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How to know you’re ready

October 9th, 2011

I recently got this letter from one of our members… Hey Ben, I totally dig your thought on investing rather than gambling. I am just in the middle of memorizing the charts, but as you know life in your 30′s is busy.  I really want to make some cash from this, I know it is not quick and easy and that is why I chose your site and expertise.  If you have any advice to pass on like, when you know you are ready. When the first time you visit a casino is and so on, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the inspiration.(Name removed)

First of all, thanks for the letter. Investing is smart; gambling is stupid. If you have been on this website and you have not figured that out than you have not been paying attention…but back to the email. As far as how to know when you are ready? As always, I am going to give some cop out answer like: There is no “one answer.” However, I will go a step further and give you 3 things to help you know that you are ready and 3 things that show that you are not ready to go to the casino. Here they are…

How to know you are ready to go to the casino:

  1. You are stunted in your learning curve. This means you already know basic strategy and understand AND have practiced counting and you want a more real life training scenario.
  2. You have some money that you can afford to spend on training. That’s right..I said SPEND! While you are training you should NOT EXPECT TO MAKE MONEY. It is seen as an investment expense. If you can not afford it at this time do not go into a casino.
  3. You are ready to follow up casino sessions with homework. What’s the point of finding the holes in your game if you’re not going to fix them? Don’t kid yourself in thinking that you want to be a card counter if you’re not willing to put the work into learning it.

How to know that you are NOT ready to go to the casino:

  1. You care more about how much you win and lose vs how much you learned. Just in case you did not hear me the first time: you should NOT expect to win money.
  2. You have not learned everything that you can for free. How well do you know basic? 99%? Forget it! Stay home till you know it 110%. This is the biggest mistake everyone makes.
  3. I’m sick of typing so just read # 1 & 2 over again.

 

On another note, we have a new e-book that will be coming out in a couple months! We’ve been working on it for a long time, and it’s in the final stages of editing. We’re really proud of it, and will keep you guys posted on its release. If you haven’t already read my free e-Book, “How I went From Waiting Tables To Being a Professional Blackjack Player {on Accident}”, check it out on our website! You can download and read it for free.

Posted in beating blackjack, Blackjack Deviations, card counting, Card Counting Practice, card counting training, Counter Culture, customer emails, Deviations, how to count cards, Money management | No Comments »

August Bootcamp Details!!!

July 5th, 2011

Hey guys, we wanted to let you know all the details about the bootcamp we’ll be holding in August.

Who: 10 people that want to learn from us what it takes to be a Professional Card Counter. Because we want the quality to be high, we’re keeping it to only 10 spots.

Where: VEGAS! We will have a suite at one of the major Las Vegas casinos. That’s all we can say for now.

What: An all-day, intense Blackjack bootcamp. This will include hands on training, discussion, Q and A, and nearly 20 years of combined experience of beating the casinos for loads of money.

When: August 20th, 2011

How (do you sign up): SIGN UP IS NOW OPEN UNTIL FRIDAY, JULY 8th! If you are on the fence as to whether this is for you or not and have some questions, email us at info@blackjackapprenticeship.com with your phone number and name and we can try to arrange a phone call.

Price: $1,499

To read more about our Blackjack Bootcamps, go here.

We hope to see you there!

 

Posted in Boot Camp, card counting, card counting systems, card counting training, Counter Culture, how to count cards, Las Vegas, practice | 1 Comment »

BJA News, Next Bootcamp Date, and Story Time

June 24th, 2011

Hey fellow Soldiers! I hope you’ve been out in the trenches, making your own set of war stories at the casinos! I’ve started a journal of my favorite card counting stories so that I don’t forget them over the years; maybe I’ll turn them into an e-book one of these days. You should be doing the same!

