Did you hear about the casino player who got kicked out for counting cards? He was asked to leave and told that if he showed up to play again, he’d be denied the opportunity to play again. No knees were broken. No threats were uttered. That’s because it’s not illegal to count cards, as long as you are using your brain and aren’t aided by a computer system or some sort of contraption to help you count.
But card counting is the exception to the rule. When it comes to chip and bet manipulation, cheating is cheating. And it’s frowned upon, especially when it comes to past posting.
What is past posting?
Past posting, often referred to as late betting, is the act of making a bet after no more bets are permitted. It’s not a winning strategy. It’s a cheating strategy. Sure, you might win by using it. But if you get caught, you’re going straight to jail.
One method of past posting involves betting on top of a bet you’ve already made. In this scenario, you bet a small amount—let’s say $25. If your bet wins, you try to top up your bet when the dealer isn’t looking, right before he pays you out. That means you might now have $35 on the table, which gives you a bigger payout.
The late betting concept works best when you’re playing with a stack of chips. For example, in the above scenario, a single $25 chip wouldn’t do. Instead, the cheater is best served placing down five $5 chips. A dealer is less likely to notice two additional chips on top of the original five then they would notice one single $25 chip now turning into two $25 chips.
Another popular method of past posting involves betting on something that you didn’t originally bet on, or shifting your bet slightly to win big. It’s all done really fast using your arm, sleeves, or something less obvious than your hands.
The easiest place to try past posting
We don’t condone cheating a casino. It’s the wrong move, and one that could land you in jail. Most people who try past posting do so at a table where there’s more chaos. Imagine for a second playing Blackjack by yourself at a $50 limit table. There’s no way the dealer wouldn’t notice you adding to your chip stack after a win. After all, he only has you to focus on. But if you start adding more players to the mix, he suddenly becomes less focuses and must pay attention to multiple people.
Still, the Blackjack table is a fairly small playing field where it’s easy to get caught. That’s why Roulette is the hands-down best place to attempt late betting. The reason is simple. At a single Roulette table, you could have 15 or so people crowding around, placing bets. What’s more, Roulette is unique in that betting is permitted once action starts. For example, after you place your bet at Casino War, the dealer waves across the table, signaling no more bets, and deals out the cards. He has time to figure out and register in his mind what everyone bet.
But Roulette is vastly different. When the croupier spins the wheel and releases the ball, he permits players to continue betting. He only calls “No more bets” when he sees the ball slowing down along the wheel. And as the ball starts bouncing around, the croupier must shift his focus to the wheel to see where the ball lands. There is lots of opportunity for a player to sneak in that late bet.
The world’s best past posting cheat
Richard Marcus cheated casinos out of millions of dollars throughout the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s using past posting techniques. His system was more so a variation of past posting than pure past posting, but it worked well. Marcus would essentially place down what looked like a $15 bet. It was two $5 chips sitting on top of what looked like a third $5 chip. But in reality, the bottom chip was $1,000, so he essentially had $1,010 on the line. If he lost his bet, he’d swap out the bottom chip for another $5 chip in the blink of an eye. He’d then only lose $15.
However, if he won, he’d sit back. The dealer would then try to pay him $15, at which point Marcus would point out that he had a $1,000 chip under there. While this technique isn’t past posting, it does involve bet manipulation. Instead of betting more after a winning hand, Marcus changed his bet to less after a losing hand.
Past posting…but with cards instead of chips
As casinos become more attuned to the concept of past posting, casino cheats are getting craftier in their approach. A group of five poker players have been accused of cheating a London, UK casino out of £33,600 by cheating at the tables. While they didn’t use past posting to win big, they did something just as sneaky. The players would swap cards under the table so that one player had a winning hand playing Three Card Poker. The third player at the table would distract the dealer while all players tried to block the eye in the sky from catching any of the shenanigans.
The scam occurred between April and May of 2014, but the players were to be sentenced this month and last month. Unfortunately, several of the cheats left the country. Some are on their way back to face sentencing in the coming weeks.
Choose a better way to win than cheating
Past posting will get you nowhere. Sure, there are stories of people making a killing using past posting. But for every successful story you hear, there are dozens that you don’t know about, particularly because it’s not easy to talk about it from the slammer.
If you want a better way to win, try online Roulette. You can play for free right now at Silver Oak Casino, or for real money if you want to walk away with a little extra cash. You won’t be able to bet late here, but hey, you really didn’t want to anyway, did you?