By now it has become the ultimate cliché but like most clichés it's worth repeating—gambling is streaky. Therefore, to avoid being wiped out during a cold streak, the astute gambler must have enough of a bankroll to weather the storms of negativity that ultimately come his way. In video blackjack, a total bankroll of 200 times your maximum bet should be enough to sustain you through even the worst negative fluctuations. Of course, if you are playing a negative-expectancy machine that even with card counting and proper strategy yields less than you put in—for example, one where the machine keeps all pushes and pays two/or one at blackjack—no money management can help you overcome the odds. The negative storms will ultimately swallow you.

However, there is no reason to play such machines since there are many decent video-blackjack games around. Even on some of the otherwise negative machines, card counting can give the skillful player a slight edge—or at least an even game. Just as in video-poker, the rules and paybacks determine which machines are worthwhile bets. However, unlike video poker, where more advanced analysis is necessary to determine the percentage edge on a machine, the video-blackjack machines reveal their secrets even to the non-mathematician. Just use the information in this book concerning rule variations to determine just what games are worth playing. Add the proper points when the rule or option favors the player, subtract the proper points when it favors the casinos. In this way, you can determine the house edge on all but the most obscure video-blackjack machines. With proper play and casino comps, many machines are a worthwhile gamble—indeed, some are better than their table-game cousins!

• Blackjack Introduction (0)
• Blackjack Heat Radar Part3 (0)
• Blackjack Heat Radar (0)

The key to winning money in traditional blackjack play is to bet more when the count favors you, bet less when it doesn't. You can do this on machines that deal more than one round. Bet the minimum number of coins on the first round and in all negative counts and the maximum number of coins in any positive count.

On single-round machines, you should bet whatever you are comfortable with and use your card counting skills and basic strategy variations to get a small edge.

• Money Management At Video Blackjack (0)
• Blackjack Introduction (0)
• Blackjack Heat Radar Part3 (0)

Heat is when a pit boss or floorman instructs the dealer to shuffle up on you, or to center-cut the next shoe. If this is the first time this has happened, you might continue playing, even through a few of these shallowly dealt shoes, as the pit may simply be testing you to see if this appears to bother you. This, however, is a countermeasure that literally kills your chances of profiting from that shoe, and it also sends a fairly strong message that your play is not trusted.

This may be less a test than a message that the boss has already made a decision about you. It may be the wisest decision for you to casually leave, and simply avoid playing whenever this boss is in the pit. Most experienced pros can tell when a shuffle-up is a test or a message. If you can't tell, then you've got to make a decision. Do you want to try to play through this intense surveillance, to see if you can stay in the game? If you do just get up and leave that might affirm their suspicions. How you handle this situation depends on many factors: Are you staying at this casino? Are you a comped guest? Do they know who you are? Did you get a player's card with your real name on it?

If you are just another face in the crowd, not a guest at their hotel, not known by name, you might find it best to hit the road quickly, and avoid that boss, that pit, and that shift, for some time in the future. If you are a known entity, then you may have to deal with the consequences sooner or later, especially if you are a comped guest.

Heat is when someone who isn't playing (and sometimes more than one), appears to take a strong interest in your play from behind you or manages to get into your line of sight just enough for you to know that you are under rather intense surveillance. This could be an even more unsettling variation of the pit boss glare, or if you are a high roller, this surveillance may be done with a lighter touch. The casino person observing you may even pose as another player at your table, betting the minimum, not saying very much. But somehow, you just know he was sent to watch your game, watch your eyes, and watch your bets and decisions. If you decide to call it quits, leave as casually as you can.

Heat is when you are personally told that your play is being restricted in any way—possibly your betting spread, or the maximum amount you may bet. If this type of countermeasure follows you around from table to table, assume that the jig is up. You have been identified as a counter.