 

Anyway, 2 pieces of news we wanted to share with you:

  1. Thanks to the enormous response regarding the iPhone app! We gave out all of our available free licenses, and we’ve really valued the feedback. Our programmers are hard at work making improvements, adding features, and making it available for iPad as well. We couldn’t make the improvements without your input!
  2. Our next Bootcamp is scheduled for August 20th! Mark your calendars, set some money aside from your bankroll, and get ready to meet us in Vegas if you want the best hands on blackjack card counting training on earth! To keep the training quality high, we’re capping these bootcamps at 10 spots. We’ll give you  more information soon, but the sign up will only be available for 48 hours, so make sure you’re ready to get one of the spots when we open it up!

 

And while I have your attention, let me leave you with one story:

I was playing some Double Deck Blackjack at a beloved tribal casino, and with a fresh shoe, I saw that the back card was an Ace. The dealer asked me to cut the cards, so like a master surgeon, I VERY carefully cut exactly 3 cards from the back of the shoe, then placed $1,000 on my bet circle. The dealer then moved those 3 cards to the front of the shoe. The first card was the burn card, the second card went to the player sitting before me at first base, then, BAM!, I get the Ace. With all the enthusiasm of a regular gambler, I start shouting, “Face card! Face card!” Dealer deals my second card…FACE CARD! $1,500 blackjack!

The moral of the story: Card Counting is one of the tools we Advantage Players use to get the advantage over the casino. Think outside the box and learn all the ways to turn the casinos’ games against themselves!

Saving the World One Card at a Time,

Posted in basic strategy, beating blackjack, Boot Camp, card counting, card counting systems, card counting training, Counter Culture, gambling, how to count cards, Las Vegas, practice, story time, tribal casinos | 2 Comments »

Side Bets and Card Counting

June 17th, 2011



Ben and Colin discuss what blackjack side bets are and a little bit about how they can, at times, be exploited by shrewd card counting.

Posted in beating blackjack, card counting, card counting systems, card counting training, Counter Culture, gambling, how to count cards, videos | No Comments »

The Wonderful Wizard of Odds

April 28th, 2011

We met the Wizard of Odds, Mike Shackleford, at the Blackjack Ball last year, and got to hear about what he does with his website. He has added a lot of value to the advantage player community by breaking down the advantages of various casino games and providing the optimal strategy for playing them. Though we may not see eye to eye on all issues, especially the future of card counting, I respect his understanding of the theory of blackjack and other casino games as much as anyone else I’ve met. I thought it would be fun to hear his thoughts on casino games and advantage play.
Ben: How did you get interested in analyzing casino games?

Mike: In the mid-nineties I took an interest in web site design. I experimented with several different sites, for example a personal home page, one about math problems, one about Social Security, one about baby names, and one about gambling. For the gambling page I didn’t want to just steal other people’s work, as most gambling sites do, but figure it out myself. So I did.

Ben: Do you have experience counting cards? If so, what got you into it? How did you train? Was/is it lucrative?

Mike: I had a friend in college who happened to be a card counter. He loaned me Revere’s Playing Blackjack as a Business, which piqued my interest. So I taught myself counting from his book. Then I went on junkets from Santa Barbara to Reno, and I could see for myself that it worked. Through my twenties I went to Vegas and Laughlin to play, mainly for the challenge of it. As a red-chip player, I never made much money doing it. In 1992 I moved to Baltimore and due to the locality and other interests I seldom had the opportunity and desire to continue playing.

Ben: Have you gotten involved in sports betting?

Mike: Oh, yes. That is my main area of advantage play now.

Ben: Where do you see the future of card counting? Advantage Play?

Mike: Card counting is getting tougher. I think the casinos are overly-paranoid about it, and better skilled at detecting it. I think for most people other areas of advantage play are more profitable.

Colin: How did you get involved in the Blackjack Ball?

Mike: Starting several years ago, Max Rubin was kind enough to invite me.

Colin: I nearly pursued a career as an actuary. What do you see as the similarities between an actuary and an advantage player?

