Cheating at Blackjack Podcast

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."*What does the man behind Wizard of Odds know about beating casino games?* Michael Shackleford joins Dustin Marks and The Kaiser on Cheating at Blackjack for a fascinating conversation about blackjack card counting, casino mathematics, advantage play, video poker strategy, sports betting, gambling secrets, and even a little magic!For our *first-ever podcast guest**, we welcome Michael Shackleford, the mathematician, gambling expert, author of *Gambling 102*, and creator of the legendary **Wizard of Odds* website.Michael has spent decades studying the mathematics behind casino games, calculating house edges, analyzing gambling strategies, and explaining how informed players can make better decisions.But Michael isn't just a mathematician. He's also an experienced advantage player, a blackjack tournament champion, and a magician!*IN THIS EPISODE:*🎰 *The Story Behind Wizard of Odds* — How Michael created one of the internet's best-known casino mathematics and gambling strategy resources.📖 *Gambling 102* — Michael discusses his book, casino game strategy, and the importance of understanding the mathematics of gambling.🃏 *Blackjack Card Counting* — How Michael learned to count cards, his early trips to Las Vegas, and the books that helped him get started.💰 *Advantage Play vs. Cheating* — What advantage gambling really means and how skilled players identify situations where the numbers work in their favor.🎲 *Video Poker Advantage Play* — Casino rewards, free play, pay tables, tournaments, and the mathematics behind player value.🏆 *Winning the 2011 Blackjack Ball* — Michael tells the story of competing against elite blackjack players and winning the prestigious competition.👀 *Hole Carding and Exposed Cards* — Dustin, The Kaiser, and Michael discuss dealer mistakes, exposed cards, and how knowing a card can change the mathematics of blackjack.📊 *Casino Mathematics Revealed* — What is the advantage of knowing your first blackjack card? Michael explains some remarkable numbers.🏈 *Sports Betting and Super Bowl Props* — How Michael analyzed proposition bets and used mathematics to search for favorable betting opportunities.🎩 *The Magic Minute* — Michael performs an incredible mentalism trick involving two hidden playing cards. Can he correctly identify both?♠️ *Inventing Casino Games* — Why simple rules matter and how Michael approaches new casino game design.We also talk about Michael's life beyond gambling, including hiking, fitness, juggling, unicycling, mentalism, and his plans for writing more books.*ABOUT OUR GUEST*Michael Shackleford is widely known as **The Wizard of Odds**, a gambling mathematician and author recognized for his detailed mathematical analysis of blackjack, video poker, baccarat, and other casino games.

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."Dustin Marks and The Kaiser are back with another an hour of card tricks, mentalism, sleight of hand, and some of our favorite magic from years of performing. This episode is best watched on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ed8Sm4DBNc&t

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."*BLACKJACK CHEATING LIVE!* After nearly 40 years, Dustin Marks and The Kaiser return to the blackjack table to recreate the card-stacking and dealer-flashing techniques they used in their casino days. What starts as a disaster turns into an incredible comeback: *$6,500 in profit in approximately 45 minutes!*In this special episode of *Cheating at Blackjack*, we're going back under fire. No prearranged winning sequence, no guaranteed hands, and no perfect performance. Dustin and The Kaiser attempt a live studio recreation of their old blackjack teamwork, complete with missed flashes, forgotten signals, bad cards, busted hands, and some very expensive mistakes.The Kaiser starts with $500, loses his initial bankroll, and buys in for another $500. From there, the action gets wild. Watch the bets climb, the stacks develop, and the winnings swing dramatically as the two former casino cheats try to recapture the skills they relied on four decades ago.

