How Many Successful Counters?

[cisco]

I'll throw my hat into the ring here and ask, how many professional counters are out there who have the capability of making a comfortable living if not becoming rich counting cards? My guess is very few because from what I've read and heard most people who learn to count just end up losing all there money also. Is this true?

[Sonny]

Certainly most novice card counters do go broke. Most are either not good enough to get an edge or don’t understand the variance of the game well enough to stay alive. There are many reasons why hopeful card counters go broke. I agree that those are the majority of self-proclaimed card counters.

I know of a handful of people who are making a living counting cards (exclusively). However, there are definitely plenty of counters who are earning nice supplemental incomes (upper 4 figure to mid 5 figure) from playing BJ. We don’t have very many who are regulars on this website though. Go to Wong’s Green Chip pages if you want to read about some of them.

Whether or not a card counter is successful depends completely on the person, not the system.

-Sonny-

[sagefr0g]

Originally Posted by Sonny

,,,,,

Whether or not a card counter is successful depends completely on the person, not the system.

-Sonny-

an article of interest that address's this fact....
http://www.bj21.com/bj_reference/pag...lligence.shtml

[Cardcounter]

If you consider a succesful card counter as somebody who could play 10,000 hands and after tipping still be ahead that would probably be 1 out of 500 players. If you consider a succesful card counter as somebody who makes millions of dollars a year of the game playing for high stakes that would probably be 1 out of a 1,000 card counters maybe more.

[eps6724]

It would depend on your defintion of 'comfortable'. Pavarotti was a 'Professional' and had a huge following and income. I make a living, and am comfortable with it, tho Pavarotti would choke.

I find much to think about in the above posts, but there seems to be one thing that is missing-that of the nuances. Sure, I can play perfect BS now, and I have my chosen count down pat. However, I keep learning things-these nuances-that keeps me from thinking I could ever be a 'professional'.

A case in point-I recently argued the idea of playing only + counts so that you might win more. Win more money, yes because of doubles and splits and BJ's. But taht was not my argument. I had misunderstood my reading to think that you would win more HANDS, therefore you could do well by just flat betting. I missed the nuances-you need at least a small spread to make any headway. When they were pointed out to me in a post that Sonny sent about hands played, it all made sense to me then. And I felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner.

My goal is not to make a living at this, I like my current job. My goal is to have a hobby that pays for itself and-truth be told-makes a tidy addition at the end of the year. And I will get to THAT point when I start looking at the nuances, seeing the 'small things' and not just the 'big picture'. And I give a lot of thanks for the membership here, who can help in that endeavor!