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Casinos> Gambling Articles > How to Make a Living at Blackjack - Part 3
How to Make a Living at Blackjack Part 3
Most casinos will refuse your bets should they know that you
have the ability to ‘count’ cards. It
isn’t cheating, though the casinos would like you to think it is, but casinos
retain the right to refuse any bet, and they will always opt to refuse a card-counter’s
bet. My first word of advice to you is:
do NOT call attention to the fact that you are counting the cards. I worked in casinos for more than 16 years,
and had many interesting conversations with floormen and pit bosses while they
were ‘assessing’ a player. As soon as
anyone starts to win big at a table, the floorman starts paying attention to
that gambler’s bets and his plays. Make
enough suspicious moves and the floorman is going to buzz the pit-boss who in
turn is going to have the ‘Eye-in-the-sky’ counting the cards right along with
you and sending down a couple of escorts when you try to quadruple your
bet. I have two common mistakes
card-counters do listed below. Avoiding
them will keep you on a casino’s “full-comp” list instead of their
blackball-list.
ALWAYS KEEP THAT EYE-IN-THE-SKY IN MIND
The first rule is – always play your cards the same
way. You will find after you have been
‘tracking’ cards for a while, that there will be times when you will be very
tempted to split a pair of 2’s or even a pair of 6’s, or you’ll want to double
that 7-point hand. It is possible to
split the 2’s or 3’s every once in a while, but you would have to do it both
when the deck is on your side and when it’s not, if you don’t want the ‘Eye’ to
know you are tracking the cards. And you
can never successfully split 4’s 5’s, or 6’s, or double a hand that is worth
less than 9 points without getting noticed.
It’s not worth it. The best way
to keep a low profile is to always play your cards the same way, and change
your bets carefully.
The biggest ‘tell’ the floorman is looking for from a
card-counter is a sudden huge increase in the bet. Try it some time. Go to a casino and play at a two-dollar
table, make two-dollar bets on the first ten hands and then suddenly put up a
twenty-five-dollar bet. Watch the dealer
carefully – she’s about to signal the floorman and he’s going to come over to
your table. She’ll stall by talking to YOU
– no one else – “Can I get the cocktail
waitress over here?” or “How was the weather when you came in tonight?” Since it’s only twenty-five dollars, I doubt
she’ll shuffle (or “break”) the deck, but she won’t deal a card till he gets to
the table. There are a lot of
blackballed card-counters in Las Vegas,
and dealers are not allowed to deal to them.
A dealer can get fired for not signaling the floorman when a gambler at
their table dramatically increases his bet – in fact some casinos simply make
it a rule that the dealer MUST break the deck whenever a player ‘jumps’ his bet
(more than doubles it).
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A DEALER
Pick your dealer.
Watch the table for a while – never sit at a table with a surly dealer,
they tend to be lucky – I don’t know why – and choose a dealer who doesn’t go
too fast. Casinos love fast dealers
because they get more hands out. The
more hands played, the more you can win it’s true (same reason casinos like
more hands out there), but if you find yourself with a ‘lucky’ dealer, you’ll
lose twice as fast. The best dealer for
you is one with a calm, steady rhythm.
And one that displays the cards nicely so the ‘Eye’ (and you) can read
them easily. Be kind to your dealer –
believe it or not, they are on your side – the House only pays them minimum
wage – they live off tips, and they can’t make tips if you lose. Be sure to tip them – if you’re playing
$10.00 to $25.00 dollars a hand, it is common to put up two-dollar bets, if you
are playing more than $25.00 a hand, don’t
put up less than $5.00. You don’t
have to be crazy about your tips – you don’t need to tip if you’re losing, the
dealer won’t hold it against you; just put them up on a few hands when you hit
a winning streak, like maybe every second or third hand. Never complain about losing, and keep your
manner friendly. You want to keep the
dealer on your side. When I didn’t like
a player, I would increase my speed ever so subtly, and break all the best
decks a wee bit early – something they could never complain about.
