If you were 18..

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Shwam

Active Member
I PM'ed a few senior members, but throwing this out to the community.

I have been practicing blackjack for about 2 years now, have made basic strategy a reflex and can maintain a hi/lo count with TC conversions at any blackjack table, just working on indices now (I18 + Fab4 any others?)

I'm still pretty young, 18, and want to get the Most blackjack experience / practice / everything now. So far I have a strong hold on blackjack, but just want to learn more.

Any Suggestions, if you were in my shoes what you would do?
 
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rukus

Well-Known Member
Shwam said:
I PM'ed a few senior members, but throwing this out to the community.

I have been practicing blackjack for about 2 years now, have made basic strategy a reflex and can maintain a hi/lo count with TC conversions at any blackjack table, just working on indices now (I18 + Fab4 any others?)

I'm still pretty young, 18, and want to get the Most blackjack experience / practice / everything now. So far I have a strong hold on blackjack, but just want to learn more.

Any Suggestions, if you were in my shoes what you would do?
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seems like you have the counting mechanics down. i would say next step is learning about bet/bankroll management and risk of ruin.
 
sagefr0g

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
Shwam said:
I PM'ed a few senior members, but throwing this out to the community.
Click to expand...
"Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter end."
Shwam said:
I have been practicing blackjack for about 2 years now, have made basic strategy a reflex and can maintain a hi/lo count with TC conversions at any blackjack table, just working on indices now (I18 + Fab4 any others?)
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this is good, real good and your just 18. quick nimble mind. wish i could say that lol. hi/lo is cool i think. and the I18 + Fab4 are cool as well.
three biggies are basic strategy, keeping the count and betting.
so maybe betting is the next thing for you to understand and to become accomplished at. concurent with betting your going to want to understand bankroll management. thats stuff like bet spread, bet ramp, proportional and optimal betting, kelley betting, risk of ruin, standard deviation and then you want to understand how certain game attributes affect your chances. game attributes such as what does a blackjack pay, DAS (double after split), NDAS, RSA (resplit aces or not), LSR (late surrender), SR (early surrender if such a thing even exists), is the game s17 or h17 (dealer stand on soft 17 or hit) and the number of decks in the pack to be dealt. these attributes all contribute to the games edge.
so if you haven't already those are some more things to come to grips with.

Shwam said:
I'm still pretty young, 18, and want to get the Most blackjack experience / practice / everything now. So far I have a strong hold on blackjack, but just want to learn more.

Any Suggestions, if you were in my shoes what you would do?
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thats cool. heck i'm almost 60 and only just played my first blackjack game i think it was about three years ago. when i was younger i heard about Thorpe and how blackjack could be beat. just never had the ambition to learn about it back then. i wish i had. so heck if your really interested in it why not go for it?
well there are plenty of books and software to help you learn more.
Get the Edge at Blackjack John May (good overall picture)
Professional Blackjack Stanford Wong (great for hi/lo)
Blackjack Attack Don Shlesinger (kind of advanced sort of)
Blackbelt in Blackjack Arnold Snyder (various count systems & info)
those four books i wouldn't want to part with lol.
then there is loads of stuff on the internet. all you really need if your good at piecing stuff together and have critical thinking skills. here is one fantastic link: http://www.blackjackincolor.com/
and then software.
two of my favorites are from our own contributers here at blackjackinfo.com.
those being QFIT's cvbj & cvcx. realistic blackjack game play & game simulator. i won't even try and describe the litany of charts, graphs, calculators, practice drills, et al that QFIT's software provides.
i also have k_c's Blackjack Game and Probability Computer software.
with this software you can delve the mysteries of basic strategy and counting comming up with total dependent expected values for any combination of player and dealer cards and any shoe state or play a blackjack game and let your imagination go wild lol.

so i probably left a whole buch of stuff out. but i'd just say one thing more about blackjack. that being just know it takes a lot of money to risk if your going to take a shot at this game. i guess a lot of folks would disagree with me but i'll just say there is an element of a gamble involved with all this.
you could lose a lot of money. it takes a lot of money to have a decent chance to work your way to getting ahead of the game. you could lose it all trying.
so good luck to you.
 
