As for insurance, casinos like to tell players one important rule: always take even money—that is, insure every natural. "It's the only bet on the table you can't lose." Players who do not always insure their naturals are highly suspect, and showing any sign of intelligence at a blackjack table can be dangerous. Actually, it's not all that expensive to always insure your naturals —if you flat-bet $100 per hand, it would only cost you about $1.35 per 100 hands. That's pretty cheap camouflage for a black chip bettor.
Ironically, it actually costs card counters less than one one-hundredth of a percent of their action to always insure their naturals. This is because counters bet more at higher counts, when more naturals occur.
The best way to insure your naturals is to quickly yell out, "Even money!" Do this before you've even had a chance to look at the other cards on the table. If you're playing multiple hands, take even money for your natural, but don't insure your other hands! This always looks great. (Of course, if the count justifies it, you do want to insure the other hands, but don't insure them if it's borderline.) Other than on this even money play, don't make stupid insurance plays. Follow your count.
I am of the opinion that small-stakes card counters should never make any idiot camouflage plays. Likewise for most hit-and-run counters, who get in and out of games, pits, and casinos quickly. If you don't get rated, don't get a VIP card, and don't give your name, you don't need camouflage; you need Reeboks.
Idiot camouflage is primarily for high stakes players who are going for the comps as well as the money. Even these players must remember that there's no real difference between a player who constantly uses idiot camouflage and a real idiot.
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Don't make stupid pair-split decisions. You're doubling your money on the table when most dealers don't know correct pair-splitting basic strategy anyway. One exception is in effect when you have a very high count and a pair of tens against a dealer low card. Your count may indicate that you should split the tens, and there are some Indian reservation casinos, riverboat casinos, and foreign casinos where most people play so stupidly that you can go right ahead and split those tens and just blend into the crowd. But in Nevada, and many major casinos anywhere, this is one pair-split hand you ought to play incorrectly. Likewise, it is one of the few hands you ought to play incorrectly when you have a high bet on the table. Splitting ten-valued cards is an unusual play for both stupid and smart players. Few players break up a hand totaling 20, and this play often looks suspicious because it's only made by rank beginners and card counters, and if you've been playing an otherwise intelligent game, you probably won't pass for a rank beginner.
There are a few pair-split basic strategy violations that fall into the category of two-bit deceptions, and some of these plays look pretty stupid. With a neutral count, failing to split a pair of nines versus a deuce costs little, and looks very amateurish. This is one of those errors tourists always make because they don't want to break up an eighteen. Better yet, and it costs just a bit more, splitting nines against an ace looks really dumb.
Finally, here are a couple plays that really do cost almost nothing (about 10 per $100 bet), and look far stupider than they are: hitting a pair of twos or threes against a dealer 4 instead of splitting.
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