WHAT DECK TO PLAY
It is perfectly legal for you to go into a casino and sit at
a bar while your well-practiced apprentice goes to a six or eight deck shoe,
counts it up for you and then calls for a cocktail waitress as soon as he knows
the deck is ripe. That signal means it’s
time for your buddy to take a well-deserved drink and for you to seat yourself
at the table and start playing the big money.
It is not only legal, but many people do exactly that – in Las Vegas’ casinos they
are called cheaters – in the real world, they’re called millionaires and they
keep their names out of the paper. I’m
not advising you to do this, because you can get into real trouble if you’re
caught – you will be blacklisted and pictures and videos of you will be sent to
every casino, bar and restaurant in Las Vegas.
They won’t call the gaming authority or the police, because they can’t,
but they will use hardball tactics to get you out of town.
A six or eight deck shoe is great when it’s on your side,
but quite awful when it’s against you.
And if you keep getting up from a ‘bad shoe,’ someone’s going to notice
– they won’t notice right away, but they’ll notice when you win your first
ten-thousand and the Eye buzzes downstairs after watching a rewind of all the
tapes they have of you. That means
you’re going to have to play all the hands, even when the deck is bad. You can ‘accidentally’ miss a hand, but you
can’t even do that too often – the dealer will notice, and if the dealer
suspects you are counting cards and doesn’t signal this to the floorman they
are fired for ‘cheating’ or for incompetence.
NEVER let a dealer know you’re counting cards.
A single deck changes too often, with four or more at your
table you will only get two hands out of it, even with only two or three people
at your table, you won’t get more than four hands out of any round – no casino
lets a dealer play more than 2/3 of any deck; shoes are cut by a third, and
single and double decks are broken 2/3 of the way through.
Considering all that, the best deck for you to play against
is a double-deck. You should be able to
get 7 or even 8 hands at a table of 4 or more, and if there are less than 4
players at your table, you should get 10 to 12 hands between each shuffle.
TRACKING THE DECK
Counting cards is not a difficult thing to do. It’s a very easy thing to do – the hard part
is keeping track of the percentages.
Every time a card leaves the deck, your percentages change, and with
that change your bet is supposed to change accordingly. This is a very difficult process and the only
way to really make money at it is to change your plays suddenly and triple your
bets suddenly – 2 things you don’t want to do.
Instead, I’m going to show you a very easy method for tracking the
cards; and a simple method for knowing when to add to your bet, and when to
double your bet, and forget about the percentages.
Tracking cards is a similar process to counting them: there
are 20 “baby cards:” Deuce, Trey, 4, 5 and 6, and there are 20 “big cards,” 10,
Jack, Queen, King and Ace. The “middle
cards,” 7’s 8’s and 9’s don’t matter.
FORGET the middle cards – pretend they don’t exist. When you see one on the table, ignore
it. Watch ONLY the big cards and the
baby cards. When the deck has a lot of
baby cards in it, it is a House deck – in the old days, they used to add
“extra” baby cards to the shoes. In
fact, even today, you should never play a shoe where the dealer hasn’t opened
and spread the decks out in front of you, also make sure that they take OUT the
‘weight’ that sits at the back of the shoe – you just never know what you’re
walking in on, trust me. Be patient if
the shoe is in progress – they change the cards every hour in most casinos and
every two hours in even the cheapest ones.
A deck that has a lot of baby cards left after a hand is
dealt is called a “MINUS” deck – it means the count is in the negative. A deck that is heavy on the big cards is
called a “PLUS” deck, meaning the count is more than zero. A double-deck that is at zero or at a plus or
minus 1 after a deal will usually be heavy on the 7’s 8’s and 9’s, and is considered
an “EVEN” deck.
You start your count at ZERO. Every time a baby card is dealt, you’re
supposed to add one to your count, every time a big card is dealt, you’re
supposed to subtract one from your count.
