“Who here can tell me how to win this game?” I asked as I bellied up to a crowded blackjack table. Read the rest of this entry »
Training for Battle at Card Counting
February 25th, 2011
We use a lot of military/war language here at Blackjack Apprenticeship, and it is not a mistake. We see a lot of parallels between being a winning card counter and being in warfare. Read the rest of this entry »
Getting Respect as a Card Counter!
February 4th, 2011
I got this email a while back, and it made me smile: Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 23rd, 2010
With the holidays upon us, I’d like to take a moment and reflect on how playing blackjack has made me thankful. Read the rest of this entry »
For those who still don’t know why to Count Cards
September 22nd, 2009
I received this email last week, and thought I’d use it as an opportunity to break it down for those wondering “why do you keep a count of the cards“: Read the rest of this entry »
Bootcamp Testimonials
July 17th, 2009In case you want to hear what people who have been trained in a bootcamp have to say. Sign up for the bootcamp here.
Another Satisfied Member
May 11th, 2009
Someone on the BJA forum posted this last week, and I thought it was such an awesome testimonial, I asked if I could post it here on the blog. To protect his anonymity, I’ve removed any of the parts that talked about where exactly he plays. But the rest is completely unedited.This is a fantastic site for the serious blackjack player.
At the moment, I’m up about 7K this year, card counting, using deviations and mainly playing positive decks. These are all strategies that I have learned from this site. In addition, I try to use a stop loss when I play, per table.I consider myself risk adverse (at least at this point), which means I’m trying to limit my down shoes and ride my profits. I believe that Colin said somewhere on the site that his best advice was not to play a negative shoe. In my opinion, that is why I’m up this year. I have no problem moving from table to table to find a positive shoe or to just stop playing and watch the dealer wipe out the table.Needless to say, after playing every weekend this year, I’m noticed by a lot of the pit bosses and dealers. But I receive no heat. In fact, many go out of their way to say hi. I’m guessing it’s because I’m not making huge up bets. I also receive comped rooms (on weekends) and a lot of comped food, which isn’t calculated in my profits.
I attribute all my success to this site and am looking forward to eventually mastering the betting strategy, which will take my game to the next level.
Good luck to everyone!
XXXXX
Join the ranks of the money-making card counters!
How to Practice Blackjack pt. I
April 10th, 2009
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
Why the different deviation charts in different books?
October 6th, 2008I received a question from a member of our website recently asking why some of the numbers on our deviation chart are different from what they have seen in another book or website.
Deviation charts can vary slightly, depending on
1. the rules, number of decks, penetration, etc that you’re assuming
2. your strategy for calculating the true count
3. the number of hands that you ran your simulation generator for
We ran our deviations based on the games that we most commonly played and how we calculate the true count. We ran a ridiculously long simulation. So I trust it’s accuracy. Also, keep in mind that the net effect of slight deviation differences between one chart and another are most likely fractions of pennies on the dollar. So if one chart says stand a 12 v. 3 at 2, and another says stand a 12 v. 3 at 1, the actual number may be something like 1.5, so there’s not a massive difference between the 2. You shouldn’t see different themes in deviations. For example, if our chart says to split 10′s against a 6 at a true 4 and above while another chart says to split 10′s only at negative counts, then there’s something wrong with the other chart!
Hope that helps clarify!
Hard 12 against 2 and 3
September 17th, 2008
Memorizing the playing deviations is great, but unless you know what they mean, it’s worthless. I recently received this question from a premium member on our site, and thought I’d share it with you guys in case anyone else has had the same question:
“I need to know what the correct play deviation is for two different scenarios. One is a hard 12 against a dealers 2. What does the play become at a true count of 3. And the other is a hard 12 against a dealers 3 at a true count of 2. Thank you.”
Here’s my response:
“With both a 12 v. 2 and 12 v. 3, you are going to follow basic strategy, which would be to HIT, until it reaches the indicated count. At the indicated true count (3 and 2, respectively), you will deviate, which in this case is STAND. The theory behind it, is that when there are that many extra 10′s left, you will not want to risk busting your hand, and the dealer has that many extra 10′s to bust his hand with. Hope that helps.”
Deviations are tricky, because they all have different meanings. So make sure you understand both the Basic Strategy decision for each hand, then what the deviation for that hand means.
