Posts Tagged ‘highroller’
Camouflage is a military term that means disguise, deception, or pretense. A soldier has a better chance at survival if he looks like the rest of the jungle. For a card counter, camouflage means essentially the same thing—it's an act that pegs you as Ted Tourist or Harry Highroller or Donald Drunk—anyone but Clyde Counter.
There are many aspects to camouflage. We have already described various betting types. There is also dramatic camouflage, which most successful players find to be as important as card counting when it comes to being a consistent winner. Dramatic camouflage would include such subtle touches as appearing uninterested in other players' cards, or being preoccupied with idle table chatter. It would include the ability to raise bets as if chasing losses, or feeling a winning streak. This dramatic camouflage is one of the most difficult aspects of card counting for a player to learn. Some people are born actors; most people are not. Show me a successful card counter and I'll show you a person who has all the innate abilities of the con artist.
One type of camouflage that many players use, often because they lack the subtle skills of the dramatic camouflage expert, is idiot camouflage.
As you might suspect, idiot camouflage is simply making an obviously stupid play. If the pit boss starts watching you suspiciously, you can play like an idiot. You split a pair of sixes against a dealer's ace, then you stand on your soft total of 14 (versus anything!). This, of course, looks so idiotic that the pit boss soon turns away. Now you can do whatever you want for the next hour and get rich.
Or, at least, that's the way idiot camouflage is supposed to work. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that ten minutes later, the new floorman comes by, or the dealers change, or you start to wonder about the eye upstairs, so you have to make another idiot play or two.
You may also have a floorman who doesn't know basic strategy well enough to realize that your idiot play was moronic, so you threw away your money for nothing. Or, you may have someone in the eye who observes that you only make idiot plays when the floorman looks at you, and your idiot play goes from camouflage to a tell. Or, you may be incredibly unlucky and have your idiot play go well for you, drawing a six onto your hard fifteen against the dealer's five, triggering suspicion in the pit over how you "knew" to make this weird play, since you haven't been making weird plays like this all along…
The counter's edge is small. It doesn't take many stupid plays to wipe out your profit potential. If you're not a born actor, and you feel that camouflage is what keeps you in the game, here are two rules to remember:
1. Reserve your stupid plays for your smallest bets
If you've got big money on the table, this is the wrong time to try to look dumb. If you're using a 1 to 10 spread, the same stupid play will cost you ten times more money when you have a high bet out.
2. Use a stupid play only when it is necessary
Don't try to prove to every dealer you sit down against that you're no threat. Most dealers don't pay attention to how you're playing. They watch players all day and they're bored stiff with the game. Try to make small talk if you can.
Two-Bit Deceptions
There are some errors that cost a lot, but others that don't take too big a chunk out of your bankroll. I call the cheap ones "two-bit deceptions," because they all cost about 250 or less for every ten bucks you have bet on your hand. For big players, this could mean a couple bucks for every black chip, but if your expectation is a few hundred bucks per hour, you may find occasional value in giving up a few of them to conceal your counting.
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