Hey Soldiers of the BJA Army!
I wanted to let everyone know that the Bootcamp scheduled for June 5th will be our last bootcamp for a while Read the rest of this entry »
June 5th Blackjack Bootcamp- Last training for a while!
April 21st, 2010Time will tell. Or if you don’t want to waste time, I will.
February 25th, 2010
Almost every week I get an email (or someone asking on the Member’s Forum) how they can know if they’re playing a winning game. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Sell Yourself Short! (in Card Counting or in Life)
January 18th, 2010
Recently, I got the opportunity to talk to several of the most successful Blackjack card counters and blackjack team managers of all time. We spent several hours swapping stories and talking shop. And one of the most valuable things I took away from the discussion is that we’ve all had times when we weren’t winning like we should, and it came down to one simple problem: we lowered our standards.
Card Counting Darwinism- Learn to Adapt!
December 8th, 2009A 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.
How to Practice Blackjack Pt. III- Getting to the True Count
November 12th, 2009
OK. So it’s been far too long since my last installment of “How to Practice Blackjack”.
In Part I, I talked about Basic Strategy being the foundation of being a card counter. In Part II, I discussed some tips on keeping the running count accurately and quickly. Today, I’m going to give some practice tips for getting from the running count to the true count.
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 Questionnaire
August 29th, 2009
After our last Bootcamp we asked each person to fill out a questionnaire. Here are some of their answers to our questions.
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!
-Colin
So You’re 15 and You Want to Count Cards?
May 4th, 2009
We get a lot of emails from kids ages 12+ that want to know if they should learn to count cards. That way, when they’re 21, they can get right to work at taking money from the casinos. Here’s my opinion on this:
DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME OR YOUTH
There are a thousand hobbies that an underage person can get into, that they can actually use NOW, not having to wait several years until they can do anything about it. So wait until you’re 21, then if you’re still interested, learn how to count cards at that point. It shouldn’t take several years to learn, so you’re just wasting time anyway.
Also, people are much more likely to become addicted to gambling if they start when they are teenagers. Granted I think counting cards is very different from gambling, but it still exposes you to that world. And I would never recommend someone to start drinking when they’re underage. But when they’re 21, hopefully you’ll be a LITTLE wiser about what you’re getting yourself into.
So if you’re a teenager and you’re wanting to learn how to master Card Counting, just drop it for now. You can have it mastered in a few months, so wait until you’d be able to put it into practice. If you want a way to make money, start a business. Find a market that you can capture on E-bay or something. Then, you might be ready with a $20K bankroll when you turn 21!
How to Practice Blackjack Pt. II
April 20th, 2009
In Part I, I talked about Basic Strategy being the foundation of being a card counter. I want to emphasize that you should continue to keep going through all the basic strategy decisions regularly. Just recite the entire chart from memory in the car once a day, and you won’t find yourself at the casino in the middle of a big hand wondering, “does A,7 hit or stand against 9?”.
In this post, I’m going to talk about practicing counting cards. Ben gives a thorough explanation in one of our videos. But I’m going to give a few tips.
1. The obvious first step is to take a deck of cards and count through it, one at a time. If you don’t end up at zero, then you did something wrong. This will help you in creating new associations with cards. When you’re playing at a table, you want to see a 4 of clubs primarily as “+1″, not as a 4 of clubs. After time, you’ll start to see cards simply as +1, 0, or -1.
2. Have an approach to cancel that is foolproof. I see lots of rookie card counters trying to get too fancy with cancellations at the table. They wait until all the cards are out on the table, and are cancelling a 10 on one side of the table with a 2 on the other side. This is going to result in problems sooner or later. So have a method that you do the same every time, and that leaves no room for error.
3. Practice by going into a casino and standing behind the table, and just watching. If you can get thru an entire shoe without dropping the count, missing a card, or getting mentally fatigued, then you’ll have a better time when you’re actually trying to play while counting.
4. Buy CVBJ. This software will tell you when you’re off on the count, and so much more.
Remember that being a 99% accurate card counter won’t cut it. But a 100% accurate card counter can turn the tables on the casino!
In part III, I’ll talk about practicing true count conversions.
