Ask Frank: Casino Countermeasures in Blackjack

Thank you for telling me about Sharpshooter in your book on craps [Forever Craps: The Five Step Advantage-Play Method!]. I am now looking for information on Blackjack, 3-Card Poker, and Spanish 21. Friends have told me that with all of the casino's countermeasures against card counters that you can no longer count cards or even expect to win in any of these games. I have not played in many years and I would like your opinion on this question and any sources of reference that you can point me towards.

Your web page www.frankscoblete.com now points towards a place called "RGT online." Have you stopped writing and playing in the casinos?

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,
Paul

Dear Paul,

RGT Online is the website for me and it also is linked to CasinoCityTimes.com, which has all of our writers and an incredible archive of our articles. Check it out.

The casinos have indeed made it much more difficult for card counters to win and they have, by making games use continuous shuffle machines, having the dealer hit on soft 17, and creating single-deck games with a 6 to 5 blackjack payout, also made it very difficult for all players to come home on a given night with any money. Maybe that's why blackjack profits are off some 10 percent in the last two years. By trying to stop card counters, they have stopped up the goose that laid the golden table-game egg.

However, there are still some good games out there but you have to hunt for them. Certain venues such as Tunica, Mississippi, or certain casinos such as the Isleta Casino in New Mexico, and certain casinos in Vegas, still offer the traditional double-deck and six-deck blackjack games. There you can get a fair shake and employ your card-counting skills without too much worry about paranoid pits.

Strategies for the three games you mention can be found in my books, Bold Card Play: Best Strategies for Caribbean Stud, Three-Card Poker and Let It Ride; and Armada Strategies for Spanish 21.

And, oh, yes I am still a player. In fact, I spend about half my time in the casinos now. You can read about my newest adventures in The Craps Underground: The Inside Story of How Dice Controllers Are Winning Million from the Casinos!

All the best in and out of the casinos!
Frank Scoblete