Blackjack Computer Cooler: How We Beat Las Vegas Casinos

In this episode of Cheating at Blackjack, Dustin Marks and The Kaiser reveal the incredible true story behind the legendary blackjack computer cooler, one of the most sophisticated casino cheating plays used in Las Vegas during the 1980s. 
After explaining the basic mechanics in Episode 11, they now take you inside the actual play—from the hidden computer strapped to the recorder's back and the visual signals sent to the big player, to the dealer's false shuffle, the captain controlling the timing, casino distractions, surveillance, and the enormous pressure of executing the play without getting caught. 
Hear how a carefully coordinated blackjack team turned a casino shoe into an overwhelming advantage, why a relief dealer unknowingly dealt the winning cards, and how one big player eventually walked out of the casino with $150,000 in cash. 

This episode offers a rare firsthand look at Las Vegas casino history, blackjack cheating, casino surveillance, advantage play, false shuffles, blackjack dealers, casino security, and the underground gambling world of the 1980s. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Trust. Trust is everything. Having the right team is one thing, but having one guy walking out the front door with a six-figure score, that's trust. Welcome to the Cheating at Blackjack. I'm the Kaiser, and here's our host, you know who it is, Dustin Marks.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Well, welcome everybody. We're both very excited to share this episode with you. It's all about the computer cooler. You saw episode 11 last week, but now we're going to get into the story of how they went down.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Yeah, last week we covered the mechanics of it, you know, basically. But now we give you the whole more or less a scenario of how it felt to actually be involved in the cooler play. Because there's a lot of moving parts. And yeah, we touched on the mechanics of the shuffle and how it lays out, but now you get to see and hear exactly how it went down.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

And remember, we didn't do these every day.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

No, these were infrequent.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Uh yes, because they were so powerful that I think you'd agree almost everybody in the casino knew somebody was winning a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, it's it's non-stop. And when you're talking about an eight-deck shoe, three hands max, that's a lot of hands at max bet. And he just keeps winning, draws a lot of attention very fast.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

So let's recap last week's. First, the computer cooler is different from a cooler.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

That's true. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

A cooler was where it was all sleight-of-hand moves where you actually exchanged a pre-arranged deck of cards for the dealer's cards.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yeah, the guy would come in with a shoe under his coat, and in the process of cutting the shoe, it's on the table, between the dealer and him, it would swap them out. And that was really they got away with it, but ballsy. They did it with single decks and double decks as well, which is less conspicuous, but there's still a huge tell when you're swapping out whole decks. Code decking is what it is, because you're bringing in a cold deck, and uh it's crazy. But they have eliminated all that. We let the computer do the switching for us. Yeah, which was revolutionary back in the 80s, that makes sense. Yeah, no one would even suspect you're using a computer because A, computers were not portable. No, and so you couldn't just haul in your PC from your desk and ask the pit boss to plug it in while you while you got so we gotta do this play real quick. Could you plug it in? It wasn't like that, and uh it was very unique and ingenious, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

So basically, the computer would record the cards with the help of the recorder, and then it would figure out how the BP, big player, should play one, two, or three hands. Based on that, the BP would win about 97% of the hands.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yeah, that's strong. Very well, even a three thousand dollar house, that's nine thousand dollars in action or up to nine thousand in action, not counting the double downs and the snappers, and the snappers, yeah. So it just adds up. So that's a lot of hands, that's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Oh, yeah. That's why it wasn't done very often. Well, there were four key players to get a computer cooler down the cocktail waitress.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Oh, no, that was I'm sorry, that was the one who brought you for example. That's a different player, gotcha. Four, four key elements. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

So the first player, member of the team, was the recorder. Now he's the person who wears the computer. So literally wears it.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

You got to explain this to me because how does one wear a computer?

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Back in the 80s, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

That's what that's my intrigue here is that it's a big device, and he's wearing how is he wearing this computer? Well, the motherboard is literally strapped onto his back, and then he wears a jacket to cover it up. Oh, yeah, that would that would look kind of silly. Look at that guy, he's a robot.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Yeah, and dangerous, yeah. And then he didn't have a uh keyboard and a keypad. Oh, okay, that he would enter in the cards, and it was in his front pocket, and then he didn't have a monitor, obviously, but he had a wired earpiece, and he had long hair to cover it because there was no wireless back in the year.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

No, it was all wired, everything.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

And the computer would literally talk to the recorder, wow, and just say two words, actually, two numbers, like two, three, which meant the BP would play two hands and then take off three hit cards total.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