• Blackjack Heat Radar (0)
• Money Management At Video Blackjack (0)
• Blackjack Introduction (0)

A floorman scribbling notes while looking at a table is generally of no significance as far as heat goes. One of the floorman's jobs is to estimate the average bet size of the big players, and he will regularly walk from table to table to calculate an average. The casinos use this information primarily to "rate" players for comps. At the black chip level of play, most players will be asked repeatedly if they would like a VIP card, which would require the player to give his name and address, and allows the casino to keep track of and rate his play. This rating system is how the casino determines what sort of comps to award; many casinos not only rate a big player's level of action, but they also do a "skills check" specifically to look for signs of card counting.

So, far be it from me to advise a player spreading from one green chip to five blacks to disregard his paranoia. At that level of play, you must be paranoid to survive. And, you must move around frequently to stay under the radar. A more aggressive counter would probably not leave the table in the midst of a high count, unless asked to leave. A more cautious counter would choose to avoid any kind of confrontation if he felt one was coming, and would leave the moment it crossed his mind.

A pit boss or floorman coming over to your table to talk with you, if you are playing at this level, is entirely normal. Any player betting black action should expect this. After all, you are a major customer to them, so they will try to be friendly and personable.
But let's define various types of real heat.

Heat is when a pit boss or floorman starts to obviously glare at you. This type of heat generally means that they're watching you, and are checking to see if direct surveillance unnerves, flusters, or convinces you to leave. The worst reaction to this type of heat, as you might assume, is to act nervous, and the most obvious sign that you are nervous would be your failure to look back at them, pretending not to notice. If you casually and naturally leave the table, without showing any other sign of nervousness, this may get you off the hook. The best reaction, however, is to look back at them, and if the glare continues, to strike up a conversation, ask for something, be friendly—ask for information about the showroom, or a dinner comp, whatever. If a boss who has been glaring at you reaches for his phone, or is talking on the phone, you should assume that you are, or have been, or will soon be, under eye-in-the-sky surveillance. Not a good sign.

But this is also not necessarily bad. It may be that the boss suspects you and wants the eye to watch your play. For the next shoe or two it would be a great time to play with utter disregard for the count so that their skills-check shows you to be no threat. Most pros develop a hyper-awareness to attitudes in the pit, and to any attention being paid to them by pit personnel.

• Blackjack Heat Radar Part3 (0)
• Blackjack Heat Radar (0)

If you are going to get away with counting at high stakes, you must be sensitive to "heat." More and more these days, counters are identified by electronic surveillance, but there is almost always some sign that the guys on the floor suspect something before the heat comes down. This is a letter I received from a player a few years ago:

How does a card counter know when he's getting heat? I play at moderate to high stakes ($25 -$500), but I've only been doing this for a short time—a few weekend trips so far. I get very nervous whenever the pit boss seems to be looking at me, or even in the direction of my table. I do try to be friendly toward the bosses and floormen, and I believe I act like nothing is bothering me, but I often have the urge to bolt out of there as soon as any conversation with pit personnel is over. I feel like they are also just acting nonchalant when they're actually scrutinizing my play. A few times I have left tables for no other reason than the floorman came over and watched my table for a while, scribbling notes. I feel like he's recording what I'm doing and that I'd better leave before his notes get too detailed. I've walked out on a number of pretty decent games, and it irritates me whenever I feel I must do this when the count is high. I haven't had any trouble so far, but am I being too cautious? It sure would be nice to relax a bit more and hang in there when I've got an otherwise profitable situation.

I suspect that this player was being overly cautious, but I can't know for sure, not without having seen for myself if he actually had reason to feel uncomfortable. He might've loosened up just a bit and gotten barred. Perhaps his radar is working perfectly. Also, as I have never observed his casino play, I really can't judge if his style of betting is too obvious, or his demeanor too telling. Some players project their paranoia, and this in itself makes casino personnel suspicious.

