Hopefully this not-at-all brief synopsis will prove instructional for other newbs and amusing for the grizzled vets among you. I’ll try my best to present my real-life experience so any would-be counters will know what to expect. I'm now 6 months into this adventure which has proven to be challenging, enjoyable and mildly profitable. I'm a recreational HiLo counter who has slowly improved my game and my act. I have a good full-time job so this counting thing is mostly for fun although who wouldn't like to make some extra money?
My first exposure to Blackjack came during a vacation in Punta Cana last year. The resort had a small casino with three blackjack tables that all had a $5 minimum. Sitting on the beach during the day, I surfed the internet and learned about basic strategy. I downloaded a phone app and practiced while sitting on the beach. I then went to the casino in the evenings and played with minimum bets having fun and losing just a little. I'd heard about card counting decades ago but never really knew if it was for real and if so, how hard it was to do successfully. I was a math major in college and have always been good with numbers so I figured "How hard could it be?" I spent the next day on the beach learning the HiLo count and figured I'd give it a try. My first time out I lost the count repeatedly, my deck estimation stunk, I made numerous playing errors and I only spread 1:4. And I was terrified to do that! I’m not a gambler and putting out $20 on one hand of cards seemed completely reckless to me. Nevertheless, I won $100 and thought that meant I was playing well. I bragged to my friend who mocked me saying that you had to play with your gut to win any real money. The next two nights we went back to the casino and I was confident that he would learn a valuable lesson about how right I was. He proceeded to win $300 while I lost $400. He repeatedly made BS errors that even I could recognize and he bet big at all the wrong times. While my game sucked, it was 10X better than his, and yet he killed me (and of course let me know it every chance he could). This hurt…bad!
When I got back to the states, I dedicated myself to getting better. I went through Gamemaster’s 24-lesson Blackjack School at Blackjackinfo.com. I read and reread Romes’ “A to Z Counting Cards” Articles at Wizard of Vegas. I started reading this forum daily. I bought a small table, discard tray, and shoe and started practicing in my basement. I kept playing the app on my phone that drilled me on Basic Strategy and keeping the count correctly. I memorized about 40 indices. I read Blackbelt in Blackjack by Snyder, Professional Blackjack by Wong, and my personal favorite, BJA3 by Schlesinger. I finally broke down and bought CVBJ and CVCX – WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG? Norm’s awesome software was a game changer and really allowed me to practice efficiently and know how I was doing. Well sort of…
After my first 5,000 hands on CVBJ, I was $5,000 in the hole and convinced I was playing poorly. Thank goodness this wasn’t real money! Nevertheless, my error rate was less than 1%. Could this just be variation?? Of course it could, and it was. I continued to play and I’m now up almost $12,000 after playing almost 14,000 hands. Oh, if only this were real money! OK, I’ve practiced my ass off and I’m now ready to hit the casinos!
I head to my local store. Their cheapest game is a $15 minimum 8 decker but at least it offered surrender and S17. Still, $15 bucks for every single hand??? Did I mention I’m not a gambler? I make a comfortable income in my full-time job and I could afford to lose 20K without any change in my lifestyle. Nevertheless, betting $15 per hand, much less $150 (which my 1:10 spread called for on occasion) scared the living s*** out of me. Those first few times, I talked to no one, I remained laser focused on every card that was dealt and I still lost the count regularly. I underbet at high counts because I’m a chickens***. I Wonged in and Wonged out pretty aggressively trying to play as few hands at a disadvantage as possible. I took forever to make close playing decisions because I still had trouble remembering the indices and calculating the TC with all the distractions. I’m sure I was completely obvious to anyone knowledgeable but no one said a word. The first night I ended up winning $90 and felt AWESOME! The next week I went back and lost $250 and didn’t feel awesome at all. Still, I was prepared for this based on my reading and my experience on CVBJ. Well, I was prepared intellectually but it was still gut-wrenching to a penny-pinching non-gambler like myself. I kept playing and after 5 sessions, I found myself up $150 – I’m the MAN! My next session I lost $420 – no longer the man. But all’s good because next week I’m heading to Vegas for business. Vegas has better games and it’s easier to Wong in and out. I’m gonna make a killing! I saw the movie “21” – here I come Vegas!