That's interesting. Now, there's a kind of a little thing. If those of you who play blackjack, so he's gonna take three cards, and you had and the first question I asked Dustin was well, how do I know which one to hit the three cards? Well, it's pretty obvious. If you have a 17, that's not one of the hit cards you're gonna take there. You're gonna use it on the other hand prior to that. So you can look at your hands and know which one you're gonna hit. It's not a mystery. But that was the first question I asked: how does he know which ones to hit? Well, it's obvious. And apparently not everybody, it's a face-up shoe. Face up shoot, yeah. Yeah, everyone gets to see the hands. That's a good point. Yeah. So I was confused on that point, and I hope it helps you a little bit because now we got it. So he's got his hit cards, number of hands, and hit cards. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Now, the next member of the team is a dealer, and you can talk about that better than I.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

The dealer, in my opinion, is the one who's got his nuts in a vice. Because you have to a deal out as the cards as clean as possible. You when you pick up the cards, they have to be picked up in order. Absolutely. You cannot have any card out of order or the whole thing blows up. And when you bring it all out, you have to false shuffle. What is it, eight decks? You guys were doing it. Six or eight decks, which is a lot of sorts of things. Either way, it's a lot of shuffling. And we'll get into some interesting stories on that because I took mine a little bit different than your first player did, your dealer did. A little bit different. So you got to fake that to fool everybody, and then you got to put it in the shoe and then deal them out. And what it is is once you get past that, once those hands, once the BP lands, slaps out all this money, instant heat. In other words, everyone is now glued to this game.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Now, the next person on the team is the BP, the big player who wins all the money.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

He's the actor.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yes. Yeah, he has to have acting skills. When he's there winning all the money, he has to act like it's the luckiest night of his life. Yeah. No mechanical skills.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

No, he just stands there and acts and collects money and has to play the part. And he too will be under a lot of pressure and scrutiny because everyone is watching him. They don't so much watch the dealer because he's just delete delivering cards. The player, they they'll all the attention goes to him because he's betting the money and he has to remain cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Now, the cool thing about the computer cool the way we did it, the dealer who's dealing to the BP isn't part of the team. We time it so the relief dealer deals and gets all the heat.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

So the the dealer that actually deals the cards is it's just complete stiff, just works there.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

It's just the square.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

So the the the dealer who's on the team sets up the shoe, sticks it on there, and goes on break, and that's the end of that.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

And the way that all happens is the fourth member of the team called the captain. He sits at first base and he controls everything that happens. So the timing, which we can do a deep dive, works out that the relief dealer deals all the cards and loses all the money. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Our dealers in the break room. Yeah, just kick back drinking his little coke. So it does interesting. And now there's another, those are the four main key players. Right. Now we have some other people in there. Absolutely. Describe them because they're they're key as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Oh, yeah, everybody's important. Well, you have other players at the table, part of the team, because when the recorder is recording the cards, the captain controls everything. So he wants to make sure the players play at the right speed, not to play so fast that the recorder gets backlogged and stuff. That's where a mistake can happen. The other uh parts of the team are turns. When that dealer is false shuffling those six decks, we don't want anybody to see that shuffle. So you have people, turns, etc., to draw the attention away. One of the best turns is what I call a fake BP. He's at a table opposite the pit and he buys in $10,000 cash. What happens? All the attention, the sky, and the bosses go there. Then, if one of the bosses starts walking back towards the table, we have attractive woman cut into him, talk to him so he doesn't see the shuffle.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

There you go. Attractive meaning absolutely drop dead, gorgeous, and of course, a lot of exposure.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

And not like grandma, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Not like not like grandma. Yeah, she is very attractive and she's dressed to the hilt, and your eyes can only sway one way.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Now, speaking of grandma, if for some crazy reason you have some little old lady start watching this shuffle for God knows what reason, we have a turn cut into her so she doesn't see the shuffle. Bottom line, nobody sees the shuffle. And you know what? As a dealer, and you'll be able to testify about this, you remain calm and confident.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yes, you have to remain very calm and confident because you're doing something it's well, it is obvious if you're if you're burning it at table level, at table level, and it's just ballsy. So you gotta be confident in your skills. You really do. I like to say you gotta be cocky. I mean, you just gotta have know that your colonies are big enough to do this.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

I just happen to be so cocky enough, and he's not just shuffling one time, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

You gotta do all uh sky shuffling, which is interesting. When when I tell my side of this, uh my coolers, my version is so much different than theirs.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

I was lazy, they they were not, I was lazy, so but you get that advantage to hear both sides of not only from the dealer's perspective, but from a captain's perspective, and two or three different coolers will cover. So it's not just one. So this is really gonna be interesting but entertaining.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

You have a unique experience here because it wasn't just a cooler, it's coolers with S S S S. So it's that it wasn't just a one-shot deal on hey, look at fame and fortune, we got rich. It was numerous times, which really, if you think about it, is unheard of. We did all this maneuvering, shuffling, all this stuff under the close, watchful eye of the eye in the sky. Because you know, you know, the eye catches everything.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

