Cover play

Counting is legal. Being allowed to keep doing it in a particular casino is not guaranteed. Surveillance is not hunting people who look smart. It hunts one statistical signature, bets that track the count. A 1-to-8 spread timed to the shoe, with perfect Index Plays, is readable from the camera room in about twenty minutes. Cover play blurs that signature while giving back as little edge as possible.

Some cover costs almost nothing. When a raise and a win coincide, let the raise look like it came from the win. Vary your buy-in amounts. Do not stare at the discard tray. Talk to the dealer. In a negative shoe, look like you are having fun losing small bets, because you are. Time your big raises to moments with a gambler's story attached, such as after a win, after a blackjack, or 'pressing it up.'

Some cover is expensive, and you spend it only under real heat. Flatten your spread for a while. Skip the tens-splitting Index Play, the loudest tell in the game. Make an occasional small 'bad' play with a minimum bet on the felt. Each of these burns EV, so spend them only when someone who matters is watching.

Most often you meet no response at all. Low stakes rarely draw attention, and a $10-to-$80 spread is usually invisible. Next comes the back-off ('you're welcome to any game but blackjack'). Rarely, a trespass. Stay polite, leave, and play elsewhere. You cannot win an argument with a floor supervisor, and there is no upside to being memorable. In New Jersey they cannot exclude you for skill, so they shuffle earlier instead. Everywhere else, you last longer with short sessions at many casinos than with long sessions at one.

At the stakes most people play, cover barely matters. Heat finds black-chip spreads, not red-chip hobbyists. Learn the habits early anyway. They are free at low stakes and second nature by the time your unit grows.