Card Counting - Detection

Detection

Monitoring player behavior to assist with detecting the card counters falls into the hands of the on-floor casino personnel ("pit bosses") and casino-surveillance personnel, who may use video surveillance ("the eye in the sky") as well as computer analysis, to try to spot playing behavior indicative of card counting; early counter-strategies featured the dealers' learning to count the cards themselves to recognize the patterns in the players. In addition, many casinos employ the services of various agencies, such as Griffin Investigations, who claim to have a catalog of advantage players. If a player is found to be in such a database, he will almost certainly be stopped from play and asked to leave regardless of his table play. For successful card counters, therefore, skill at "cover" behavior, to hide counting and avoid "drawing heat" and possibly being barred, may be just as important as playing skill.

Detection of card counters will be confirmed after a player is first suspected of counting cards; when seeking card counters casino employees, whatever their position, could be alerted by many things that are most common when related to card counting but not common for other players. These include:

• Large buy ins
• Large bet sizes
• Dramatic bet variation especially with larger bets being placed only at the end of a shoe
• Playing only a small number of hands during a shoe
• Refusal to play rated
• Table hopping
• Playing multiple hands

The strategy applied to the playing of hands can be used to detect a possible counter since very few players play perfect playing strategy, furthermore, card counters will play perfect playing strategy, then they will suddenly alter it and make unique strategy deviations that can be a dead givaway. Plays such as splitting tens, doubling soft 18/19/20, standing on 15/16, and surrendering on 13/14 when basic strategy says otherwise, may be a sign of a card counter.

Extremely aggressive plays such as splitting tens and doubling soft 19 and 20 are often called out to the pit to notify them because they are telltale signs of not only card counters but hole carding, and most forms of advantage gambling.