Cheating at Blackjack Moves We Did or Didn't Do.

Discover the real stories behind casino blackjack from two men who lived it. In this episode of Cheating at Blackjack, The Kaiser and Dustin Marks reveal the sleight-of-hand techniques, casino cheating methods, surveillance mistakes, and high-risk plays they witnessed during their years in the industry. They break down famous moves like second dealing, peeks, card switching, bending cards, the Martingale betting system, and other legendary blackjack scams while explaining why these techniques often fail under casino surveillance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to Cheating at Blackjack. I'm Dick Kaiser, and here's our host, Dustin Marks.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Oh, welcome everybody. You know, we got a good one today.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

This one's another good show. We have a whole bunch, and this one's right up there with them.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Let's talk about the moves, sleight-of-hand moves mainly, at the Blackjack table that you know we did, but we probably shouldn't have done.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Yeah, there's the ones we get away with. And for all you pseudo-gaming magicians out there, you know, you're doing the seconds and you're doing all this fancy card changing on the table, which is great when you're performing, but when you got the eye in the sky beaming down on you, you're not going to get away with it very often. And that's what we avoided. And we did we did push the needle a couple of times.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, to piggyback on your point, it's all different when you're in front of a mirror versus under fire.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Good point. Big difference, big difference. The mirror doesn't arrest you. No, I spent many hours in front of a mirror, so I'm not dogging the mirror, but uh, it doesn't translate well into this field, which is a very small cheating field.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah. Well, probably the first move, and I'm sure most people have heard about it, is second dealing.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Yes, that is notorious. I think all cheating is second dealing, and so that's a great place to start.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

And second dealing, make it real simple here. I'm gonna turn this card face up. Instead of dealing the top card, you deal the second card. What happens is the eye in the sky, no matter how good you are, I think you'll agree, if you slow it down, they're just gonna see it.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yeah, here's the interesting part. We talk about the 80s and their technology back there. They had the cameras, they could zoom in. It was fine, no big deal there. It wasn't the best quality, but they could zoom in. And they had videotape, which as we all know is not the crispest, especially when you slow it down. But you bring up a very good point. When you have that card and you're taking the second one, the top one doesn't move, therefore, it doesn't blur. The card coming out is blurring, it's a dead tell. If you slow it down, even with the technology back then, those will bring out the silver silver handcuffs for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

That's an excellent point.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Yeah, then it's just as archaic as it was compared to today's world, it was very, very effective.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Now, the other way you can second deal is uh on a um like a strike where you're dealing the card face up, and they necktie the deck so the players have no shot of seeing it, but again, the eye in the sky is gonna catch right. I'll do it down like this, that coming out.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yes, they're gonna still see that blur. The top card should blur. If you're slowing down a VHS tape, you as you know, well, maybe many of you don't even know what a VHS is. But it's a tape, we slow it down, it's gonna blur, it's gonna be it's horrible quality, but you'll see that the top card is stationary and the card underneath it is blurring as it moves. It's a dead tell. Even in that technology, which I've already mentioned that, but yeah, so even in my evening tried to disguise it, it is is not good. And we have both done it. And so we shouldn't have.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

That's the point.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I uh I did it uh from I said in the previous video, I did it to get people off my game. I did it when I was discarding a card. So there's no heat under me. There's no reason for them to even pay attention to me because I'm all I'm doing is shuffling and get discarding the top card. So there's no heat on me. The other time I did it, I did it under fire because I had a lot of money on the table. I screwed up a stack and I had to fix it. And I did one under fire, which I had to peak, which we're gonna go into, which is another dead tell. And then I had to do a double, which there's a double whammy. I should have had eight cuffs on me after that one. Uh, but I got away with it, and luckily I did. I haven't done one since because it's really, really a bad move.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Why don't you show them what the deck what a peak is? Because seconds don't do any good unless you know the top card of the deck.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

