I am a good counter who enjoyed moderate success in the late 70's thru the mid 80's. I've played most of the Revere counts including the Revere 14 count but switched to the level 2 Canfield "Master System" in 1985 and play it to this day (for fun). I gave up the casino game in 1988 as I, along with another colleague, independently experienced some very strange happenings that we could not explain at the time that I am hoping some of you can shed some light on now. At the time, my colleague was much more experienced than I was, having played part time successfully for over 25 years, so for both of us to have the same experience indicated that something was indeed up.

Some Background: I concentrated on double deck games on the L.V. Strip that had good rules and good to great penetration... Maxim, Imperial Palace, Dunes (God rest its soul!), Flamingo Hilton, Rio, The Riv, Sahara and briefly, Barbary Coast (the only place I have ever gotten any heat let alone been barred). I also played some great single deck games at the Frontier. I typically stayed for a week and got in about 8 hrs of play per day. I would vary 1-6 in red (using SPY Canfield's "Sly Proportional Yields" betting strategy) and had a bankroll sized for 5% element of ruin. I would find head-up or 1 to 2 other players max conditions and play for no more than 1 1/2 hrs at a single session. I had a "play all" style and never "Wonged". I did employ some strategic "bathroom" breaks when the deck got really bad.

OK..THE POINT! My last three trips in 1987-88 exhibited unusual frequency distribution variations in the decks. After this occurred on the first two of these last three trips, although unsettling, I just chalked up to normal negative swings (I lost about 30% and 50% of my trip banks; respectively). The strange thing was not that I had lost, but the manner in which I lost! The decks never went positive! I could count the number of favorable true count situations on one hand! It seemed that the deck stayed between -5 to +1 true count all week long; with none of the "normal" swings back and forth that I've experienced in past casino play and in my years of practice sessions. So there I was, essentially flat betting, waiting for favorable situations that hardly ever came! Quite expectedly, my bankroll was slowly ground down. Now, in the meanwhile, my older colleague, who played the downtown circuit (Mint, Binions, Four Queens, etc.) had independently experienced exactly the same thing at the same time (within a 3 month period).

When we got around to comparing notes on our trips it became obvious to us that something was going on. We determined that this "deviation" in frequency distribution was statistically significant. We guessed that some type of Hi/Low pick-up, shuffle technique was used to somehow produce a non-random deck that favored the house. We called this (for lack of better explanation) the "Defensive Deck". My colleague gave up serious blackjack soon after this episode. I changed jobs and have lost track of him. Don't know if he ever found out any more information on this. I looked at it this way: something was going on; I couldn't discover a root cause and if the casinos are doing this, then what else could they be doing? So I too, quit the game, took the remainder of my bankroll and invested it in mutual funds. I haven't been to Vegas since. Now and then, I still break out my flash cards and practice up and play at home on the computer and wonder ...

So, my question to all of you is: was something going on at that time in Vegas (1988-89) that could explain this? Has anyone else experience similar deck behavior?

My wife and I are planning a trip to South Lake Tahoe this coming August. It would be fun to dust off the cobwebs and try again. In fact, this upcoming trip is what prompted me to join.

Been reading some of the other posts (from eons and eons ago!) and most are pretty good. It will be fun getting back up to speed and finding out what is going on in the Blackjack world today.

Any information or insights is appreciated.

Thanks, Aragorn