One of the problems with being one of only a few players playing blackjack in my area is that casinos quickly start to notice that the tables are not making them as much money as they were expecting. When the tables actually start to lose them money, they really start to pay attention and there's only one person to look at, me!

One of the first casinos that I chose to display my skills at offers a single blackjack table, $5-$50 limits, 4 deck and a 75% penetration. A good place to develop my blackjack advantage player skills as the limits were in my range, I could play heads-up and I didn't mind getting backed off from there if I was caught.

In my first month of play, my bankroll went up and down, but stayed pretty much at the same level. I was still developing my skills and was yet to turn them profitable. But with some free comps it was time well spent.
By my third month playing, things were a lot more serious and I was starting to show some decent profit. Over $5,000 in a single month (although I was actually down at other casinos during this same period so net profit was still within an expected range).

I was actually surprised at how little heat I was getting. The Pit Bosses were pretty much dozing off at my play even though I was spreading like a madman. I guess they knew little about card counting, only that the house always wins in the end.

But, one evening when I turned up for play as usual, I was confronted with 6 decks of cards instead of the usual 4. What's worse, only 50% penetration. That's 3 out of 6 decks cut off every shoe. Unacceptable for any card counter. With half the shoe gone every time, high true counts necessary to beat the game become very rare indeed. Even shuffle tracking or any other skills become less effective with half a blind shoe every shuffle.

In effect, they had secured their game against all card counters. Their game is now unbeatable (at least to a regular card counter like me).

But why change their rules? Why not just bar me if they suspected me of counting?

Maybe it had merely been a corporate decision to change the rules and nothing to do with me (although I doubt that), or maybe my camoflauge had partially worked. There was no way a dumb gambler like me could beat their game. By slyly changing factors out of my control, maybe they thought I wouldn't realise that my strategy was no longer effective against their game and continue to play, except for this time, they would have the advantage.

I think not. I've done my research and I know that a 50% penetration is not a beatable game for a regular card counter like myself. So I took notice of the polite invitation to take my game elsewhere and left.