Mike: While there is little similarity in the work, there is a great deal of similarity between counters and actuaries. Both are mostly male, excel at math, and are very dedicated to doing what they do well. I pretty much spent the 90s with actuaries and the zeros (somebody needs to come up with a term for the 2000-2009 decade, so I’m going with the “zeros”) with professional gamblers. While they were all different faces, the general personality types were quite similar.

Posted in beating blackjack, card counting, card counting systems, Counter Culture, how to count cards, story time | No Comments »

Today you may get fired.

September 27th, 2010

This last week I was hanging out with some fellow card counters at a BBQ and one of them said something, in passing,  that is definitely worth repeating. In describing the job to someone he said “counting cards is like going to work everyday and wondering when you’re going to get fired. And then, when you do get fired you know you have to go look for a new job.” Everyone that has counted cards on any serious level knows exactly what he is talking about.


Yesterday I got an email from a subscriber who asked this question: are you sure its for the average person and not a maths genius?? I’m not sure why he even asked this because in writing back I assured him that while you do not need to be a “math genius” no where on our site will we tell people that it is for “the average person”. The average person can not deal with the discipline that it takes to work hard or the pressure of always wondering if you “are going to get fired”. It takes an exceptional person. In my opinion the people who have done well at card counting are those who have succeeded at throwing the expectations of the status quo to the wind. They are those who have looked past many practical inconveniences and emotional setbacks to accomplish goals that few have the courage to even set before them. Do you have what it takes?


Posted in beating blackjack, card counting, card counting systems, Counter Culture | 3 Comments »

Introducing…

February 1st, 2010

I’m super excited about this opportunity to introduce you to one of the most feared and underground names in card counting. This man has been under the radar for years and I assure you, there have been no movies made about him and he has not been out there flaunting his accomplishments…until now.

He goes by, Loudon Ofton.

This man has been responsible for taking millions from casinos and he has agreed to write anonymous posts on blackjackapprenticeship.com about his experiences from the front lines of playing blackjack.

His column titled: Split Double Destroy! [real-time dispatches from behind enemy lines] will now be a regular feature here on the website.

You can read more about him HERE.

Or feel free to email him at: Loudon@blackjackapprenticeship.com

As a friend and fellow counter I am super excited to have him on our staff and know that you will enjoy his stories and learn from his experience.

Saving the World One card at a time.

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Posted in Counter Culture, Hit, Double, Destroy | No Comments »

Happy New Years!

December 28th, 2009

Well 09 was a crazy year over here at Blackjackapprenticeship.com. We don’t like to brag nor am I a huge fan of new year’s resolutions but this can be a great time of year to pause and reflect on the previous year and set our sights on the next year. So here is what went down in ’09 at BJA:

  • We completely re-designed our site so it doesn’t look like a piece of crap
  • Lead a series of bootcamps in Vegas that we received massive amounts of positive feedback on.
  • I don’t want to be too exact with the number but let’s just say we profited from clearing out more than 6 figures worth of $chips$ from casino racks.
  • Wrote, designed, and published “How I went from Waiting Tables to playing professional Blackjack” – which is available for free
  • Outlined 3 other books for the website. 1 of which will be free and 2 for sale.
  • Responded to every personal email sent from members of the Card Counting Army
  • Built a new infrastructure for the forum
  • Released 3 Training Kit sets for new counters to practice easier.

What we hope to have accomplished for 2010:

  • Publish 4 books through the site. More information coming soon!
  • Release iPhone training software (we’re 95% done with this)
  • Write a minimum of 1 post on the site per week that is applicable and awesome for card counters
  • Release 2 more series of posts written by authors/card counters (we already have 1 that will be release in Jan and are currently working on a undercover surveillance operator)
  • Release some awesome t-shirts that card counters would want to wear.
  • And just generally overall continue to make a site and culture that is awesome for people wanting to be trained in counting and/or for fellow professionals.

