We can’t even cover all the ways casinos waste time in one post, so we’ll just look at three of them that relate to card handling. Now, if you’re in charge of cleaning up the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, do you send the custodians with their mops and vacuums in the middle of the trading day? Probably not. If you work at a tech company and need to back-up the computer system daily, do you run that process during the middle of the day? Probably not. When do you retouch the greens at Augusta National?
It’s simple, you don’t interrupt your core process in order to do maintenance. Yet, that is what the casinos do thousands of times a day the world over. A game is in progress, people are betting, people are losing, and then the boss comes over to change the cards [#1]! Why would you interrupt a live game to change cards in the slowest, most inefficient manner possible? Their probable answer: “Because we’ve always done it that way.” Sound logic.
If gaming regulations require new cards to be exhibited to players, or if you think players like to see, then all the casino needs to do is have a specially designated card-prep table in the pit, where a dealer does nothing but check new decks, shuffle them, and prepare to distribute them to the tables that need them. When a table needs new cards, security can bring them from the card-prep table to the target table in a plastic box just like a fill of chips.
[#2] What happens if you interrupt the game, and then the players leave, or they leave for other reasons? Most casinos will then take the cards out of the shoe or machine, fan them out on the layout in a pretty pattern (like B for Be au Riv age), then wait for new players before they shuffle up and prepare to deal. My god, have these people ever gone gambling?! Who wants to wait for that? Does a B look good on the layout? I’ll tell you what looks good: a full shoe, ready to deal, with one burn card sitting in the discard rack.
On top of that, you invite lazy dealers to employ The Stare or The Fake Distraction. Next time you visit Vegas, walk by some of the deadspread tables. Notice whether the dealer looks away, hoping you’ll then keep walking, or stares directly at you in a way to intimidate you enough to keep walking. The guy is lazy and doesn’t want to deal, and having the cards deadspread, not ready to go, gives him just enough of a barrier to induce you to keep steppin’.
[#3] If you’re playing a pitch game, what happens when a new dealer comes to the table? The outgoing dealer drops the deck on the table, and then fans them out. How pretty. They don’t do that on shoe games, so why they do it on pitch games is beyond me. There is no security risk from having the outgoing dealer pass the deck off to the new dealer, who can continue dealing. There are procedures to secure the handoff, and play can continue without even burning a card. The Pa lms at one time instituted this handoff, and there are other casinos that have tried it, but most do not.
If anyone out there can defend any of these three time wasters, feel free to comment!
It seems when a dealer gets replaced at double/single deck blackjack, the count is always high. The new dealer will shuffle-up ruining an opportunity to earn money:( Seriously, I think The Mirage dealers give the cards to another hand-to-hand without wasting time to shuffle its double deck game.
Time wasting? I recently had a dealer who was “upset” that the table wasn’t toking him when he was (from the beginning of my play) actively rooting against the players. Not only is this rare, but then to get upset about not getting toked he then SLOWED the game down as much as he could (which in reality saves the gamblers money?). After every hand he’d “fix his rack” and ask for partial color ups from players so he could “pay” the next hand. It got bad enough the players called the PB over and he thought we were joking and walked away. All I mentioned was slightly loud enough that the surrounding dealers heard that the other dealers must be mad at him for rooting against a winning table, and I wondered how much he was costing them. He sure was quiet and fast when he came back from break after that.
You can figure they’d do this with the cards for the following reasons:
1.) It’s a power play to show you that they are in charge and you mean nothing to them. Almost all players will cry about it and then immediately run to go find another table close by. Sort of like the pit boss or the floor man that spends his time talking to a woman that he will never ever get in his entire life instead of checking the cash for chips so the games can continue no matter how many times the dealer calls out to him to approve before sending the chips out.
2.) Casinos want to protect themselves against player and dealer collusion since they obviously don’t want dealers adding or subtracting cards, adding bends or turning favorable cards from their precious games. So when they fan all the cards out so the cameras can see for the half asleep security teams that are behind the monitors to look over a player can never accuse them of cheating them. how many times have you heard players as soon as they start to lose cry about how the casino must be doing something because they have never ever ever in any casino lost any kind of money since after all these liars are alwaya winners.
3.) Casinos want their employees to know that they are the boss and they want the employees to carry out some sort of false professionalism. You know as in you do it the way we tell you to do it and if we say we want you to take the cards throw them up into the air catch them all fan them all out on the ground shuffle another thousand times put them in the machine and reshuffle that’s what you do after all we are paying you.
