Many places hand shuffle cards before placing them in the shoe. It's a good time to go pee.

What you are talking about with the Diamonds is some sort of Carnival variation which requires placing a side bet.

 

Seems like not splitting Aces would be -EV from a getting heat perspective. It surely can't be too bad to just always split just to provide cover?

 

Not necessarily. People get drunk, don't know how to play etc. I watched a guy at Bellagio playing 2 hands of $10K double down every time he had to hit. Hard 16 vs. 10? Double that! Many Vegas visitors have far more money than brains. If you're a counter, the trick is to look like one of these fools who will soon be parted from their money.

 

Actually, I've found that hitting A-A works out for me almost every time I've done it... hitting a 7, 8 or 9 seems to come up far more often than the 25% or so that it ought to... of course, I ignore those cards for my count, so that may play into it, as I only hit the A-A on negative counts.
My point was that the pit has certain hands that they expect as a given from anyone who understands the game. Splitting Aces is one of those.
By not splitting them, my hope is that they'll see me as just another ploppy & ignore my play... which they typically do anyway... I only make these moves when I think my play is being scrutinized...which doesn't occur all that often anymore.

 

What you are saying makes sense, I was just thinking it would be the opposite.

That everyone (even the ploppies) knows to split aces, so if you aren't it must be for a reason, most likely that you are counting.

 

Good point. I hadn't thought about that. Perhaps I'll double down with AA in the future, (against 4, 5 or 6).

 

Or you could be like my cousin, split tens on one hand, and about 5 hands later, double on a 5 against a dealer 10 because you "have a feeling" .. that should throw them off lol.

(of course he won the double with a 13 when the dealer busted)