That's a common misconception, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

They don't catch everything.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

No, they don't catch much of anything, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

They catch it if they know what they're looking for. In our case, they didn't know what they were looking for, so they don't catch it.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

No, not the computer coolers, not the flash, not stacking the deck. Tonight's the night. Tonight we walk into a major Las Vegas casino with a hidden computer to destroy the game of blackjack. We walk in, we find our dealer, but there's a problem. There's squares at his table. It happens. So we sit down the two vacant chairs. Now, when you're gonna do something like a computer cooler, you can't do anything crazy. Like piss a guy off so he leaves the table.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Some of our older techniques are not applicable here.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Or give him $500 something to take a hike. That could come back and haunt you. So it's a waiting game. So we wait, we can't move the squares, they don't leave. Our dealer goes on break, comes back to another game, more squares. This goes on the entire night. We could never lock up the game. We come back the next night, yeah. Same problem. Could never lock up the game. Come back a third night. Third night the charm. No, it got very frustrating, and then our dealer has two days off. So it seems like an eternity before he goes back to work. Goes back to work, we walk into the casino, and he's just relieved a dealer, and the game is dead, nobody's there. We descend upon the table. We finally locked up the game.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Thus it begins.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

So now I, as a captain, have to decide which shoe the recorder is going to record. Because if I decide a shoe that's too early, that's not gonna work. The timing's not gonna work, or if I decide a shoe too late, it's not gonna work. In 45 minutes, probably a dealer deal about three shoes. Sure. So I got to pick the right shoe. So now I figure this is a shoe. I give the signal, the recorder comes up. Now he doesn't sit down and play because it'd be too tough for him to play the game and record the cards. So I'm gonna pretend to be the recorder here. I come up, and this is me, and I'm gonna stand right over the captain. Now we talk because it would look, I'm sure you agree, I'm sure you agree, very strange if a guy was standing right over your shoulder for 15 minutes and not talk.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

It has to be with somebody exactly else, what you're right, it would stand out.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

And all the players at the table are talking. We all are together and we want the casino to know we're together, and we're all just grinders playing minimum minimum minimum. Yeah. So nobody's really watching our game. There's no action. Now, I, as a captain, looking at my watch, this is a timing thing, because we don't want our dealer to deal to the BP. We want the relief dealer who's not down with it.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Exactly. We want to get the heat off the dealer because the dealer sets up the decks, and the relief dealer is to deal it out. So there's no heat on our our player. I mean our dealer. They're all they're on their break drinking their water.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

So exactly. So I'm constantly looking at my watch, trying to time this out. And if I think we're playing too fast, I go, slow down, slow down. If I think we're playing too slow, fast faster.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, he wouldn't actually say that, he'd signal them.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

But I like I like the idea you actually slow down.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

My number one job was to make sure there's no heat. Yeah. If I thought the casino somehow knew what we're doing, I give the scrub sign and we take off. Then the plastic cut card comes out. That's the end of the shoe. Now everything happens. We have a fake BP buy in for $10,000 cash at a table across the pit. All the attention goes there. The bosses, the eye in the sky. Our dealer now starts doing that sky shuffle, false shuffling those six decks of cards. If I said before, a boss starts walking back towards our table, we have attractive woman a turn, cut into him, talk to him, so he doesn't see the shoe and the shuffle. If a little old lady starts watching, or anybody, we have a turn, talk to them so they don't see the shuffle. When the relief dealer taps our dealer as he's false shuffling, I talk to her so she doesn't see the shuffle. Bottom line is you know, nobody really watches that shuffle.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

No one watches the shuffle. And what's interesting that makes this difficult for Dustin is that he knows the time period when the dealer is going to be there, but we don't know exactly when they're going to be there because they get hung up uh at the podium or they get asked a question in the pit, it stops it. They're not there every single time at the exact same moment they're supposed to be there. There's always leeway.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Once the dealer starts false shuffling, or shuffling, actually, the six decks, he can't go on break until that shuffle procedure is once it's started, it has to be completed by that dealer. Our dealer's done false shuffling the cards. He gives me the plastic cut card, I cut the deck where he marked, he puts those cards into the shoe. Now he's gonna take off and go on break. Yeah. I get up and I say, hey guys, let's go to dinner. We want to vacate the table. So the BP who's been watching from a distance is gonna come up and take charge of the game. Now there is a vulnerability for a few seconds. Nobody's at that table.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yes. Someone could out of the blue, out of the corner of their eye, and it's not uncommon, rush up to a table and start playing or plop their money out there. That's a contingency that uh you have to kind of and that ruins everything. That's all for naught.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

