BlackJack - Advance playing techniques for double deck

There are books out there that teach you how to lose 1/2 a bet per hour. If that's your goal stop reading this and buy those books.

And then there is the classic approach to card counting. Supposedly the MIT folks made this famous - but they and Hollywood are liars. No big deal. I lie all the time when folks ask me questions they have no business asking. For whatever reason people will ask a gambler things they would never ask anyone else. Screw them I lie. I move that decimal point all over the place. No big deal. lying is easier than refusing to answer.

If you want to believe the MIT method of card counting here is the catch. With $10,000 and no deviation from the plan, you will make $10.00 per hour. Who the fuck walks into a casino with $10,000 and goals to make $10.00 per hour? Now if you walk into a casino with $4,000 your goal would have to be $4.00 per hour. But wait a minute your low betting limit would be below the houses minimum bet. So they got you beat already. Now that the casinos had time to reflect on the "MIT Method" it's no wonder they just don't care as much about card counters as they use to. Hollywood and the liars from MIT did them a favor. They sent fools down the wrong path in learning how to beat the house. I'm not saying the folks at MIT can't card count. I'm just saying they lied on their methodology of card counting. And I ain't going to tell you how too either.

Teach yourself.

The way to learn how to play blackjack is to learn how to teach yourself. I usually play at the two deck tables in Downtown Vegas. Learning how to play at these casinos requires that you buy two decks of cards. Are you with me so far?

Take those cards and remove all the 2,3,4 Take the remaining cards and shuffle them. Now take 10 cards at random from the remaining card pile and add it to the 2,3,4 pile. This is important. When your sitting at the blackjack table - you know, but you don't know what's in the deck. Don't make the mistake of training with all precise answers, or you will be sitting at the table staring at the lights trying to calculate the wrong answer to the third decimal in your head. You're teaching yourself both how to play with various ratios of cards within a deck and how to recognize what those ratios are when playing. You should have 34 cards in your new deck. Practice repeatedly with this deck.

Repeat this process this time isolating the 4,5,6. Repeat that with 7,8,9. Repeat that with face cards. Repeat it again with low card and face cards. Repeat it again with every off balance ratio you can think of.

You will see a pattern - With some decks the dealer is more likely to bust than with other decks.

Now repeat the process again and play against the dealer.

Again you will see a pattern. With some decks you are more likely to win than with other decks.

Next you need to learn how to recognize what the ratio of cards are with the dealers remaining cards. To do this repeat the whole process again. This time take your discard pile a quickly deal them up. Put them aside and now go back to practicing your playing technique and betting strategy. You ain't done yet. You have to do everything again and again and again.

Next step is to buy a whole lot more deck of cards. Combine the the decks in twos and repeat the process of separating the cards within each of your double decks for every card ratio you have practiced. Now deal the cards up quickly from the discard pile and then put those aside - guess which ratio of cards you have selected in the remaining cards to be dealt. Do this for every double deck you have over and over and over again and again until your able to recognize the ratio of cards in the playing by reviewing the disk card pile.

Now take a fresh whole double deck and practice. Hopefully you know when to bet large, when to bet small, when to play your cards aggressively, and when to be conservative. Just keep practicing.

In blackjack the house has a .5% to 1% advantage. It varies from casino to casino because they all have their own little twist to the rules.

Guess why I like Fremont Street Casinos?

Now if you play by "the book" you will lose that .5 to 1% over the long run. But believe me that number of hands add up fast. Most people are not discipline enough to play strictly by "the book" and more importantly than all these things. The Casino can live through a 10 hand losing streak - Can you? Believe it or not if you play all weekend you will play enough hands to have a 50% of losing ten hands in a row.

But don't lose faith. the Casino is expected to win about 52 hands for your 48. There are places in America where it rains 48 days out of 100. Despite these odds no Sportbook is crazy enough to except bets on whether it will rain or not. By teaching yourself how to play blackjack you will come to understand that a deck of cards has seasons. A "good" table is not the one where everyone is happy. The table with the pissed of players are playing against a deck with sharp seasons. They win 4 in a row lose 4 in a row, and are getting slaughter. For most people seasons are the kiss of death, because human nature draws people into a progressive betting scheme of increasing the wager during the drought and cutting back the bets during the rainy season.

Blackjack is all about understanding the seasons before you place your bet. Bet large during the 49 day rainy season and small during the 52 day drought. As a rule of thumb when you are betting large you are are betting that the dealer will bust - in turn you should be playing your hand conservatively. When you are betting small, you are betting that the dealer won't bust - now you should be playing your hand more aggressively.

Rather than a million posts and 100s of bad books of BS crap that only models the Hollywood movies. The only real way to learn how to properly play the blackjack seasons is to teach yourself how to card count. I hope you will learn in the process why progressive betting is BAD BAD BAD. 10 loses in a row - it does happen. Bet big when your likely to win. Bet small when your likely to lose. Play conservative when the dealer is likely to bust. Push your luck when the dealer is likely to pull it off. Sometimes you hit on a 13 against a 3 and sometimes you stand. Don't bet based on whether you won or lost the hands before.

I will say just one thing. If nothing else when your practice blackjack hopefully you will learn why progressive betting is the kiss of death. If you're in Key West and it has been sunny for 5 straight days would bet 35 times your bet you placed at the beginning of the losing streak that it will rain tomorrow? If you are a progressive gambler you lost 1, 2, 4, 9, 20 or 36 total. So do you bet 40 that it will rain, after all it rains 180 days a year at Key West? If it didn't rain for 5 straight days - It's February you stupid shit. The middle of the dry season. Don't think I'm digressing from card counting - THIS IS IMPORTANT - Do not bet progressively irregardless of the card count!!!! Human nature is a powerful thing. It will break you if you give it a chance.

So now you are ready to play. Now comes the frustrating part. In all your practicing you have been playing against an imaginary casino. You will soon find out that the real casino is also playing against you. Now that you're a real card counter. You'll soon find out what I mean. They will start card counting too. If the casino deals 3/4 of the deck and buries the final 1/4 despite not pulling the Red marker. It's a bad sign. Don't fight it - go home and practice your techniques for flying under the radar. Step number 1) stop behaving like a sociopath. Its your personality that tips them off, not your card counting skills.