Gamblers have tried a number of advantage play techniques to beat the house over the years. Some of these efforts prove fruitful (e.g., blackjack card counting), while others aren’t so helpful (e.g., baccarat card counting).

You want to thoroughly evaluate any type of advantage gambling before employing it in the casino. After all, who wants to waste time and money with a failed technique?

Ratholing is a proposed strategy that can help you beat the casino. But does it actually work, or is it just another version of baccarat card counting?

Find out as I cover the basics of ratholing, how to use it, and if there are any downsides to this technique.

Ratholing is the practice of taking money off the table. Apparently another less-common phrase used to describe this practice is ' going south ' (seen during season two of High Stakes Poker). Standard poker rules forbid ratholing, and most casinos will enforce this prohibition. Ratholing Ratholing is illegal in live poker rooms, but with so many table choices at the online poker tables the practice has been taken to a new level. Online Ratholers basically sit at a table with a short-stack and upon hitting a certain threshold (double or tripling-up perhaps) they leave the table and sit at a new one with a short-stack.

Pokerstars Ratholing

Ratholing is one of the easiest forms of advantage play in existence. Unlike card counting, hole carding, or shuffle tracking, it doesn’t require learning any extensive system.

Simply put, ratholing is the process of discreetly removing chips from the table. The goal is to take chips away from your stack without the dealer or any other casino staff noticing.

1. Most players, when ratholing chips, try to rathole black chips. This chip is the chip the pit tracks closer than any other. Ratholing green chips is more likely to go unnoticed. Ratholing black chips can be successful if you have a strategy in place that will confuse the pit on the black chip count.
2. ‘Ratholing’ has long been considered an example of poor poker etiquette. If a player leaves the table only to immediately re-join with a lesser stake, opponents no longer have a chance to win those funds back. We believe restricting this behaviour promotes a healthy poker ecosystem for all players. What am I allowed to do?
3. People hate ratholers because they're taking money out of the game that they are unwilling to put at risk. IMO though doing it at Rush is perfectly fine if you're not comfortable playing deep.

This technique can be used in poker or blackjack. But this discussion will revolve around blackjack, given that I’m covering how to beat the house — not other poker players.

At first, you might wonder exactly how this could help you beat the casino. Hiding chips seems more like an immature game rather than something that can give you an edge.

The idea behind ratholing is to deceive the casino into thinking that you don’t have many chips. As you’ll see below, this trick can help you win profits or just earn more comps from the casino.

One more thing worth mentioning is that ratholing isn’t against the casino rules. You have the right to pocket your own chips at any time.

How to Use Ratholing to Win Profits

Ratholing in itself doesn’t give you an edge over casinos. Instead, it’s used to help ensure that you can keep winning profits without being detected.

As you may know, casinos don’t exactly roll out the red carpet for advantage gamblers. The house expects to have an edge in every situation.

Pro players don’t get beaten up by security in back rooms like the movie 21 suggests, but they can get escorted out or even banned from an entire casino chain for consistently winning.

Ratholing helps create the perception that you’re not a big winner. Staff members are less likely to scrutinize your play when you don’t have $60,000 worth of chips sitting out in front.

The goal is to put chips in your pockets without anybody noticing. When done expertly, nobody will be the wiser when you’re winning big profits.

The dealer may have the notion that you’re consistently winning. But one glance at your chip stack can dissuade these thoughts, especially if they don’t catch you ratholing.

Of course, most dealers aren’t obsessed with catching advantage gamblers. They don’t typically care if you’re winning as long as you tip regularly and aren’t blatantly cheating.

It’s the floor supervisors and pit bosses that you really need to fool. They’re the ones who’ll sweat your play when you’re winning big.

However, these same employees don’t have time to watch you 24/7. Pit bosses and supervisors have other table games to monitor as well.

Ratholing can work because they’re not around to track the progress of your wins. They may only stop by your table once every hour, allowing you to covertly reduce your chip stack without them noticing.

Of course, proper ratholing is a science that involves a few intricacies. Below are some additional thoughts you want to keep in mind when using this technique.

Again, ratholing by itself doesn’t give you an edge over the house. All it does is help disguise your skills.

To make profits, you need to actually be using advantage play. Card counting, hole carding, ace sequencing, and shuffle tracking all help you win long-term profits.

