How fast can I leave a table?

Hello, Thank you in advance. I was wondering how fast I can leave a table without arousing suspicion as a counter if I immediately go on a winning streak. Say if I win my first five hands and I know then a single deck is now negative 6 or something.

Quote: joe212

Hello, Thank you in advance. I was wondering how fast I can leave a table without arousing suspicion as a counter if I immediately go on a winning streak. Say if I win my first five hands and I know then a single deck is now negative 6 or something.

I'd say two hands of losing. Then you can "take the money and run"

Quote: Lemieux66

I'd say two hands of losing. Then you can "take the money and run"

What?

You mumble something about not wanting to give it all back and you leave.

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

What?

You mumble something about not wanting to give it all back and you leave.

Ehhh that's good one time at the same place. I think giving that line repeatedly makes you look suspicious. A great situation is if you start win one/lose one repeatedly. You can get a better idea of the shoe, you don't lose, and you can leave with no issues.

I wonder if this ruse would work:

Bring two cell phones with you,each with different numbers, one in your shirt pocket, one in your pants.

When the time is right, surreptitiously call yourself (preprogram the phone so you need only touch one button one time to activate the call).

When the shirt pocket phone rings, excuse yourself, step back, take the call, and after a short bit of bogus conversation on the phone announce something came up and you need to leave.

Buy in for less.

For the phone thing -- just pull your phone out of your pocket and start poking at it (open up Facebook or text messaging). The dealer will ask you to put it away or step away from the table!

Quote: Lemieux66

Ehhh that's good one time at the same place. I think giving that line repeatedly makes you look suspicious. A great situation is if you start win one/lose one repeatedly. You can get a better idea of the shoe, you don't lose, and you can leave with no issues.

You are worried about nothing here.

Your choices are:

1. Stay and leave a max bet out.
2. Stay and reduce your bet.
3. Leave.

IMO, #2 is more suspicious than #3, and #1 just is not going to happen. Your edge is simply not that large, you cannot afford to be giving EV back by making large bets in -EV situations. You're better off getting kicked out than playing a losing game for "cover".

Having said that, it depends. Reducing your bet after a loss only (and never after a win) is actually not that expensive as far as cover goes (increasing only after wins is far more expensive -- this is covered in Burning the Tables, in the chapter that Wong wrote). But, in a shoe game, play-all is expensive on its own. You have to leave when the count goes negative -- it's simply too expensive not to. Go to the bathroom, or go flirt with the girl at the bar, or take a phone call, or SOMETHING.

In a good DD game you could possibly stay, although I still think that you should leave at least some of the time that this happens.

Just don't forget to take into account the cost of all this cover. It's not free (not even close), so don't think that you are going to achieve the win rates that you read about.

I like to play with 1 or maybe 2 people. You can pretty much run when it gets bad without them ending the game.

Thanks. You guys are awesome. I'll probably do a mix off your suggestions. I do think if I'm playing at the same casino regularly it would be good to switch it up.

I just say straight up that I like doing short runs and you'll probably see me again in half an hour or something. I do, however, try to leave at "even" numbers, at the shuffle, or after a loss.

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Quote: RS

Buy in for less.

For the phone thing -- just pull your phone out of your pocket and start poking at it (open up Facebook or text messaging). The dealer will ask you to put it away or step away from the table!

That's exactly what I do. I pull my phone out and start talking while at the table when the count goes negative. The dealer reprimands me. I apologize and I step away and let the other guy eat small cards.

The call ends when the count is favorable, and I sit back down. Otherwise I wait for the shuffle.