Having made my debut on the blog yesterday, I want to talk today about the art of blackjack. This is a game that is almost purely matahematical.In order to play the game well then you need to first learn a good generic basic strategy and I will be talking about this in coming weeks.
Then you need to take the basic a step further by using a basic that is pertinent to the games that you are playing in and the particular rules variations. This is not a critical step as all generic basic strategies will get you there or thereabouts and leave you with a disadvantage of about -0.5% off the top.
The next step is then to learn how to card count, if you are not aware of what this process is then it basically entails using a designated counting system that adequately tracks the low cards, intermediate cards and high cards (not as difficult as it sounds). I will also be talking about various counting systems that we tried and used during our spell as a team and the other systems that we used when I formed my others teams.
During the period of 1998-2002 where I ran three teams, I also trained up six other people, two of which went on to form their own teams in Europe. From reports that I was recieving, my training was responsible for taking around $1 million dollars out of the land based casinos. A feat that makes me immensely proud even today. But learning how to card count after learning basic strategy is really only PHASE 2 of what is a much longer learning curve.
But yet PHASE 2 is where many BJ players stop thier education in the belief that they really know the game when it is really only just the beginning. Also there is far more mathematics in BJ and most of it is pertinent than merely knowing a basic and a counting system.
But the title of this post is “the art of blackjack” and the real “art” is not in counting but in the evasion techniques that enable you to get away with it. This was where we had a distinct advantage because I was ex-gaming so I knew what they knew and I knew what they looked for and the next step was to devise evasion techniques so the team could implement them.
This was the most difficult of the tasks and underlines why this is harder to do than merely learning basic and a system, which just requires memory and some practice. My technique was already honed to a very high degree of efficiency as I used to count while I was dealing and then later superving the games. I could scan an entire table in just a couple of seconds and know what the count was. This enabled me to strike up totally natural conversations with other punters and casino staff……something that inexperienced or less skilled counters dont do because they are too busy trying to keep track of everything.
I hope that these series of blogs will give you the same determination to play the game that I had…..so take care and see you soon.
Carl
