As I mentioned in Chapter Eight, I would strongly recommend that you never split 10s, and even consider not drawing on a 12 if the dealer holds a 5 or 6 while. These moves stand out like a red nose at a temperance meeting—and the short-term gain that may be realized from winning the hand(s) may come at a longer-term price of being identified as a card counter. Try the blackjack bonus offers.
This will cost you money, and using this ploy comes down to a fine line between losing expectation while ensuring that some gain is being had by doing it in the first place. This is very similar to low-balling because it’s doing the exact opposite of what you’re supposed to be doing.
Some counters like to make a few stupid moves early on in an attempt to throw the bosses or surveillance off the trail when first being analyzed. “This guy can’t be for real - he just stood on Soft 17.” Again, its effectiveness is tough to gauge, and for that reason it’s imperative to ma
sure that the price you are paying isn’t too high.
Realize that anyone playing “head-on” or “heads-up” (playing one-on-one) with the dealer normally looks at all the cards being dealt— simply because all the cards dealt are only your own and the dealer’s. So playing head-on by its very nature negates the need to scan the table for the purposes of keeping the running count. Playing head-on, then, in this sense inherently offers a bit of camouflage just by you being the only player at the table.
The downside, however, is that many card counters like to play head-on due to the number of hands per hour it’s possible to log. Once again, a tradeoff depending on how you look at it.
