You know what, playing on a team is not easy and most who do it will fail for one reason or another. Lets be honest, so will most individual counters trying to do it on their own. Its just the way it is and there is no magic way to make it happen any other way. Its easier to talk about what it takes to win at blackjack then to actually do it. I see so many that get fired up with delusions of grandeur after reading some romanticized books about counting, or feeling the same way after watching something like the movie 21. As I have said before, counting is no thrill ride, its work. It doesn't mean you can't like the work, but that should be the attitude taken if you want to seriously make money. I am not even talking millions here, I am talking just winning. If its the thrill of the gamble, the adrenaline rush of a big bet, the idea of you against the man thats leading you to count, forget it, you won't last. With all those emotions also comes the crushing feeling of losing when you feel you should be winning. Thats all nonsense. Peoples emotions lead to failure as much as inability to perform what they know in actual casino conditions. I love adrenaline rushes, but blackjack ain't it. I get my thrills outside the casino, as do a lot that actually really play the game for profit. Inside the casino its just work with good days and bad days. If you really know what you're doing you can financially weather the bad, and eventually enjoy more of the good. Pretty simple. As with a team, it should be run as a business. And as with any business if not properly run or funded it will fail. If done correctly it will succeed. Of course it takes trust, as does any endeavor not soley taken will, as well as skill.
The bottomline is it has nothing to do with a certain system being obsolete. That is absurd because a good team can adapt to any style of play in accordance to condition in which they are playing. This means that many forms of play are used, some even unaware to most. It has nothing to do with a failure using a hierarchy approach to the team, as I said, if run like a business most business have different levels of employment and pay grade and they operate just fine. Some like the fact that all they have to do is show up and play and get paid without having to do any of the leg work. Its really just like most employees that have the luxury of not having to take their job home with them. Of course there can be teams where all are equal, but its just a matter of preference on team policy, not a mandatory formula of success or failure.
Temptations, cheating, stealing, yada, yada, yada. Its all part of life. As with life all you need to know with such things is how to handle the situations as they arise. We don't live in bubbles so we are not immune to the undesireable things we encounter, but how you handle it will determine your success as much as anything else you learn. You do have the power to minimize that which may do you harm, its sometimes not easy though, and that is in itself the main problem. Counters and counting teams fail because blackjack and gambling are ingrained as recreational activities at best. When it becomes hard and in need of discipline, its not fun. So be it, but as I have learned, recreation and fun usually cost, while work will usually earn. I love to play, but as I said before I get my kicks outside of the casino.
