Hi everyone,

My blackjack adventure started 6 months ago. I was very lucky to find a group of casinos with the following rules: ENHC, S17, DAS, DOA and Full early surrender(even against an ace) and about 4,5/6 penetration. With these rules the basic strategy player has a little 0.08% advantage off the top.

I am 22 years old now. Before starting to count cards as a "full time job" i worked 2 years in a restaurant in order to save money and build my own bankroll. During this 2 years trained myself to count cards 3 hours a day, every day. At the end of the 2 years i was able to count down a deck of 52 cards in almost 10 seconds and, the most important, i had accumulated a 20k bankroll. CVCX estimated my RoR to be 0.6% approximately and if i played every day(like i did) i could expect to win about 10k per month.

I was determined and confident. Card counting was my life,my religion. I was ready to go.

The first month of playing was tough. I lost 10k, half of my bankroll. It was at this point that i realized that proffesional card counting requires an exceptional self control and a lot of discipline.

The second month was great. I won back the 10k i lost in the first month of play and i doubled my bankroll. I had a 40k bankroll. It was at this point that some casinos started to reduce the penetration to 3/6 (that is still playable with full early surrrender)

The third, the fourth and the fifth month were stable, i won only 10k and my bankroll was 50k at that moment.

Then, the sixth month came. In only 10 days i lost 30k(the probability of this happeningwas under 1%). At the same time, almost every casino reduced penetration to 3/6 and even 1/6 in some rare cases.

So this is me right now, with my initial 20k bankroll and deteriorated conditions of playing. 20k is not enough to beat this game right now with 3/6 penetration(nor any blackjack game with more "regular" rules) and after 6 months of playing(900 hours) my gains are actually zero.

Why am i writing this? Well, i am not embarassed to say that i am a little desperate. I don't know what to think anymore. I started doubting about the efficacy of card counting. I had dedicated 2 years of my life to card couting or even more. I didn't started college in order to make a living of blackjack. I really tought that i could do it with that exceptional rules.
I guess that even if the probability of losing that much are under 1% it still can happen.

I am in search of advice right now. I know most of you are more experienced than me. I know some of you has already lost and then won back more than me. What should i do? Continue playing, trying to win back some money and accept a higher RoR? Or quit, forget my blackjack dream, find a regular job and have a regular life for the regular person that i am. I am lost, i don't know what to think anymore

Thanks in advance