K

Kasi

Well-Known Member
Shwam said:
Any Suggestions, if you were in my shoes what you would do?
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Pretty much agree with what Sagefrog and ruckus said.

Do you have any software to play or practice on? Something like CVBJ maybe? It's just a tool to verify what your accuracy rate may be, allows drills, etc - you can play alot of hands under alot of conditions and know where any mistakes may be.

Like how do you currently know now what if any errors you may be making? Not that I doubt you in any way lol. But with stuff like that you can practice flooring TC's or not, set up bet strategies and index stuff at various TC's and see how often you're right etc. Might be worth the $100 as an investment over a lifetime nayway, if not now maybe later.

But, more important, is having some idea anyway of what to expect from how you choose to bet your money in whatever game. All that EV, variance and risk stuff that one gets from sims and why different spreads will change all that.

If you feel like it, have some fun betting to a $100K roll in the weekend warrior thread and see what's involved. Probably tough to do with no practice software lol but you could even use the BS trainer here I think (with some adjustments) lol.

All it basically is is just counting and betting the "proper" amount at the right TC. And learning what your EV is and how likely losing or winning over how long is etc.

Even if you don't play maybe you'll ahve alot more questions lol.
 
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mdlbj

Well-Known Member
Learn CE plays not I18. Also study money management.

Buy some chips be the dealer keep the count add the card totals do payouts and do the TC conversions as well as adjust your bet according to the TC. Oh and play at least 4 hands out in a minute..

Best of luck.

Shwam said:
I PM'ed a few senior members, but throwing this out to the community.

I have been practicing blackjack for about 2 years now, have made basic strategy a reflex and can maintain a hi/lo count with TC conversions at any blackjack table, just working on indices now (I18 + Fab4 any others?)

I'm still pretty young, 18, and want to get the Most blackjack experience / practice / everything now. So far I have a strong hold on blackjack, but just want to learn more.

Any Suggestions, if you were in my shoes what you would do?
Click to expand...
 
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EasyRhino

EasyRhino

Well-Known Member
Interesting, I hadn't looked at the CE-18 before. What's curious is the * on doubling a 10v10. "Only double when playing two hands or when playing one hand and maxed out.". I don't get it, why does that matter?

I agree with cardcounter0's idea.
 
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callipygian

Well-Known Member
Honestly? The best thing you can do is work your ass off at establishing your real career - the one you're going to be doing for life.

Even if you want to make your money in cards someday, you need a bankroll. And that means having a job that doesn't suck. You're not going to put together a good bankroll pouring lattes at Starbucks, so get cracking.
 
K

Kasi

Well-Known Member
callipygian said:
Honestly? The best thing you can do is work your ass off at establishing your real career - the one you're going to be doing for life.

Even if you want to make your money in cards someday, you need a bankroll. And that means having a job that doesn't suck. You're not going to put together a good bankroll pouring lattes at Starbucks, so get cracking.
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Yeah, really, that is the absolute best advice of all!
 
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BJinNJ

Well-Known Member
Consider the military...

A kid I work with is looking into joining the USAF.
He says they're offering a $20K bonus to sign on now,
as well as matching college savings and $2K/mo pay.
(A LOT more than when I was in the USAF)

You get $10K of the bonus after basic training for an
instant BR, and the rest after 3 yrs. Try to get a station
near casinos, like Keesler, Barksdale, Edwards, Nellis.
You can also get a start on a good career, when they aren't
shooting at you. :eek:

BJinNJ :cool:
 
B

BJinNJ

Well-Known Member
Thinking back on the USAF...

it was one of my buddies in the USAF that first interested
me in learning about BJ/counting.

And $2K/mo was officer's pay back then. I was stationed in
Biloxi in the late 1980s, before the casinos came in. There
be rednecks not too far off base. :eyepatch:

BJinNJ :cool:
 
C

callipygian

Well-Known Member
EasyRhino said:
And wear a uniform when you're counting cards, and no one will have the balls to throw you out!
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This is an incredibly interesting proposition. Let's say you were able to procure several military (or military-looking) uniforms. How long could a group of people be able to brazenly play a BP team game before a pit boss decides that "they're bleeding us dry" outweighs "I hate America and I ban military personnel from the casino"?
 
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