So the BP walks up to the table. In my case, he does one of these to the boss, and basically he gets a private game, no matter what it takes. He gets a private game. That means nobody else can play at that game, and that's what we want.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

BP now has two jobs. Number one, get the signals from the recorder so he knows how many hands to play and how many hit cards to take. And number two, stay cool. Stay very cool because everybody in that casino is going to be watching him.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

As yeah, as we touched on, he has to be an actor. He has to be able to act uh and not just be an actor, he has to be one under immense pressure. Yeah, you're sitting there going, well, they're just watching. What kind of pressure is that? Uh, it's a lot of pressure, knowing that you're a breaking the law, big time, you're out in the middle of everywhere breaking the law, everybody's watching. You break the law. That's a lot of pressure, and you got to be able to remain calm under that because he is the main focus of everything. Everybody who is anybody is watching him.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

And this isn't a two-minute thing. No, what 15, 20 minutes?

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Oh, at least, yeah. He's under this, he's under the gun for at least 20 minutes. I'd say 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

And the great thing about RBP, what he did to get the signals, he got changed, got $25 chips, and after he went around, he would turn around and throw it into the crowd. That makes him look like a sucker.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Big sucker.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

But guess who's in that crowd? The recorder. And that's how he gets his signals. Looks very natural. Instead of turning around like this, yeah. That would be a towel.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah, that's that was brilliant. Turn the whole body off, interacting with the crowd. I mean, it suckers written across his forehead. That's what you want. You want to have everyone dismiss him.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

However, there was a problem and a big problem with this BP. He was no Mother Teresa. So we were concerned. He's the one gonna be walking out with all our money. Will he reunite at the rendezvous point or not? And I'll tell you more about that in a minute. So into the computer cooler, plastic cut card is out. Now the recorder gets the hell out of the casino. Because if they search him, they got him.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

They got that device on him.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Oh yeah, he's going down big time. Then the BP goes to the casino cage, cashes out the chips for cash. Now, this is a critical point. Because if the casino suspects something, they're gonna interrogate them right then and then they will put everything on hold.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

And yes, they can stall or flat out say not yet and hold your money. I mean, they can do that. If they have suspicion of anything, they can with they can hold your money. And if they want to, you know, in a real world situation, if for whatever reason the casino holds your money, yeah, you can call up gaming control, now you got to wait for them to show up and all this other, it's a big hassle. But we can not pay for whatever reason. And if you want to bring in the gaming police, they'll solve it, but you still don't get your money. So yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

And this is back in the 80s, no cell phones, so we don't have any communication. Yeah, we don't know what's happening with the BP. And after we leave the table, the players, we all meet back at a house. So we don't know what's going on. Now, I did not immediately go to that house because I knew this was going to take some time.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah, that's a lot of money to cash out.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

So I drive up to the house slowly, looking around, looking for anything suspicious, activity or car. Don't see any. So I knock on the door, doors open. The first thing I blurt out is, Is Iggy here? Iggy was the BP. The person who won all the money. Now I'll tell you a little more about Iggy. Oh boy. He's a lot older than us. He's probably in his 60s. And he was telling us stories about his life. He told us the FBI was looking for him, some kind of stock scam. Well, that's not good. And then he told us when he's younger, him and his partner got in an argument. So his partner shoots him in the gut. Oh, Jesus. And Iggy's driving himself to the hospital holding his guts in. Well, this is the kind of guy you want to introduce the whole family to do.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

That's the one you want to bring home for supper, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

So we did have our concerns. So me and a few other guys were talking. We thought, you know what? Let's tell Iggy this is the first computer cooler. But we have another one that if he does good on this one, he can be the BP on that one. And we think the score is gonna be about a million dollars.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

There's a hook.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

That'd get anyone going, hmm.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Yeah, if I'm gonna run, am I gonna run with maybe six figures or a million dollars?

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Add another figure to that list.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Definitely makes you think twice.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

So we're all at the house. And you can feel the tension because we don't know what happened to Iggy. Is he just late? You know, making sure he's not fouled? That's cool. Did he get popped? And the next knock on the door is gonna be the cops? Or did he take off with our money? We don't know. Then a knock on the door. We all look at each other because we don't know who's on the other side of the door. Who's behind door number one? So the main guy opens the door and here's the first time for everything. It's Iggy with a brown paper baggy marches into the kitchen and pours out $150,000 in cash onto the table. And we celebrate like we just won the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Well, yeah, definitely. That's a hell of a score and a lot of sweating, but the money was worth it.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Yeah, I mean, I was down with a lot of plays, but this one I'm gonna remember to rapture. That wasn't the only computer cooler I was down with. This next computer cooler was in a different casino. I was the captain, and I recruited the dealer. This dealer I had complete confidence and trust in. This dealer has been sitting next to me this entire podcast. And it is, of course, the Kaiser.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

