Blackjack Apprenticeship Card Counting Resources

So a lot of people have been asking for tips on how to practice blackjack, so I’m going to start a blog series about what I’ve learned about training:

PART I:

Basic Strategy is the Foundation

A lot of people say, “I know about 95% of basic strategy. Show me the deviations, get me to a table, show me how to bet! I’m ready to have at it!” But if you are still either making Basic Strategy mistakes, or having to use large amounts of mental energy to make BS decisions, then you’re in trouble! I don’t care how well you can count and how many deviations you memorize… if you make Basic Strategy mistakes, you’ve just killed any potential advantage you could have over the casino.

And even if you don’t make mistakes, if there are situations that arise where you have to put mental energy into remembering the correct decision, you will have a really hard time adding the other elements: counting, deviations, betting decisions, etc.  If, however, for every playing decision, the correct Basic Strategy answer comes instantly, and without energy, then keeping a running count, converting it to true count, and referencing deviations and bet decisions will be MUCH easier.

Ok. So how do I get better at Basic Strategy quickly?

1. I recommend talking through the entire chart every day, a few times a day. Start with Splits, and say “Aces always split. 10′s never split. 9′s split up thru 9, except against a 7.” etc. You should be able to effortlessly run thru the chart.

2. Make flash cards. Put every situation on a card, like “A,7 v. 2″ on one side, then the correct decision on the other side. There will be lots of decisions that are so easy, you can start removing them from the stack of cards, and before long, there will only be the 10-20 toughest decisions in the stack. Keep reviewing them until you don’t have to think thru the whole chart to access individual decisions.

3. Play Basic Strategy. Buy CVBJ or use an iPhone App (we have one we’re finishing up). Drill yourself on basic strategy decisions. Until you can play Basic Strategy perfectly, you shouldn’t get obsessed with counting or deviations.

4. Keep reviewing. Basic Strategy is sort of an abstract thing. So you won’t retain it if you don’t keep practicing and reviewing it. You might go 10 hours of playing blackjack without seeing some decisions. But when you DO see it, you want to know what to do instantly.

Bringing down the house since 2003,

Colin