Spooking is the usual practice of sitting in a certain position on the table in hand held single deck blackjack in such a way as to try and spot the dealers hole card. Usually though in large casinos where other people have the capacity to walk behind the table then this is usually a team game where one accomplice is trying to observe the dealer’s hole card and then they transfer that knowledge to their associate at the table.
In the USA the dealer has to check their hole card but in England with shoe games then spooking isn’t possible……or is it? Basically a player can spook a careless dealer who pressures the centre of the card just as they are about to deal that card so that one of the corners is visible. Careful dealers or dealers without this dealing flaw would make the move impossible.
But if the player on first base knew that their first card was a picture then that has been calculated to be a 13% edge for the player and an ace card would be nearly four times that. So spooking is the act of trying to extract information from cards that you are not supposed to be viewing. So whether or not those cards are in front of the dealer or still inside a shoe makes no difference.
Many dealers who deal blackjack from a shoe are not even aware that spooking exists in this form but it certainly does. Male dealers tend to be more prone to this move over female ones as they can often exert more pressure on the card but nervous dealers could also be vulnerable also.
