In mid 2010 I was introduced to Advantage Blackjack ("ABJ") play utilizing card counting. My previous exposure was awareness of its existence but a very limited understanding of the process. The movies and books that were in the marketplace along this time seemed to glamorize the benefits and the potential rewards.
Concurrently, my wife and I decided to move to Las Vegas which added opportunity to my curiosity regarding the subject. So, I am self employed and living in Vegas. I am playing Advantage blackjack as a serious hobby and have developed an obsession for understanding the game and beating the casinos. I read some 15 books and researched meticulously including being mentored by a previous MIT team player.
Many good sources of information were available but I found none that were adequate in providing a new player the specific tools I felt he needed as he goes forward with his venture.
I learned Basic Strategy, learned to count, learned the indexes and started playing for green chips. Then I began to add real world experience to what I had read and began to understand the "art" side of the science I was pursuing. Getting by with it, is harder than the technology. Even so, I have only been backed off once.I uploaded a chart of my play since May of this year for some insight.
That notwithstanding, I had been told over and over that the law of large numbers would prevail if my bankroll was large enough to withstand the variances and if I played according to my selected system and I would win. I found numerous systems with the ability to evaluate and design playing systems that I planned on using but little to show me how my performance was faring against those designs.
So here I am about to take off down a path with the knowledge that I must "trust it" for a long time before I will see the advantage well defined. My feedback was session to session and was always subject to the brutality of variance. My discomfort with how to methodically see my results over this long period of time fed my need for a system to monitor what I was doing.
While many recommended keeping good records of my sessions and some of the authors shared their thought on what records to keep, nowhere did I find a "system" that filled the gap to provide both record keeping and analytical ability to continue to monitor my ongoing progress.
I have always understood the value of feedback to a learning process and this one is, if anything, the epitome of the need. The feedback you get is, "Did you win or lose in the last session?". When contrasted to the law of large numbers, the answer was who cares.
BUT I DID CARE!
Perhaps that session was not indicative of my performance but it should fit in the expected variances and more important, when added to my history of sessions, it should show me how I am doing toward the long term. How can you expect to operate a machine as an expert with no instruments?
In short, in the absence of a system, I would build it myself.
So I did and I believe it provides a good blend of tracking, reporting, game design, and analysis. For lack of any other original ideas I named it the "Blackjack Diary".
Now, I have no delusion of getting rich with this system. In fact, I don't even know if their is a market. If there is then I will make it available, maybe it can add a little to my EV, if not I will continue to develop and improve it for my own use.
I am looking for a Las Vegas based Advantage Player that would agree to use the system and to provide feedback regarding any defect and or recommended improvements. In exchange for your effort the player will have the right to use this system and all future version for free. I have no ulterior motives, if you see it, try it and don't like then stop using it and we will go our separate ways, after all it was free.
If interested, PM me and we can arrange to talk.
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