Any player who bets in the $25 to $500 range may expect to draw pit attention and should assume that the eye in the sky is monitoring him. Once a blackjack player's bets go into the $100+ range he becomes a serious concern to the pit. Their primary concern with big players, however, is that they keep them as customers. They do not automatically assume such players are card counters, and most are not—most are actually big losers.

• Blackjack Heat Radar Part3 (0)
• Money Management At Video Blackjack (0)
• Blackjack Introduction (0)

I'm going to show you how to beat the casinos at blackjack. This is something I know intimately, because I have been doing it for 30 years. I've also spent the past 25 years teaching other players how to beat the casinos. I'm on a mission. I can't help myself! It's not that I hate the casino industry; I just love taking their money. There's nothing more fun than walking out of a casino with a few thousand more bucks in your pockets than you walked in with. Free money! Watch out! It's addictive! It makes you wonder why anyone goes to work at a regular job.

The only reason you're not doing this right now is that you don't know how to do it yet. Maybe you've read other books on card counting, and you can't figure out why it's not working. Read this book. I guarantee you this book is different. You're going to find a lot of information here you won't find in any of the other books, including all the books by self-proclaimed "experts" who have never in their lives filed their taxes as professional gamblers. They're hack writers, hack mathematicians, and hack blackjack players. Read this book. I wish I had this book when I started playing in 1977.1 would have gotten out of my post office job a lot sooner!

I have completely revised and updated Blackbelt in Blackjack to conform to today's games and have included information I have never before revealed to a general audience.
This book is a step-by-step complete course on how to beat the casinos at blackjack. Everything you need to know to win money at the game, from the basics of play and the rules of the game, to the most advanced systems used by the pros—it's all within these pages. You'll learn playing strategies, basic and advanced betting techniques, optimal single and multiple-deck play, simple card counting systems you can use to beat most games, plus advanced techniques known only by a handful of pros.

To guide you on your way, I have divided the book into three sections to help your progression from amateur play right up to the top pro level. There are many secrets revealed in these pages that the casinos don't want you to know, and for good reason: They are the strategies professionals use to make their living at the casinos' expense!

In the first section, Earning Your White Belt, we cover the rules and basics of blackjack, and why you can beat the game—with the odds! You'll also learn the basic strategies needed to beat single and multiple-deck games, plus easy-to-use card-counting strategies that are perfect for the realistic conditions you'll actually face in the casinos. You'll learn about the Red Seven, Hi-Lo Lite, and Zen counts, simple ways to increase your edge against the casino, table conditions that influence profit margins, and key bankrolling decisions that are vital to your success.

In the second section, Earning Your Green Belt, we take an in-depth look at professional betting strategies as well as table-hopping, playing multiple hands, and the principles the pros use to decrease flux. We also cover depth-charging, opposition betting, deception, camouflage, surviving surveillance, and more insider secrets.

The third section, Earning Your Black Belt, is for the very serious player. The key topics here are known by few players and are covered in great detail: shuffle tracking, team play and all the issues associated with it—the gorilla (big player), bankroll risks, polygraph testing, investment deals, spotter teams, casinos that cheat, traveling with cash, milking the casino comps, and much more—plus the many secrets professional players use to remain anonymous in the casinos that would bar them from play if they knew who they were.

Remarkably, more than forty years after Edward O. Thorp's Beat the Dealer (1962) was published, the game of casino blackjack offers greater profit opportunities to intelligent players than at any time in the history of the game. Few would have predicted this back in 1962, when the only state in the union where you could legally play casino blackjack was Nevada, and blackjack was a distant second to craps in popularity. But, Ed Thorp didn't just write a book in 1962; he transformed an industry and altered the consciousness of literally millions of casino players throughout the world.

If you're a serious blackjack player who wants to beat the casinos for serious money; if you're considering a career as a professional player, this is the book for you. Let's get started.

• Money Management At Video Blackjack (0)
• Blackjack Heat Radar Part3 (0)
• Blackjack Heat Radar (0)