For nearly a decade, I have provided for my family through a card game. Continue reading “You Can’t Get Rich Quickly” »
You Can’t Get Rich Quickly
December 20th, 2011Split Double Destroy [card counting dispatches from behind enemy lines]
October 16th, 2011
The money moves fast. When I lose count of the chips stuffed in my pockets or the cash I have extracted from them, or just when I need to dodge a little heat, compose myself, or strategize, I retire to my office—the casino bathroom. Continue reading “Split Double Destroy [card counting dispatches from behind enemy lines]” »
How to know you’re ready
October 9th, 2011
I recently got this letter from one of our members… Continue reading “How to know you’re ready” »
7 Ways to Build your Card Counting Bankroll
September 23rd, 2011
Not everyone is fortunate enough to start their card counting careers with a large bankroll. Continue reading “7 Ways to Build your Card Counting Bankroll” »
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 much money should you bring to the casino?
August 6th, 2008
I’ve been asked this question a lot of times. Your total bankroll might be $500, $5,000, or $50,000. But does that mean you should bring all that money to the casino for each session? Probably not.However, I’d say one of the worst things that can happen is finding yourself under-funded at the casino. You don’t want to leave early, or even worse: be in the middle of a positive shoe and run out of money! Especially if you flew into a town or had to drive a ways to get to the casino. So I’d lean more towards bringing more than you’ll need than not enough. But then again, I’m willing to take the risk of traveling with extra cash on me.
That being said, here’s my advice: Keep in mind that it kind of depends on how long you plan on playing, as well as the variance of the game you’ll be playing. But a decent rule of thumb would be to bring at least 50 big bets. So if your big bet is $100, then I’d bring $5K. That might sound like overkill, but I’ve had sessions where I’ve been in for that many bets or more. If you don’t feel comfortable carrying that much extra money “just in case”, then you can bring less, but I’d rather have too much on me than not enough.So how about deciding how much money to be betting when you start losing, and the money left in your trip bankroll is getting smaller and smaller as the session goes on? An important rule is to always keep 6 bets to back up any bet you place. So if you bet $100, make sure you have another $600 to back it up. The reason being, you need to be prepared to split and double down multiple times. I know what you’re thinking: “But Colin, I just doubled down on a $100 bet, and I only have $500 left. The running count just jumped up to 30! Surely I should put even a larger bet out to win my money back?” No, padawan. You will have many chances to get your money back. But it is always more important to perfectly follow your playing strategy than to bet more money. So i you find yourself with $500, and you’re betting strategy says to bet $100, you’ll have to actually bet $70, so you have 6 bets to back it up.
If you want to calculate how much to bring with you with greater accuracy, I would recommend using the “Trip Bank” feature on CVCX or BJRM2002 to help you calculate how much money to bring. You can enter in the length of session or trip you plan on taking, as well as the game you’ll be playing, and it will tell you the risk of running out of money for various trip bankroll sizes. You’ll have to weigh the risk of possibly running out of money on a trip with the risk your willing to take of carrying X amount of money. One last bit of advice: don’t ever advertise how much money you have on you.Neither the casino nor the other gamblers need to know how much you’re hiding in your pockets or wallet. A safe card counter is a happy card counter!