It was me, I have to admit. Yes, it was me.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Do you remember how I recruited you?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

No, Texas, I really don't.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

I actually believe it or not, with my memory, I do kind of I remember going over to your house and telling you now this is big time because you're not gonna be just involved with me, you're gonna be involved with the big guy. If it goes south, it's not gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

I remember you telling me about other computer coolers you were doing, but uh I don't remember how you recruited me, but that's interesting. You just came over and said, Hey, you're it. Yeah, actually, if you wanted to do it, and I I'm sure you said yes, because you knew it was I didn't want to, but you had a good friendship. I decided I will help you this once, or you donated all your money to charity. I donated all my money to charity, me, yeah. That's interesting. I did not remember that, but yeah, I'm sure I didn't put up much of a fuss or even ask a whole lot of questions. I just pretty much jumped at it, knowing me.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Now, when I poached you, your favorite word about being touched, that was awesome. Being the dealer for a computer cooler, did you have concerns?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Not really. I mean, you basically touched on what it was all about, and it sounded very intriguing. And knowing that being under that kind of scrutiny was a little unnerving, I had uh I had the balls to do it. I was just under indestructible at the time, I think it was, you know, to prove the point to me that I could do stuff like that. So yeah, I had no reservations, I just jumped right into it.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Yeah, I actually don't remember. Did we have practice sessions where you got together with everybody and kind of knew what was going on?

SPEAKER_00 26:32

I vaguely remember one, maybe two, where the team was together just to work out the rhythm of the the whole play because they've already done uh coolers before. Yes, some of them have. So our shuffle was different than what they were used to. Each shuffle takes more time than the other. Um my shuffle with the casino I was at was a little bit convoluted. It had a lot of moving parts, and to do as what they did in the first cooler and do the sky shuffle, which is very effective. I took a huge shortcut. A huge one. You're, I think we're supposed to bring the cards out all deck, break them into halves, and then on one of the halves, you cut off some of that, and then again shuffling, then put them in over here, and then you tell somebody here, and you go over there, and you go to lunch, you come back, very involved shuffle. And I don't want to do all that because I'm pretty much a lazy guy. So I brought the cards out, brought them and caught them in half, took the top half of the first stack I'm working on. I think I did one, maybe two sky shuffles. I was bored with it, stacked it all back up and threw it in the shoe, which it's really very balls, really ballsy move to do because if anyone was watching, they would be totally on top of me and tell me I was a bad boy. But my thinking of this is a no one's watching the shuffle. Yeah, we had a lot of turns and decides. A lot of turns, no one's watching the shuffle. Plus, the fact is, if someone were to look over, watch the shuffle, then watch it, no one pays attention. Bosses, surveillance, I mean they record everything, but they don't really pay attention. And they look over and they say, okay, he's doing that. And they go over here and they come back. Oh, he's still doing something. He's doing something. If the shuffle is still going on, you look back, or they're in the shoe. Well, there's a lapse of time there that they're not gonna connect the dots that but it's only been 30 seconds. It just doesn't connect that with bosses, as I said earlier. Bosses just they're just there, you know, they're not gonna pay that close of attention. So I opted for the ballsy move rather than the all-in-depth false shuffling, because that to me was just not my style.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

So you do the shuffle, and I don't know if I cut, but somebody cut.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

You put the cards into the this uh into the shoe. Now you go on, Bray.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Well, here's the interesting part, and as I spoke about in your situation, is the dealer wasn't on time. So I had to put the the cards in the shoe, which I would normally do, and now I have to start dealing because my relief is not there. She got hung up at the podium or went to the wrong game. Who knows why she wasn't there? But I had to deal two rounds myself.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

You know, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Yeah, I remember that because I was a little pissed off that my dealer was late. I usually don't care if the dealer's late because it's only a couple minutes, but in this space, I did because I'm dealing my own stack. So you're actually dealing to the BP. I am actually dealing to the BP.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

You get a big walk into the break room. Were you nervous or you felt No, I wasn't nervous at all.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

