Commonsense MBS
Common sense alone can usually indicate how to modify your playing strategies if and when memory fails. Just keep in mind that the more restrictive the rules, the more conservatively you should play. Conversely, the more liberal the rules, the more aggressive you can afford to be, especially on your splitting and doubling opportunities. The most common, fairly liberal rules found in most modern casinos allow you to play BS exactly as you learned it in chapter 3, with no modifications whatsoever. This applies to virtually all the larger casinos anywhere in the world. Remember that the worst thing that can happen to you while playing BS under absolutely terrible conditions is that you could suffer a long-term loss of up to 0.02% by sticking to your original BS rather than employing the most appropriate BS plays. In other words, don’t worry about it. The difference is virtually insignificant and not worth undue concern.
Fewer than one in five of the 5% of all blackjack players who do play correctly also count cards. The noncounters who do follow proper BS will occasionally play more than one hand or follow some sort of useless bet-ranging strategy (never intentionally in ways that correspond to the TC, obviously, because they are totally unaware of what the TC is). Although these partially enlightened players always play their hands correctly and usually seem to be winning (albeit modestly), they are certainly not counters. They may even consider themselves “serious” players, since they are apt to be wagering substantial amounts of money on each hand. These players certainly enjoy the game, and perhaps they collect considerable casino comps, but how much can they really care about winning, if they haven’t made the effort to learn and implement even the simplest of counting systems? They are certainly shortchanging themselves every time they sit down at the blackjack tables.
It may shock you to learn that less than one out of a hundred of all modern blackjack players is a counter who follows BS. Admittedly, it does sound incredible, especially in this day and age when the “secrets” of successful blackjack playing are so readily available. Upon reflection, however, from my own years of close observation, I would say that 1% is too high an estimate, if anything. Only rarely have I come across fellow counters, even though a professional of any sort is easily spotted when one is also tracking the cards.
If you have learned BS from chapter 3, absorbed the money management techniques from chapter 5, and mastered a practical counting system from chapter 6 and can implement it effortlessly, then you may rightly consider yourself a member of an extremely elite group. You now possess the necessary skills to win big money from the game. When next you enter a casino and see a hundred or more blackjack players crowded around the tables, know that you are likely the only player present whom the casino personnel need fear. You alone are among the less than 1% who possess the knowledge (and hence the power) to turn the tables on any casino management and actually end up winning substantial sums of money consistently. Unlike the others there, the more you play from this point onward, the more you can justifiably expect to win.