As Dustin said, if you don't know this top card, doing a second is useless. Because that top card, if you do a second, it might be the card that it's gonna win the money. Yeah. You don't know. Or maybe it's the card that's gonna bury you. You don't know. So you have to peek, and that's another big thing, don't do. And that is basically we we necktie the deck up here, and we move the card. We the way I did it was a bubble peek. You just bend it up like this. You see this little let's see if I can get it in there. If you look in there, you can see the indice. Hopefully, there we go. But that is it. You come up here and you you do this, you peek in there and you see. Did you see his eyes? That's the real tell. He's gotta look at the indice. So I'm looking down here, I'm looking down on my player, I bring this deck up high, and now I gotta look down to look right in this little gap I've made right here to see what this card is. All that is a huge, huge tell. Because I'm looking down, I'm got this weird grip, and the the it's bubbled up. It's called a bubble peak for that reason. And it's supposed to be well guarded, but if you guard it really so well that you can't see in, you gotta move your finger.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Yeah, an index finger has to move so he can literally see the card.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

So once you see that, you can make the decision if you can or cannot take the card. And it I've done it once, once was enough. It made me poop my pants. And uh because I knew when I did it, I was really putting myself out there. But I had, oh, I don't know, close to a thousand dollars in action, and I didn't feel like losing that money.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

And remember, we were under fire. Yes, it's not like a spectator is gonna throw his shoe at you, it's gonna be a lot worse if you get it. A lot worse, yes. So now there's another way to peak, and it's a little different circumstances, but the dealer's deck is turned over some, and then either with the thumb or the little finger, hard to see, but this is gonna buckle out again. We see yeah, can you get the right angle?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Over here, it's gonna buckle out like this. I don't know if you can see this coming out, it's really hard. But it's when we turn the deck over, we can peek right in this little hole right here. The gap. The gap. You see with this little gap? So we can see the card. Again, you don't it can't be hidden. It's not hidden. In the right, if I do this, anyone in this angle here can see it.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

And also, where's his eyes going?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

They're looking down again. Why are my eyes looking down? Dead tells. So those are moves that we have done. Now I've never done that peak because I think it's a very weak peak. Not that the one I did was even better, but it was more comfortable in my situation.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Now there is one other peak that's not too bad, and we did not cover this. Okay. This would be from third base.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Ah, yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

And I'm can you see it? I can nobody else can see it. It's this right here. Index finger covers everything. The only person can see is a person that has this angle.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

So you're nectying, you're on third base. This peak is normally done with what they call the steer game. You're trying to get the dealer to bust.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

We'll go over that in a future episode. It is a really complex play. But if I had to do one peak, this I think is the safest.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

That is a safe peak, but then again, check this out. He's at this level, trying to signal the guy over here. Well, in your angle, it'd be that player over there. But either way, down alongside the pit, if someone's standing there looking, they can see it. It's very visible. But that's one of those things you don't do unless you're really confident that no one else can see it. Strong peak. That's a predecessor of the flash, actually, which we covered.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

So that's I'm a player now, and this occurs at a face-up six-deck shoe. I take a hundred-hour chip and I kind of put the bet kind of in and out of the betting area so it's hard to tell. And I mumble something, and then immediately I look away like I'm looking for somebody. Now, as I turn around, I'm starting to see the cards that are dealt. Remember, it's a face-up shoe. When my card comes, if it's an ace or a 10-count card, I don't do anything. I got a big advantage. Any other card, I say, whoa, whoa, whoa, I want to change. Didn't you hear me? That's all BS. But it did work.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

It does. It will fly. One time. Which is interesting because he was doing this back in the 80s. That play still goes on today. People do it all the time. They they try to take that shot. It's very common, and most bosses are not going to fall for it.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

