March 2015 - Blackjack Apprenticeship

Archive: Mar 2015

  1. What You Need For Blackjack Training

    Comments Off on What You Need For Blackjack Training

    Blackjack Training KitIf you’re just starting out learning blackjack it can get a little overwhelming knowing what you’re going to need to hone your skill at home.

    We want to take the guesswork out of it for you, so before you go unload a bunch of coin decking out a slick home practice setup, read this list of training tools and their importance.

    We’ve broken everything into 3 categories. Things you absolutely must have in order to practice beating this game, things you could survive without for a while, and things you just don’t need.

    Pro Tip: before you fork out a small fortune to Amazon, we have Blackjack Training Kits in our store.

    Bare Necessities:

    1. A Six-Deck Discard Tray. Blackjack Training kit shoeThis is probably the single most important piece of equipment you will own as a card counter. You will need it to practice deck estimation. Most of card counting is a mathematical or mental skill, but in this case you will be practicing a visual skill as well. All the games you will be playing will have a discard tray so you will need to practicing looking at one and estimating the number of decks left so you can calculate the true count. You’ll need at least a six-deck tray but an eight-deck tray will give you more versatility.
    2. Six Decks of Cards. Blackjack Training Kit Decks of Cards“Why not 1 deck? Or two decks?” Glad you asked. Single and double deck games are not as common as 6 deck games and in a lot of ways they are a little more challenging to beat than six-deck, and far less forgiving on mistakes. That’s why we teach you how to beat six-deck games first. Once you’ve mastered the six-deck you can learn the other variants. Since you’re going to need to practice six-deck you’ll need the cards (all 312 of them). Many casinos (not all) will give out their used decks for free or they will sell them in their gift shop.
    3. Printed Strategy Charts. Blackjack Training Kit ChartsYou will need to have your charts handy as you’re dealing cards to yourself and practicing. basic strategy cannot become second nature overnight. Keep a chart in your desk at work. Keep one in your car. It will take some time to master it. Even if you can commit it to memory overnight it will take a significant amount of practice to make it fluid. If you are not checking your accuracy on your charts you may be reinforcing bad habits.

    Significant Training Improvements:

    1. Blackjack Felt.Blackjack Training Kit Felt There is a reason casinos deal games on a felt. If you haven’t already discovered this, you will quickly learn that cards don’t like to be picked up off of perfectly flat surfaces. If you deal the cards on a felt, it serves as a spacer between the cards and the table. The tiny fibers slightly elevate each card above the table, just enough to allow another card to slip under or to allow your fingers to grasp the cards and sweep them up easily. This mitigates endless frustration. You can simulate the same effect with a bath towel, blanket, or table cloth. The other advantage of a real felt is that it has betting circles and the full blackjack layout printed already so you can more accurately simulate a real game.
    2. Deck Ruler. Blackjack Training Kit Shoe Desk EstimatorWhen you’re practicing deck estimation it can help to have a ruler you can use to check and see if you are estimating the correct number of decks remaining. You can get one in our store or you can easily make one with a pen and an index card. The important thing is that you don’t want to write marks directly on the tray itself. If you write on the tray itself you’re not really training your brain to estimate decks, you’re just training your brain to read a ruler. This is why having a separate ruler to check your answer comes in handy and is much better for your learning process.
    3. Chips. Blackjack Training Kit Chips on FeltMany people will use chips to keep score on how well they are doing in home practice. We don’t recommend using chips for that. Chips are good for practicing placing correct bets and getting familiar with what odd blackjack payouts should look like in chips. Chips aren’t absolutely essential to a home setup but can add another layer of practice. If you plan to practice with a friend, chips can come in handy to test each other on correct payout knowledge and proper betting deviations.

