Card Switching: Be Ready For Blackjack Cheaters with Long Sleeves

Card switching is one of the most popular cheating methods which are used by blackjack gamblers to increase their chances for winning illegally; sometimes, it is mixed up with card mucking because these two cheating methods are almost the same. The common mistake is to mix card switching up with Blackjack Switch - a casino game which allows you to play with 2 hands of cards and switch second dealt cards between your two hands in order to get a better final result.

So, what is card switching and why is it not as easy to practice as it seems to be first?

A Kind of Magic

Well, magicians who show us their tricks with cards can be also called cheaters because they use a kind of card switching in their work: to practice card switching a gambler should have a really good sleight of hands. The point of switching is replacing of cards: when a gambler has a hand of two cards he replaces one of them with a high card he has in his sleeves.That is why casino dealers are taught to pay attention to gamblers with long sleeves because some of them may be really good blackjack cheaters.

Though it sounds to be easy, do not be too naive to think that you will be able to practice card switching at once you've found out about it: it is really difficult to replace cards with staying unnoticed by a dealer or casino security systems, that is why cheaters practice much before using this method in land-based gambling houses.

Interesting fact! Very often casinos use special card decks during the games in order to prevent their replacing by cheaters' own cards from sleeves. For example, all cards in a deck can have a hole on the surface, so, it will be easier for a dealer to notice whether a player uses his own cards instead of a casino's ones or not.

What is Mucking

As it has been already told above, card switching is sometimes mixed up with card mucking. What is the difference between these two methods of blackjack cheating?

• Card switching: a cheater uses his own cards to replace (he brings them to casinos with him).
• Card mucking: a cheater uses a casino's cards to replace (when he gets his 2 initial cards and sees that one of them could be successfully used later in the game a cheater hides this card and asks for another one. The hidden card is used later during the game in order to improve the final result).

Is it worth using various cheating methods at blackjack? Some cheaters believe they can win a lot with the help of them. But what about the atmosphere and spirit of blackjack casino game itself? We do not recommend you to cheat: be a real gentleman while gambling one of the noblest games in the world!