You know what we called it back then at least? Oh, excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Oh, excuse me. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it works. I mean, don't get me wrong, it does work, but it's done so often that it's watered down to just about everyone, uh, boss-wise, or with a boss with some experience, knows well about that because it's been around forever. But hey, if we can get away with it, bingo.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Yeah. Takes no skill, just no skills at all, just pure bullshittery. Another play I did from the outside was called bending the cards. If I got a blackjack, I'd put them down like this. Well, what that does makes a bend. When I picked them up, I'd bend them. And I mean, I was bending them like pretzels. So if this is the dealer's up card, and let's take the bend out just so it's easier to see. But you can see this arch in the lower card. I and my partner would know the dealer had a 10 or ace underneath. It's called playing the bend. Shouldn't have done it, especially when it has been in the cards like pretzels.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah, and which is interesting because one of the places uh he worked, they had a player. They dubbed him the mad bender. And this he brings the point up with about the it's noticeable. Now, this guy, when I saw him, literally, the cards are like this. Uh insane. But the dealer, they don't say anything. That's what they're told. They don't say anything. The boss, the foreman, doesn't say a word. Surveillance doesn't say a word. So that tells you one thing. Everybody that had contacts with this was in on the play. Because this would not fly in the real world. And that's why they called him the mad bender. And I think you dealt to him once. You brought him in the card.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Did I tell you what I did? You should tell him that you did. Yeah, I didn't like this guy. He was not part of our team. So he was bending up the cards, and it literally made it hard to deal. Yes, it did. So I would pick up the cards. I'd take the bend down.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

So he's he's countering the mad. We called him the mad bender, and he's countering every bend he put in there so when he shuffled. So he's just he never got back to the game from what you told me. That was a great story. But you know, it is that to that extreme, and no one says a word, everybody was down on that play. Anyone with any kind of connections. But that's interesting, the bend. I never played the bend, I didn't have a kind of balls. Kaiser?

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Be careful, the mad bender. The mad bender.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

I love the title, though. It's like the mad hatters, the mad bender.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Another move I did was switching the cards with my partner. I was betting small, my partner's betting big. Now, I did this a few times, but literally I was getting so nervous. I told my other partner, I'm not doing this anymore. And you can kind of see why.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah, if it was a good thing it was another partner, because I would have said, uh-uh. No, this is it's too obvious. If you happen to catch it, speaking from a boss's point of view, if you're back there just glancing and you see that, something's going to trigger. I would think so. Uh, as being, what did I just see? What what was that? Now that might be enough to trigger, say, let me call the guys upstairs and find out what the hell just happened. Or go, well, that was weird. I don't know what I saw. Either way, you've drawn attention. One worse than the other. So not a great move, but hey, they uh they did it.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

And the other thing, you can't bet too big. The last thing you want is attention on a move like that.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah, that would just really draw us an attention. So, what else we got? Well, now let's talk about moves we would never do. Oh, this is when yeah. Which is good because you always hear the stories of whomever boasting about all this stuff they have done on the tables. And when I hear this stuff, I go, no way. You know, you're just you're just beefing out a bunch of words because you might be a gaming uh magician, you know. Hey, we did this on the game, I did this in private polka games and all these fancy moves, which is great. It's a great skill, and I don't have any problem with that, but it doesn't work on a real environment. So let's get started. There's a there's a bunch of these. Well, let's talk about the two deals, especially the bottom deal. The bottom deal. What's wrong with the bottom deal? Besides everything. Everything is a first of all, it's not just a bottom deal. Um because we have a cut card down here, and that is to prevent a couple different things. The casino puts that there so A, it it protects this card. No one can see that card for those who are counting or whatever the reason, and also to prevent a second deal. I mean a bottom deal. But they have a deal just for that.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

It's called a Greek bottom.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

A Greek bottom, yes. And that is to buckle in that one card and deal the next card. You're dealing, you're dealing a second off the bottom, and it's no ridiculous. It doesn't work in the real world, no matter how many gaming experts you see do it. Great. It's great skill. And anyone who can do them is phenomenal. I've seen some miracle workers, but on a game, it doesn't work. It really doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Kaiser, why don't you show them a Greek bottom?

