One of the most nerve jangling experiences in card counting is when you first go to practice your art in an actual casino environment. No amount of book reading or theory can prepare you for this. You will experience all sorts of emotions and it is far different than playing live poker for the first time if you have only ever played online.
You will experience excitement, apprehension, fear, pride amongst a wide range of other emotions. But you will also experience uncertainty as well in what you are doing. All of these emotions are natural and so are your fears. It was fortunate really that both John and Kevin had experience as being card counters even though their bottom lines were not that great (mainly due to poor game selection).
Myself on the other hand was largely untried in battle even though I had knowledge that few other people possessed when it came to winning money at blackjack. It is still a very strange feeling to be doing something clandestine inside a casino and especially when all you have ever done is worked in them on the other side of the table.
I will always remember the name of the very first croupier who dealt to me and her name was Leanne. A nice girl with short fair hair and a very fast dealing action. She was also quite pretty and I spent far too much time chatting with her and looking at her to keep the count in my head……distractions come in many forms and is something that theory books cannot prepare you for.
