Hole Carding: Cheating or Not?
Hole carding is a pretty controversial blackjack issue. Hole carding is simply spotting or finding out the value of the dealer’s hole card. Of course as a blackjack player you are not supposed to see the dealer’s hole card since knowing the value will of course give you the sure advantage of making the right call.
Hole carders and many ordinary blackjack player maintain that there are instances when hole carding is legal. When is this? Simple. When it’s accidental or a result of the dealer’s mistake. I believe that its simply lame for casinos to accuse anyone of cheating if they don’t make use of the latest technology and train their dealer’s properly to avoid showing blackjack players the hole card inadvertently. If anyone does spot the dealer’s hole card without having to go to great lengths to do it (i.e. simply looking each time the dealer mistakenly flashes the card to the player because of the angle he holds the card or by simply looking down at the very reflective table) then I don’t think that hole carding should be considered as cheating. I mean what else are you supposed to do? Use the information you come upon to help you make your call or call the dealer’s attention to his mistake. The latter choice is just plain stupid. Unless you’re being self righteous or just don’t care about winning then there’s really no point in telling the dealer. Remember casinos are out to get the players’ money. They use all the advantage they can get to make sure that gamblers come home with less money in their pockets than they originally had. So getting a real advantage for once because of their mistake shouldn’t make you feel like a cheat.
On the other hand there are cases of course where hole carding is undoubtedly cheating. It’s cheating when the player intentionally employs techniques or hole carding strategies designed to reveal to the player what the value of the dealer’s hole card is. Some blackjack players actually really do use this techniques without remorse since they figure that the casino deserves it. The average blackjack player usually though of course does not subscribe to such techniques. However catching a glimpse of the dealer’s hole card by accident and then not by accident when he repeatedly makes the same mistake is not part of cheating as I see it. Thinking or scheming to catch a glimpse of the hole card IS cheating. For example, if the table is reflective (and I don’t think that there is a dumb casino that still makes that mistake) and you repeatedly see the hole card then it really isn’t your fault but it is your fault if you wear a reflective ring intentionally with the purpose of somehow using it to reflect the hole card so you can see its value.
So I guess hole carding really is cheating. It is accidents and being wise that is not. Don’t be a stickler for rules though I advise you enjoy every advantage you get over a casino since it’s very rare that they do slip ups. Believe me they enjoy it every time they have an advantage over you.
Technorati Tags: Hole Carding, Hole Carding Techniques, Blackjack Cheats, Blackjack Strategy
Written by The Blackjack Advisor on November 23rd, 2006 with
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