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Really? Yeah. Okay, I I can't do a Greek bottom. Yeah. But I have a rough idea how it is, and this is gonna look like uh this is look horrible. But it basically is a bottom deal. Second, is what it basically boils down to. So here's the whole thing. You gotta you gotta buckle back the cut card, push this out, and also the top card to cover up that card coming out, and you come off like this. As you can see, I do no justice to this at all because I've never done them. Even in my magic, I never did them. Because it's uh to me, it's a useless move.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

But it's out there technically, yes, but anybody who does that doesn't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, because here you bring this in, you're gonna buckle this out like that, you're gonna reach in, push this out, push the top card out, to cover it out, the bottom card is coming out from the second to the bottom, and then bring it out, and your hand's gotta come over and then pull it out. Now, that is not passable even for a second grader with no knowledge. It's horrible. But that is a Greek bottom, and that's why we never did them.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

But the biggest uh reason you wouldn't do it is you don't know what card you're gonna deal with.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

That's it, that's the big thing. That's why we peak and all that, so we know what the card is. I may be swapping out, so here, like I pop this out and I say, okay, look, I got a decent card coming out, but it's gonna bust him. Oh, don't want to bust my partner, so let me just draw a blind card out of nowhere and see what happens. It's not worth it. It really isn't, because you don't know if he's gonna bust or if he's gonna make a hand or make it worse. So it's you're drawing in the blind, it just doesn't work. You're absolutely right. That's a good thing. That's why we never did him.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

A betting strategy we never used was called the Martingale.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Ooh, I don't know what that means, but it kind of reminds me of something I used to do. Can't lose. It's the best way to Oh, you can't lose. You double up when you lose, you double your bet. So every time you lose, you keep doubling your bet, and you never lose. Really?

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yes. Two problems. Okay. Number one, let's just pretend unlimited as far as how much you could bet.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Do you have a couple million? No. Well, that's problem one. But the bigger problem is the casino has limits.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

And if you lose, you know, X amount of times, you hit that limit and you can't recover your money. But even more, if you start with a dollar, double, double, double, and let's say you get up to 10,000. When you win that bet, do you know what? Yeah, you won.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

You win one dollar.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

With a $10,000 wage.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yeah, this may sound great when you hear people saying, hey, I just keep doubling up and I eventually win. They're winning one unit. And a great example is one dollar. So in theory, with no limit, you keep losing, you're up there to five, six, ten thousand, twenty thousand, and you finally win, yay, you win a buck. And look at if you add that up, say it, you went from ten thousand to twenty thousand, that's thirty thousand, not counting all the other ones before that. Your bankroll has to be unlimited. And the kicker is, as Dustin pointed out, that limit will nail you every single time. And I can tell you from first hand experience, a lot of people like to play this way, and they get up there, they're digging in their wallet, pulling out more and more money, then they get to the point where they're at limit or close to it. So their next double up would put them over the limit. Therefore, they're stuck a lot of money trying to chase down a $10 bet. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

And again, that's called the Martingale system. Another move we never did. This is a move that dealers do. It takes no skill. Let's say you're my agent, I have a four-card 18, you have a four-card 18. I just pay you.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Ah. Paying the pushes. Gotcha. Yeah, that's a common thing, too.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Or if I have a four-card 19, you have a four-card 18. Push. No skill. And in your opinion, do you think that'll fly by bosses? Not if you do it every time, but every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Surprisingly, yes. And I'll tell you why. And he he's made a point of saying four cards, five cards. Because as you're watching a game, you glance over, you see all those cards, and rarely do you actually add them up. I mean, I'm speaking from experience. I look over, see the cards lined out, and I don't add them up. I just let the dealer do it. But I see there's a lot of cards out there. Now there are times where something I'd say to myself, you know, add them up, just out of whatever. But rarely. If they're that strung out, you don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Now, if, and we didn't do it and we wouldn't, but if we had to do it, let's say I'm the agent, you're the dealer, I'd give you a charge or no hand signal. Meaning if a boss is watching, you're not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Right. I mean, it's an easy thing to get away with. Um, what's interesting is if a dealer is strung out or a player is strung out with a lot of cards, I mean, I've seen six and seven card 21s. It just they're just strung out like this. That's interesting, so you pay attention. But run of the mill, four or five cards, unless you're on top of the game and have an interest in just if they bust or not, is about the only time you're gonna notice. But as a norm, you're watching, and now you're watching eight games, you normally don't pay attention. You glance over and see the cards you're on, you don't add them up. And it's a very easy thing to get away with. But the big snag in that is you got film running on you up there. Every table has its own camera. So if there's any suspicion whatsoever, all they gotta do is run it back. And they got you. And they got you. So you can pan that off as well. I made a mistake, but if they keep an eye on you and you keep doing it, you're busted.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Now let me interject one other thing: the little old lady. Oh no, you had it wrong.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Like that inventation. Yeah, that was a great old lady.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

