Make big money blackjack
Blackjack tables all over the world. Incredible perks accompanied my vocation — ringside boxing tickets for the big fights, offers to play golf with celebrities, front row seats to sold-out shows, and gourmet dinners at the finest restaurants. Though I enjoyed these epicurean experiences, the comps were strictly a side benefit.
I chose this unusual line of work for only one reason — to make money. And I succeeded, becoming one of the top blackjack players in the country. How did I win in a game where everyone is expected to lose? Or more importantly, is it possible for a reader like you to follow in my footsteps and routinely withdraw money from casinos? These qualities ultimately separate the few who actually make a living at blackjack from those who frequent the glitzy temples of chance only to help pay the light bill.
The truth is that anyone with an average aptitude can learn to count cards and become a winning player. I do possess an exceptional memory, but my main strength was a dogged tenaciousness.
I read everything by gifted players who came before me: I absorbed their advice and refined it, extracting every last ounce of theoretical edge card counters can gain over the house. Then, before ever setting foot in a casino, I disciplined myself to play like a machine, honing my skills with over a hundred practice hours at home, drilling relentlessly until all decisions and calculations became as natural as breathing.
For example, I practiced talking while rapidly counting down decks, pushing myself until I could eventually fly through fifty-two cards in seconds. Confident of my skills, I attacked any blackjack game up to six decks that offered good rules and great penetration, but I quickly realized that playing against one deck was the easiest way to beat the game. Counting six decks is not more difficult than counting one, but the edge rarely rises as high and the win rate is usually lower in multiple decks.
However, some experts recommended playing only shoe games because pit bosses watched single deck so closely. A contrarian by nature, I refused to follow the herd and vowed early on to play only the very best games, and one and two deck offered the largest advantage for straight card counting.
So while most counters flocked like lemmings to the shoes, I sought out hand-held games whenever possible. I still played some six-deck tables but disciplined myself to lay cash on the felt only for the strongest games, which meant that many days, I spent more time walking, in search of ideal conditions, than playing. Another important quality a professional blackjack player needs is drive.
To stay under the radar of casino surveillance, I constantly moved around. Once, I drove all night from Chicago to take advantage of a 2 to 1 promotion on blackjacks, miles away in Vicksburg. Finding the hottest clubs took hard work and extra effort. In my pursuit of profitable games, I traveled all over the world to places like the Dominican Republic where I played private tables in small, dirty, and dangerous casinos.
Needless to say, navigating other cultures is challenging and often unpredictable. I flew to the Orient when they instituted rare bonuses for five-card hands, only to get my winnings paid with counterfeit money by one casino. I made only one gambling trip to Europe, but it was profitable as I pounded several clubs in Belgium offering an advantageous early-surrender rule.
Like other counters, I still made periodic pilgrimages to the gambling Mecca known as Sin City. To beat blackjack on a consistent basis required hard work and a willingness to boldly go where few had gone before, in search of the very best games.
Card counters need a great deal of perseverance and persistence to overcome the many obstacles facing them. Many view blackjack as the ideal lifestyle since it combines high profits with the ultimate in flexible hours.
These people gravitate to card counting because they want the kind of job where in the morning, when everyone else rolls out of bed, they just roll over. However, trading in your paycheck for casino chips is anything but easy and is not for the faint of heart. My blackjack career started out rather humbly. On my first trip I tentatively pushed my maximum bet of ten dollars onto the felt, knowing my entire bankroll was contained in the thin confines of my wallet. I was fortunate enough to win often those first few years, and my capital steadily grew until I amassed a six-figure bankroll.
This enabled me to bet up to one thousand a hand in positive situations, which bumped up against the limits at most clubs.
A good card counter will win between a quarter to one-third of his max bet per hour. High travel expenses can also water down the potential return, so many aspiring card counters invariably overbet their bankrolls to jack up the hourly rate.
The big clubs have almost an unlimited amount of money to work with and many card counters are undercapitalized. That fact, combined with players making mistakes, sends many home broke and crying for mama. It takes a person with steel nerves and a tough veneer to remain unaffected by the kaleidoscope of emotions bombarding potential pros at the tables. A professional blackjack player never wins all the time and I expected to come out ahead about two-thirds of the time over a short trip.
