The Gravy Train
Remember that implementing good money management skills and learning how to play optimally only gets you halfway to where you want to go. The other part of your ticket consists of successfully hiding your acquired knowledge and skills, because the casinos will not hesitate to bar you from playing once they realize you can beat [...]
The Macho Mentality
The lure of playing beyond one’s limits is sometimes difficult to ignore. Some blackjack players feel a sense of superiority when they are placing the highest wagers at a table. Others feel that they have a leg up on weaker players whenever they deign to explain some aspect of the game to them. Some are [...]
The Luck/Chance Quandary
Not understanding the difference between “luck” and “chance” has cost gamblers plenty over the years. Part of the problem lies in semantics, while part comes from just plain ignorance. When the French say, “Bonne chance!” they really mean “Good luck!” Luck and chance refer to fortune and probability respectively. Luck is not a commodity that [...]
The Psychology of Blackjack
There are several interesting blogs about the psychology of gambling. At least one professor of psychology has theorized that there is a stronger human motive toward “play” than there is toward “work.” If this is true, then the game of blackjack oilers the promise of complete fulfillment in this sense, since it is certainly a [...]
Counting on Cruises
It has been my experience that cruise ships are generally oblivious to counters. I have been on several of these floating resorts that have made no attempt whatsoever to discourage blatant card-casers. I have often stood around the tables, jumping in and out of games with bets of any size, or simply asking to be [...]
Do’s and Don’ts
The following DO and DON’T lists will help you avoid arousing the suspicion of eagle-eyed pit bosses and conscientious dealers, thereby allowing you to stay in the game and ply your skills:
DO stash chips away in a pocket or purse surreptitiously, especially when winning.
DON’T ever use a betting range of more than ten units, no [...]
Casino Credit
Most casinos are happy to provide you with a “line of credit” for any amount you wish, as long as you have enough money in your bank back home to cover it. There is no fee for this service, and it can usually be in place within twenty-four hours after filling out the application. There [...]
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Thorp’s Point-Count System
In his second edition otBeat the Dealer, Thorp presented a “point-count” system, which formed the basis of all subsequent counting systems and it provided the model for innumerable variations that have since evolved. Although Harvey Dubner’s quite similar system appeared slightly before this publication, it primarily entailed modifications or simplifications of Thorp’s original presentations and [...]
Thorp’s Ten-Count Strategy
Card for card, it was a fact that the 5s being removed from a deck had the most effect upon the player’s advantage. Conversely, Thorp also discovered that adding four T’s to a deck increased the chances of winning the next hand by 1.89%. He proceeded to prove that the “richer” the deck was in [...]
Thorp’s Five-Count Strategy
In the early 1960s, with the help of powerful computers, Edward Thorp proved conclusively that the removal of all four 5s from single-deck play resulted in the player’s advantage over the dealer increasing by 3.6%. As a strategy for single-deck play, he suggested that players take note of how many 5s remained to be dealt [...]
How Counting Systems Work
When it is impossible that certain cards be dealt to you, the original composition or “balance” of the full deck(s) is obviously skewed. A particular card can no longer appear completely at random. This situation could easily happen, for example, if you were to observe that all four Aces had already been used up in [...]
Why Counting Systems Work
Only in blackjack do the cards have what can rightly be considered a kind of “memory.” One type of card is not just as likely as any other to appear next. Almost a third of every deck consists of a single card the 10-valued card. Whether they are “painted” cards (Jacks, Queens, and Kings) or [...]