I thought you were actually an old lady. Yeah, you're right. And you're exactly right. Uh you got someone, again, I talk about these do-gooders on the game. They want to be the center of all attention. If they catch a dealer making a mistake, oh, they'll make sure that everyone knows about it. You know, oh, wait, wait, wait, he lost. Why he why does it, you know, whatever. They lost and grandma didn't. Why is that?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

So Yeah, that's a good point. If you have uh, I have a 19 as a dealer, you have an 18, you get paid, and the little lady has an 18. Yeah, she might get a little miffed on that.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah, so you always have the do-gooders at the game, and uh, whatever their personality type is, there's the ones out there that want to be the center of I saved the universe mentality, and and you fun in you run into them all the time.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Don't be a do-gooder. Don't be a good do-gooder. At least not at the blackjack table.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Be your right righteous self, but just keep, you know, yeah, they you run into them.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Now, another technique we never use, but was pretty popular is marking the cards.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

From the outside, I'm talking about. And most people use Daub, which is kind of like a lipstick, not really, but you'd put it on in play. And then you'd mark up the tens and aces. We never use it because, in a sense, that's just getting information on the cards. Well, doing the flash pretty much does the same thing, only much safer.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

A lot safer and more reliable, in my opinion. And Daub, when it's all said and done, if they have suspicion, they can take it upstairs and look it over and say, Yep, they're doing bad stuff. With the flash, they can take the deck home with them and show their grandma, and they can't tell what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Well, there's nothing on the cards. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

That's why it was a better deal.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Now, I did practice playing. Did you? Not under fire. But you know, I just couldn't read it well enough to ever even consider doing it under fire. Yes. Because, like Kaiser said, you can't put it on too dark.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

But if you put on too light, you're just wasting your time, and it's still illegal.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yes. I went upstairs one time with a deck of cards and and uh they were hit pretty good. And I'm a job or no, just bending. Uh marking the aces. They were hitting the cards strong. And I went up there and I take the deck and I'm just looking at it like this and looking for the breathers. Because the deck, if you have a bend in it, and this is gonna be over overemphasized, you can see there's a breather. Yeah. You see? And so you go upstairs and I I'm looking at it, it goes, Well, and it's an ace, and I go back like this, and oh, there's an ace, and and they're going, Really? I go, Yeah, I we didn't even think of that one. So I taught them something because they weren't knowledgeable on that. But you know, you can work cards day and the corners.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

You can work the corners, you put down the cards, or our road trip one time. We're putting down our heavy cards like this, putting that bend in there. So, all sorts of little things because again, there's your breather. And that was the whole point. So we we've done little things here and there on our road trip, which is a whole episode in itself. Look at it, I finally got a good hand.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Now, what just happened is I switched the cards. I originally was Delta 14. This is called a held out card. And we're not really explaining this a whole lot. We will have a whole episode, but is I brought my cards back, and I want a player who's not with me to be playing big, so that's all the focus there. There I did the switch, the tuck, whoop, and I'm out. That's a one-handed muck. You can do a two-handed muck, which is much easier, but you're seeing the problem here. This is why we didn't do it. It's a high-risk move. First of all, you're dirty with a card.

unknown 24:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Second, the hands technically do come together to hold the cards, even with the one-hand muck for a second, right there, and then you tuck. But the big problem, in my opinion, is you can't bet big.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

