I've found that 10 chips equals 2 decks so if you are at 3rd base you can stack 10 dollar chips up and get a reference to the cards in the discard rack
Colin I wanted to tell you our college blackjack team went on our 2nd ever trip over new years and we were very successful. We doubled our starting bankroll of 4 grand. I am still very thankful to have your videos to reference to help me and help the team get better. Happy new year!
@@SirJoelsuf1 we were there for 6 days bouncing to different casinos and we actually got to 8k in 5 days putting in less hours on day 3-5. We took day 6 off to relax and enjoy the rest of the trip.
If you could help me out: I'm playing in Europe and my bankroll is 1,000$ with a table min of 1$, the game rules are normal(H17, no surrender) double deck. What should my bet spread look like? What should I bet according to the true count? Back offs aren't a problem so I don't mind an aggressive spread. I would by the BJA pro-betting software but it's expensive and my bankroll is pretty small. Thanks 🙏.
Had my first back off today! I was sad because I loved the casino (friendly staff, GREAT rules\pen) but was smiling and laughing because of how great it felt knowing they didn't want me playing blackjack. The guy in the suit said "your numbers are too good" lmao.
@@thesuperiorbench6307 No, just no longer allowed to play blackjack anymore. They were super friendly about it as well. Small casino and everyone knew me.
I would really like help with 2 things if you can tell me 1stly if i sit at a table and the count starts going negative in the begining of the show at what TC do i leave? 2ndly can you give me an example of a betting ramp? That is the most essential concept I still have no idea wjat to do on (bet spread of 8 or 10 for example) I've heard (let's assume the game has rules for a disadavntage of around 0,54%) you only start incresaign your bet at TC of +3... And you'd bet TC -1 betting unit I've heard you increase 1 betting unit on TC +1, and then it grows fatser, like 4 units for +2, 6 for +3 10 for +4, 12 for +5... So I'm really not sure when I start increasign the bet, and if I do it 1 unit per TC or more "exponetially" Thank you in advance
What I did when I was first starting out with card counting five months ago was place single decks inside of my discard tray at home, then two decks, then visualize how three, four, and so on would look in a discard tray from there. I have just sat and studied the dimensions, like a fine painting or work of art, sometimes for several minutes, before playing a session against myself at home. My deck estimation is off considerably. I don't know why. I'm going to try some of the methods mentioned in here (such as marking single deck, double, three deck, and half deck increments with colored markings). My running count game is really good in my opinion, but again, I have yet to do a test out with a professional, and I have been relying solely on my own practice sessions and in person sessions to gauge my performance. I can't stop playing this game. I simply love it. The math behind it and the adrenaline rush of a big win streak feels so freeing and exhilarating. I can't give this up. I gotta get better at it.
I appreciate these videos very much. I’ve been practicing blackjack for a while now and I’ve just mastered basic strategy and I’m moving on to the actual counting. All of your videos are filled with tips that I can’t find anywhere else. Thank you
Blackjack Apprenticeship what do you think are the chances you could make a video about the illustrious 18? Can’t find anything easy to understand and trustworthy
First Vegas trip down. Been studying basic strategy and watching your videos on RU-vid. I haven't gotten into the nitty-gritty with true count, etc. but I'm positive I won 50% more hands than usual with the info gleaned from the free videos you offer. Going to subscribe to BJA and try to get to the next level. Thanks, Colin.
Some really good pro tips that goes a long way for those who are taking it seriously. It's a must to "FEEL", and be aware of everything going on during the game. Great effort to explain something hard to understand why. Enough videos to get everyone started correctly. May also get a better estimate what their 6 or 8 deck look like when cards are ALL in the discard tray for that table. Fresh or old cards can make a big difference. (closed our first BR here, Colin!)
If you were a bartender at any point in your life, u will find that its like counting the shots left in a bottle but Instead its cards :) if you do it for a living it becomes easier as you glance at the bottle/card tray.
What I do at a table I'm not familiar with, is stand back and watch a few shoes other people play, and count every card, the number of cards, and come up with an estimate of the number of cards that would fill the tray to the very top, before playing any actual hands. Typically the discard holders that hold 2-deck shoes can hold about 120 cards, so if it's 1/3 of the way up, that's 40 cards.
