August 2013 - Blackjack Apprenticeship

Archive: Aug 2013

  1. What are Blackjack Deviations?

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    We get a lot of questions about Blackjack Deviations. Deviations are, arguably, the most misunderstood part of the game. So I thought I’d bring some light to the subject, based on the most common questions we receive.

    So what are blackjack deviations?

    Deviations are simply times where you will alter your play. They are always mathematically driven, meaning they are never based off of a hunch or a pattern of wins or losses. There are 2 kinds of deviations: Playing Deviations and Betting Deviations.

    TIP: There is an comprehensive section on Blackjack Deviations in our Card Counting Training Course. To get a complete walk-through of the what, why, and how, along with memorization tips, check out the Video Training Course.

    Betting Deviations are times when you will change your bet. As the true count changes, the edge changes. When the casino has the edge, you will bet less, but as the edge moves to the player,  the player will bet more. This will always follow the strategy of your bet spread. And your bet spread should be mathematically calculated from a betting software or through Bankroll Coaching (which is included for Elite Members).

    Playing Deviations are times where you will deviate from basic strategy because the composition of the cards has changed due to the true count changing. For example, normally you will hit a 12 against a 2. However, when the true count is above 3, it is statistically better to stand a 12 against a 2. So anytime before a true 3, you will hit 12 v 2; anytime above true 3, you will stand 12 v 2.

    How Important are Playing Deviations?

    Yes. Roughly 60-80% of a card counter’s edge comes from PERFECT basic strategy, PERFECT counting, and PERFECTLY betting according to the true count. Then, Deviations account for the remaining 20-40%. I strongly recommend that people focus ALL their attention on basic strategy, counting, and true count conversion until they are always 100% accurate and getting bored. The reason for this is that you cannot beat blackjack without perfect basic strategy, counting, and betting. Those are the foundations. When your foundation is solid, you can work on adding playing deviations. But you cannot put the cart before the horse.

    “Why are playing deviations important?”

    There are a few ways that playing deviations are valuable. The main way is that they increase EV. Rather than thinking of deviations as “steering away from basic strategy”, you can think of deviations as the proper basic strategy for each true count. Take the 12 vs 2 decision for example. With a true count below 3, you will make more money in the long run if you always hit, but you will make more money above a true 3 if you always stand. It’s just that simple. But another way that playing deviations are valuable is because they lower risk and variance. By always making the correct decision, your bankroll will take fewer swings. For example, by always buying insurance at a true 3, you are protecting your bankroll and will have a lower risk game than if you avoid using that playing deviation.

    “When do you perform deviations?”

    Betting Deviations: You will need to calculate the true count between every round to perform betting deviations. Since your bet spread will likely change with every true count (at least up to a true 4 or 5), you will need to know the true count every round to calculate the true count and bet accordingly. This is why practicing calculating the true count is so important!

    Playing Deviations: Whenever you are dealt a hand with a deviation index number. Even if you just calculated the true count for your betting decision, you will need to calculate it again when it’s your playing decision because the running count has likely changed. So before you make a signal, you will need to convert from running to true count and see if it justifies deviating from basic strategy. This might sound tricky, but if you follow the training and get faster and faster at basic strategy, counting, and true count conversions, adding this step will become more natural.

    Hopefully this brings some clarity to blackjack deviations.

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  2. Blackjack Hero – Tommy Hyland

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    Biography of Tommy Hyland

    Tommy Hyland Black and WhiteThomas Hyland is a professional blackjack player and card counter. He is well known for his expertise innovative card counting techniques and also is one of the seven inductees into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

    Hyland began his career in the late 70’s upon reading Lawrence Revere’s book Playing Blackjack as a Business. While in college, in 1979, Hyland began contemplating what he was going to do for a profession when he got thrown into the world of blackjack. After becoming very enthusiastic about the game and the idea of making it a full time job, he began recruiting his friends and put together his original team of four players with a bankroll of four-thousand dollars each. The team began their career inAtlantic City and because of their sharp counting tactics, easily built their team of to a back roll of fifty-thousand dollars. After conditions worsened for many blackjack players inAtlantic City, Hyland’s original teammates headed toAsia to continue their blackjack play; however, Hyland continued his team by recruiting other friends that he knew from golfing.

    Throughout the 80’s, Hyland and his team utilize very successful blackjack counting techniques such as shuffle tracking and ace sequencing. Among these, the latter got Hyland and his team into a difficult situation at the mid of the next decade. In 1994, some of his teammates were arrested inCanadafor ace sequencing play at Casino Windsor inOntario,Canada. Although the trial was supposed to be groundbreaking precedent as far as prosecuting ace sequencing and other advantage blackjack players, the judge ruled in favor of Hyland’s team and ruled that what his members were doing was not cheating, but rather, intelligent strategy.

     

    Colin and Tommy Hyland Censored

    Colin and Tommy Hyland hanging out at a country club.

    Hyland’s strategy as far as counting and making money at various casinos is an aggressive strategy where he advocates standing firm and leaving as fast as possible. Moreover, Hyland’s success as a team leader, and also his success at operating the longest standing blackjack team, goes back to his loyalty, integrity, and ability to engage and encourage his teammates through faithfulness and devotion. “In a crisis, the money wasn’t the most important thing,” stated Hyland, “the most important thing was somebody’s liberty.” Although many members came and went throughout Hyland’s successful decades of advantage blackjack play, the team’s philosophy always stayed tight knit and dedicated to each other no matter what the cost.