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."We cheated at blackjack for a living. Now we're answering YOUR questions!*In this special *Cheating at Blackjack Mailbag Episode**, professional blackjack cheats**Dustin Marks and The Kaiser* answer questions submitted by viewers about casino cheating, blackjack, card manipulation, gambling, casino surveillance, life behind the tables and the incredible experiences that shaped their careers.*Was it easier to cheat at blackjack in the 1980s than it is today?*Dustin and The Kaiser explain why the old hand-dealt blackjack games offered opportunities that modern shoe games and automated shuffling equipment have largely eliminated.Then Dustin demonstrates two controversial casino chip-cheating techniques: **pinching and pressing**. Watch how chips could be secretly removed from or added to a blackjack wager—and hear why these moves were considered extremely risky.The conversation gets personal when viewers ask:Was being a casino boss more enjoyable than being a professional cheat?Was it better to work as the dealer or the player?What was it like cheating in a real casino for the very first time?Do they still visit casinos and gamble for fun?Were there potential team members who never made the cut?One of the episode's most revealing moments comes when Dustin explains why **he hasn't made a gambling bet since 1990**. After years of working with an advantage, he simply had no interest in playing a game on the square.The Kaiser also describes the excitement and anxiety of his very first live blackjack cheating experience. Months of practice couldn't fully prepare him for the noise, distractions, casino bosses, other players and the realization that he was secretly receiving information nobody else at the table could see.But this mailbag episode isn't all about cheating.Dustin talks about his passion for hiking, his five hiking books, and a hilarious instructional hiking video featuring The Kaiser as the world's most unprepared hiker.A viewer also asks about an important technique missing from the previous magic episode: **card palming**. The Kaiser demonstrates his preferred classic palm and explains how it fits into his card-handling repertoire.And you won't want to miss the story of *six blackjack players who refused to take insurance even after the dealer accidentally exposed a blackjack!*Finally, Dustin and The Kaiser return to **Magic Minute**, demonstrating visual card color changes, vanishes and a classic card discovery.If you love **blackjack history, casino cheating stories, card magic, Las Vegas casinos, advantage play, gambling psychology and true stories from professional casino insiders**, this episode is for you.*Have a question for Dustin Marks or The Kaiser? Leave it in the comments!* Your question could appear in a future mailbag episode.Subscribe to *Cheating at Blackjack* for more casino stories, demonstrations, historical episodes and behind-the-scenes experiences.

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."*In the Wild West, getting caught cheating at cards could cost you more than your money. It could cost you your life.*Welcome to a special Old West edition of **Cheating at Blackjack**, where Dustin Marks and The Kaiser travel back to the dusty saloons, crooked gambling halls, frontier towns and riverboats of 19th-century America to uncover the dangerous world of professional gamblers, card sharps, confidence men and notorious cheats.Long before casino surveillance cameras and Gaming Control, gamblers relied on sharp eyes, loaded revolvers and their own instincts to protect their money. A dishonest deal could end with a fistfight, a gunfight or a body on the saloon floor.In this episode, we explore the fascinating history of **Old West gambling and cheating**, focusing on the techniques, personalities and legendary confrontations that helped shape American gambling history.Discover why **faro was one of the most popular gambling games in the American West**, how dishonest dealers manipulated games, and why a professional card mechanic could be the most dangerous man at the table.We also investigate the ingenious **Kepplinger Holdout**, a concealed mechanical device associated with 19th-century gambler P. J. Kepplinger that allowed cards to disappear and reappear from a player's sleeve.The Kaiser and Dustin examine the world of three-card monte, shell games, organized confidence operations and the psychology used to separate unsuspecting gamblers from their money.*Meet the legendary figures of frontier gambling:*

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."Dustin Marks and The Kaiser go back to their roots and reveal a side of their careers you've heard about throughout the series—but have never seen explored like this.Both Dustin and The Kaiser are magicians. But their approaches to magic couldn't be more different. The Kaiser explains that magic is more than technical skill; it's entertainment, personality, improvisation and the ability to make an audience believe something impossible just happened.The Kaiser takes us back to Las Vegas bar magic in the 1990s, when neighborhood bars functioned almost like small casinos. Video poker machines were built into the bar tops, and he had to perform magic while simultaneously serving drinks, making change, cashing out customers and working around the limited space between the machines. Then the cards come out.Dustin Marks and The Kaiser demonstrate and discuss some of the techniques that became foundations of their card magic, including the double lift, false shuffles, Elmslie and Jordan counts, card estimation, stacked decks, card forces, corner-short cards and the side steal.You'll see two experienced card men with very different philosophies demonstrate the moves they actually value—and explain why natural handling, timing and presentation can matter more than showing off technical skill.One of Dustin's most impressive abilities is card estimation: judging how many cards are in a packet or cutting extremely close to a known location in a deck. In one demonstration, a packet is counted and lands exactly at 28 cards. The discussion then moves into how estimation can be combined with a memorized or stacked deck to create effects that appear impossible.The episode also examines something magicians sometimes forget:The move isn't the magic.A technically perfect sleight means very little if the audience is staring at your hands waiting for something suspicious to happen. As The Kaiser explains, the objective is to entertain and mystify—not prove how skillful you are.Whether you're interested in card magic, sleight of hand, blackjack, casino history, card mechanics, gambling demonstrations or the techniques behind professional card handling, this is one of the most unusual episodes of Cheating at Blackjack yet.Subscribe for more stories and demonstrations from Dustin Marks and The Kaiser.Don't be a square — subscribe and share.