I don't count cards but it seems like the easiest and most beneficial improvement upon 1 deck increments would be: When half a deck is left, multiply the running count by 2. When a quarter deck is left, multiply the running count by 4. (Dividing by 1/x is the same as multiplying by x) Because the last deck is when the odds change drastically, and multiplying by an integer is easy
You're never going to see half a deck left, much left 1/4. Congratulations, you know that dividing by 1/2 is the same as multiplying by 2 and dividing by 1/4 is the same as multiplying by 4. Now you're ready to graduate from 2nd grade.
Colin I can understand your comment about the guy counting total cards. However, with a full table, 16 cards are dealt. Generally 10 is a good draw number, for 26, and 2 hands is then a deck. Far easier. If 2 hand occur where the players all stand, the count is usually high, and your estimate is now off about 10 cards a hand, so reestimating is pretty easy. I agree tracking each card is tedious, and the upside minimal.
Hey Colin, this is all really interesting stuff but I'm curious as I'm a pro poker player. Been doing it for 4 years. Wouldn't just becoming a poker player be easier than this as a profession? I feel like dealing with back offs and getting action would prove to be a big pain. Poker is accepted and live poker especially is still very soft. If you had to choose would you still go with blackjack over poker?
Poker players are always welcome, but their edge comes from always finding inferior competition. A card counter can consistently have the edge, though it comes with backoffs.
@@Blackjackapprenticeship This is the hard part of card counting , the deck estimation Mr Jones also the application of blackjack deviation when you are playing
Fascinating videos! My question is - it seems that once you get to a certain level, you've got the card counting down pat. But then what separates the best card counters (the most profitable) from just the regular card counters? Is it just intangibles like temperament etc?
Hi Colin, I'm interested in learning. You're videos are great and I'm considering a membership. I'm in the UK and I'm wondering how you know for sure how many decks the casino is using without asking them directly. Is it just something you would be able to tell with experience or do they all use the same amount? Are they allowed to obscure the deck at all or does it have to be transparent? Thanks
The premium plastic card decks I have at home vary in thickness depending on the brand. Is there a standard thickness for casino cards or does it vary as well? What looks like 4 decks may be significant more or less depending on the brand. Similarly, the empty space gap size will vary depending on card thickness. The more cards, the more the total stack height varies due to slight difference in thickness.
A lot of new counters love 3rd base, which can cause the most noticeable head tilt. Playing on the other, 1st base side, makes it easier to eye the discards without turning your head.
When I was practicing deck estimations I literally took a discard tray and would count out 26 cards mark a line with a sharpie then a full deck mark with another color so on and so on...
Me too!! So cool to see a video on this confirming my studies. I colored each deck line a color of the rainbow leaving the top clear to practice my deck estimation
Hey Colin awesome video. Would you be able to make a video about the mechanics of wonging in? Last casino trip it seemed near impossible to wong-in mid shoe because all the spots are taken at every table. Plus doesn't it look strange to just awkwardly stand behind people playing so you can count the table?
Wonging in/out is one of the things you just have to start doing. Unlike perfect play, there really isn't a way to practice it. There's a million ways to do it though. If a table is full, go backcourt a different one if possible. If not, realize that someone will probably get up and leave pretty soon, giving you a chance to Wong in. No, it doesn't look strange to Stand behind the table and backcount. You could be any dumb gambler just "seeing how the cards are flowing."
@@Hooptrition So I basically have to have events perfectly line up where there's an open spot at a table long enough that I can wait for the count to go above say, true +1 without anyone taking the seat? In your experience does that happen often enough to actually get hours in?
Hi Colin, the casino I go normally require a player to cut the deck when they start a new shoe. How would it affect the true count? Btw, the casino is playing 8 decks blackjack game. Thanks
What's really important is how many cards are left in the shoe, right? Is there any value in seeing how much is left in the shoe (by looking at the cut marker)?
When you first join a table a few decks after a shuffle, do you subtract that initial number of unseen decks from the visible deck estimation until the next shuffle since you didn’t actually see those cards? For example, you sit down and 3 decks have already been discarded that you didn’t see. You begin counting and the running count reaches +4. Now 5 decks are in the discard tray so even though there is technically 1 deck remaining in the shoe, would you divide +4 by 4 remaining UNSEEN decks (out of 6) = True 1 because you have only actually seen and counted 2 decks? If you just divide by the remaining decks as it appears in the discard tray your true count would appear to be +4! I haven’t seen this question covered before. Perhaps APs always count from the shuffle and Wong in before they sit down?
