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.

• Blackjack – Superfun 21 (0)
• Blackjack – Spanish 21 (0)
• Blackjack – Lucky Ladies (0)

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.

• Bonus Blackjack Variations (0)
• Blackjack – Double Exposure (0)
• Blackjack – Superfun 21 (0)

Similar to SuperFun 21, Spanish 21 has lots of great rules and options. Plus, blackjacks pay 3 to 2 just like in the traditional game. So where does the house get its edge? This game is not dealt from "honest" 52-card decks. There are eight 48-card decks in the shoe, and from each deck, 4 tens have been removed. That is, all of the jacks, queens and kings are there, but none of the tens are in play.

Let's use our card counting logic to estimate the effect of these bastardized decks. Using the Hi-Lo count, if I remove 32 tens from the top of the shoe, my running count would be -32. With approximately 15 half decks remaining to be dealt, I quickly surmise that the true edge is about -32/15, or-2.1%. Yuck!

Are all of those great rules enough to make up for this house edge of +2% caused by those missing tens? No. The game stinks. You can beat it with card counting, but only at a fraction of the rate that you can beat traditional blackjack. So forget it.

• Blackjack – Superfun 21 (0)
• Blackjack – Starting From Scratch (0)
• Blackjack – Lucky Ladies (0)

This is becoming a common variety of single-deck blackjack in Nevada. The game offers a whole slew of great rules, especially with regards to splitting pairs, doubling down and surrendering. But there is one exceptionally bad rule, and that is that players' blackjacks pay even money.

If you look at the rule effects in Chapter Eleven, you'll see that this even money payout costs you dearly—too dearly to make these games "super fun." As with many of the blackjack variations, there are ways to beat these games with card counting, but the strategies are more complex, and the returns are skimpier. Another problem that all of these newer gimmick games have is that the casinos are not accustomed to seeing big money on the tables at these games. Even if you do study and learn a strategy for this type of game, you cannot expect to put very large bets on the tables if you're trying to blend into the crowd.

• Blackjack – Starting From Scratch (0)
• Blackjack – Spanish 21 (0)
• Blackjack – Lucky Ladies (0)

This is a variation of blackjack in which both of the dealer's first two cards are exposed. Sounds great, but there are some bad rules that go along with it. Blackjacks only pay even money, but worse than that, the dealer wins ties (except for blackjacks). This means that if you and the dealer both have 19, you have to hit, and pray for an ace or deuce.

Most double exposure games have poor rules, and are primarily gimmicks for tourists. Although card counters can beat these games, double exposure strategies are quite complex, and I personally do not believe there are enough double exposure games of value to make it worthwhile for most players to study them.

• No-bust Blackjack (0)
• Blackjack – Superfun 21 (0)
• Blackjack – Starting From Scratch (0)

Some casinos in Nevada offer a side-bet that either the player, the dealer, or both will be dealt a blackjack, with a payout of 15 to 1. Since the odds against being dealt a blackjack are about 20 to 1, this is a very bad bet. What makes the bet more attractive, in some casinos, however, is that there is a progressive jackpot that can be won if both the player and dealer are dealt a blackjack.

Often, this jackpot also requires that one of the blackjacks be suited, or of a specific suit. Another version of this progressive jackpot side-bet allows the player to press a button that will cause a bonus, usually from $5 to $1,000, to appear on an LED screen above the table.

If we knew in what proportion each bonus amount would appear, we could figure out the house edge. But we don't, and somehow, I have the distinct feeling that there is a house edge on this bet, and that you're wasting your time if you think you can get an edge by counting cards.

The Pseudo-Blackjack Variations
There are many casino games that look very similar to traditional blackjack, but they are so different that they are technically not the same game. In most cases, these blackjack variations were invented for the purpose of foiling card counters. Let's look at some of the most popular "fake" blackjack games.

• No-bust Blackjack (0)
• Blackjack – Double Exposure (0)

Similar to Royal Match and Super Sevens, in which you bet on the appearance of specific cards (in this case, the queens and/or ten-valued cards), the Lucky Ladies option can also be beaten with card counting. Like over/under, you can use your normal card counting system to find betting opportunities, since hands totaling 20 also have value. But a count system developed specifically for the Lucky Ladies option (with a side-count of queens) would be better.

Again, I am not thrilled by the profit opportunities from any of these side bets. I think most card counters have enough trouble just keeping a simple count and playing their regular blackjack hands correctly. But more than that, any option that has a payout of greater than even money (as just about all side-bet options do), will have real-world results that vary tremendously. This means that exploiting the option by card counting would require a much larger bankroll than would be required for a regular blackjack game.

• Blackjack – Superfun 21 (0)
• Blackjack – Starting From Scratch (0)
• Blackjack – Spanish 21 (0)