Blackjack Apprenticeship Card Counting Resources

A while back, I came across a casino with a great game. Good rules and INSANE pen. After walking around the casino floor to figure out my best option, I ordered a beer, sat down at a table, and started firing away. OK. Let me clarify. I ordered the beer for the “image” it would give, I actually stood at the table, and by “firing away”, I mean I was betting the table limit within the first 2 decks of the 6 deck shoe. I was high fiving players, asking the pit crew to comp me energy drinks, and doing whatever else I could to generate as much EV as I could before they caught on.

From the get go, everything was going my way. I only had to buy in for 2 big bets, and before I knew it, I was up 10 units. The cocktail waitress was bringing me free drinks the size of a fishbowl… I wasn’t ordering them, the pit boss was telling her to bring them to me. And by the time I called it a night, I was up over 23 big bets! They say you can shear a sheep many times, and I left that night praying that I hadn’t just skinned that sheep.

Fast-forward to a month later. I get a chance to make it back to this casino, and upon first impression, they’re giving me the same treatment. Then it happens. As soon as I sit down at my reserved table, the pit boss whispers something to the dealer, and the pen instantly goes from less than 1 deck to over 2 decks being cut off! Now I’m out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do, nowhere else to go, and not even a decent poker game to play. So I do what any decent advantage player would do: go out to my car, pull up CVCX, and figure out if there’s still a way to BEAT THEIR GAME! Normally, I would just have moved on to a different casino, and I NEVER encourage someone to play a game with such horrible pen. But I had nowhere else to go, a reserved table, and now I had personal reasons to take their money!

Like I said, the rules were REALLY good. And since I had a very healthy bankroll to back me up, I figured out that if I bet the table minimum below a true one, then worked my way up to the table maximum after a true one, I was playing a positive EV game with low risk, and even an acceptable N-zero (that’s a mathy  way of calculating the long-run). So I sat there all night, trying to coax the dealers into giving me better pen on each shoe, and watching the pit sweat every time I raised my bet.

I eventually found out that the casino manager knew that I was counting, but wasn’t willing to turn down my action. So they let me play, reluctantly. And after 8 hours of some of the most mind-numbing blackjack of my career, I was up a few units, had cleared out the rack, and decided to call it a night. I don’t expect they’ll let me play there again, but if I find myself in the area, I’ll have to find out!

Here’s the point: Card counters have to learn to adapt. It’s what we’ve been doing for nearly 50 years… adapting to the casino’s counter-measures. There’s only so much we can do, but it’s the innovators who will continue to find ways to extract money from casinos. I’m sure there were many a card counter who threw their hands up and quit when casinos went from 1 deck to 2, or 2 decks to 6, etc. But the shrewd advantage player isn’t just looking for a smart way to gamble, but for ways to continue to liberate money from the clutches of casinos. So in your quest as a professional Blackjack player, look for ways to start THINKING like an Advantage player, and I guarantee you, the opportunities are out there!