Hello, Blackjack world! I'm brand new to the forums although I've been lurking for most of this month trying to pick up whatever I can. I'm a poker player as my name can tell you(I do this on the side for a second income) and I recently fell down the rabbit hole of card counting and general AP play.

I've read most of Norms book and have practiced a little. I realize I am nowhere near ready to take on this challenge but I wanted to get some more info before starting this adventure.

My main question is how beatable the games are in their current state and how that compares to poker? Even playing low stakes online or up to 2-5 live you can get a decent hourly. I live in Chicago and would want to start out counting for low stakes to get the feel for things. I wouldn't want to travel more than a few hours and want to know if this is even doable at the casinos in my area. I don't want to put in a ton of hours training to find out that the games aren't beatable or are too sweaty to build up a nice BJ bankroll.

Now from the posts I've read it seems like you need to be playing "chunky green" to get anywhere close to a reasonable hourly rate. Am I way off on this and missing something? What would be a reasonable hourly rate for someone playing reds?

My last question is about barrings. It seems like this is a given for counters. If you are backed off from a casino are you also barred from playing other games like poker? I would hate to lose the best and practically only card room in the area because I was counting.

Thanks to anyone that can help. This seems like a great community and I'm happy I finally joined.

Pokerplayer