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How I built my bank
Well it’s been 22 years since I first started playing blackjack. There are always a lot of questions across all the message boards from newbie counters about whether or not this amount of money or that amount is enough to get started so I thought I would share my experience on what it took me to really build a bank.
Back in 1990 my girlfriend at the time and future wife introduced me to blackjack. I was only 25 had just got out of the military and knew nothing about blackjack let alone basic strategy. My girlfriend was already familiar with basic strategy and counting. She had Ustons Million Dollar Blackjack and Wongs Professional Blackjack along with some others. She had been playing at some of the newly opened Native American casinos that recently opened in Michigan as well as a few trips to Vegas.
So in the spring of 1990 we took a road trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan. Not to play cards so much as to see the sights. One night we ended up at Sault St. Marie and played blackjack at Kewadin casino which was nothing more than a pole barn at the time. There was a cover charge to get in the door but there was no charge for drinks once you got in which at the time was just fine with us. I can’t even remember for sure now but I think we were playing at a two dollar minimum table it may have been a dollar I’m not sure. I did everything wrong, like touching the cards, not knowing the hand signals, let alone basic strategy. Before we started playing, my girlfriend tried to give me a run down of basic strategy but I couldn’t take it all in. The only thing I could really remember was to double any eleven except when the dealer showed an ace or double any ten against a nine or less. Of course she was sitting next to me coaching me on as the hands came out. It didn’t matter though I lost my 60 dollar buy in. But that was it. After that I was hooked. When we got back home I read Ustons Million Dollar Blackjack over and over and OVER again. I even cut the basic strategy flash cards out of the book to practice. In fact I read that book so much I had to use duct tape to hold it together until we finally broke down andbought another copy.
After that like I said I was hooked and we we started making forays to the local Indian casinos playing basic and maybe counting at times. I say counting at times because we both would get discouraged playing the count game. For a newbie, counting can bevery frustrating. Often the count goes way up and you just get killed. And when this would happen I would get mad and walk away from tables at very high counts when I was suppose be shoving more money out. The variance at times would just obliterate our miniscule banks. And it seemed that we would do just as well playing “swag”instead of counting. But still, having no real bank I would just take what ever I was okay with losing at the time maybe 50 or 100 dollars. Keep in mind that these were 2, 3 or maybe 5 dollar tables back then.
In the fall of ’94 along with my now wife we took a trip to Vegas. I saved up a whole 750 dollars fort he trip! It was very exciting, cool, and intimidating being in Vegas for the first time. I think I only lost about half my bank on that trip. I was very happy. We played on the strip at the Stardust which is where we stayed, the Frontier(Yes when the strike was going on) and Barbary Coast among others. After that trip we started going to Vegas 2-3 times a year for many years to come. It took a lot of time but eventually I became used to the variance and realized it took much more than a few hundred dollars to overcome the swings in your bankroll to beat the game. During this time I was getting about 70-100 hours of table time in per year.
As time went on and I gained confidence in counting. I started to take 1500 hundred then 2000 thousand dollars on my Vegas trips. As long as I could replenish my bank I was okay losing. Still never really being able to build a bank because whatever I won or lost playing cards it would eventuallyhave to be spent on everyday living expenses.
Then around ’96, or maybe ’97 I bought some blackjack software called Sage Blackjack. About this same time a local Indian casino introduced a blackjack game called Sandbox 21 which turned out to be Spanish 21. I could not find a strategy for it anywhere on the internet back then. But thanks to Sage Blackjack I was able to sim out a fairly accurate basic strategy for the game. This turned out to be a real gold mine for us red chippers while it lasted. Which was about 3 months and we played it almost every weekend for about 10 hours at about 15 dollars per hand. Often playing 2 hands each. The dealers had not been trained on how all the different payouts went and we could actually coach the dealers on the payouts. We did not count this game (couldn’t figure out how to count the game then)we only played basic but the dealer errors were fabulous! Eventually they shut the game down management was saying no one was playing the game. That was total Bulls**t. My honest opinion, it was because of the dealers not being trained to learn the payouts hence the table didn’t show a profit.
By this time I was able to maintain a bank of around 3500 dollars. I didn’t always have to spend my bank on the daily expenses of life and could save it and build it up by working overtime at the shop. In the late nineties I was able to keep building my bank up to around 5k. Soon I was getting braver and would once in a while play a green session or two on our Vegas trips. Not always with positive results but I hung in there.
As the 2000’s wore on I started playing more and more green chip levels but even at this point I would say my minimum average bet was no more than 15 dollars. As the mid-2000s came around I got my bank up to 10 then about 15 k. Along with increased hours of playing time and with what seemed to be more positive variance, working overtime at the shop, and confidence in my playing ability. I could tolerate the swings now. Then around 2006 I inherited some money. I added 10k to my bank for a total of 25k. At this point I quit working overtime at the shop because I feel fairly sure I’m not going to tap out. And my bank is not totally replenishable at this point.
It was basically all green chip for me at this point. I thought I was on the road to riches. Then the backoffs started. First it was a couple at some downtown properties playing red then it bled over to the greenchip play on the strip. This at first did make me “gun-shy” and I cocooned for a while. But then I got used to the back offs and trespassings and still managed to move my bank up.
Over the last couple of years thanks to other MUCH more experienced players. I have learned some, or should I say a few things beyond counting that takes a tremendous amount of pressure off of someone looking to get hundreds of hours of casino play in per year. Even with backoffs and trespassings I have more than doubled my bank. I VERY rarely count cards anymore. As RWM has said in the past one should move beyond counting as soon as possible! I only wish I could have done it sooner. Maybe within the next year when my wife finishes law school and starts to generate some income I could then think about playing full time. But until then I only feel comfortable keeping my day job and playing on the side. Even with a bank approaching the higher side of five figures.
Anyone who thinks a couple of grand will make you rich playing blackjack is in for a rude awakening. Good luck to all who try it. Solo
Last edited by Solo player; 09-01-2012 at 07:01 PM.
"I think, therfore I can't play blackjack."
Arnold Snyder, Blackbelt in Blackjack pg. 229 (2005)
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Originally Posted by zengrifter
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