4.) The precious burn card! This is the nuclear weapon of each casino. Nothing panics a card counter more. You can see them squirm in their seat while the new dealer comes in to burn a card while hearing the counter scream let me see the burn let me see the burn. I have spent quite a bit of time talking to intelligent people that work for the casino and they explain to me how the burn card is manipulated in cases where they think somebody is counting cards, hole carding or using some sort of other player strategy to try to beat the casino. It’s all hocus pocus they tell me while they keep sending in new dealers trying to burn the cards off to get the tables back in the casino’s favor. Casino personnel tell me that 99% of time it’s a complete waste and it is costing the casino money but their bosses will not listen so instead of arguing and risking their job they just play along and agree because obviously the boss is smarter than you right that’s why he’s your boss!
5.) The full tray. This is another time honored and tested method for throwing off players and it’s a complete waste of time. How many times have you been in the middle of a game looked at the tray and it is bulging with chips but the security card comes down with a fill to add even more chips to an already full tray. I could never recall how many times I’ve heard people say well that tables tray is full must mean it’s a bad table. You people realize that the casinos purposely fill these trays all day long trying to throw you off from the fact that there may possibly be a good table that the dealer cannot seem to win to save his life and he keeps paying money out so the casino uses the fill as the disguise. I know the casino will tell you that it is a mandatory thing and they want to make sure there’s enough money to pay the players but if your tray is already filled to the max what is the point especially on some of the lower limit tables where players are winning more than a few hundred dollars.
Wake up casinos you can take way more money from the suckers if you ditch the stupid tactics
In short most of the things to casinos do I could easily give you upgraded simple and more efficient ways of managing but the casino doesn’t care what you think that’s why the rules are horrible for almost all of their games except for the hidden gems that you can find spread out through different casinos. It all comes down to the players not demanding more from the casinos and just simply going down and dumping their wallets on to the felt and leaving only to come back the next day to do the same sorta like shampoo wash rinse repeat. Meanwhile the casinos look at the players in awe as how people can be so stupid.
I just love the dealers who give you the scowl as if they wish they could burn you with laser vision and melt you it would put a big smile on their face then if by some chance you do play their table the whole time they whine about how they are not getting anything based on the cards they are dealing you. They say wow must be nice you keep winning all these hands and I don’t get anything out of it and I always tell them you come over here put your money up or better yet just meet me every Friday and give me a piece of your paycheck. These same dealers don’t want to be blamed if you can not win a hand but they sure as heck take credit for every hand that you win and they want their commission.
By burning a card while doing a dealer change in a pitch game the house is trying to take back what could be a slight edge to the player by doing dealer changes. A non count player would not care if the house does this procedure on a routine basis. Depending on how often dealer changes occur with the house burning a card could be an indicator of heat for the player with poor game quality.
Changing the cards while a game is in progress is a wonderful time to do such a thing from the houses perspective! Besides for being a rude act it serves a purpose. Especially if the casino senses what they deem to be a threat on their tables. Casinos want to send AP’s steppin out their doors.
Agree completely, and it is getting worse. It seems that casinos have forgotten that they are in the service industry. Adding insult to injury, they are instituting voucher systems for drinks at the table and paid parking.
Once a casino initiates a time-wasting or consumer-unfriendly idea, the others play follow the leader. As consumers, we have to learn to say “no, I don’t want this product or service. I want games with good rules in an entertaining environment. Please.”
I once played on a Casino Boat out of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
With playing time at a premium, while a shoe was being played,
the pit critter would shuffle and prepare the next shoe, ready to
go, without a moment wasted.
I know your focus here is blackjack but if any game is slowed by the dealers its craps.
When a shooter is in rhythm they will do anything to stop it. The main pit stiff will come by to total up all the chips in front of the box man, taking a minute or two to do it. Anyone hanging near the table will be encouraged to color in and join the game. Entering mid hand is just plain rude in my opinion.
However if the table is dead then they can’t deal the hands fast enough. They push the dice too fast before many can get their bets in, increasing the chance of the dice hitting hands and coming up seven.
Remember, the dealers do not work for the player but for the casino. A toke is a courtesy, not an obligation and with any game that has a slim advantage that’s money out of the players pocket. Whether you toke or not doesn’t affect the outcome but does affect how you are treated and how much attention you draw.
