Blackjack is like a disease. Once you get a taste of winning, it's all you ever crave. Something about beating the dealer and then having him give you money, scratches an itch in my brain that nothing else can really scratch. The best part about blackjack is that you can actually beat it. Casinos try and prevent it, but card counters will always find a way to beat the game and they have been for over 60 years. This will be a series on the blog, gonna start it weekly where I will update you guys on different types of card counting training drills and just some fun facts that I have learned. If weekly is too much then I will go bi-weekly and then monthly and you get it. I already have a pretty good foundation of the skills needed to count cards. I can keep an accurate running count in a casino and I know some playing deviations, but besides that, I do not have a winning game just yet. So let's break down how to actually count cards.
99% of card counters use the hi-low system if counting. This means that every card is assessed a value. Either +1, 0, or -1. This picture will provide the basics of information in order to count cards.
You add 1 when a 2-6 is dealt, 0 when 7-9 come out, and subtract 1 when a 10-ace comes out. Now where do you put all these numbers when you add and subtract? The running count. As the game goes on you keep track of the running count and what the running count tells you is how many high or low cards are left in the deck. If the count is +10 then there is 10 more high cards than low cards left. If the count is -15, then there is 15 more low cards in the deck than high cards. As a card counter we want the high counts, the higher the better.
How does knowing how many high or low cards left in a deck help a card counter? When the count is high and in favor of the player, a card counter will bet more. Like a lot more. A casino has about a 2% edge over the average player. A card counter, like a really good one, has about maybe a 1% edge over the casino. Basically a card counter will win 51/100 times, making a little profit. It is not a get rich quick scheme, although people have made millions from it. I would describe it as the scheme from the movie Office Space. You're just taking fractions of pennies from the super rich companies and they won't even notice.
If you need some help there are plenty of videos online that provide the same information but in video form.
I will be doing the Blackjack Apprenticeship course lesson through this and also doing some drills on their website and with a deck of cards. I will be doing the following drills to keep track of my skills hopefully becoming better.
Counting down a deck of cards
Dealing a deck of cards
and BlackJack Apprenticeships test out
The test out shows you how close you are to becoming an actual card counter. Like a test, it grades your game from 1-100.
Here are my beginning stats as of today
Counting down a deck - 48 seconds
Goal - sub 25 seconds
Dealing a deck of cards - 2:18
Test out - 89%
I am surprised with my test out score being so high. My counting was good, I just do not know how much to bet and when to bet, which is like the back bone of card counting. I am washed up though on my counting of physical cards as I used to be able to count down a deck in 30 seconds a few months ago and be able to deal and count a deck in 1:30. But this is why I am blogging it, to keep me accountable and to keep me going. Casinos are evil people, and I will defeat the evil, one blackjack hand at a time.
Please like and share with a friend and anyone that does not work at a casino.
And that my soon to be card counters, is the Tea with T.
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