Hi I went through many of your videos, but my place only two casinos are all only using machines reshuffling every hand. So I don’t do true count to change my bet, just doing normal card counting yes?
HI Colin. I've been enyoying your videos for a few weeks now and have enjoyed trying it all out at the casino. Unfortunately they only play manual shoe once a week so I need more discipline to not go on all the auto shuffling days which has seen me hot a losing streak. Anyway I have not registered to your course yet (spent my money on Qfit software) but I wonder if you have any advice on keeping a count whilst counting up your own hand. This is what I by far find the hardest part. I generally hold chips in my hand somewhat representing the count before my hand then add the new count after I'm done with my hand. I find this especially difficult with splits and soft hands where there's multiple numbers to calculate at once. Sometimes I stare at the dealer like a dummy waiting for them to tell me my hand whilst I concentrate on the count! I guess it's just practice, or perhaps my memory isn't quite good enough.
Sometimes I think it's easier to look at the shoe to see how many decks are left and it seems more natural because most people look at the shoe anyway. Only card counters look at the discard tray lol.
John Garza it’s like anything else in academics, work, life, etc. just have to figure out how you like to study and put the hours in. For me, I made flash cards.
Took your advice and bought cvbj and I'm doing the full table drills but having trouble finding what is a good vs great time. My last score was Rounds 32 Accuracy 100 Rating 170 Speed 8.5 Any input would help...thank you
Colin. In the middle - 5 mintue mark - of the video mentioning that you should round down in your deck estimation. Isn't actually "round up" for your D.E.? That is, in terms of the number of decks left. So, if there are 5.5 decks left, you would round up to 6D? I assume what it means is some sort of 'making the D.R. larger', which I assume means a which-a-micallit-thing-a-magig. J/K. Or, do you say round down to 6D , though the number of decks are lower? Never mind. Lol. Not yet. When you say to round down from 5.1 decks to 6D ....... screw it!
+Mondo LaStraka You are correct in the sense that I believe he is saying that you should round to the conservative side. When Colin talks about rounding down, I think he's talking about estimating the number of decks in the discard tray, which would effectively do what you are saying when it comes to estimating and rounding what's left to be played in the shoe. Essentially, if there is less than a full deck in the discard tray, you should NOT count it as a full deck, and round down. Example: If only 3/4 of a deck has been played and is in the discard tray, you should not round up to make it one full deck. So at this point, instead of counting the discard tray as 1 full deck, you should round down to 0 decks because a full deck has yet to be played.
Carnegie Pierre as far as adding the burn card to your running count, you would only do it if you were able to see it. Usually you won’t be able to see it so just don’t add/subtract anything from your running
They've completely taken over in Philippines. Hope they don't expand here, but I have seen some casinos actually take out CSMs and go back to hand shuffling. So, that is comforting.
you know all i hear is to make sure i do basic strategy but i find i've lost so much money listen and following this basic strategy and the whole not buying insurance as i always get it and i'm usually the only one at the table who buys it but 90% of the time i win.. when i look at the basic strategy chart and do the opposite i usually win as well so i don't really understand how it works for everyone else?
For true count, if say it's an 8 deck shoe, should we only divide by 7 because the cut card takes away about a deck, sometimes 2 decks of cads that do not get used?
No. You are dividing by the total number of decks remaining in the shoe. Because that tells you the ratio PER DECK of high cards remaining. A running 14 with 7 decks remaining means that there's an average of 2 extra high cards per shoe (aka True 2).
+Marko Soldo I'm sorry, but if you have to ask that question, you do not understand card counting, the most basic premise behind it. You keep the count so you know when to change(increase, or decrease) your bets, and potentially change your playing decisions. If you do not know what the numbers mean, you do not understand card counting. To answer your question, you should increase your bet as the count goes HIGHER, more positive. But you should know that just because the count is high, it DOES NOT mean you are going to win, a high count only means that you have a very slight advantage in those situations, but it is still just a probability, you are merely playing the odds in those situations and you could still lose, it happens to the best of us, it's just part of the game. But if you are unwilling or unable to bet big when you have the advantage, you cannot win and should not be playing, unless you're just gambling and hoping to get lucky. However, a true advantage player, which is what a card counter is, does not count on luck to win, they do so using skill and consistency.
