Blackjack in Puerto Rico: Dealer Cheating

From the founding of Blackjack Forum in 1980 through 1986, when this article was submitted by Harry McArdle, numerous players had written about encountering high counts shoe after shoe while playing blackjack in Puerto Rico. The counts did not go down by the time the cut card was reached despite the fact that the cut card was placed only a half deck from the end of the shoe.infrared marked cards

Although it's been a long time since players have reported any signs of cheating at casinos in Puerto Rico, I am including this article in the library for historical interest and for its discussion of methods of cheating in blackjack shoe games.

In Puerto Rico in the early 70s, casinos like the El San Juan had all of their dealers deal from a shoe with two hands. They pulled cards from the shoe with the right hand. Their left hand held the front of the shoe. Their left thumb fed cards to their right fingers. Their left forearm covered the top of the shoe.

It occurred to me that this was conducive to second dealing as the left thumb could easily pull up the top card, allowing the right fingers to pull out the second from the top. Of course, most of the dealers were not second dealing. As with dealers out west who used the mechanic's grip to no purpose, they only looked like they were second dealing�

In the 60s, I learned that the dealer schools of Las Vegas taught dealers to high low stack. [Editor's note: I have not been able to verify this claim. —A.S.] The dealer trainees were told it was a form of shuffling.

At the Four Queens in �67, I made $700 by a combination of luck and the fact that I sat at first base and varied my bet with whether the last card played in the previous hand was high or low. In short, if the dealer was high-low stacking, I would bet low if the last card played was high and high if the last card played was low. marked cards

My luck at the Four Queens prompted me to seek out high-low stackers in Puerto Rico.

So, naturally I jumped at the chance to play first base against the finest, most thorough high-low stacker I ever seen. This guy was dealing at a $5 table, which was the most active since it faced the entrance to the casino and usually got the most business.

Usually, a high-low stacker will only intermittently high-low stack the deck. This guy was able to thoroughly high-low stack the deck. In retrospect, I guess he must have been false shuffling too, since the cards were coming out exactly high-low as he had picked them up, except when the cards came to me! l explain.

I watched cards come out high, low, high, low until the dealer dealt the last card which, say, was high. I was sitting at first base and naturally would bet low as the next card would more likely be low. When the last card would be low, I bet high. But each of these times that I bet high I got the wrong card. I got a low card. Finally, it became obvious to me that I was not getting the next card when I raised my bet.




I remained silent. When the pit boss left along with the other players, the dealer got his rocks off. Apparently, the word cheating turned him inside out. When we were alone together, he delivered a speech in really clear English. His tone was that of a man angered at me for belittling his skill.

A couple of weeks later, I approached a government inspector whom I knew to be honest (this one was honest!), and pointed out the dealer and asserted that he was high-low stacking and second dealing. The government inspector did not know what this meant. I tried to explain. The inspector promised to watch the dealer.

After that I did most of playing at the poorer casinos that could not afford such high-priced dealers.

But even at poorer places like the Borinquen, problems developed. One evening I continuously got positive counts every time the dealer reached the blank card that indicated reshuffling. Sure, the high cards could be behind the cut card. But every time? I began to suspect that all the cards were not there.

After a couple of hours I voiced my suspicions and asked for a count of the cards. In that warm, polite tone that is so common in Puerto Rico, the pit boss informed me that if I waited until 4 a.m., when the casino closed, he would give me the cards. The other players seemed satisfied. Even I had to admit that this was fair. So I waited three or more hours and kept getting positive counts. By closing time they all seemed to have forgotten their promise to give me the cards. So I reminded them.

The pit boss snapped his fingers.

What of the luxurious El San Juan? Well, it was eight years older and not as luxurious.

What about the blackjack? Well, the fast two-handed dealers of the early seventies were gone. In their place were the ordinary, nice, simple and not so simple Puerto Rican dealers of the type I remembered from the 60s.

The dealing was obviously honest but the counts were constantly very positive. By this time, I become a skillful cutter capable of bringing the high cards to the front more often than not. But all attempts failed. I still got positive counts at the cut card, just as at the Borinquen in 1982.


I made a scene. A number of dealers converged on the area, more to see the outcome than to side with the casino. None of them asserted that they knew me to be wrong.

The next day at the Sheraton was a repeat but in the end they gave me the cards. However, I foolishly allowed them to return the cards to the boxes they came in before giving them to me. Without thinking, I failed to make sure that the boxes were empty before the cards were placed in them. So the fact that all the cards were ultimately there proves little.

I hope things get better in Puerto Rico, blackjackwise, since I really love that place.  ♠