    Although Hyland doesn’t play nearly as many hours as he used to, he still plays frequently and also has branched out into other modes of advantage betting such as advantage sports betting. Hyland is well respected as one of the most famous blackjack players of all time, as he is currently in the blackjack hall of fame, and has made a successful career at being a loyal, hard-working, and responsible advantage blackjack player. “I love the fact that I’ve played blackjack for this long,” stated Hyland, “it’s very satisfying to take the money from the casinos –to me [this] is way better.”

     

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  3. Blackjack Hero – Richard Munchkin

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    Biography of Richard Munchkin

    Richard Munchkin is a prolific writer, director, producer, radio host, and professional gambler. He is known for his book Gambling Wizards, which narrates the history of some of the most well-known blackjack players of all time.

    Growing up in the town of Des Plaines, Illinois, Munchkin took a liking to strategy games at a very young age. By the age of three, he was proficient in the games of chess and gin rummy. It was by the age of twelve that Munchkin fancied the idea of playing games in order to when money. It was at this time that he began backgammon and poker seriously. His talent and skills were able to provide him with enough income to put himself through Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theater arts. Upon completing his undergrad in the late 70’s –and not wanting to be a starving actor in the Hollywood strip –he moved to Las Vegas and began work as a card dealer, and occasionally a pit boss, at the Castaways Casino.

    It was at this time, in 1977, Munchkin learned how to count cards. He recalls playing backgammon in a bar in Chicago with a dentist when he told Munchkin about a way to beat blackjack mathematically. Intrigued by the idea, Munchkin ordered the book Playing Blackjack as a Business, and moved full time to Las Vegas. After completing dealer school, he was hired on as a dealer, as he recalls, “I would practice counting while dealing,” and began to sharpen his card counting skills full time in Vegas. Nevertheless, Munchkin eventually found it more profitable to be a blackjack player than a blackjack dealer, and began playing with a team in the later 70’s. Munchkin’s first experiences playing on a team wasn’t as profitable as he had expected, and after a failed hand, Munchkin quit the team and went back to dealing. Nevertheless, he was soon drawn back into playing. Although their original bankroll funder moved back to Australia, Munchkin and his friends began playing very seriously and soon the tides began to change as much success and profits were reaped by Munchkin and his team the next decade.

    As a theatre major, Munchkin’s idea was to make a large amount of profit in Las Vegas, and eventually sojourn to Los Angeles to get involved in the film industry. Although he endured many unforeseen circumstances, this is precisely what Munchkin did. Munchkin launched his film career in the 80’s, and between ’87 and ’99, Munchkin produced and directed over twenty movies such as Evil Obsession, Fists of Iron, Ring of Fire, L.A. Heat, Out for Blood, and Deadly Bet.

    In 2002, Munchkin authored his famous book entitled Gambling Wizards, and also frequently contributes op-ed pieces to Blackjack Magazine, All in Magazine, and Blackjack Forum. In 2004, Munchkin participated season one of the World Series of Blackjack. In 2009 Munchkin was inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame.

    Munchkin currently hosts a weekly radio show called Gambling with an Edge, which is syndicated on KLAV in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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  4. Blackjack Hero – Kevin Blackwood

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    Biography of Kevin Blackwood

    Kevin BlackwoodKevin Blackwood is a professional blackjack player, card counter and author who is famous for his best-selling book Play Blackjack Like the Pros. He has played in the World Series of Blackjack and the Ultimate Blackjack Tour.

    Born in the state of Maine, Kevin Blackwood had humble beginnings as he was brought up in a very conservative devout-Baptist background for nearly two decades. Upon traveling off to college, and transferring a few times to different universities, Kevin was able to successfully complete his undergraduate and masters degree by the year of 1981. Kevin then enrolled in a Ph.D program to continue to work towards his doctorate degree, as he was planning on either teaching Church History as a professor or venturing off into the ministry field. It was at this time that he began reading about card counting wherein his life was changed drastically.

    While reading an article in Sports Illustrated about a “new breed of gamblers”, Kevin became fascinated with the idea of a new and innovative generation of gamblers who played by the science of gambling using mathematics, thereby breaking the old stereotype of the “good ‘ol boy” blackjack player. As someone who had a mathematical background, Kevin knew that this was something that he could seriously pursue successfully with the right amount of time and training. “They weren’t gambling in a true sense,” stated Blackwood, “They were using their aptitude in a way to turn the tables on Las Vegas.”

    In the early ‘80’s –right after marriage –Blackwood began training in Oregon and Washington in local taverns for many months insofar it was a sterile environment away from more serious places in Nevada. It was here that Kevin began to track meticulous records of his fiscal earnings and losses, and built up his bankroll before he took his newfound skills to big-time casinos in Vegas. Nevertheless, after decades of black jack as a professional card counter, Kevin decided to shift into semi-retirement and begin to convey to others some of his legacy and creativity through the power of the pen.

    Kevin’s first book, a novel, entitled The Counter was written with many autobiographical themes throughout the book including his religious upbringing. Published in 2002, it tracks the story of Raven Townsend and his desire to become a millionaire blackjack player. His second book, Play Blackjack like the Pros, was published by Harper Collins in 2005, and is a basic guide and instructional book on how to become a successful blackjack player. Kevin’s third book, Casino Gambling for Dummies, steps away from the blackjack themes and covers the basic ins and outs of the casino life and how to become victorious at various games therefrom. Kevin’s most recent book, The Legends of Blackjack, was published as an e-book, and is replete with numerous stories of many of the blackjack giants.

    Blackwood now currently resides in Oregon with his wife, two sons, and cat.

    Footnotes

    [1] Sports Illustrated, “Youth Can Age You,” May 14, 1979 https://www.si.com/vault/issue/70830/57

    [2] Kevin Blackwood, (On Blackjack), interview by Colin Jones, Blackjack Apprenticeship.com, Podcast Audio, , May 7, 2013,

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