I always remember my first time as a card counter after I had worked in casinos. I was signed in as a guest to a casino in 1998 in Bournemouth. I didn’t have an awful lot of money on me (around £100) so there was no chance that I could do any damage to the casino. Funnily enough this happened just prior to me meeting my backer. I was on an induction course for a financial services firm called Abbey Life. So I joined the local casino in Bournemouth or at least I tried to but I was forced to wait 24 hours.
It was then that I met and became friends with a local who attended the casino every night. I was down there for three weeks and so I had ample opportunity to go in to this place. Despite that I only went in twice because I lost money the first time. But the fact that I was card counting inside an actual casino for the first time without being detected was a big buzz. However my bets were no more than £10 maximum and so the bet sizing wasn’t big enough to create attention by itself or make any serious money for that matter.
But those two trips provided some valuable experience for playing blackjack for the first time on the other side of the table. It really is weird when for nearly ten years you have been on the other side dealing and inspecting the game. But these two trips proved to be a springboard for what was to come.