Yet the losing sessions become etched in your memory far longer than the winning days. I vividly remember when some friends canceled a neighborhood BBQ, so I changed my plans, stayed an extra day at an Indian reservation, and dropped eighteen thousand dollars. Most of it came in the last disastrous hand of the shoe — when I split four times and doubled down twice — only to see the inevitable dealer I never tried to reinvent the wheel and only refined techniques developed by earlier players.
The basic premise of card counting revolves around whether a surplus of high cards or low cards have been removed from play. Unlike other casino games such as roulette or craps, which have no memory, the past does affect the future in blackjack.
I chose a more difficult counting system, forgoing the simple high-low used by many, reasoning that over the long run a stronger count would yield a much greater return. I used Hi-Opt II and side-counted aces on my feet. It often took long stints of up to fourteen hours in the field to get in eight hours of actual play. On most trips I took up to forty thousand of my bankroll with me in cash the rest of the money would be left home or parked in the stock market since everyone knows stocks never go down.
Then I would stuff about twenty thousand of the forty into my fanny pack for each daily session and leave the rest in a safety deposit box. I expected to win about two thousand dollars a day; but with fluctuation, I usually won or lost five to ten thousand each day, with the occasional roller coaster ride over twenty grand.
Most pit bosses will give the benefit of the doubt to a new face playing big money. For this reason, I could often get away with jumping my bets up and down according to the count for a while. In Vegas, I generally played short sessions and moved quickly from casino to casino before they could determine whether I was too good for their game.
But in states outside of Nevada, players seldom have that luxury since the isolation of most clubs makes longer sessions almost mandatory. Once, I drove a motorcycle, in graduation cap and gown, through the halls of my high school — just to win a small bet. My high-stakes play got me barred from places all over the world, and I was kicked out over two hundred times. But, the bottom line for me always remained the same — I played to make money, not friends.
I viewed barring simply as a vocational hazard. This timidity gave them longevity but at too high a cost, since they rarely gained much of an advantage over the house.
Other players, barred once or twice, thought their career was over and simply gave up too soon. A relentless personality is almost mandatory to succeed in this business. The other misconception I mentioned earlier dealt with whether you could win serious money on your own in blackjack. I seldom played on teams during my career, preferring instead the lone-wolf approach to attacking the tables. Many profitable blackjack teams with huge war chests have raked in a steady stream of chips.
However, I still occasionally joined up with other counters. These groups had huge bankrolls, and once in Atlantic City I won about twenty grand in one shoe only to lose it all back along with another twenty grand within the same hour.
A small crowd had formed behind my table watching the incredible swing and after the complete collapse, a young chap stepped forward. Sharp people like Tom Hyland have done very well organizing groups of eager players and launching them on casinos.
While more money can be made, potentially, by joining a well-oiled team, there are several negatives. Often, too many fingers in the pie create problems, such as the time I played six days on one team and won fifty grand. There is just something about gambling for large sums of cash that can bring out the worst in people. Therefore, I feel a focused player can do fine on his own and is better off playing individually than joining up with other counters.
For as long as the game of blackjack has been dealt, there have been legal ways to turn the odds and beat the house.
I taught myself from a book, but for every successful blackjack player, countless other casualties litter the roadside with empty wallets. This article appears with the permission of the author Kevin Blackwood.
I live in France. I was a Blackjack player who use indexes by Stanford WONG, I am mastered the way Hi-lo. Because of big accident, I had a problem for my bankroll. If somebody need to organize a blackjack team, please tell me. Excellent forum here to start.
Ten Rules to be a Successful Blackjack Player
I live down in Florida and just graduated with a degree in physics. There are several casinos down here but are all owned by the Seminole Tribe. I prefer to play with at least two other players as the speed and pressure is a little over my head-for now. I feel like this is too much to fast. Am i just getting lucky on top of the count? Is there ever a added subconscious ability to memorize and sequence cards relative to the count.
One more quick thing, what are your thoughts on automatic shufflers where they put multiple decks in, not the One2Six machines on the table. I have come to love these machines. The cards always seem to have the right balance. Does anybody else hate hand shuffles? Given that you were only spreading 1: And you were playing at a really big disadvantage when you switched to the 6: If you had instead been spreading maybe 1: You mention that you have mastered Hi-Lo, but it sounds like you still need to learn a lot.
