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Blackjack cards and casino chipsAs already mentioned earlier, currently there are various card counting systems that provide blackjack players with an advantage to the house, in case that the cards form the deck are well-shuffled and the casino provides players with fair and unbiased game of blackjack. As a matter of fact, when it comes to regular brick-and-mortar casinos, some experts believe that the player can actually be cheated on by using a variety of methods.

In addition, statistically speaking, players are more likely to be cheated on larger bets than on small ones, so dealers who are trying to cheat would normally wait until the player makes their top bet in order to be most efficient.

Cheating on One Player

One of the simplest and most efficient ways for a dealer to cheat on a player is by having a peek at the top card and then deal either it or the so-called “second” card, which is the one below it. If carefully done, such a peek would not be noticed by the player and usually happens within parts of a second in order to not be detected. Although it is a very simple cheating method, peeking leaves no evidence, which makes it one of the most convenient ways for the dealer to make a difference while dealing the cards from the deck.

The question is what chances do even professional blackjack players have against a dealer who uses the above-mentioned card dealing method. Probably the easiest way for a dealer to do that is by dealing a face-up deck, which is pretty much the same as peeking on every card. However, this strategy is best when there is only one player against the dealer. In such cases, the dealer would win no less than 95% of the time.

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Cheating on All Players

When there are two or more player around the table, a different strategy could be used by the dealer. If the dealer is aimed at beating all the players but does not want to peek too often on the card deck, they could simply peek when they are able to on each round of cards in case there is a good card for themselves on top of the deck. This card is then retained by dealing mere seconds until the dealer comes to their own hand and gets the card for themselves.

Unfortunately for the dealer, such a strategy could easily be detected by players, since if used, the dealer normally gets unusually good hands, especially when compared to the ones players get. Such cheating could be detected by more experienced blackjack players by tallying the number of 10s and Aces that the dealer gets as their first two cards and comparing them to the total number of 10s and Aces in theory. If the dealer has chosen this strategy to cheat on the players, they would win at at least 90% of the time.

Cheating on One Player while Playing against Two and More Players

There is also another approach that can be chosen by the dealer in order for them to beat a single player at the table when playing against two and more players at a time. The basics of this strategy lies in trying to beat one player only while dealing normal cards to everybody else at the table. In order to do this, the player peeks at the next card of the deck frequently enough in order to provide themselves with the chance to deal a first or a second to the player who he plays against each time when the it is the player’s turn to draw a card from the deck.

The most unfortunate way for a player to be beaten by the dealer is for the latter to win just several extra hands an hour from the players.

This cheating strategy is considered quite an efficient one, as it is not to extreme to attract unwanted attention and statistically speaking, is not so significant for the gameplay, which makes it hardly detectable over a normal gameplay of a few hours. If the odds of the game are considered fairly close to even for either parties by winning with a typical hand, the dealer would shift the advantage not to 100, but to 50% in favour of the house when cheating by using this method.

Bending Cards

Slightly bending the cards so the player could know what they are next time when they are dealt is among the most popular blackjack cheating methods. Of course, this method could only be used when playing at a physical casino.

It is sometimes used by players, too, but the majority of dealers are are trained to spot such cards, so this could be considered as a fairly hard cheating method. Normally, most bent cards are removed from the deck directly after they are spotted, which makes it practically impossible for a player to use this method if trying to cheat the casino.