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Someone asked me the other day if making money from blackjack was still feasible in 2010? The answer is yes but two things need to be in operation for this to happen. If you are a conventional counter then you obviously need shoe games to make the entire thing work at all otherwise you simply will not be able to count.

Electronic shufflers will also cut down your action so you simply will not be able to spread your action between several casinos over a rather small area. So the mere presence of just one single electronic shuffler impacts on the conventional card counter as it cuts down on their theatre of operations.

The second alternative involves cheating games that have electronic shufflers. These tactics or many of them are not even grey area……they are cheating plain and simple. But I am aware of people who do this and so any casino executives reading this blog need to take heed.

The games with automatic shufflers can be attacked from other areas and to doubt whether this is so then we only have to look at the house edge. At blackjack then it is around 0.5% for the house. This means that the house will win 0.5% of your action. So let us say that your average bet size is $15 and the dealer is dealing 60 hands per hour.

This means that you are placing $900 in action per hour with the casino expected to take o.5% of it per hour over the long run if you are using good basic. This equates to an hourly rate of -$4.50 per hour. But yet your average bet is nearly four times that amount at $15. You can see the potential here because a cheat or a player in even slight collusion with a dealer who was getting away with one bet per hour would not be losing -$4.50 per hour but making $10.50 per hour.

Some people have asked me in the past how casinos manage to create their edge at blackjack when the dealer is forced to draw to 17? Basically it is one of two factors and the first one is absolutely huge. This is to do with the dealer always acting last. This advantage is so huge that it is akin to having position in poker.

If you think about this for a minute then the advantage is rather obvious. Every time that you take a card and bust then the dealer wins. So if you have 13 and they have 10 then you feel compelled to take a card to better your total and this is correct play. But there will be many times where you will recieve a ten value card or a nine value card and bust immediately. But yet when the dealer plays on then the dealer may well turn a card from 2 to 6 and then bust.

But if the dealer busts after the player busts then the hand is not a push but a loss for the player. This advantage is substantial but it is not one to be over estimated. With accurate basic strategy then the house edge is only in the vicinity of 0.5% and with even adequate card counting skills then this can be at least reduced to 0% and possibly a slight edge.

The second and more subtle factor is connected to the first and this is that the player will be forced to bust their own hand in an attempt to improve their total. This is correct play and cannot be avoided and is another reason as to why the house starts with an edge and the 3/2 pay offs for blackjacks/naturals do not do enough to offset this.

If you go into any casino or play any form of gambling then a progressive betting system can work very well in the short term. As long as you do not use systems like the Martingale for instance which double up after every loss. The bankroll requirements are very severe and especially on casino games where the table minimum is well below the table maximum in terms of the number of potential double ups that you can make to get your money back.

But systems like the Reverse Labouchere for instance can use progression in an entirely different way. However it needs to be pointed out that in no way can a progression system turn you from a long term loser into a long term winner although on blackjack then it has the potential to do so if you are using good solid basic and card counting methods.

But even here, it is the card counting strategy that is providing the profit and not the progression system. In this environment then the progression system can serve a very good strategic purpose as it can allow the player to look like an everyday player when betting in this way. So even though the progression systems cannot and will not provide long term profits in their own right, everything has its place at some stage.

Even though we never used progression systems when we played blackjack, the strategic use of them as cover cannot be under estimated. But if you were to go into any casino for a day or an evening and use a progression system then your chances of success and walking out in front would be very good indeed as that isn’t an amount of time that is long enough for the house edge to take effect.

Last time I touched on the fact that actual casino experience is vital. Theory is all well and good but in some instances then theory is difficult to replicate in a live environment. Poker is one such example and despite reading hundreds of poker books, they never quite replicate what you face both live and online.

Even though you may think that blackjack is straight forward and that winning should be straight forward if you can follow basic and implement a counting strategy……life isn’t that simple. Using poker once again as an analogy then it is a bit like knowing good solid poker principles like position, hand values, bankroll management and such. These are all good things to know but yet will not make you an automatic winner in a poker game.