I buy a copy of CBJN and make a plan for what games to play. Unfortunately, they’re $25 minimum but I’m still committed and optimistic. I bring $2,000 with me (you guys suggested $4,000 but I’m cheap). First stop, Bellagio. I search and finally find their 6D, S17, LS, DAS game. The table’s empty. No backcounting. Not ideal but I think back to BJA3 and my CVCX sims. Playing head to head means more hands per hour. More hands means more money! I buy in for $600 and, with some trepidation, put a single green chip in the circle and off we go. That first shoe was fairly uneventful. The count never really did much and I was pretty much breaking even. About four decks in, the TC goes to -1 and I’m now down about $100. After losing a hand (yes I waited to lose a hand DonS), I opined how the dealer was too good for me and I was gonna try my luck at craps. Man, my act was strong!! I went to the craps table and actually won $300 in about 10 minutes. With a new shoe awaiting me, I took my craps winnings and heading back to the blackjack table.
The second shoe was a completely different animal. The count went up very quickly to TC+5 and I was now betting my max $200 a hand. I know – that’s only a 1:8 spread but I’m a chickens***, remember? The count stayed right there, I stayed right there betting $200 every hand, and the dealer stayed right there winning hand after hand. My $600 buy-in quickly evaporated. I whip out another $600 sure this will turn around. 3 hands later I’m again broke. I again go to my pocket and withdraw my last $500 (yes, I only brought $1,400 with me) but thank goodness I win that hand. OK, the comeback starts now! Two minutes later, I’m completely broke and heading back to my hotel trying to figure out what to tell my wife (who is not at all on board with this counting thing and is convinced I’m either gonna lose thousands of dollars, get beat up or arrested). I carefully explain to her how the count was astronomical and so I had to bet big. Besides losing $700 (I’m a good husband and I was just trying to ease her pain with that little white lie) isn’t that much in the broad scheme of things. This is a marathon not a sprint! Having said all that, I was nervous and had real doubts. Let’s recap where I stood. I had played 7 sessions of blackjack over about 10 hours including about 630 hands and I was now down $1,670 (not including Punta Cana). I was averaging a loss of almost $3 per hand and $167 per hour. In other words, yes, I had frickin’ doubts! But again, thanks to all my reading and experience on CVBJ (and because I’m super competitive and I couldn’t stomach being a loser), I decided to continue on.
I’m very happy to report that since then I have seen the positive side of variance. In fact, I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been phenomenally lucky. Over my short career, I have now played 38 sessions of blackjack. I have ended up a winner after 28 of those 38 sessions (74%) including 10 of my last 11 sessions. I am now up over $3,700 after approximately 47 hours and 2,800 hands, winning almost $80 per hour and about $1.33 per hand played. I know that’s chump change for some of you but it still makes me feel AWESOME. I also know that my current string of luck can’t last. CVCX tells me to expect about $50 per hour with the game I’m playing and winning 74% of sessions is well above expectation.
Here are some things I’ve learned. Once you’re up $1,000 or so, it gets much easier to make the big bets because you feel like you’re playing with the casino’s money. It’s weird to have an envelope with $4,000 in my glove compartment at all times. Over time, you gradually get better at keeping the count, making the correct bets, remembering the indices and acting naturally while doing it. I still have a ways to go but I’m light years ahead of where I was when I started. I’m now much more paranoid about heat even though I’ve never felt any. I try to limit my play to 90 minutes tops and once I’ve shown my big bet, I leave at the end of that shoe regardless where I stand. My act is much improved but still not perfect. I now talk with other players and dealers. I slam the table to increase the odds of getting that face card on my Ace. I show complete exasperation whenever I lose a hand I think I should have won and I make sure the dealer knows it so I have a reason to leave the table when the count gets bad. I sit out hands to try to reestablish the flow of the cards. I take bathroom breaks and phone calls A LOT. I’m not quite as disciplined as DonS (I’ll occasionally lower my bet after a win and raise it after a loss) but I don’t jump my bets. Finally, and most importantly, giving the wife $1,200 in hundreds out of my glove compartment to pay for the landscaping has definitely helped her to start realizing that this blackjack thingie might not be all bad.
For those of you who actually made it through this endless post, I thank you for your patience and I welcome your feedback. For the newbs out there, this game can be beat but it ain’t easy. Make sure you’ve got the bankroll, the training, and most importantly the intestinal fortitude cause it most definitely is a roller coaster ride.
Cardguy
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Originally Posted by ZenMaster_Flash
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