Allright, enough about us. Do you have any goals for 2010? Here are some ideas (pick, choose, CUSTOMIZE and post as a response in comments):

  • Training: Basic strategy, Deviations, Counting speed/accuracy?
  • Casinos: Dollar amount you want to win? Amount of EV you want to generate? Travel on some trips to play in some new places?
  • Personal: Have any goals you want that are related too blackjack? or not? Write a book? Run a marathon?

Well, Looking forward to another awesome year. Thanks for all of your support for the site and we hope you the best of results in accomplishing your goals for 2010!

Saving the World, one card at a time.

ben_signature

Posted in Counter Culture, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Why I like Terrible Customer Service (in casinos)

December 1st, 2009

The other day I went out to play a little blackjack. This isn’t a super common event for me since I spend most of my time training blackjack players and working on other businesses but the experience was memorable and has some lessons for all of us. This particular casino I played at was a small one. By small I mean, 4 table games open (only one of which is blackjack) and only one pit boss. This particular night the cards were landing for me. I couldn’t lose. No less than 3 times I emptied all the chips in the rack above $5. This means that I had stacks and stacks of chips in front of me and the casino had no chips in front of them.

This:

a) is really hard to do

b) feels really good

c) shows how completely incompetent the pit boss is.

You do not win all the chips in one hand. There are warning signs. The process of getting more chips usually takes from 5-12 minutes from start to finish. This is usually expedited when one of their customers is sitting there with tons of money on  three  blackjacks that the casino does not even have enough money to pay out.  I know what you are thinking. I was the only person in the casino. What kept the pit boss from attending to his job? Was he dealing with some gaming theory issue? Was he training some confused dealer? No. he was texting on his cell phone. I’m not sure what what he was texting about, but my guess is it was either the latest Twilight movie or the next neck tattoo he was going to be getting. This is was happening in real life. And it wasn’t the first time. So, as I was sitting around waiting watching ev float out the window, I had time to think about why I should in fact not be upset about the situation.

  1. Any casino that is run this poorly in an area as simple as this is sure to have a poorly run surveillance / card counting detection dept. Think about it: If the guy doesn’t notice the tray is out of chips because he is texting do you think he’s going to notice that I am adding and subtracting the number one (in my head) and dividing it by the number of decks left to be dealt?
  2. Employees who perform like this do not usually care about their jobs. This means they don’t care about the money or if you are taking it. Contrast this with the owner counting with you over your shoulder and equating every blackjack you get with money coming out of his pocket (this has happened).
  3. It’s easy to make a pit boss like this like you. Talk to him. Treat him like a real person. Talk to him about Twilight, monster trucks, tattoos, casinos, whatever. If he likes you he’s probably not going to back you off. You’re probably the most exciting thing that can happen to him on any given night. Be an asset to him, not a liability.

In conclusion, there have been countless stories I can tell of seeing casinos being run poorly. I will post more later but remember to take it in stride and treat them like your customers because sometimes counting the cards is the easiest part. Sometimes the best thing you can do is take your ego out of it and watch your bankroll begin to grow.

Saving the World One Card at a Time,

ben_signature

Posted in card counting, Counter Culture | 11 Comments »

Goodbye Old Site!

September 22nd, 2009

Goodbye old site. All good things must come to an end. For those of you visiting, thanks for your loyal patronage. This site would have never gotten here without your feedback and devotion to the cause.

We are in the process of launching our new site. Here at Blackjackapprenticship Land we have been referring to it as 1.0.  So, Please be patient. For the next couple days to the first week we are going to be working on getting the programming and infrastructure on the site solid. And from that point on we can devote our time to developing content and products. One of our biggest shifts is the move to providing more of our products for free.  As an example please check out my Story of How I got into Card Counting.

We’ve put a lot of work into the new site and are pretty excited about it. You guys deserve a change and we hope you like it. Please email feedback to me and let me know how we did.

Saving the World, One Card at a Time,

Ben

Posted in Counter Culture, send over, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

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