You will need other “skills” that can only be derived from playing. Casino blackjack is the same and it will seem strange to you to be card counting in a real game with casino staff watching you. When the time comes to increase your bet and the croupier is watching you and maybe an Inspector as well then it isn’t easy to do something that you know that if it was to be detected that you would be prevented from playing.

And also, if wagering money is something new to you then nothing can really prepare you for the times when you have substantial bets at risk. It is all too easy to watch what happens on these hands instead of doing what you should be doing and that is to keep the count at all times. You will need to be able to interact with casino staff so that you do not look like a counter and this isn’t easy at first. I was fortunate in that I never had to overcome this obstacle because I had practiced counting for years as a croupier on the inside.

Someone asked me the other day how a player starts out down the road to be a card counter and how long that training actually takes. Well firstly the training does not take as long as you think but unfortunately there are many obstacles and problems in your way. Automated shuffling machines wipe out any chance of card counting but a self imposed training program could see you being good enough in about three months.

Firstly though you must learn basic strategy and you need to know this very well. Luckily it is simply a case of learning a few tables but most of the playing decisions are obvious anyway. You would never take a card on 19 vs 4 for instance so you know much of basic anyway and so learning the rest isn’t hard. Once you know these tables then you will be able to play against the house with the house only having a 0.5% edge against you.

A good book to learn basic from is Stanford Wong’s Professional Blackjack with clearly laid out charts and tables. Once basic strategy is fully learned then you need to learn a simple counting system and I advise the high/low at first. You will need to practice your counting speed and be so quick that fast dealers do not intimidate you. During this learning process then I would advise going to a casino and playing basic strategy and practicing counting in real conditions.

Remember that you don’t want to be staring at the cards, you need to be fast enough so that you can count with just the merest glance. Also this will allow the casino staff to get to know you and they may then not take you for a counter when you start to up your bets at a later stage. But you also need to spot good games as well and not doing so will be another serious obstacle to you making money.

I had another casino trip last night and after I had watched the Spain vs Paraguay game in the bar, decided to play a little blackjack. I had been counting for a while but my maximum bets were only very small and about £30 or so. Everything had been going very well on the table even though I was down about £100. I had been having friendly banter with the staff and everyone had been talking about football and England being so bad.

Then the dealer went to pull a card to her own hand when she already had seventeen. She quickly placed the card under the shoe to be the next card out and I had seen that the next card was an ace. So I quickly asked for £200 to be placed on first box and the dealer went to place the chips when the Inspector stopped her.

When I asked why, he said that it was because I had seen the ace. I then said to him that this was academic because it was their mistake and not mine and that there was no law saying that I couldn’t bet the maximum on any box I chose. Suddenly the mood on the table shifted but the Inspector was adamant that if I placed this bet that the box would receive no cards.

So my next line was to say that I hadn’t seen the ace to which he then replied that I wouldn’t have jumped from £30 to £200 if I didn’t know that the next card was ace…….fair point and difficult to argue and the only thing that I could think of at the time was to say that it was going to be my last hand anyway and that I was having one big blow out. This was semi-believable seeing as I had over £200 in £5 chips on the table. The Inspector thought for a second or two and then allowed the bet to stand…… I did get my ace but only a total of 19…….the dealer had a nine which made…….you guessed it…….19!

I had a casino trip last night and played several hours of blackjack while my partner and her friend enjoyed a meal and a few drinks at the bar. In between that we all grouped in the lounge area to watch the England vs Algeria game…….after that I needed some good luck.

Fortunately my card counting session in the six deck shoe game proved profitable. The dealers were cutting about a deck to a deck and a half from the back so penetration was good. The first two shoes were dull and nothing happened and I was planning on placing £50 maximum bets when the proper situations arose.

Into the third shoe and I had a massive true count and six consecutive maximum bets won for me making £300 in profit. I lost about £50 back as I was trying not to make my spread too wide. I then had a break for the England game and the entire pit area went quiet as more people were watching the game than playing in the pit.

