So, its been 5 months since I first started learning how to count and its been quite something. I suppose it first started when I watched the movie "21." I remember having heard of the book prior to the movie, although my only knowledge about it was of a MIT team using counting to make a lot of money playing blackjack. After watching the movie, I was excited about how cool it was that you can make money like that. I researched a little, reading about basic strategy. I didn't read much more until it was summer and I went to the "Motherland." Hearing of a casino being near where I was staying, I decided I would try playing with what I remembered. I got pretty lucky I suppose, I made something like $10 after 2-3 hours of play (better than losing). When I went back home, I started scouring the internet on card counting. My biggest find was the Wizard of Odds, where I once again found the BS chart and a few links about card counting. I then went to Barnes and Noble, where they had only 1 book that taught counting: "The Big Book of Blackjack." I learned the basics, started memorizing BS thoroughly, and started looking for free programs to help teach counting. I came across a simple little program, that flashed pairs of cards at a desired speed and kept track of the count. In a few weeks, I mastered BS and was able to count down a deck in 30 seconds. During those weeks, I also came across BJInfo while searching the web for more information (as I was always kind of a perfectionist when it came to things that can be so precisely calculated). I started looking through the forums finding little bits of info, books to read, answers to all the little barely important questions that I had. I also found CVBJ, where I started practicing my bet ramp and actually playing blackjack while counting. After another few weeks, I decided I was ready for real casino play.
I went to Turning Stone Casino, which was the closest available, and attempted backcounting. I suppose I did ok; I was able to keep track of the RC and calculate TCs but my "act" was probably really obvious. I made $200 after a few hours (spreading 15-30 lol), and on a later visit made a few hundred more. Excited that it was working, I increased my spread to 15-50, thinking I was a bigshot betting 2 quarters lol. I got CVCX and playing around with the settings and sims, I realized that the kind of spread I was doing was barely making a profit. Further research showed me that I can play at Foxwoods, which was an hour further than TS, and make a MUCH larger profit due to better rules, pen, and mins. I also started to learn Zen, because I felt that the added strength would be worth the little bit of effort. After about 25 hours of FW play with Zen, I was down $1200. I was sad, but was confident that in the long run, this will work. I went to Vegas with some family and decided that I will try to make some of that money back, so I decided to play more aggressively and spread wider. I spread 10-2x50 and made about $350 in 15 hours. I hit a pretty big losing streak after that. After 100 hours of total play, I was down $2000. I won 2 out of 10 sessions after my Vegas trip. 7 of which, were excellent games (5/6 pen H17 DAS ESvX NSvA). I was very disapointed but was a firm believer of the "long run."
I should also mention that a few months after I started learning to count, my cousin also decided to learn as well. I told him all the steps that I went through and he decided to learn KO despite my suggestion that TC systems have better accuracy in detecting the current true advantage. A month or so later, he decided that he would change his mind and learn Hi-Lo because of that very reason (hehe). We decided to form a team when he was confident in his skills. Knowing that we have the same kind of personality when it comes to perfection, I was confident that he would know when he was ready. We combined BRs and created a standard deal where half of the earnings go to investors based on investment and the other half goes to proportion of EV as calculated by CVCX.
I just came back from our first team trip, which included a total of 6 days in Vegas and a short trip to Palm Springs. We used about $861 EV worth of coupons we got in LVA, ACG, and sign up promos for most of the 30 casinos we visited during our "coupon run." We played some strong DD games and some average shoe games. So finally, after 75 hours of total team play, we are up almost $2000, which is almost right at EV. Seeing the charts I created in Excel, my hope for counting is revitalized and I can only hope that things keep going well for us.
I went to Turning Stone Casino, which was the closest available, and attempted backcounting. I suppose I did ok; I was able to keep track of the RC and calculate TCs but my "act" was probably really obvious. I made $200 after a few hours (spreading 15-30 lol), and on a later visit made a few hundred more. Excited that it was working, I increased my spread to 15-50, thinking I was a bigshot betting 2 quarters lol. I got CVCX and playing around with the settings and sims, I realized that the kind of spread I was doing was barely making a profit. Further research showed me that I can play at Foxwoods, which was an hour further than TS, and make a MUCH larger profit due to better rules, pen, and mins. I also started to learn Zen, because I felt that the added strength would be worth the little bit of effort. After about 25 hours of FW play with Zen, I was down $1200. I was sad, but was confident that in the long run, this will work. I went to Vegas with some family and decided that I will try to make some of that money back, so I decided to play more aggressively and spread wider. I spread 10-2x50 and made about $350 in 15 hours. I hit a pretty big losing streak after that. After 100 hours of total play, I was down $2000. I won 2 out of 10 sessions after my Vegas trip. 7 of which, were excellent games (5/6 pen H17 DAS ESvX NSvA). I was very disapointed but was a firm believer of the "long run."
I should also mention that a few months after I started learning to count, my cousin also decided to learn as well. I told him all the steps that I went through and he decided to learn KO despite my suggestion that TC systems have better accuracy in detecting the current true advantage. A month or so later, he decided that he would change his mind and learn Hi-Lo because of that very reason (hehe). We decided to form a team when he was confident in his skills. Knowing that we have the same kind of personality when it comes to perfection, I was confident that he would know when he was ready. We combined BRs and created a standard deal where half of the earnings go to investors based on investment and the other half goes to proportion of EV as calculated by CVCX.
I just came back from our first team trip, which included a total of 6 days in Vegas and a short trip to Palm Springs. We used about $861 EV worth of coupons we got in LVA, ACG, and sign up promos for most of the 30 casinos we visited during our "coupon run." We played some strong DD games and some average shoe games. So finally, after 75 hours of total team play, we are up almost $2000, which is almost right at EV. Seeing the charts I created in Excel, my hope for counting is revitalized and I can only hope that things keep going well for us.
