Who/what started you along the AP path? I’ll add other answers to the poll if needed. Multiple answers are allowed.
The Internet
A TV show
A movie
A good book
A bad book
A relative
A stranger
A friend
An enemy
On vacation and we visited a casino. I played blackjack for the first time and it was a rush. I knew it was negative expectation game and wondered how I could keep playing it without losing money. I remember watching the movie '21' about 5 years prior, and then I typed 'how to count cards' into google...
Actually I have no idea. Lol. I have always had the interest. In the 70s - which is a decade I have a hard time remembering - I asked someone about any books on BJ and he referred me to Thorp. Then I had to do other things - like school at UCB. I really didn't get back into it until around 2009. Then through study and hard work I became the Blackjack God that I am now .............
My Ability in Blackjack is a Gift from God!!
Defining moment for me, was in Vegas on business. Trying basic strategy no counting. I was sitting beside a gentleman who was varying his bet. He pulled me aside and told me indirectly that I might want to follow his bet to the extent I was comfortable. I remember $250 was his top bet, I wasn't playing anything like that, probably a hundred max without counting. I won $1500 in a little over an hour. He tipped me to Qfit if I wanted to learn more. Jumped on that and bought CVBJ. Tried to play with a 2k bankroll for about a year realized how much of a bankroll I'd need, let it rest until the last year. Coming back to it now because I will have the money and time to devote to it.
Oneoff
I'm not a bad player... I just play cover on every hand!
I've already told this story, so please excuse the repeat...
I wasn't a gambler, and we were in Vegas on vacation. My husband gave me a BS card and $100, and went to play craps. I enjoyed the game (I was at a crowded table trying to lose slowly) and won a little. The next day, I was back at it when I noticed the guy next to me. He always seemed to win big and lose small. I figured he knew when to bet big, so I started shadowing him. I won a lot. After that I went back to the hotel and googled black jack, card counting, bet spread, etc. determined to figure out what he was doing so I could do it, too.
I went to Vegas and found the lowest min table I could which was 50 cents. I lost my all the money I had on me, which was probably $60 or so. Bought a bad book from the hotel gift shop which touted a positive progression, decided to play a mix of a positive and a negative progression, took out another $100 from an ATM and lost that as well. I felt sick to my stomach pouted for the last day of the trip, then started poking around on the internet when I got home. Read Don's book and asked him and others a lot of pretty dumb questions over on Stanford's site.
As an aside, that first BJ trip also turned me off tipping big time. I was betting 50 cents a hand and put a 50 cent piece out for the dealer. He sneered at me and said "is that supposed to be a tip?" in a very condescending voice. I said "not any more" and put it back in my stack. That asshole has probably saved me thousands of dollars in tips over the years.
I still have that first bad book in my collection at home.
My dad, from the time he was 8 years old, loved to play craps and later, blackjack. He lost the sight of 1 eye during WW11. In his final years, he developed a blood clot in his good eye, which rendered him, effectively blind, and he could no longer drive. It was at that time, i would drive him to a couple of the local stores, so that he could play. I would call out his hand totals. It sorta pissed me off that it would cost me 50 or 60 bucks driving him around. I thought gambling was stupid. I googled card counting, or whatever, ended up on Snyders site, and something else, and taught myself the basics of hi lo - and that's how it started.
I wouldn't trade those days for anything. I saw a side of my dad that very few, except maybe my mom, saw. We enjoyed going out together, and having a coffee later, and iof course, picking up at"hambie" on the way home for mom.
As an aside, my mom never gave my dad the gears about gambling. When he won, he would say "honey, I won, and here's your cut". When he lost, he would say "honey, I won, and here's your cut". It was pretty funny actually.
The title of this thread is a bit misleading. Are you talking about HOW you first started learning OR what made you WANT to become an AP. Very different. For me I learned through the internet, forums, books, videos/documentaries, etc., but what made me WANT to learn, was losing on my 21st birthday and being so angry that I lost and I started to wonder that their had to be a way to beat the game. This led me to start searching about how to beat the game on the internet(yes terrible place to research information, but also a very good place to learn different ideas) and it landed me to these forums as well as the movie 21. I never posted and just skimmed the forums at the start.
My first two years I was learning casually, while I was still in college/work and occasionally went to go play. I had learned the basics of how to beat the game and I thought I was actually good, but soon realized I didnt know the first thing on how to beat the game. I knew how to keep a count, didnt know any indexes, didnt even know how to spread my bet efficiently, and didnt even know all the correct basic strategy plays, i believe my first year I wouldnt even hit soft 18v9/10 and I wouldnt double 8 and 9 against a dealer stiff. I didnt even have any software to tell me how much to bet, what my risk was, my hourly win rate to even know if it was worth playing with all the gas and miscellaneous expenses, or even how much I should bring each trip to not run out of money. I cant remember how many times I ran out of money and not being able to play my last hand optimally. I didnt even know the basics of staying under the radar as well as so many other things that I just cant remember off the top of my head.
Later on, I started to become serious about the game and joined the forums. Once I joined the forums and became engaged and a steady poster, I started to learn the ins and outs of the game itself. Being engaged in the forums helped me tremendously in so many ways, both directly and indirectly. I learned what other APs were doing to be successful, but also got to get many of my questions answered at the time. I cant thank Flash Tthree, bigplayer, Frostbyte, Nyne, smallcap(many fights in the chatroom, but proactive) and of course Norm as well as many others at the time that helped me. My next step was getting the software (CVCX and Casino verite) and after that, my game started to really take a turn and the results were starting to show. I then started to read as many books as I could on the subject as well as watch many documentaries and videos on blackjack and started to really understand what it took to beat the game and how to get away with it for decent stakes long term. Like many other newcomers, I eventually ran into the much controversial count debate and after trying so many different counts and side counting aces, I eventually settled in long term with Wong Halves and have never looked back. It's been a journey so far, but Im glad I've become the player that I've become.
Many players give up at the start once they lose a couple of sessions, they believe card counting doesnt work and they refuse to look at themselves in the mirror and realize their game has many flaws and that they dont know everything. Im glad I realized I needed improvement, but also the ability to show perseverance to succeed, which many players dont have at the start.
Last edited by ZenKinG; 09-13-2015 at 10:44 AM.
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