My job was done and I wasn't arrested yet, so I knew I was good. You know, nobody came up and you know, asked me or pulled me off to the site, beat the shit out of me, or anything like that. So I knew I was pretty good at her. But the one thing that really stands out, out of the blue, one of the foremen walked up to me, got right up to my ear, and says, That looked awful familiar, and then walked away. I was like, What? Yeah, I had no idea what she was actually referring to. She didn't elaborate, she didn't say anything, just gave that one little sentence, and my interpretation was simply this. She was involved at one point or another in a similar operation. Because it, I mean, it pretty much, no matter who's doing it, it's pretty much the same thing. Oh, yeah, it has a pattern, it has a shape of it, it has a pattern. So those words resonated with me, like, huh. And I'm going, oh guys, she's got an idea of what's going on. Now the little hairs on the back of my neck are starting to stand out. Going, is she gonna be a good girl? Or is she gonna be a bad girl? I say girl, but she was a lady, and but the way she presented it to me was this let me know that she knew something. I have a shorty for you. Cool. This is a little bit different because I'm not sure how a lot of you would reflect upon this, but it's a long night in the casino. I'm bored, I have a single deck game, and I said, Well, I gotta do something that amuses me. And you don't have any agents, right? No agents, it's just a dead night. I'm actually working with Sonnox, no money coming in, just working. Nine to five guy, and it sucks. I need something to amuse myself. Now I just got to the table, and the first couple hands out, I noticed something very unusual for a single deck. I had at the end of it, it was my second hand, maybe my third hand, so I'm out of cards. I had all four aces on the table. All four of them. I go, Well, that's unusual. What if I keep those aces out of play? Okay, let's give that a shot. So I collect the cards, do my shuffles, and when you're a dealer and you hand the cards out to be cut, they insert a plastic card. You can judge, and you also remember how people and where they cut the cards. Yeah. And you try to go around the table so everyone gets a chance to cut the cards. What's interesting is that uh I bring up the aces, I put them in a location to where the person who's gonna cut the cards will cut them out of play. Yeah, so in a sense, from the top of the deck to the bottom, which we'll never get to. No problem. Deal the cards out, huh? No aces. That was fun. Now we start again. Well, I already know where the aces are, so I shuffle and everything else. Put them in a spot where the next person's gonna cut them out of play. Again, I do this. This continues on for an hour.

unknown 32:59

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Okay, not knowing that I would be able to keep them out of play that long, but it just so happened that everyone was playing by the rules and cutting where they always cut. People, creatures are a habit, they do the same thing over and over again. So if I give it to Bob, I know Bob's gonna cut high or Susie's gonna cut low. Yeah, so I put the aces in a spot where they're gonna get cut to the bottom of the deck. So nobody can get a blackjack, no one got a blackjack, no one saw an ace for an hour, nobody saw any ace. And I figured by then it would blow up. Yeah, some you know, someone's gonna do what they want to do and it takes it out. But it was fun while it lasted. Nah, everyone did what they're supposed to do, and I kept them out of play for the whole time, and no one noticed, no one paid attention, no one griped. And usually you get that, well, I haven't had a blackjack in an hour, right? Now, no, they didn't notice that that was so cool. Now you think, oh my god, you cheated real people. Well, not really, they cheated themselves, they cut the cards. So it was an interesting hour. Then there was the only time I did it, and it just it was one of those self-fulfilling I can do this, yeah, and I did, and it made me happy.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

So uh, you know, you just do things because you can. Now that was the first computer cooler you were a dealer, but there was a second which was pretty much different than the six-deck cooler we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yeah, this was uh the second one was I have to say my favorite. This one was actually my favorite cooler. Well, I only did two, so it was almost a third, but I got fired. Um well, after the third, but anyway, the second one was best. It was a single deck cooler. So versus the six, I mean the eighth deck of all the hands, and we get mini rounds and big cash. This is a single deck. We only get three rounds. It happened to be in a place with a two thousand dollar limit, and that's the reason we get it. Yes, as a high limit battery, because a single deck on a low limit is it's just it's not worth the risk. Going on a date by yourself, it's just not worth it. Kind of boring, and there's no event. It's not good. So that was the main factor. It was a single deck with a high limit. Because if we can get three hands at $2,000 a crack, that's a lot of money going out the door.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

That's $6,000 at least. At least, maybe a double down or a blackjack if we got lucky with the arrangement of the cards.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

Yeah, exactly. And so you can only it's only a guessing game what is going to come out. We got lucky, three rounds, three hands each. Wow, that's optimum. Plus, I had two uh double down, two double downs in there. So it was a it was a very score, but it was a totally different environment because the rules are things are totally different. It's a single deck, Sky Shuffle. There's our sky shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, strip, strip, shuffle, and that was it. Offer the cut, cut, we're done. The deck, the deck is now stacked, and we're ready to go. BP squeezes in now, unlike his, where they got up and went to lunch. My people stayed there because this is a very busy casino.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Very busy.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

If a seat opened up, 18 people would be fighting over it. So my people, once that money hit the table, they go, Whoa, you know, I don't want to mess this guy up. He's been serious cash. So they just don't play and they lock up my chairs. My team, they just back out and watch for three rounds. And that just sounds really easy. Yeah, simple. You do all three hands at 21 and $6,000 a win. What could go wrong? Well, we don't have enough money. I mean, he's been talking about chips. Chips. I mean, we only have roughly six thousand dollars in black on the game. Okay, now he comes up and does the money plays. There's your six thousand right there. I'm broke. I gotta get more money. So he comes out and bets two thousand of the crack. We don't get the money yet until he wins all three hands again with a double down in there. That's eight thousand dollars. This particular house had a very strict procedure when it came to having fills on the game. When the money comes to the table, security will bring it and will stand behind you until you take the cards in your hand and put them in the discard rack. Then he'll put the cards on the table.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

And if that would have happened, what would happen?

