I heard it once said that some casinos will spend $10 to keep any player
from having a $5 advantage. IF consultants can help the casino executive
see the foolishness of this approach then I can see how consultants might
help the average VP player.
Yes, now that you mention it, I saw this during my long-ago career as a
blackjack dealer. If someone was winning at a high-limit table, the boss
would tell the dealer to start shuffling up after every few hands. Their
"logic" was either pure superstition, or the correct understanding poor deck
penetration makes card-counting unprofitable.
But it was a losing proposition for them. Since the bosses didn't even
understand basic strategy, they couldn't accurately identify card-counters.
So it was almost always the case that the frequent shuffling either chased
away the winning player (who in fact was a clueless player who otherwise
would have lost it back), or slowed down the game so much that it hurt the
casino's expected profit from all the players at the table. Since the bosses
didn't understand the math, didn't understand for instance what a small edge
even card-counters have, they tended to wildly OVER-estimate the importance
of guarding against advantage players.
If the bosses accurately understood the math of advantage blackjack play,
its more likely that they wouldn't act like this, or perhaps confine their
efforts to only the highest limits, allowing the lower limit fleas to
happily survive.
It's often noted that the appearance of "Beat the Dealer" advantage
blackjack systems led to a dramatic INCREASE in casino blackjack profits.
This isn't necessarily the result I would have predicted. But that's the way
it happened, so intelligent, informed casino execs would take that effect
into account in their attitude towards advantage opportunities.
Stuart
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From: "ednar" <ednar@kconline.com>