Then you’re supposed to mark the 7, 8, 9 and Ace by adding/subtracting a
half-point – it’s crazy. And you need to
keep the percentages in your head the whole time. A lot of work, isn’t it? Well, here’s an easier way to do it. When you see a big card, look for a baby
card. Consider them a pair. Don’t count, just match them up like you did
in “Go Fish,” when you were a kid. Then
count up what’s left. So let’s say
you’re on a table with 2 or 3 players, the dealer tosses everyone two cards,
you play your hand, and then watch everyone else’s hands as they show up. On a double-deck game, the cards are going to
be face-down and the dealer is going to spread them when it’s all over. Have your hand already counted. If you have two 8’s and a four, your hand is
+1. Don’t’ try to count the ‘hit cards’
everyone has taken. Wait until the
dealer has spread the whole hand out and while the dealer is paying or picking
up the bet, you match up the big cards and the baby cards and count up what’s
left. If you see a 2 and a Jack in the
first hand, ignore it. The next hand is
a 3, 4, 2, and a King, match up that king and one baby and the hand is +2, with
yours, it’s now +3, the next hand is a ten and a Jack, match them to the
previous hand. You’re back to +1. The deck is in your favor, but it’s considered
even. Don’t double your bet. You only double your bet if the deck hits +3
or higher.
THE BETTING
The best part of this whole system is the ease of knowing
what to bet. It is very complicated in a
real count and play system; you can’t even enjoy winning, you’re concentrating
so hard. This method is very easy. You double your bet when the deck is +3 or
more. THEN, if in the next round the
count goes up by 3 or more again, double your bet again. If it only goes up by 2, leave your bet as it
was. It’s going to be hard not to double
when you’re at a +7 and the next round brings you to +9 instead of +10, but it
is a sure way to confuse the Eye and if you work out the percentages on a real
count and play system, you’ll find that it works out about the same. What’s more, it’s okay to double the bet
every once in a while or add a little to it, when the count only goes up by 1
or 2 points, just don’t do it on a regular basis. And you’re not going to have to do much more
than double the bet, because you will be getting 11’s and 10’s and 9’s that you
can double or Aces and 8’s that you can split, and split again! Excepting the Aces, there are a few casinos
that let you split your pairs three times, so that you can eventually QUADRUPLE
the BIG bet. (There is one or two
casinos that will let you re-split your Aces too, but the rest of their rules
are so horrible – like keeping ties, or not allowing double-downs after a draw
– that they aren’t worth playing at).
Here are some casinos in Las
Vegas that let you split a split: The Horseshoe Casino (also known as Benny
Binion’s or Binion’s Horsehoe); The Fremont Hotel; The Golden Nugget and The
Four Queens. These four casinos sit
facing each other on the main corner Downtown on Fremont Street. In fact, most of the casinos downtown will
let you re-split a split. They have
competed against each other tooth and nail since Las Vegas was a teeny dot in the middle of
the desert and as a result they offer the best rules a House can offer a
gambler in Blackjack. And they are all
next to each other – think of how many dealers you will have to choose from!
Want a recap?
1. DON’T draw
attention to yourself:
Keep your bets EVEN, double and then double again, never
TRIPLE it suddenly.
Play your cards the same no matter what. Changing up your play is just a way of
proving to the Eye that you know what cards are in the deck, it’s as simple as
that.
2. Find a “GOOD”
dealer. Friendly, easy-going, a calm
rhythm, and a “professional” spread is what you’re looking for.
3. Play at a
double-deck table.
4. Match big cards
against baby cards, and count up what’s left.
Add one for every ‘extra’ baby card and subtract one for every ‘extra’
big card. Keep your bet the same when
the deck is at +2 or less, double it when it hits +3 or more, and every round
that it goes up by 3 or more. You can
vary this betting by doubling it or adding a little to it when the next round
only increases by 1 or 2 points, just don’t do it on a steady basis.
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