After the game, I found that my counting was off which was probably due to the poor performance of our national football team and my mind was definitely more on the football than the blackjack. But my luck really turned on the final shoe that I played. My profit was already at £325 for the evening when another large true count arrived. On three consecutive hands, my £50 bet was the only blackjack on the table which made me feel a little awkward but that made £225 in the space of about three minutes.

The total win for the evening was £705 and my best casino trip for a long time and probably dating back to my team days. I think that just about made up for the football.

Yesterday I looked at gambling theory in general and how important that is with regards trying to make money from casino games. Now obviously you are not supposed to be able to make money long term from casino games but that is not the objective for most people. Casino action gives people the opportunity to experience the thrill of casino game play while presenting the opportunity for short term success.

If you go into the venture with that in mind then you will be fine. Try to forget everything else that I have talked about on this blog because that stems from me having an awful lot of experience and inside knowledge that you simply will not have.

As an ex gaming employee then it is far easier for me to get away with certain things although even then, the average croupier is far more knowledgeable these days and the average casino manager is certainly so since I left gaming for good back in 1998. Theory is very powerful if you want to reduce the house edge to a very tiny percentage on all casino games and especially blackjack and roulette. Knowing basic strategy will not get you an edge at blackjack but it would almost certainly almost eliminate the house edge…….almost!

With sign up bonuses and loyalty bonuses that online casinos offer then you could find yourself almost breaking even or even better. Theory must be approached with caution because knowledge as they say is power but knowledge in the wrong hands or misinterpreted in the wrong way and used wrongly can be very damaging.

Give a reckless maniac the knowledge of how to drive a car and he could kill himself and others so knowledge isn’t always good. The bottom line is though that theory is important but it simply isn’t the be all and end all and success cannot be automatic as a result of knowing something…….it depends on what that something actually is.

Blackjack is a game that has been with us for an awful long time now and its sister game…..Pontoon means that many people come to blackjack who have had experience of playing Pontoon. Over the years there have been many variations to change the game and I remember when the “Over/Under” feature came into existence in the UK in the mid 1990’s.

But as online gaming has took off over the past few years then there has been an even greater need for the game to be revitalised periodically. So we are now facing a situation where new variations of blackjack are coming out with greater frequency. Early and late surrender were other popular features that caught on in some casinos.

But 21-3 blackjack is an interesting concept that attempts to merge the game of blackjack with poker. The player simply makes a separate wager that his first two cards and the dealers up card make a three card poker hand.

In this instance, if their first two cards are of the same suit and the dealers card is also the same suit that constitutes a flush. If their cards are say 8,7 and the dealer is showing a 6 or a 9 that that constitutes a straight. There are even more special odds paid for big hands like trips and straight flushes. Trips are obviously where the player has a pair like 4,4 and the dealer also shows a 4.

A straight flush is if say the player has 7h-6h and the dealer is showing the 8h. The pay offs with respect to the poker hands differ from casino to casino but if you like poker and the idea of merging the two games appeals to you then 21 +3 Blackjack may just be your game.

I recall one of the very first card counters who I ever spotted was back when I was a dealer in my local casino back in the very early 1990’s. The only blackjack knowledge that I had at that time was when I had read Beat The Dealer by Edward Thorp.

But that book was more than enough for me to be able to spot any conventional card counter and certainly one who wasn’t making any effort to disguise his play. We actually went on to become very good friends and still are to this day.

One of the things that gets counters spotted is the intense concentration that they exhibit when they go about their job. This is a dead give away as is looking at the discards. When a counter looks at the discards then what they are trying to do is to calculate the true count. In another post on the same subject, I mentioned how not converting the running count into a true count was one of the biggest mistakes with regards novice card counters.

To better estimate the true ratio of high cards and aces to low cards then you need to divide the running count by the number of decks remaining to be dealt. This is why a counter often looks at the discards. However it is a mistake to look like a counter as if anyone in the casino has this knowledge then your playing life is going to be cut severely short.