Any experience with BJA?

[Miss Maude]

Hello. I’m a card counter in training. I’m taking about a year to memorize and practice basic strategy and card counting as well as build my bankroll before even thinking of putting my skills to the test at an actual casino.
I happened upon BlackJack Apprenticeship (BJA) with its membership and Bootcamp. Does anyone know about BJA or had any kind of experiences they would be willing to share? Maybe recommendations? Anything would be helpful and very much appreciated.
I’m trying to be smart and thorough about becoming a pro player. My plan is to either be solo or in a team for a few years part-time before dedicating myself full-time. I want to make sure I can maintain the discipline and weather the stress of the casino and pro player atmosphere.

[Hsiaodi]

Use search option, I think it was talked about recently.

Tl;dr. Most people won’t recommend it. Since it’s pretty expensive. You can keep that money as your starter bank. Some people do recommend it for the reason of networking and get started a little quicker.

And if you’re a girl as your handle would suggest, chances are you’re a little ahead than most already.

[Miss Maude]

When you say “if you’re a girl”, do you mean the quasi-fact that pit bosses tend to be less wary of women card counters then men?
I actually find that topic interesting and have read other posts talking about it. I wish there was a study on it because I am very curious. ??

[Dbs6582]

If you decide to join, just don’t talk about tipping or say anything against the resident pros and you should be okay.

[ZeeBabar]

Hello. I’m a card counter in training. I’m taking about a year to memorize and practice basic strategy and card counting as well as build my bankroll before even thinking of putting my skills to the test at an actual casino.
I happened upon BlackJack Apprenticeship (BJA) with its membership and Bootcamp. Does anyone know about BJA or had any kind of experiences they would be willing to share? Maybe recommendations? Anything would be helpful and very much appreciated.
I’m trying to be smart and thorough about becoming a pro player. My plan is to either be solo or in a team for a few years part-time before dedicating myself full-time. I want to make sure I can maintain the discipline and weather the stress of the casino and pro player atmosphere.

Its actually a vefry good site. It has great training videos and practice stuff. However, they will try hard to recruit you into their "boot camps" ($2500+) and they do want you to think that you can make a career of playing BJ full time and do not want anyone to talk about the odds of being a fulltime succesful card counter.

The forum is far more polite gthan this one, far more supportive than this one (most, like you are relatively new card counters) but far too optimistic about results. The forum administrator is a nice guy and does not tolerate anyone attacking a poster. They banned me and when they did, they were kind enough to refund me the entire years $$$ even when I had been on it several months.

[Tetn1s]

Watch BJA’s free youtube videos for the basics. Once you’re a master of the basics, buy Blackjack Attack 3 by Don Schlesinger ($27 on amazon). Best book on counting that covers everything but it’s not for beginners, hence learn the basics first.
Buy Casino Verite Blackjack to practice as much as you can. Buy CVCX to see how much of a bankroll you need and to determine your optimal bet spreads. Each software is $95 but you can get both for $170 on qfit.

$200 doing the above will take you WAY farther than a $3000 seminar on an overrated blackjack community.

[Dog Hand]

When you say “if you’re a girl”, do you mean the quasi-fact that pit bosses tend to be less wary of women card counters then men?
I actually find that topic interesting and have read other posts talking about it. I wish there was a study on it because I am very curious. ??

Miss Maude,

Welcome to the board!

Here are some recent "Gambling with an Edge" podcasts that address the topic of female card counters:

http://www.slot-machine-resource.com/podcasts/sred.mp3
http://slot-machine-resource.com/podcasts/joeandsp.mp3
http://slot-machine-resource.com/podcasts/joeandsp2.mp3

Hope this helps!

Dog Hand

[Meistro123]

Massive waste of money. Everything they charge for is available for free online already.

[ummagumma]

Don't waste your cash on training programs or boot camps or any other nonsense like that.

Buy a couple of good books, like Don's Blackjack Attack and Norm's software CVCX and just go out into real world casinos to learn the business. Theory is all well and good and great to understand the basics but there's nothing like actually doing it in the real world to grow as a player. You'll learn a lot from this forum by asking the right questions too, so just do it. And have some fun. Best of luck.

[ZeeBabar]

Massive waste of money. Everything they charge for is available for free online already.

First, its not so massive. Its $144 for a year and that is plenty of time to learn from their videos, their training softwware and the forum. You can learn much from what they have online, thye podcasts and more.

Its like saying that paying $20 a month to a fitness club is a waste because you can always jog indoor or outdoors around your neighborhood and lift dumbells at home. True but some of us dont learn unless we pay for it. Its a modest amount and its worth it. This coming from someone who got banned by Colin, lol.

[SkinnyBJplayer]

z
z
LeLLLLeHi-Lo does not require paying anyone any amount.
No arrogance here, but hi-Lo is all that you will learn at BJA.

[ZeeBabar]

z
z
LeLLLLeHi-Lo does not require paying anyone any amount.
No arrogance here, but hi-Lo is all that you will learn at BJA.

You are simplifying it too much. You learn ROR, Money management, optimal betting, practice counting software (that I did for hours, trying to cut down mistakes), beviations, comportment at tables, playing multiple hands and on and on. Because it is mostly a newbie forum, and because their management is different, you can ask simple questions without being ridiculed or attacked. Moreover, Colin steps in and and answers questions on the forum. Their training videos are in a class by themselves.

[mcallister3200]

Having never been to one, the boot camps IMO are probably really only worth it for a very small segment, but for that segment it’s proven to provide value. Think they’re overpriced but they sell out so .....Someone with bankroll, decent skills but not a lot of experience (might know they have holes but probably have holes they’re unaware of it not) who wants to go all out and commit a lot of time to the endeavor and be their best (basically a full time pro.) Can cut years of time of things you would slowly learn on your own in the field, or avoid some costly mistakes (playing places that are national/regional network heat bombs). There’s people from that segment who go through them from any year that end up being six figure winners in short order. There are a couple people who play part time who started with boot camps and have made a few hundred thousand over the years that I’m aware of, just saying that’s not necessarily the segment I think it would provide the best value for. I think a lot of established players have a negative opinion of them because they don’t necessarily appreciate a factory for aggressive skilled players coming into the field playing the games they’re already playing.

Forums are a less hostile environment than other forums as well as a better noise to quality ratio, just a function of pay vs free as well as Colin not hesitating to boot argumentative for no reason folk (dbs), each style has their benefits just different. The 411 (comparable to CBJN) is good and better than CBJN in a couple markets basically one time zone, most of the country it is not that good. Players being able to update it or add their own verbal commentary on their experiences in 411 are really good features that CBJN doesn’t have can give you a clue of tolerance levels at some properties that CBJN just really can’t do, along with just that everything bj21 related has gone downhill since the ownership change so it’s just another non private network info option.

Haven’t really done the drills or course, so can’t comment on a comparison to say the bjinfo free course and cvbj drills.