Apr 14 2026
The World's Greatest Blackjack Card Counter
Suppose the world’s greatest blackjack card counter heads out to a casino to pursue his chosen vocation of beating the house. Our hero sits down and starts to count. After a few hands, he realizes that the casino doesn’t care: he is free to count the day away, playing and spreading his bets however he likes.
The Problem of Protecting Proprietary Games
Over the last few years I've analyzed, played, written and spoken about scores of proprietary games with vulnerabilities to card counting, hole-carding and other straightforward advantage play techniques.
The Not-So-Ideal iDEAL Shuffler
The Ace automatic shuffler has many game security problems, the most serious of which is its propensity to encourage hole-card exposure by even highly trained dealers. (See my blog post "Little Ace of Horrors.") After many years of fighting that battle, Shuffle Master finally gave up the cause.
The Importance of Procedure
In recent years there has been a steady rise in the adoption of new table games. When a new game arrives, the staff is often unfamiliar with the rules, procedures, and basic methods of protection for that game. Thus, most casinos attempt to follow the rules and procedures as written without understanding the “whys” of the procedures. Over time, certain parts of that procedure may get sloppy.