SPEAKER_00 37:20

The whole cooler would have been done. So I guarded those cards with my life. Because I've already got a little money, I want a whole lot more. Security guard would not put the money on the table. So now I gotta I gotta be ballsy and overstep my boundaries as a dealer. I'm yelling at him, put the money on the table. I gotta pay these hands, I gotta pay the bets, put the money, put the guards, I got the money on the table, and I'm arguing with the guy. What bewilders me to this day is why the Ford did not get involved. Because they're all watching, they're all there watching, but no one jumped in. They're just letting me boss this guy around, which is great. So he finally gives in, gives me the chips on the table. I go out and pay the bet. Fine. Next round, second round, again, he gets three hands, two thousand a pop. Wow, with another double down. He wins again. I don't have enough money. Guess what? Bob's gonna come back with more money. We go through the same argument.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

He says, put the card. I said, I can't, I gotta pay the bets. I'm in the middle of a hand, I can't do it. And so that was brilliant thinking, by the way. I had to argue with him. And again, why the bosses didn't step in, I don't know. They should have. That's their job. But I I ran into the ball.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Everybody's not down with it.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

No, just uh just me. And I had to control this situation, and for whatever reason, they just didn't get involved. I guess I was overpowering, I don't know. So finally he puts the money down. We pay off the bet. Now, here's the other kicker. That's two rounds, single deck, shuffle. You're done, especially at this level. You don't want to squeeze out that third hand. But what did you do? I squeezed that hand on. I fired those cards out so fast. As soon as that money was paid, I put right back out again. Now, third round, again, 3,000 a crack for three hands, or 2,000 for three hands, with another double down. He has a 12. And we're talking about the BP, the BP money. He's got a $2,000 bet. He has a 12. He flips up the 12. I want to double down. Huh? No one's gonna double down on 12 with a $2,000 bet, which if he's arrogant enough, he'll do it. He's got he's got the money. Why not be a little cocky? He's and now our procedure is to on a busting hand the deal the up card, I mean the double down card face up. Because if it's a losing hand, we want the money now. That's the procedure. So my BP goes, I want to face down. Now I'm for loop two. Now I gotta turn around and go, he wants his double down on S12 face down. And they're all discussing it. Finally, yeah, go ahead. So we put his double down card face down, which is totally against the procedure, but they made the call, not me. That's out of my league. Face down, and why did he double on 12 with a 2,000 bet, making it a $4,000 bet? Why? Well, of course, he wins. We smoke settles, bosses are coming over, mumbling on the game, and one comes up and starts talking to me. And I says, God, I it was bizarre. But you know what? What why would he double on 12? And why would he want to face down? I mean, that's his that's just totally right. He goes, Yeah, that is totally right. And he wandered off. Another seed's planted. What now they're focusing on this 12. What's what did he do here? And uh win blew under the wire, too. It was awesome with best play, and I was I was adrenaline rush ballsy that day. I I did everything I wasn't supposed to do as a dealer and got away with it. It was great. I I think we won $24,000 in three rounds. I broke just about every procedure I could think about breaking. And for the odd part is they let me, and that's what I don't understand. I just took control of the situation. I don't know if the bosses were shell-shocked or what, but I'm very voisterous and I come across strong. So apparently I scared the shit out of him. I don't know what it was, but I took control. I made the security guard put money on the table when he wasn't supposed to. The cards are supposed to be in the rack. I got, you know, I got everyone dancing to my commands while I had the meek little former back there. Okay, okay. I don't get that. That it totally to this day, I don't understand why they did not do their job. I'm glad they didn't, but they let me do mine.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

To sum up, and I'm really impressed with this. Under fire, he broke every rule and got away with it, and then was never questioned.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Never questioned, no heat whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

That's perfection.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

You know, I I don't know how I got away with it. I really don't. To this day, I don't know. I think it was just it was the confidence that I extruded and took control. No one else knew really know what to do. I just took it from them. I took the control. The bosses should have stepped in, put the cards down, put the money and pay the bets, and it would have been all done. If I put that down, I'm giving up a whole lot of money, at least uh you know, about oh I'd say about 12,000, 13,000. You know, that's a lot of money to just put in a discard rack. But if they would have done their job properly, that would have gone one round. Because as soon as that first payoff came out, those cards should have been in the rack done.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