No worries, we all started where you are. Just for reference, card counting will usually yield about 1 to 1. Any trends you have noticed as a result are just noise. Taught myself counting by reading everything and practicing.
Did two hours a day at treasure Island from am and I have never felt so good about the game and my hard work and success. Five and ten dollar tables and I moved tables after I won or was down. Got out each time I made a certain amount.
I can do this. I want to do this regularly as a supplement to my real job. I like the fruits of the hard work and the possibilities that counting brings rather than the money though I want that too. Seeing the table and potential in a whole new way is exhilarating. Any and all advice is welcome. Your reaction is the main reason that I still encourage smart players to learn to count, even though the game is not as vulnerable as it once was.
The change in perspective that comes from beating any casino game will forever change the way you look at casinos.
You will begin to see opportunity where you overlooked it before. As for buying an expensive class, it really depends.
Everyone learns best in their own way. I use another app for baccarat aswell and run it as I bet behind people when conditions are ideal.
App keeps a running tally of cards played with suggested play for next deal. Usually I wait for 2 or 3 losses in a row before I wager. Extremely lucrative and very accurate. A baccarat app is worse than useless. Actually, given your two posts today, I would bet that you are the developer of these snake-oil apps.
Playin 8 deck shoes in Canada.
Making Big Money in Blackjack
Use an app on my phone that tracks the count by using volume up and down. Dont have to pull my phone out for anything.
Vibrates when conditions are suitable for a big bet. App keeps a running count and true count as it counts down the cards. Phone screen looks blank while program runs. This app would be illegal in the US, and is likely illegal in Canada too. Besides, card counting is not rocket science. Just use your brain, leave your phone alone, and avoid legal trouble. I have kept a log. On 80 different days in my life I have gone to casinos.
I would have done better to get a job as a blackjack dealer. Working at walmart would be better. I win every time I go to a casino, and I do it without counting cards. I would play more, but I feel like I would get banned if I kept winning at my current pace at the one place that I play now.
It sounds like you are using a progression, perhaps a Martingale where you double up until you win a hand, which produces a profit for the series equal to your initial bet.
In fact, quite the opposite. You will eventually hit a long enough streak of losses to wipe you out, and your net result will be negative. You cannot create a winning expectation by making any sequence of negative expectation bets. I bet the same every time. The tables that I play have a max bet just 8x greater than my typical bet. So counting splits, doubles, etc. As a flat-bettor, you can win a lot before they get worried. For this question, your mileage may vary. Is it true you guys are still getting shoe boxes dealt?
We are from Asia and there is none to be found. It is all Continious Shuffling machines we are playing against. Can never be the same and cannot be counted anymore. Drop me a line if anyone knows how to beat these CSM.
I decided I am going to learn the art of card counting. I did spend 2 hours writing down the tutorial from my phone.
Card Counting - How Much Can You Make
Because I am to broke to get it printed. Then here and there food for the mind, which is helpful.
But I love the honesty and the motivation in this article. There is hope, hope to buy a printer and hope for a girl like me to earn a extra income. Am going to glue myself to a deck of cards till I can get that 0. Count it from 0 to 0 and kick some boody.
Me and 3 friends have all just tured 18 within the last year. We are now ready to team up, put all our 4 bankrolls equally together and hopefully use our knoledge now to take down the casino. People laugh at us when we walk in with not much money, looking underage and not having an idea what to do.
Now we are ready to step up, show them who the high rollers are and shut the casinos managers mouths! Just remember that the ability to continue to play has a long-term value. What was the casino in Minnesota you visited? I live in Minnesota and would like to check it out.
It was Treasure Island, but that was long ago and game conditions have changed greatly since then. Last time I played in Missouri may have been 15 years ago. The games were fine though. Let us know what you find. I play in Missouri. I play only double deck. Some casinos let you split and double on anything. Others will only let you double 9, 10 and 11and cannot double down after split.
All hit soft I can recommend Blackjack Apprenticeship for a training community. Been playing the game for 15 years. Last night down brought up another 20 dollar bill then rallied that to Tonight down rallied to on a 6 deck Spanish 21 with a maximum bet always looking to improve my game.
Seeking blackjack mentor basically. Where do you play? Don't worry, it won't be published. A valid email address is required. Your Website optional A valid URL is required. My free email newsletter lets you know when new items are published on my sites, along with occasional exclusive content.
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