No, you can't usually draw attention. And here's the thing with the mucking, it's a cool skill and it's fun to watch. I mean, it is under the smoothness of it all, it just it's flawless. But there are a lot of questionable moves in there. A, your hand cannot come back here to this. It's not supposed to come back this far. Cards are kept out here. So if you are playing and you're constantly bringing your cards back like this, that's gonna draw a tell. At least it would for me if I was on the floor. If I had someone that's back in that days when you had a handheld decks, you're bringing your cards way back to the edge of the table. There has to be a reason why. Because you can see them here. Why do you have to bring them here? So that's the first tell.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

That spot's lucky.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

That's a lucky spot, yes. So these things like this, and if you do it two-handed, you're switching. That's a big no-no. That is one thing I have to say. Back in the handheld days, if you had a decent dealer, they would scold you mercilessly for using two hands. It's one hand only. So the one hand is cool, but again, you're doing stuff that you normally wouldn't do if you were playing. Those are the tells. I mean, he does it, it's it's beautiful, it just it flows. But as a floor person looking on, these are definite tells of what's going on. Sure, if you bring it back like this, not a big deal, but if you're doing it back and forth like this, then you're not gonna make A, you're not gonna be making that many moves constantly. Right, exactly. But it's still a tell. And a good dealer would tell you to keep the cards out here.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

So why would we do this high risk move? Can't bet big when I can lace them up, shuffle a blackjack, exactly. Which is much stronger and safer.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

To all this, we come up with one conclusion. It's easier to take off the casino as a dealer and an agent than it is to play on the outside. And here's a great example. As good as he is with the muck, he's limited. He can't bet big because it would draw immediate attention. So he's stuck at a media mediocre range. Meanwhile, if we're dealing and playing together, I can make big jumps just out of a whim. I can go from a $50 to a $300 bet over and over again without drawing attention because I'm an idiot, and that's how I play.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

And the dealer, me, I'm his partner. I'm surely not gonna tell a boss, hey, he's jumping his bat. Yeah. Where if you're mucking, and we'll have a whole episode, the number one enemy is the dealer, and he's only three feet away from you.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

And you have the dealers, they're very good dealers, they know the rules, and they know what they know the stuff like this. So if they got a guy who's constantly doing something they're not supposed to be doing, they're gonna say something. You're gonna tell you personally, and if you don't obey, they'll tell the boss. And then all you got the boss's attention. So there's a lot of heat. As indetectable as that may be, there's too many tells that something's not right. And that's what we try to avoid.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Another move we never did is a cooler. A cooler is where you have a pre-arranged deck of cards so the player wins every hand. Now, these are regular casino cards. I come into the casino with these palmed. The dealer is down with the play. Under the guise of me cutting the deck, which I actually don't cut, the decks are switched. We're using a red and a blue deck so you can follow along. Although, honestly, this move is not very good because we never did it. Never did it. I either leave the casino or I have a woman with a handbag. I drop the cards into the handbag, she takes off, and now I start betting big. That's called a actually a single deck cooler, which was done back in the day. In fact, way back in the 50s and 60s, they did it, and the dealer wasn't down with it. They'd have an attractive woman cut into the dealer as he was offering the cut. Sir, yes. So now the dealer's taken out, and the cards could be switched. You can see why we would never do this. This is a very, very risky move.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