Now, another thing, the BP was young, yeah, he wasn't old, and he was not a known player. It's not like the BP could influence the bosses at all.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

No, he could. He had no he had no power, he was just some kid with money. So he could object to all he wants and they just roll over him because the casino is the ultimate boss, they do what they want, and so the BP being unknown off the street with some cash is not going to override our procedures. Only I can override the procedures, apparently. Yeah, I was shocked I got away with it, and I'm glad I did. Oh wow, but I did literally take control of that game, so it's very possible Kaiser is the only person in history to do two computer coolers as the dealer. Yeah, that's a good point. Usually, after your first one, you're out to pasture and you get to play with the other boys on the other side of the table. Nah. Yeah. We try to throw. Time, but that was a fail. Yeah, that was I don't know we're talking, I know we're talking about, but we tried. But yeah, I did too. Yeah, that's what I did. It's uh it was quite the adventure, I have to say it. Uh you know, I have to say this. I was glad I was poached. Don't tally have that.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Well, I got a good one for you today. Okay, it's a little different, it's not cards.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

It's a treasure tread chest. I have a little chest here. There's a prediction in here. We're not gonna read it yet. Okay, but I have three items in here. Before I tell you the items, do you believe in free will? Sure. Okay, we'll test it. First item I have is a gold coin, represents financial freedom. Second item I have is a tie clip, holds people down. And the third item is a key, unlocks knowledge. Oh, yes. Nice. You're full of not knowledge, right?

SPEAKER_00 45:06

Full of something.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

I won't argue. I won't argue. Okay. Okay. What I want you to do, I'll stand up, but okay. I'll be partially in frame. What's important is my hands that you can see. I'm gonna put these behind my back. Okay. Two hands. I want you to take any two of them and make sure the audience sees which two.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

I take any two objects?

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Yeah, two out of the three.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

I got my two objects.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

Okay, you left me with this one, and I'll just keep it down here. Free choice, right?

SPEAKER_00 45:39

I have free choice, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Yeah. Give me one of those objects.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Give you one? Either one. I'm partial to these things. I love these skeleton keys.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

Yeah, those keys are cool, right?

SPEAKER_00 45:48

I love them. I think they're awesome.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

Yes, you chose two items.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

Then you gave me one item.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

There is a prediction in this prediction in the box? Yeah. I'm gonna turn around so everybody can see it, but then you can read it.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

So inside here is the and what does it say? That's a prediction right here. So I'm gonna read this out loud. Free will is an illusion. I will be holding the key, you'll be holding the coin, the tie clips will be hidden.

SPEAKER_01 46:20

Hidden back here.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

There you go. And the Kaiser made every decision. Every decision I made it, and I got the key. He got the coin, and the tie clip was hidden behind his back. That is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

That's uh effect I do, and you can learn about it and buy it from my website. It's called Free Will Switch. Uh, obviously, you don't have to have invest in the little case here. You can just do it with these three items if you want. There is a switch to it, I tell you. There is no switch, it's just one prediction. You could even have it at the bottom engraved if you want it. But it's a fun one, it's fooled a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

First time I saw it, it fooled me. It's a good thing, good stuff. Go go pick this one up. If this is your type of magic, definitely this one's worth it. Uh, it fooled me the first time I saw it, it fooled me again. And there's no sleight of hand, there's no slide of hand, slide of my yeah. Anyone can do it, even your grandmother. I was gonna say Bubba, but we ain't gonna go down the Bubba Road today. So that was it, that was a very impressive effect. I think I'll go to your website and order it myself. I think that is that straightforward. That kind of wraps up our day today. We did a lot of good stuff. I mean, really good insight to oh, computer coolers happen really went down. Now we brought a PC to the table and cheat the casinos. Nobody does that or did that.

SPEAKER_01 47:51

Yeah, this was a real work. Before we leave, if you have any suggestions of topics you want us to cover, yeah, or just questions, leave a comment below. And what we've been doing is I have my 103 tips for magicians that we'll send you free. And it's a good little ebook, good information in there.

SPEAKER_00 48:15

Yeah, just ask away or make a comment, whatever uh we're here to answer. And if I don't know the answer, I'll make it up. But it's good information, it's a great trick. Check it out. And that that's it, that's pretty much the other day. What we do next. I think that's a wrap. That's a saying how we're rappers, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

Don't be a square. Share.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Yeah, you heard it from Dustin, and he's not kidding. Definitely share, subscribe, and that's the way I'm talking about. I'll just see you next week.