    Not essential:

    1. Cut Card. Blackjack Training Kit Shoe Cut CardThat little plastic card the casinos use to cut decks off the back of the shoe can be used in practice but is not really that necessary. It’s more of a novelty for a practice scenario. The dealer will decide where the card goes in a real game and there is no skill to cutting the shoe before the start of a game, so a cut card is really just there to make you look cool for having casino stuff in your house. Not essential.
    2. Dealing Shoe. We thought about adding a 4th category for this item because we recommend intentionally avoiding this purchase. Just trust us. It’s a waste of money. Even dealers in casinos hate them. They constantly get clogged and they are totally unnecessary for a home training setup.
      better use for a dealing shoe

      [a much better use for a dealing shoe]

       Casinos use them because dealers cannot physically hold six decks in their hands while they are dealing. The shoe provides an organized way to keep the cards in order, on the table, and in view of the cameras. None of those things apply at home. At home you just grab a stack and start dealing the cards from your hand. Trust us; if you buy a dealing shoe you will quickly abandon it. That’s why they don’t come in any of our training kits.

     

    That’s all you need to know about home training tools. If you haven’t already picked up the essentials, we recommend checking out our Kits in the BJA Store when you’re ready. The casino’s money is waiting!

    If you have a cool home training setup you’d like to show the community send it to [email protected] with subject line “Check out my kit.”

    card counting mini-course iphone screencap

    Start the FREE card counting mini-course

  2. Profile of a Card Counter: BJA Member “SmurfAP”

    Comments Off on Profile of a Card Counter: BJA Member “SmurfAP”

    Profile of a Card Counter

    We recently had the pleasure of asking one of our Bootcamp Alums, “SmurfAP,” about his blackjack journey. He had some great nuggets of wisdom to share with the community so without further adieu, here are his answers to our questions:


    Blackjack Training Kit

    SmurfAP’s training setup + some winnings

    1. How did you get into card counting?

    My buddy and I have always sought to be business minded. We’re barbers by trade and, since cosmetology school, we’ve always thought ahead to how we can invest our money like the rich, while also starting up our own small business.

    One day my buddy kind of jokingly told me he found a great investment but he was pretty sure I wouldn’t approve because I come off as a conservative guy. He told me it was beating blackjack through card counting and to his surprise I responded with great enthusiasm. I’ve always been mesmerized by movies and shows where people can outsmart casinos and others through playing cards, but I failed to learn because of how obscure resources were in learning the craft. With the movie 21 portraying young geniuses, the endeavor seemed impossible.

    During my first blackjack lesson, my friend had to first teach me how to even play blackjack, let alone count. When he showed me basic strategy and how to count everything made complete sense and I knew that it was profitable. We had a few practice sessions together and headed off to the casinos with a few hundred bucks and of course lost most of it. After that day I made the commitment to not lose any more money to casinos until I was fully prepared to beat blackjack.

    My friend was skeptical to paying for a Blackjack Apprenticeship membership and didn’t think it was worth it since he already made a good amount of money with the information he already knew, but I had to find out as much as I could even if a scam was waiting for me at the end. I started out paying for one month of membership, soaked it all up, and couldn’t get enough of it. I then bought CVBJ and the training kit and shared whatever knowledge to my friend. We invested into full membership, Bootcamp, CVCX and have been taking down casinos ever since.

    2. How long have you been counting cards?

    I’ve been playing professionally for 1 year

    SmurfAP's performance chart

    SmurfAP’s performance chart

    3. How long did it take you to trust your skills? How do you know you’re any good?

    Nine months. I had intense preparation; practicing 8 hours a day. I got myself to a level where I made no mistakes on CVBJ and playing heads up with my friend many nights til 4am. At the blackjack Bootcamp we tested out with 1 mistake each.

    4. What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced/had to overcome?

    Cut off half the time from my job to play blackjack and not withdraw any money from the bankroll. Scheduling and sleeping patterns differ so much each half of the week.

    5. Any advice you would give to others? Anything you wish you would have known?

    Have a perfect game, learn CVCX, trust the math. Do not expect to win money overnight. Just because you win hundreds, thousands, and get kicked out of a casino doesn’t make you an AP. Being in the positive after thousands of dollars in losses and hundreds of hours will tell if you are beating the game. Ben an Colin give solid advice.

    SmurfAP Performance Chart

    SmurfAP’s 2-man team performance chart

    6. Any highlights of your career so far?

    Before being introduced to card counting I didn’t even know the rules of how to play blackjack nor set foot in a casino. In a year I’ve been to countless casinos in 5 different states, Vegas twice, backed off from several properties multiple times, and trespassed by a chain.

