A Little Confused

[Adampff]

Ok so I am 16 years old and I am in love with Blackjack. All I do is play and I am pretty familiar with the basic strategy. I recently saw the movie '21' and it got me interested in 'Counting Cards' I have been looking around and it seems the best system for a beginner to follow is the Hi Lo system, is this correct? Also I have a question about it. When the count is positive that is your best chance of winning correct? How do you know when you shoud be betting low and when you should be betting high? Thanks for the info...

Yes I know I am 16 and I have a few years to wait but hey, I might as well get started now.:laugh:


-Thanks

 

[Mixolydian87]

Well I guess being 16 you will have a lot of time to practice, but seeing a movie and just deciding to give counting a try is well....

I know you can't see, for instance I am a percussionist/music theorist, I worked hard in my life in our college drumlines to be top tier and its pretty retarted when some kid comes along and says I saw that movie "drumline" (which I think is total crap) "and I think I would like to be a drummer now", just deciding on a whim to take up something that takes dedication and hard work, it kind of cheapens it ya know?

Its not all fun and games, its hard work, and the mostly likely outcome is that you will not profit from it at all.

You wont make money like in the movie. In real life the MIT kids made money sure, but thats because they had big bank rolls to play around with, because they had investors, BTW the movie doesn't tell that story you have to read about that, and the group "strategic investments".

If you have 200 grand lying around and you master basic strategy index plays card counting maybe some advanced tech, maybe you might find it profitable

BTW
High counts mean the big cards are left in the deck, still left to be played.
This is good for the player in many ways.

1. More blackjacks (and blackjacks pay 3:2)
2. Dealer busts more often (which I have read but apparently has been dissproven on this site read around)
3. Better Double downs/payoffs
4. Adjusting your Basic strategy play based on the count (Index plays)

thats basically it, you have to read to understand at what point the count is actually to your advantage, dont just start counting and bet high when the counts positive....

sorry the answer wasn't "its easy and you can make millions with minimum practice" good luck.

 

[joe42]

Ok so I am 16 years old and I am in love with Blackjack. All I do is play and I am pretty familiar with the basic strategy. I recently saw the movie '21' and it got me interested in 'Counting Cards' I have been looking around and it seems the best system for a beginner to follow is the Hi Lo system, is this correct? Also I have a question about it. When the count is positive that is your best chance of winning correct? How do you know when you shoud be betting low and when you should be betting high? Thanks for the info...

Yes I know I am 16 and I have a few years to wait but hey, I might as well get started now.:laugh:


-Thanks

Yes, Hi Lo is a good way to start, and the basic method is to scale your bets higher as the count increases. Read around for more information.

But more importantly, you should see BJ as a good hobby, some entertainment, and maybe to make a few (small) bucks with. You'll do FAR, FAR better being properly educated and getting a "real" job.

Don't believe a thing you saw in 21. It's 100% fantasy. Even the real MIT team didn't do all that well, all told. Those kids would have made far more $ working in high-tech.

Enjoy BJ, but be sure to keep your priorities straight.

 

[Mixolydian87]

You can also try KO system, I found it quite easy to start off with.

I mean your already a beginner trying to keep BS in your head maybe some Index plays, then the count, and if your running hi-lo your also thinking how many card are in the shoe? My running count divided by my best guess into the shoe is the TC... what does that mean for me?

Few more steps in the hi-lo I would think....
Look around, idk i like KO.

 

[zengrifter]

Well I guess being 16 you will have a lot of time to practice, but seeing a movie and just deciding to give counting a try is well...

Thats when I started! zg

 

[kewljason]

nice post

just wanted to say, mixolydian87, that I thought your initial response in this thread was excellent. I disagree that you have to have 200K lying around to make this game profitable, but at least you didnt sugarcoat it.

It def seems like there are more newbies posting since the movie hit in the spring to me. I could be wrong though. It may be that I'm reading the boards more often than I used too.

How did you start playing at 16 zen? casino's were more lacks with the age law back then? just courious.

 

[Sonny]

When the count is positive that is your best chance of winning correct?

Well, yes and no. You will be winning more money in high counts but you will still be losing the majority of the hands you play. Don't expect to win every hand just because the count gets high. You're still going to lose most of the time, but the money will add up.

How do you know when you shoud be betting low and when you should be betting high?

Look through the Free Counting Resources thread. Read everything there, specifically the Gamemaster articles. The Frequently Asked Questions thread also has some information on this.

-Sonny-

 

[callipygian]

Yes I know I am 16 and I have a few years to wait but hey, I might as well get started now.:laugh:

My advice? Stop thinking about card counting and focus on your education for four years. Kick ass in school, get into a kick-ass college, kick some more ass, and when you graduate from Harvard in three years summa cum laude with a double concentration, use your leverage to negotiate four weeks of vacation at your cushy job, then use your $20,000 signing bonus as your blackjack bankroll.

Blackjack is a lot of fun. Card counting is a lot of fun. But all things considered, if you can make $20/hr playing blackjack, you probably have the resources and intelligence to make $20/hr doing something else with a lot less effort.

Even the real MIT team didn't do all that well, all told. Those kids would have made far more $ working in high-tech.

Those kids did end up making far more at real jobs. I think a few have made a significant amount off of the book and various promotions or speaking engagements, and one runs a blackjack school. But most of the team members took their computer science or engineering degrees and became normal people with a great party story to tell. Nobody is relaxing in the Bahamas living off of their blackjack earnings.

I'm guessing Ben Mezrich made more money than any of the blackjack players he wrote about. Even the greatest names in blackjack - Stanford Wong, Arnold Snyder, Peter Griffin, etc - made far more money selling books than playing blackjack. So while there may be people who have made millions off of card counting, it's more likely that they've made it off of publishers than casinos.