It is now shorty time, and I have a good shorty time. All right. This happened uh a long, long time ago. It happened to be towards the end of the night. I was having trouble getting to Dustin. It was a busy night. So I'm playing on other tables, non-cheating dealers, which is not my usual fun time to do. So as we're progressing through the night, the tables, he's not on a rotation. They start closing games, they just start sending dealers to any game that's available to get a dealer around. So he's not on his normal rotation. So I'm just hanging out and find out what game he goes to, and hopefully he goes to a game that we can do business on. Well, it didn't pan out that way. He jumped around a lot. Finally, he ends up on a game that's dead. I jump over there, he starts shuffling, and we had a signal that if he had something, he would sniff. Okay, great. So I walk up to the table, I put my hundred dollar chip out here, he sniffles, and I don't do anything. I just sit there and look at my hundred dollar bet, and he looks over and he goes, and I go, you know, I don't do anything. Fine, I can he really just I go, what? I blurted out this what? And he's just oh my god, he just went and face. I was loud. I mean, the whole casino could have heard it. I didn't have any more money. I did not know. He didn't know what I didn't have and have money. I had my case bet out there. I think it was a hundred dollar chip. That's all I had left. Out of 500, after cover play for two to three hours, I pissed off all my money except for that $100 bet. So he wants me to bet everything. Well, that was everything. And so he had a double down for me. I couldn't double down. I had to hit my double down, and that gave me an extra hundred. And of course, within the short period of time before they came over and closed us down, I had $2,000. But the whole thing was, is I literally blurted out loudly, what? Because I'm frustrated. He wants me to bet the farm, and I couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Because I stacked him a double down. I think I did it from scratch, which is not easy. Yeah, he fished it in. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

It was it was one of those moments where I just was frustrated because of the whole environment, not because of him, just I couldn't get to him. I'm out of money, and I know he's got a fortune waiting for me, and I can't bet it. So it was very frustrating. I just blurted it out. And I'm surprised he didn't come running over and say, What the hell's going on over here? But they were too busy closing games, and so we got away with it. That's my shorty.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

That's a good one. I do remember that.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Yeah, that was a frustrating moment that we made very profitable in a very short amount of time. It's a minute of magic, and I'm going to do that minute. All right. This is one of my own. Okay. But since you don't know who I am, you'll never know. Stop. Very good. You take that, and I want you to write your name across the face of that card in Big Bull Blazing Letters. Starts with a D. Not a B, huh? Not a B, not today. That's yesterday. Inside joke, though. Yeah, that was a good one there. So we got Dustin's card. He's all set to go. I get the pin back because that's how I got it. First of all, we take your card and we hopelessly lose it into the deck. Just totally lose it. Now I'm going to find that card. That's odd. A magician loses a card and then finds it. What a relief there. But I'm going to do this the hard way. I'm going to do it under the table. You know why this is hard?

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Well, you can't see the cards. That's why it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

If I don't see what I'm doing, it's a real pain. So I definitely came to this conclusion.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

All right.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Your card is definitely one of these three.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Okay, three-two.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

That's not bad. Yeah, one third or low. But anyway, it could be on the bottom.

unknown 33:12

Well.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

That could be one spot, it could be on the bottom. Another possibility is your card could be on the top. That's a good possibility.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Also, it could be in the middle. That's a possibility. There's also a possibility I don't like to think about, and that is your card's not even here.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Wait.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Yeah, just not here. But your card was marked, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Well, I signed my name, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Yeah, not only that, it's the only blue card we have in there.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Yeah. That is uh my magic moment.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Well, that wraps up all the moves. Either we did and we shouldn't, or the moves we would never do.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Yeah, as you can see, after seeing what they were, we made the right choices. We usually do make the right choices, and those were definitely going to get us in trouble.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Yeah, great for gambling demonstrations because a lot of them are really visible.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

They are very visible. And if you do a gaming-themed magic or whatever, these moves would be perfect. They really would be because you're not under fire. They sell well, and it makes you look like an expert. But if you're actually going to go out and do this stuff, don't. Don't you just get busted.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

We got a great deal for you. Anyone who makes a comment below, any kind of comment that's decent, you'll get my book, 103 Tips and Resources for Magicians. About 60 pages, it will save you money. Free download, all you have to do is leave a comment.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Good stuff, good information. But I'll have to warn you, my which way is not in there. Just thought I'd tell you. So remember, if you want to keep up on us and our antiques and what we did back 40 years ago in the casinos, you need to subscribe and hit the notifications. That way, when we come out with a new episode, you're right there. You don't have to wait. You're you're first in line. Best thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

And remember, don't be a square. Share.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

See you next week.