(Blackjack continued)

Count Practice

     

In order for card counting to do you any good you must get a lot of practice outside the casino. One of the best and easiest drills is to take a deck of cards and shuffle them well. Then start turning over the cards one at a time. For every small card you see (in our case: 2-6) count + 1. For every big card you see (10-A) count -1. Ignore the neutral cards (7-9). When the last card is turned over your count should be zero. You should be able to do this very fast over and over again without making a mistake. Remember this: a bad card counter will give up a bigger edge than a non-counting basic strategy player.

Another good drill is to simulate the game as it would be played in a casino. If you are planning on counting cards in a shoe game you may want to try the following: lay out 3 or 4 hands and the dealer's hand. As quickly as you can, scan the cards and come up with the count. Then scoop up all the cards and check to see if you were right. Do this drill over and over until you no longer make mistakes. One thing you will begin to notice is that you will be able to ignore many hands. For example, a hand of 10 (+1) and 2 (-1) cancels itself out with a combined total of 0 so you can ignore it. Also, an 8 (Neutral 0) and 9 (Neutral 0) have a combined count of zero, which you can also ignore. The trick is to be able to recognize these situations with ease. Also keep in mind that if it is hard to do in your living room, it will be ten times harder to do under casino conditions with real money on the line and real people sitting all around you.

The worst thing a card counter can believe is that counting guarantees a win. Not only does counting not guarantee a win, it does not guarantee a profit in the long run. What most books on the subject of blackjack and card counting fail to mention is that the effort and time it takes to become adequate at card counting will most of the time counter whatever small advantage you eventually achieve at the game. As glamorous as card counting may seem, you can actually make as much money flipping burgers (and not work nearly as hard). There is an old saying in the world of blackjack: "blackjack pays minimum wage". Considering that the saying is around 30 years old, it would be more accurate to say that blackjack pays what minimum wage paid in the 70's. (Which is did-a-lee squat.)

Consider the amount of money you wager during an evening session of blackjack. Take this figure and multiply it by the statistical edge you achieve with your count strategy.( Don't forget to subtract a small % to allow for mistakes.). Divide this figure by the number of hours you played. If you are not a scrooge, you will be tipping your dealer and waitress and will need to subtract tips. Now, what are you left with? Very little or even less.