll agree is really important. And that's what made it so deceptive, and how we could do it thousands of times of times and never get caught.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Skill's one thing. The psychology behind executing the skill is the whole detail of it all.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

It really is. So you don't want to miss that episode. So the easiest thing for you to do is subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Definitely subscribe.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Then you don't have to remember anything. When you get our age, it's hard to remember stuff.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Very much so, yeah. Yeah, you want to subscribe, and the best thing is you want to share. So remember.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Don't be a square. Share.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

We'll see you next week. Tune in. Take care.