I was TDY to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas around 1977 to a not particularly difficult training class. Picked up a book on counting cards and went to town with a deck. I did not particularly find it difficult, although I did not completely master the hit/stand table variance depending on the card count.
During the 80s I made multiple trips to Nellis, with some visits to the blackjack tables. While I did not play at a high level, I noticed a number of counters the casinos employed. The worst was to adjust the point of shuffle. With a 2 deck table, I noticed the dealer would sometimes deal the deck all the way down, requiring a reshuffle before completing a hand. Other times, the dealer would reshuffle after only one or two hands. With a multi-deck shoe, the dealer would sometimes deal to the burn card, other times he or she would reshuffle before that point. There seemed to be two types of these dealers. One would reshuffle when a player who well could have been counting raised his bet. The other type of dealer (the cheating one, in my opinion) adjusted his shuffle point based on the card count, shuffling early if the deck was not in the house favor (ratio of 10s to non-10s), dealing all the way down if the deck favored house odds. This last method of countering card counters was cheating IMO because it improved house odds against all players.
Another method was based upon my fear and superstition rather than science. Whenever one of the seedier downtown casinos got tired of me taking up a seat and not losing sufficiently fast enough, they would move in an Asian Female dealer, who would beat me 9 out of 10 hands, 2 of those 9 drawing a multi-card 21 to beat my pat 20. Try as I could, I could never hold my own against one of those ladies.
During the 80s I made multiple trips to Nellis, with some visits to the blackjack tables. While I did not play at a high level, I noticed a number of counters the casinos employed. The worst was to adjust the point of shuffle. With a 2 deck table, I noticed the dealer would sometimes deal the deck all the way down, requiring a reshuffle before completing a hand. Other times, the dealer would reshuffle after only one or two hands. With a multi-deck shoe, the dealer would sometimes deal to the burn card, other times he or she would reshuffle before that point. There seemed to be two types of these dealers. One would reshuffle when a player who well could have been counting raised his bet. The other type of dealer (the cheating one, in my opinion) adjusted his shuffle point based on the card count, shuffling early if the deck was not in the house favor (ratio of 10s to non-10s), dealing all the way down if the deck favored house odds. This last method of countering card counters was cheating IMO because it improved house odds against all players.
Another method was based upon my fear and superstition rather than science. Whenever one of the seedier downtown casinos got tired of me taking up a seat and not losing sufficiently fast enough, they would move in an Asian Female dealer, who would beat me 9 out of 10 hands, 2 of those 9 drawing a multi-card 21 to beat my pat 20. Try as I could, I could never hold my own against one of those ladies.