Romeo, was this at Jerry nugget? That’s the only time I’ve ever had a dealer actively root against me!! I couldn’t believe it, and it wasn’t that I didn’t tip either, in fact I worked in the service industry for over 16 years and if anything I over tip. The dealer at Jerrys nugget did the exact sme thing after every deal, play with the chips make me wait and watch him, then finally deal. After a few times of this I reversed it on him and acted like I was watching a girl across the room and made HIM wait for ME, then said deal the cards lol..it was annoying at first but then it was pretty fun screwing with him in return….
Craps crews do waste a lot of time when a shooter is on a good roll. I recently had a boxman institute a dice set change on me as I was to receive the dice, after they did that I went on an even better roll & my longest roll of the night than what I had previously done up until that point. Changing the stick during a good roll, bringing in extra chips to slow the game down, or changing the dice out for new ones will just slow down the inevitable.
Burning a card does nothing to a counter other than reduce penetration by one card. I’m not objecting to the burning of the card, but rather the practice of putting the entire double deck into the rack and reshuffling the whole thing, which is what is generally done when the dealers change.
Casino half-sharps often defend time-wasting as some sort of game-protection. Nonsense. I’ve had cards changed on me many times, and we play through (especially because the changing of the cards often tells us the casino has no clue how we’re actually beating the game). Now consider the MILLIONS of times degenerates on a hot streak have had the cards changed on them. What a waste of time. On top of that, degenerates actually believe that changing the cards might change their luck, so they are in fact more likely to quit the session or reduce their bets upon a change of cards at that moment.
MotorCity Casino has their supervisors stop EVERY game, including craps, roulette, etc., every couple of hours to have the dealer’s pull all of the purples, oranges and greys out and on to the table to count them out for “inventory” as they call it. If your casino has policies like this that the supervisors cannot count these in the rack without stopping the game, you’ve got problems.
That one drives me nuts. To a lesser degree, I would say floorpeople at small casinos interrupt a game several times an hour while I’m playing by telling the dealer, “Could you break down your black?” Are you kidding? They’ve got to count the black chips every few minutes? These bosses really need to consider the lyrics, “You never count your money, when you’re sittin’ at the table. There’ll be time enough for counting, when the dealing’s done.”
I was just at one of the larger tribal casinos in the Midwest and the dealer spent more time counting his tray than dealing the cards. He counted and reorganized it literally 50 times in 30 minutes. I was fascinated by how much attention this idiot gave his tray since he never paid the same attention to his card handling ability. He he he.
In a double deck game it upsets me when the incoming dealer reshuffles the deck. I see it as a waste of time as it slows the game down a bit.
Changing the cards out when a game is in progress could be a form of game protection. If the pit thinks that a player may be marking, nicking, scratching cards, bending, or using a dye substance to mark particular cards they will look at the cards. I would call that game protection if that is what the casino is looking for.
If a dishonest player marks the cards only to leave the table and have his buddy come to the same table moments later the house could be vulnerable until the marked deck gets changed out.
If the casino changes out the cards in the middle of a blackjack game for the sake of doing it or they think their cards are starting to wear, then yeah it would seem like they are wasting time. They will still have an employee rifle through the spent cards to check for markings for resale purposes or to do with whatever they please.
The way your beating the game you should not be discouraged to stop playing when the house changes the cards since they don’t know how your doing it.
The house does waste time when an average player who knows very little about the game of blackjack wins big and they change the cards on him/her. Gamblers are very superstitious people and some of them probably do believe that bringing in a new deck will cause them to lose, but I think the most superstitious gamblers in the casino reside on the craps table.
Poker players are even superstitious to a degree when it comes to game protection. But I’m still trying to decide if it’s superstition or ignorance based on what other players cannot do or mostly refuse to do when they see proper game protection applied in the dealing of poker. Weak players fear it when they see it because they cannot emulate the technique themselves when they know they are outclassed. Pro or amateur alike… if you take out the professional dealer (the assist) and have the players deal themselves, you will see the poker players for who they truly are.
Chip, no it wasn’t there. I’ve come across a couple dealers like this in my career and it’s quite odd. I was in fact tipping the guy when I started playing too because the table was hot and I was making the largest bets on the table and winning constantly. Of course as soon as I confirmed he was rooting against us, even by directly asking him, I stopped all tipping. I’m sure it was fun screwing back with him, but I probably wouldn’t do that to further detract from my EV =P. The PB, or even better the other dealers, can and will correct him if you let them know =).
I see what you did there… “Clever girl.”
Don’t forget another time waster at dealer change: the new dealer looks at the tray, may or may not make a comment about how sloppy it is, and spends a few minutes moving the stacks of chips around to suit her fancy.