1st time seeing another ap

Cass

Well-Known Member
#1
After eight months of card counting I finally ran into another ap. I'm playing this great DD game at my local casino. Its the same few players that are always there. The one guy I had suspected of card counting previously as once I saw him hit hard17vs 10 and draw a 4. I watched him closely after that and he seemed to be counting sometimes and betting in coordination with the count. Other times however he was just raising his bets at random so i wrote it off as a coincidence. different story on Friday night. He was spreading 1x10-2x100. Everytime insurance was offered we both took the bet when appropriate. We ramped our bets almost identically. I watched him dd on 9vs8, and 9vs.7. He knew a lot more indices than I did. I kept trying to make eye contact with him but he was completely ignoring me. Now i dont know what im going to do since there is only one DD table at this casino. I'm going to make sure that i dont play next to him again.
 

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
#2
Cass said:
After eight months of card counting I finally ran into another ap. I'm playing this great DD game at my local casino. Its the same few players that are always there. The one guy I had suspected of card counting previously as once I saw him hit hard17vs 10 and draw a 4. I watched him closely after that and he seemed to be counting sometimes and betting in coordination with the count. Other times however he was just raising his bets at random so i wrote it off as a coincidence. different story on Friday night. He was spreading 1x10-2x100. Everytime insurance was offered we both took the bet when appropriate. We ramped our bets almost identically. I watched him dd on 9vs8, and 9vs.7. He knew a lot more indices than I did. I kept trying to make eye contact with him but he was completely ignoring me. Now i dont know what im going to do since there is only one DD table at this casino. I'm going to make sure that i dont play next to him again.
maybe he was ignoring you but i'd suspect that he was on to you just as you were on to him. i got a similar situation at a joint i play. it's funny we both know the score but don't talk about it. might say hi when we cross paths on our 'potty' breaks thats about it.
this brings about a question i've been wondering about. does any know how to recognize a casino schill or know of any literature that talks about schills?
best regards,
mr fr0g :D
 
#3
Depends on the situation

Cass said:
After eight months of card counting I finally ran into another ap. I'm playing this great DD game at my local casino. Its the same few players that are always there. The one guy I had suspected of card counting previously as once I saw him hit hard17vs 10 and draw a 4. I watched him closely after that and he seemed to be counting sometimes and betting in coordination with the count. Other times however he was just raising his bets at random so i wrote it off as a coincidence. different story on Friday night. He was spreading 1x10-2x100. Everytime insurance was offered we both took the bet when appropriate. We ramped our bets almost identically. I watched him dd on 9vs8, and 9vs.7. He knew a lot more indices than I did. I kept trying to make eye contact with him but he was completely ignoring me. Now i dont know what im going to do since there is only one DD table at this casino. I'm going to make sure that i dont play next to him again.
I would avoid playing when he is there. If you aren't spreading 1 to 20 in DD (1 to 10 is already pushing it), then you don't want to be there when he gets the axe -- the pit or the eye in the sky can take the position the two are of you together.

Hitting a hard 17 means he saw the dealer's card if it's a pitched game. DD 9 vs 7 requires a lower indice value than DD 9 vs 8.

I run into AP's all the time and depending on the person, I either cut my spread or bet the minimum to avoid detection. If I sense the person have similar value sets, I am not a pig and won't rub my face at the casino since I am very discreet and subtle about my card counting skills, I will make contact during a break or say something to give the impression we should talk.
 

dacium

Well-Known Member
#4
I stop spreading if I detect anything like this, it draws massive heat when more than one person is going over $100 on a 10$ where I play. It looks completely suspect if you are going up and down together. One guy was even sitting out when I was because the count was crap. I just bet $20 on good counts and $10 on +1 etc and avoided zero and neg altogether, you can still get a small profit. I had no other table to go to because the games are really restricted here in australia.
 

ScottH

Well-Known Member
#5
dacium said:
I stop spreading if I detect anything like this, it draws massive heat when more than one person is going over $100 on a 10$ where I play. It looks completely suspect if you are going up and down together. One guy was even sitting out when I was because the count was crap. I just bet $20 on good counts and $10 on +1 etc and avoided zero and neg altogether, you can still get a small profit. I had no other table to go to because the games are really restricted here in australia.
I played with another card counter at the same table playing 4+ hour sessions, twice a week, for about a month!

P.S. We both got banned! :laugh:
 

nc-tom

Well-Known Member
#6
sagefr0g said:
maybe he was ignoring you but i'd suspect that he was on to you just as you were on to him. i got a similar situation at a joint i play. it's funny we both know the score but don't talk about it. might say hi when we cross paths on our 'potty' breaks thats about it.
this brings about a question i've been wondering about. does any know how to recognize a casino schill or know of any literature that talks about schills?
best regards,
mr fr0g :D
While this is alittle off the subject of this thread I also have been wondering about the schill question. In years past I have just asked the dealer or pit boss if a schill was playing and they would tell you if they were. Or by asking the schill would just identify themselves. Is this still true? Next time I play will have to ask. Does anyone have more info on this?
 

nc-tom

Well-Known Member
#8
JAXBOY said:
what's a schill? sounds like a casino spy...
A schill is someone who is paid by the casino to play table games with the casino money to generate business at the tables. Used to see them quite a bit in the poker room.
 
#9
Sounds like a casino spy?

Pretty much. There's another thread around here somewhere about schills and the casinos being required to tell you if there is one playing at a table. Might be under the "other games" thread. Ken, can you point us in the right direction?
 

ScottH

Well-Known Member
#11
nc-tom said:
A schill is someone who is paid by the casino to play table games with the casino money to generate business at the tables. Used to see them quite a bit in the poker room.
I thought that "props" played with their own money, but were paid by the hour.
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#13
In Nevada,at least in the poker rooms,all you have to do is ask the dealer and any prop players or shills must identify themselves.Thats according to the signs I've seen posted. I don't know about other games.I read recently that shills are a thing of the past in Vegas. Prop players remain.
 

E-town-guy

Well-Known Member
#15
shadroch said:
In Nevada,at least in the poker rooms,all you have to do is ask the dealer and any prop players or shills must identify themselves.Thats according to the signs I've seen posted. I don't know about other games.I read recently that shills are a thing of the past in Vegas. Prop players remain.
In poker, including Vegas, they often bring in a couple paid players to keep a games alive. Its not a bad job but obviously you have to be +EV poker player to start with or the hourly wage won't compensate for your losses at the table. The pay is usually nothing great but if you're already making money at the table its a nice bonus.

The same happens at online poker rooms. Not so much the popular sites like PartyPoker or PokerStars because they have a huge player base but some of the small and mid sized poker rooms use them to start and keep various games going.

I assume if you wanted to do it at a live casino you could just talk to the houseman or pitboss. If you want to do it online there are a bunch of different sites online which facilitate this arrangement. Keep in mind that you won't get stuck playing games you don't want or can't BR, they take this all into account when they contact you (at least the good sites do).
 
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