I’ll mostly be discussing card counting, considering that it’s the easiest and most famous strategy of the lot. Of course, this isn’t to say that counting cards is easy.

You need to keep an accurate count, know when to spread bets, and look for beatable games (discussed next). Counting only becomes harder when you introduce ratholing into the equation.

Even still, it’s worth combining ratholing with skilled play. It allows you to mask when you’re up big against the house by concealing your winnings.

You can technically use this strategy at any blackjack table. However, ratholing won’t do you much good if a table doesn’t offer beatable conditions.

Card counters must be able to spread bets widely during favorable counts. Ideally, you’ll use a 1-15 spread, or at least 1-10, in a six- or eight-deck game.

You can still beat a double-deck game with a 1-8 spread. In any case, you must be able to spread your wagers to a fair degree without drawing scrutiny.

The exact casino where you’re counting plays a big role in this. Looking at Las Vegas, El Cortez is well known for heavily sweating winning players.

You’ll especially draw attention when playing with green chips ($25). You’ll have more difficulty counting cards for an extended period in a low-end Vegas casino like El Cortez.

Of course, you can still count at low-end establishments thanks to ratholing. You just have to be more careful with bet spreads, especially when using larger chip denominations.

Ratholing In Poker

Meanwhile, a lavish casino like the Bellagio won’t pay much attention to you as a green-chip player. They’re more concerned with potential counters who are using black chips ($100).

The difficulty is in finding a game with favorable rules (e.g., 3:2 blackjack payouts) at the Bellagio. But if you can find a good table, then you’ll be able to count with less scrutiny.

I discussed ratholing green chips above. This is the optimal denomination to rathole because it draws less scrutiny than blackjack chips.

You can still take $100 chips off the table too. However, you need the perfect conditions (covered next) to do so every time.

Casinos watch players who use black chips more than anybody else. It’s always better to rathole with fewer eyes on you.

You don’t want to just start pulling chips off the table at any point. Instead, you need to use this technique at the perfect moments.

The best time to rathole is when the dealer is busy and the pit boss and floor supervisors aren’t around.

Regarding the dealer, you can wait until they’re making payouts to players on the other side of the table. Shift changes present another opportune time to pocket some chips.

Ratholing can be as basic or complicated as you’d like. In its simplest form, you simply swipe chips and discreetly pocket them when (hopefully) nobody is looking.

But you might want to develop more advanced techniques to do a better job of masking your ratholing.

Palming chips and eventually letting them drop into your sleeve is one example. You can shimmy the chips further down your shirt/jacket arm and pocket them later during a restroom break.

You may develop even more covert ways to rathole than this. While you’re at the table, try thinking of different methods for future reference.

Ratholing In Poker

Ratholing to Earn More Comps

The most profitable way to rathole is in combination with advantage play. However, you can also use this technique to simply earn more rewards.

Casinos often comp players more when they’ve suffered major losses. If you start with a huge chip stack and have little at the end of the night, the pit boss may reward you better than your play rate suggests.

The same tips covered above still apply. You don’t want the casino to catch you ratholing — otherwise, they may not trust you and offer even less comps as a result.

Ratholing for rewards isn’t the most lucrative venture. You have to put in a lot of work just for a few extra dollars in comps.

However, you may have some fun in the process. Moreover, ratholing for comps can be good practice if you ever intend to use it in conjunction with advantage gambling.

Ratholing Poker

I’ve discussed the benefits of ratholing. It’s a great way to hide your advantage play, and it can even be used to net you more comps.

Of course, advantage gamblers benefit the most from ratholing. You’re less likely to draw heat because the casino staff won’t think that you’re winning.

The problem, though, is that you need to rathole in the proper manner. One slipup can expose your skills, or at least draw heavy attention to your play.

Another dilemma is that you won’t always know when the casino has noticed your ratholing. You may continue doing it and further expose your advantage play.

Nevertheless, ratholing can be pulled off under the right circumstances. You want to find opportune times, such as a shift change or any point when the dealer is generally distracted.

Ratholing Poker

You should also work on your palming technique and think of inventive ways to pocket chips. I suggest ratholing for comps to practice because the stakes are lower in this situation.

Above all, you need to become skilled enough at an advantage gambling technique to make money. You’re not going to earn any profits with ratholing alone.

But the latter is good to work into your advantage play. Ratholing can buy you more time to play with an edge because the casino will be less likely to suspect somebody with few chips.