There is a huge misconception with many people that if you can card count and you know basic strategy then you will make money inside a casino. This is clearly not true and there are many reasons for this. Firstly let us look at the reasons why a card counter will not make money. The first is the casino taking counter measures against them. If this happens then the card counter has been spotted and once this happens then the lifespan of a card counter is reduced.
So the ability to be able to get away with it is paramount to having a successful blackjack career. I knew a card counter personally who only ever recycled money. There were two main reasons for this, the first was because his bet spread wasn’t big enough and the second was because the game was often poor in terms of penetration and hands per hour. The blackjack simulation software that is available normally calculates on a per hundred hand basis.
So if a particular strategy makes $40/100 hands but a slow dealer and a full table means that there are only forty hands per hour being dealt then the hourly rate is 40% of $40 which is $16/hr. So slow dealers, packed games, poor penetration, six decks, getting spotted and a poor bet spread are huge factors in a game not being profitable! Just one of these factors being present is going to curtail your earn rate but several are probably going to wipe out the profit potential full stop irrespective of your ability.
