Archive for the ‘Play Blackjack’ Category
Of the many pro players I've known through the years who were playing on small banks (say $15,000 or less), most either went broke or were scraping the bottom so often that they ended up getting jobs. Some lived in their cars, borrowed money from friends, bummed nights in friends' apartments. None had an easy life at the start.
Of those who went on to make it in blackjack, there were various reasons for their success. Some just experienced a period of unusually great luck right off the bat that gave them the bank they needed to continue. Many formed partnerships with other good players, entering into informal agreements to work together and share games and results. But most found various ways to exploit casinos without card counting. They continued to count cards, but they opened their eyes to other opportunities around them. They hustled casino coupons, comps and fun books. They knew every 990 meal in town. If there was a free hot dog at some casino sports book on Tuesday nights, they were there to eat it. They learned how to extract maximum value from slot clubs. They got on casino mailing lists to get every freebie possible. They kept their ears open for any promotions that gave the player an edge on any game. Some cashed in on currency exchange deals. Some were lucky enough to find investors, or teams, that allowed them to play at higher levels than their own meager bankrolls permitted.
The smartest ones discovered exceptionally high edges on games that no other players had even noticed. Others were particularly good at finding and exploiting casino "mistakes," such as a valuable new rule on a blackjack game, or a different payout on a crap table. These were usually just temporary opportunities, but these players made the most of them for a few days, sometimes for a few weeks, before other players—and finally, the casino itself—caught on. I know players who won thousands of dollars playing video blackjack machines that had incorrect slot-club cash-back bonuses. I know a player who won two cars from the same casino by playing an overly generous slot club promotion that the casino hadn't really thought through. This isn't old stuff—most of this is recent.
Last year, the Horseshoe in Las Vegas decided to put in a double exposure blackjack game, but they didn't realize that in the standard version of the double exposure game, naturals pay even money. With naturals paying 3 to 2 at the Horseshoe game, the players had close to a 2% advantage off the top. The game was there for weeks before most card counters discovered it, and the players who found it first made a lot of money. Inevitably, an opportunity like this will be found by a rank amateur who will then go and post his "discovery" on the Internet, and that's when the opportunity dies. The counters swarm in like hungry jackals; the casino freaks out at the invasion; the game is gone.
If a player living in Cleveland told me he was dead earnest about making a living as a professional blackjack player (and numerous players in Cleveland have told me this!), starting with a bankroll in the neighborhood of $10,000,1 would tell him right off that his chances were slim at making it. Most who try fail. But if that did not deter him, I would tell him that his chances of making it, if he intends to continue living in Cleveland, are worse than slim, and closer to none. With a $10,000 bankroll, you cannot afford the travel expenses, and you cannot get in enough hours to make the money you'll need to survive, or to gain the experience you'll need to develop your skills.
If he's really serious about making this his career, I'd advise him to move to Las Vegas, where the greatest number of opportunities exist, find a cheap place to live—there are lots of tacky but safe apartment buildings just east of the Strip, populated by old folks living on their Social Security checks—and learn to exploit every gimmick the town has to offer, and there are a lot of 'em.
I'd tell him that if he's moderately friendly and keeps his eyes open he'll inevitably meet other talented small-timers trying to make it as well. If he becomes part of the pro-gambling subculture, he'll meet some players who have been scraping by professionally for many years, without ever having had much of a bankroll, and rarely a job for any length of time. They'll teach him a lot of survival tricks. There's a lot of free food in Vegas, and more free money than most tourists realize, but it's a grind. You can't do it if you have dependents, or a mortgage.
If he's really sharp, careful, and hard-working, he may find that his bankroll keeps getting bigger over time. He'll weather the setbacks and come back stronger than ever. He'll begin to impress more successful pros who may teach him more. Then it's just a question of keeping on friendly terms with the casinos in order to pursue his passion at a higher level. That's where the real test starts.
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There are numerous variations of "no-bust" blackjack, a game invented in California some years ago to skirt state laws prohibiting traditional casino blackjack. In many of these games, the player shoots for a total of 22, instead of 21. The no-bust feature is accomplished by allowing the hand that is "closest" to 22 to win. That is, a player 23 would beat a dealer 20. As you might imagine, strategies for beating these games are nothing like strategies for traditional blackjack.
Player-Banked Blackjack
In most cases, the no-bust games described above also require the player to pay a per-hand fee to play. The fee (or commission) is based on the size of your bet. For instance, with a $5 bet, you might have to pay 25 cents. With a $25 bet, the fee might go up to 50 cents, and so on. Even in a traditional blackjack game, this type of fee-to-play structure makes playing very expensive, and winning—even if you have a valid card counting strategy for such a game—near impossible.
Consider this: If you pay 25 cents to play a $5 hand, you're giving up 5% just to play! No card counting system will ever overcome a 5% vigorish, so don't even think about trying to beat this game. And although a 50-cent commission to play a $25 hand is only a 2% charge, it's still way too much. Most card counters are trying to get an edge of about 1 % over the house, so how can you buck 2% off the top? Plus, this commission does not even take into account what the additional house edge might be. Commission games are almost never worth the trouble.
BLACKJACK PAYS 6:5
These games, which have become the standard single-deck game in Las Vegas, are traditional H17 games with a reduced payment on blackjacks. That reduced payout adds 1.4% to the house edge, making these games impossible to beat without a huge betting spread. Don't waste your time with them.
Summary
The general rule is to stay away from all of the pseudo-blackjack variations. Although most can be beaten with card counting, the profit opportunities are much slimmer, and the strategies are often more don't waste your time trying to make money from these options.
The only side bet that has a truly exceptional value for card counters is the over/under bet. Most of the casinos that offer this bet are on cruise ships or outside of the U.S., and the description provided above should help you to take advantage of this option if you run into it in your travels. If you have regular access to games with this rule option, then I'll advise you to get a copy of my "Over/Under Report" (see the back pages of this book), which explains the option in detail, along with a complete card counting system for exploiting it.
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Tags: blackjacks, card counters, casino blackjack, online casino