    To date my investment has reached a 1000% return. My wins alone make about 60% of the current team bankroll.

    7. What’s your favorite thing about being a card counter?

    Being able to see money as just a tool; a means to an end. Having the mindset of trying to see the true value of things.

    8. Whats the most you’ve ever won/lost in a day? How did that feel? How did you respond?

    Biggest win $4100 in half an hour. I felt real slick but paranoid. I’ll explain with a story for the next question.

    Biggest loss $5000. I felt suspect of my game, a little embarrassed, but not despaired. My brain was fried from outside stresses from home, but I still wanted to make sure my skills weren’t slipping. I believe I took a little break from blackjack and had my teammate retest me when it was time to come back.

    9. Any memorable story (stories) you’re willing to share?

    I’m really eager to close off the bankroll and I’ve been putting in more blackjack hours than I have before on top of my normal job. I’m going through the most amazing streak of my short blackjack career and it’s the last session of the week. I should prepare myself for a loss.

    I’m playing in a casino that I previously had a pretty messy backoff but the shift I decide to play had no idea and the workers on that shift are pretty chummy with me. I found a perfect heads up table with no mid shoe but as I buy in the dealer informs me the minimum is $100 because the previous player changed it up; it’s usually a $25 minimum pit. No big deal, I start scanning for the next open table but the pit boss insists I stick around so she can call upstairs to change the minimum on the table, so I stick around.

    After the first round boom, the count heats up. I end up having to play two spots of $100 anyway. “Black action”, “go ahead”. Boom 2 x $200. Pit raises brows. “Splitting 10’s!” Pit boss walks conspicuously over to my side. I end up splitting 10’s 4 times on one side then splitting 7’s and doubling on the other on the same hand. BUST.

    SmurfAP Cash Out Security

    SmurfAP being cashed out and backed off with a security escort

    The pit boss heads straight for the phones. Uh-oh they should have my picture, I gotta hurry up. 2 x $300 an there’s still about four decks left to be played. Oh man do I look like a scumbag, I make the pit call to lower the minimum and I bet several times over that anyway. Every time they look away I stuff the chips in my pocket because the last time I got backed off they held my chips as I was coloring up unless I showed them ID.

    The shoe finally hits a running negative. I ask the dealer to hold the 2 spots for me so I can head for the door, stuffing handfuls of blacks into my pocket. The dealer is about to ask me to color and the pit leans in to imply the same. I reach my phone for a fake call ranting hysterically like I had a mini emergency yelling aloud “You did what!? Why!? Why would you do that!? I’m here at the corner! At the back! I’ll be right there! I’m coming!”

    After all the smiles and excitement on their end there’s now an empty table, two reserved spots, no tip. Before scurrying out to the parking lot and skipping the cage I decided to round my way back and look from afar. Dealer’s heading hanging low and pit confounded. I chuckled my way home. hahah

    10. What’s your favorite advantage play that you have done in your life that didn’t involve blackjack or casinos?

    I’m actually having a hard time thinking of one. I probably have had a few AP moments in life but maybe its more true that I usually got the bad deal of things; mostly so I wouldn’t be accused of taking advantage or cheating somebody. Boy how things have changed.


    Thanks for Sharing your story with us, SmurfAP! Keep generating EV!

  3. How to Start a Blackjack Team

    Comments Off on How to Start a Blackjack Team
    Bankroll_Dinner

    Church Team Bankroll Dinner

    We get a lot of emails from people who just watched the Holy Rollers documentary, which tells the true story of the blackjack team we ran for several years. Naturally we get asked the question, “Do you guys still play and can I join your team?”

    The Church Team officially disbanded at the end of 2011. Some former members of the team do play on their own from time to time (including Ben and Colin), but not in a large-scale, organized fashion.

    Usually when people hear this response, the next question we get asked is, “How do I join/start a team?” We will get into some practical things you can do to start or join a team, but first you have to consider WHY you want to start a team. Typically there are 3 legitimate reasons for people to play on a team. (more…)