Blackjack Strategy
Dealing seconds means dealing the blackjack card under the top one. The drawing in illustrates how this sleight-of- hand is performed. The left thumb moves the top card into the position shown in the figure. The upper right corner of the second card is then exposed.
The second is “hit” with the thumb and pulled out, somewhat diagonally. If, for example, the upper side of the deck points toward north, the second is dealt toward northeast. A slight twisting movement of the left wrist helps make the sleight undetectable.
There are other methods of dealing seconds, but that described above is the classical one.
The following blackjack remarks explain how peeking and dealing seconds can be used in actual game. Assume for example, that the casino dealer has peeked and has seen that the top card is a 5. He can keep it there, by dealing seconds, until he has a 14, 15, or 16. He can make then 19, 20 or 21. By peeking and dealing seconds the dealer may also increase the probability of having a ten or an ace for his up card. One who uses marked cards does not need to peek. Nevertheless, in most cases, the use of marked cards is a crude method of cheating.
Observe that in both cases the player’s losses were very large. This is quite impressive since, in one-deck blackjack games played under basic rules the basic blackjack strategy player is not at a disadvantage. We conclude that the low—high and high—low stockings are devastating for the player.
One other method of stacking consists of inserting in the upper half of the pack of cards used in the game a proportion of high cards larger than normal. The pack so set is offered for a cut to a blackjack player, namely to “that player” who generally cuts in the middle. After the cut, the upper half becomes the lower half. Often, only the first half of the pack is dealt in an actual game, and then the cards are shuffled anew. In such a case the final effect is the same as that achieved by removing a number of high cards from the pack.