One of the questions that I get asked from time to time (usually because I have written a blackjack book) is if blackjack can actually be beaten or not. There is absolutely no doubt that blackjack can be beaten even in 2011. There is also no doubt that the game as gone through an evolutionary process as all games do and online poker and poker in general has been through exactly the same and is still doing so.
The game of blackjack was going along every nicely until Ed Thorp suddenly told the entire world how to beat the game. Of course in doing so then he also alerted the casinos too and suddenly card counting was “born”. This isn’t to say that no one was counting prior to that but this was the stage where it became wider knowledge. But there have been numerous stages in history where people have said that the game is no more. That the casinos simply know too much about the game for there to be any profit potential by card counting.
This is all hogwash because who is to say that you only use counting as a method to beat blackjack? Without going into detail then there are an absolute myriad of ways to extract money from a game of blackjack without card counting or shuffle tracking. So the environment is certainly tougher now for blackjack players but in some ways then it is easier as well because the casinos no longer think that the game can be beaten. This in itself opens up avenues of opportunity.