I have a question for anyone, I live near deadwood so I play there every now and then and have basic strategy down and can keep the count. I like to play a double or single deck game better than a 6 deck shoe. I have a hard time finding ways to not play in negative counts, but a double or single deck game they shuffle often enough where I feel like you don’t have to play in negative counts for a bunch of hands and have a better idea for what’s left in the deck(s). But the casino doesn’t allow you to double on any 2 card total. I know that the game you’re playing is almost as important as counting. So my question is am I giving up too much of an advantage to make a profit by those rules?
yes, I would say find a better game. don't rule out 6 deck blackjack. I've often seen more valuable rules on 6 deck than double deck in the same casino.
What’s the point of counting cards, if there are many people at the same table who are random players? They would ruin the play by hitting when it’s not in their favor and also not taking a card when they should.
You play against the dealer, not the other players. Other peoples play does not effect the quality of your play at all. The amount of times they "take" the dealers bust card is the same amount of times it takes the card that wouldnt bust the dealer and gives them one that would.
It’s easy to make $50 an hour counting cards, but you have to be very good at poker to make $50 an hour there. The big difference however is that a casino won’t “fire” you for being good at poker. So as long as you can get away with it then blackjack is more profitable, but at least with poker you can play forever.
hey i love your videos but i am not a card counter just a casual player. I want to know one thing i recently noticed playing online and in a casino. when splitting online gives you both cards on both split hands immediately after a split and on a real casino they split one hand at a time. Does that have any effect ? example if you have split 8s online they split give you say 8&9 8&10 and THEN you make a decision to stay or hit. But in a real casino when you split say the same 8s you get 8&9 and then the dealer is looking at you to make a decision before he shows u another. Please elaborate
karl lee It actually should not affect your odds of winning. The chances of each card appearing on each hand is the same, regardless of the order dealt.
why don't IRL casinos make it harder for cardcounters like making the penetration 50%????? cuz it seems risky investing money in something that can be patched and im wondering if there's any reason to why IRL casinos only have 65-75% card penetration and is it even worth playing with that kind of penetration??
貢獻iconic Some casinos, especially ones in UK, actually do add continuous shuffle machines or host games with bad penetration. I actually do not know why some casinos still offer games with deep penetration but I assume that it is because they do not realize that penetration can foil card counters or they are planning to just back card counters off if they catch them.
When the casino shuffles half way through the shoe they are not dealing to the 99.9% of people who can’t beat the game long term. It costs casinos a lot of money to not deal as far into the shoe as they can! Think of it as “unplugging” the game. Do they go around and unplug a slot machine while someone is playing it for several minutes? No way. But they “unplug” blackjack and shuffle early cause they’re so paranoid of the very rare and occasional good player.
The cutting card does not matter, the math still works out, the question is where they place the card. This is called "deck penetration", the point in which the shoe will be removed from play and shuffled. Higher penetration will net you more EV due to your true counts becoming much higher once you reach past the half way mark. While lower deck penetration will lower EV due to the odds never swinging drastically in your favor in order to make money on your bet spread.
You do not need to. If the running count is negative, you are not going to increase your bets anyway so it does not matter what the true count is. Also, if the running count is less than how many decks there are, the true count definitely not high enough for you to get the edge since it needs to be at least +1 (maybe higher, depending on what rules you are playing it and what your playing decisions are).
True 2 means that the running count divided by the number of decks remaining equals two. Example: If you have a running count of +5, and there are 2.5 decks left to be dealt, you would have a true 2. This is different from the running count because if you have a running +2, and there are 4 decks left to be dealt, you would only be at a true 1/2. Since we start getting our edge as card counters at a true 1, the true count conversion and deck estimation are very important. I hope this helps :)
Avid and successful card counter here. I think you were far too quick to gun down the idea of counting every card. It’s work flawlessly for me for years and would highly recommend. It really isn’t much more mental acumen to count a single number up while keeping running.