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."Somewhere on the back of this playing card is a mark that reveals exactly what the card is. Can you see it?In this highly visual episode of Cheating at Blackjack, Dustin Marks takes you inside the fascinating world of marked playing cards and demonstrates how markings have been used by magicians, gamblers and casino cheats.This episode is different from most of the series because many of the secrets have to be seen. Dustin gets behind the camera and in front of the table to demonstrate actual cards and explain what the viewer should be looking for.  You'll see several different approaches to marked cards, beginning with block-out work and scratch work. Dustin demonstrates how seemingly insignificant changes to the pattern on the back of a playing card can carry information to someone who knows exactly where to look. The episode also explores shading and tinting, miscut cards, punched cards, edge work, one-way backs and invisible markings, along with the important differences between systems designed for magic and those historically associated with gambling.One of the most interesting examples requires no added mark at all!If you're interested in marked cards, casino history, blackjack, card cheating, card magic, gambling history, casino surveillance, advantage play and true casino stories, subscribe to Cheating at Blackjack with Dustin Marks and The Kaiser.

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."A 14-person blackjack cheating team. Five dealers. Seven Agents. Two casino bosses. Thousands of dollars in the cheater's pockets every day. Then Gaming Control walked in.In Episode 18 of Cheating at Blackjack, Dustin Marks tells the incredible story of the casino operation that changed the direction of his life.At the time, Dustin was dealing blackjack on the Las Vegas Strip while secretly working with his first agent. Then he received a phone call from his mentor, Mr. C.C.:What Dustin discovered when he finally walked into the blackjack pit was astonishing: a 14-person operation running across multiple shifts, with dealers and players working together and money coming out of the casino around the clock.The operation was reportedly taking approximately $15,000–$20,000 a day, a huge amount of money in the 1980s. Dustin was using both the flash and his ability to stack the deck, while two shift bosses involved with the play helped keep the casino's reported losses from attracting attention.If you enjoy true casino stories, blackjack history, old Las Vegas, advantage play, casino surveillance and stories from the other side of the blackjack table, subscribe to Cheating at Blackjack with Dustin Marks and The Kaiser.

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."He was a legendary dice cheat. Everyone trusted him. But was this play a mistake?In this episode of Cheating at Blackjack, Dustin Marks and The Kaiser leave the blackjack table and return to the world of craps for the incredible story of Bones, a legendary old-school dice mechanic, and an elaborate casino play that came frighteningly close to disaster.Dustin initially wanted nothing to do with another dice play. Then he heard one name: Bones.Bones was already an older man when Dustin met him, but his ability to switch dice was still impressive. Dustin's unlikely ticket onto the team was something relatively new at the time—a camcorder. Bones wanted to see his moves on video and make sure he could still execute the switch convincingly.What followed was an enormous operation involving Bones, roughly 14 players, money players, shills and people believed to be working on the inside of the casino. Dustin's job expanded from filming Bones to teaching inexperienced team members enough craps to blend into a live game.But warning signs began piling up.Some members barely understood craps. Bones' grandson became a wild card. The team grew too large. People wanted to back door the play. Stories about which casino employees were cooperating kept changing. And everyone knew there could be serious money on the table.Still, the reputation of Bones—and the prospect of a huge score—kept the plan moving forward. Then came the night of the play.Members of Bones' crew entered the casino early and sensed something was wrong. Bones contacted someone with connections to Gaming Control.  The message came back:The casino was filled with Gaming Control agents—and the FBI.The team never went inside.They later learned that a casino shift boss associated with the operation had reportedly already been caught and had offered authorities something much bigger in return:the legendary Bones.Dustin and The Kaiser break down the warning signs, the casino procedures surrounding dice, the psychology of trusting an expert, and how greed and reputation can cause people to ignore problems that should have stopped an operation long before casino night.The lesson Dustin took from the experience was bigger than casino cheating: even extraordinarily talented people can have blind spots, and legendary status doesn't make someone infallible.If you enjoy true casino stories, blackjack, craps, Las Vegas history, casino surveillance, gambling history and stories from the other side of the table, subscribe to Cheating at Blackjack with Dustin Marks and The Kaiser.

Got a question about how we did it? Send us a Fan Mail — we read every message."The Kaiser and Dustin Marks explore one of the boldest and highest-risk forms of blackjack cheating: secretly switching a held-out playing card into a live blackjack hand, called Mucking.Dustin traces his fascination with mucking back to reading The Expert at the Card Table, watching early instructional material, and eventually meeting an experienced mucker who taught him real moves—and gave him advice he never forgot: mucking might look great in front of a mirror, but doing it “under fire” in a casino is another matter entirely.The episode examines why mucking presents a completely different risk-versus-reward problem than techniques such as flashing or stacking. A mucker has to contend with the dealer, casino bosses and surveillance while also deciding when—or whether—the held-out card actually provides a useful advantage.