Posts Tagged ‘card counting’
Blackjack As A Sport
People enjoy taking risks, and gambling, of any type, is a rush. Casino blackjack combines this run for the money with a competitive angle, a game of wit and subterfuge. Every turn of the cards is a cliffhanger. Blackjack has become popular not because most people think they can get rich playing it, but because it has been shown to be a game of skill.
Card counting is more interesting than picking a number on a roulette wheel, more challenging than pulling the handle of a slot machine. Many people who play blackjack have little interest in any of the other casino games, and most do not seriously dream of getting rich at the blackjack tables. Like myself, they are often people who had never entered a casino until they'd discovered that one of the games could be beaten by applying an intelligent, systematic strategy. It's unfortunate that so many gurus, authors, and publishers believe that people have to be tantalized by great wealth to interest them in casino blackjack. You don't have to make a hundred thousand dollars to make this game exciting. If you're dedicated and you practice hard, you'll come out ahead of the game in the long run. Why risk your life savings? For most people, the reward is in the play, not the pay.
Many years ago, I realized that the fastest way to make money from card counting would be to open my own casino. Unfortunately, my $300 savings was not sufficient seed capital for this venture. I did the next best thing—I started selling inside information to other players. I set up a network of professional players, mathematicians, and computer experts to share facts, experiences, and research, and started publishing a quarterly technical journal. But, I never stopped playing the game for fun, mostly for "nickel" ($5) chips. In the past few years, my connections with professional blackjack teams and big-money players have enabled me to play a lot more at higher stakes, but the game has remained just that for me, and the challenge still means as much as the money.
I wouldn't advise any new blackjack enthusiast to quit work and hock his car in order to stake his million-dollar fantasy. If, as you practice basic strategy, you feel the urge to dream about piloting your own airplane to your private island in the Caribbean, think of these reveries in the same way that thousands of chess players imagine going head-to-head with Garry Kasparov, or the way a tennis player might fantasize about playing Roger Federer. The fact that only a handful of tennis players will ever be professionals does not keep millions of amateurs from playing with true passion.
If you have a passion for blackjack, and you apply yourself diligently, the game will likely pay you dividends in both money and enjoyment. There are, to be sure, a handful of blackjack legends who have made a fortune from the tables, and there are many more unknowns who have done the same, steadily, quietly, and unsung. I suspect a few readers of this book may ultimately join those professional players; I know a few readers of the last edition did. For all I know, you may be among the pros by the time the next edition of this book rolls off the press.
For me, a major joy of this game, however, will still come from discovering, analyzing, and revealing its secrets. Over the next fifteen years, I expect to see shuffle-tracking strategies expounded upon by other authors. I feel sure that "lite" strategy tables — simplified strategy charts that are easy-to-use—will gain popularity. I expect to see more running-count systems with accurate "Kelly" betting strategies, and further variations on my simplified methods of true count adjustments. I also expect the casino industry to continue moaning and crying, as a small handful of players get smarter, the games get tougher, surveillance gets more high-tech, and the majority of card counters keep losing their shirts, due to their own sloppy play and general incompetence.
The information that follows is the information you need to keep a few steps ahead of the casinos. Study it. Learn it. And give 'em hell.
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Tags: card counting, casino blackjack, online casino