Spotlight Blog- The Real Hustle

We have reached our sixth instalment in our spotlight blog series and in this one, we take a look at the cult classic TV show, The Real Hustle. The show ran for 11 series on the BBC between February 2006 and March 2012 and saw hustlers: Alexis Conran, Jessica-Jane Clement and Paul Wilson showing off the most common scams and hustles that happen to the public and then reveal the secrets behind it. The show also spawned seven international versions.

Read Next: Spotlight Blog: Molly’s Game

In this spotlight blog, we will highlight our top three hustles that the crew performed over the course of the show in a casino. Whilst these tricks, scams and hustles may seem like a good idea to master when you start heading back to the casinos. Still, we must advise that it is not a good idea to try these things as the real hustle’s presenters are professionals and always give back any winnings afterwards. If you were to try these tricks and get caught, you could be thrown out of the Casino and banned. 

So without further ado, here are our top three Casino hustles from the Real Hustle.

The Blackjack Hustle

The hustlers tell us that casinos continuously change Blackjack’s rules to try and stay ahead of those that try and cheat the system. Alexis talks us through the old rule, that you could handle your cards in both hands. He then shows us how hustlers would swap out a seemingly bad hand out for a blackjack hand, which almost guarantees victory against your fellow players and the dealer.

When the rule changed to only being able to use one hand, Paul then shows us how the hustler can do the same trick but with one hand. This switch is impossible to spot in real-time as the switch is done so fast and is even more impressive than the two-handed switch.

A Night At The Casino

Alexis and Paul spend the night at the Casino and have taken a handy piece of kit with them to give the edge in all the most popular casino games and beat the dealer on several occasions.

The main scam in their night at the Casino is the big player scam. In this scam, they use a blackjack counter device to help them play blackjack. This advanced computer system keeps track of what is going on at the table.

When there is an advantage to be had, one hustler signals the other at the table, who then communicates via a signal to the big player to come and sit at the table. The computer system then links to the big player’s earpiece and tells them what the count is at the table. The computer tells the big player the count and tells them how to play as well.

The Roulette Hustle

We are with Alexis and Paul yet again, this time they are playing the roulette wheel. It might seem impossible to cheat at a pure luck game, but the way they do it is quite ingenious. The so-called scam is called past posting.

This is the trick of placing a chip on the winning colour after the ball has landed on a particular colour. This is done by hiding a chip under your arm, and whilst the croupier is distracted talking, cashing out, you slide your arm across the table and sneak your chip down. Again this action is impossible to spot even when the camera zooms in on the trick happening.

Even when the hustler loses a bet, they sneak their way to some winnings as well. When the hustler loses, he asks the croupier to change cash into chips; he knows his losing bet into the halfway line to get some winnings.