HOW TO PLAY CASINO BLACKJACK FOR PROFIT

1     Blackjack is the game also known as 21 or Pontoon.

1.1   The aim is to get a hand whose sum is 21, or as near 21 as possible, without going over.

1.2   Each player is dealt two cards.

1.3   You may request as many supplementary cards as you wish.

1.4   However, if the hand goes over 21, you “bust” and lose.

1.5   Picture cards are counted as ten: aces are one or eleven, as the player chooses.

1.6   The combination of a ten card and an ace is called a blackjack and, in most casinos, pays off two to one.

2     In casinos, all the gamblers play against the croupier.

2.1   Croupiers play to predetermined rules.

2.2   This allows gamblers to devise strategies which take those rules into account.

2.3   (For techniques, refer to Appendix A, Pro Blackjack.)

2.4   A skillful player with a suitable bankroll earns in the region of 100,000 dollars a year.

3     All profitable systems are dependent on the ignorance of the casino staff.

3.1   Where law does not prohibit it, gaming clubs will bar skillful players.

3.2   Where law prohibits exclusion on the basis of skill, the casino can make the game unprofitable by various means.

Disguise and deceit

4     To delay their exclusion, players ape the manners of foolish gamblers.

4.1   They crow about hunches: they agonize pitifully over choices which are actually predetermined.

4.2   “Picture!” they shout with the mob, and “Lucky seven!”

4.3   They have elaborate cover stories: play the oil tycoon, feign alcoholism, flaunt rabbit’s feet.

4.4   Nonetheless, they must play and vary the bet exactly as prescribed, and sooner or later, the security guards swoop.

5     Once a pro has been spotted, his photo goes into a file.

5.1   In some places, all the casinos share information. Thus, by one exposure, the player burns out an entire region.

5.2   After some years of play, the pro must alter his appearance regularly: grow beards, wear hats and specs, dye hair.

5.3   Most of the excitement and the lore of blackjack derives from this amateurish spy routine.

The Life

6     An average day:

Waking at noon, the player breakfasts at his cheap hotel. He (profession 90% male) then proceeds to the casino, where he plays cards all day. Lunch and dinner are in the casino restaurant. If there are other players in town, he may meet them after work to discuss blackjack. If not, he plays and plays, until he no longer trusts his judgment. Returning to his hotel, he soon falls asleep.

6.1   Dreams, in the main, center on blackjack.

7     Teams of players take all their meals together, and share rooms: saving on expenses is a crucial part of pro play.

7.1   When the casino finally bars the team, they exhibit hysterical glee.

7.2   In a mood of careless jollity, they fly to a new exotic city, where the identical routine begins de novo.

7.3   Casinos are open seven days a week.

8     It’s a boring job with long hours.

8.1   Professional blackjack players curse and hate their profession.

8.2   “When are we going to be replaced with trained monkeys? Roll on, the trained monkeys!”

9     Still, when pro gamblers leave the game, they will be found:

        •running racetrack betting schemes with computerized predictions

        •playing video poker machines, to an exact system

        •suing casinos which have illegally barred them

9.1   Denise had lived in this environment from age twelve.