How I Became a Card Counter
by Rob McGarvey
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When I think back to how I got around to becoming a card counter I have to wonder how many people continue to play games that can't be beaten. Oh, I know, anyone can win at the different games, but someone who spends serious time playing games will eventually succumb to the mathematics of the house advantage and pay for their entertainment. I was headed in that direction when I began frequenting the new casinos in Ontario. I bucked the odds of the Roulette wheel with a few systems and was lucky to have a bad streak take the wind out of my sails without taking all of the money out of my pockets I had been lucky enough to win. I realized I had some studying to do. Since I love to read to learn new ideas, I made a trip to a book store in a mall I go to lunch in from time to time.
I picked up a book called The New Gambler's Bible. From that book I learned there are two groups of games. They were grouped into type L games for games you eventually L-ose, and type W games, games you can learn to W-in that do not have a fixed set of odds that keep taking paper out of your wallet. I read all about systems and progressions used on the type L games and learned the simple truth that you can't beat fixed odds, period. What drew my attention was the other games that could be beaten. There are only four of them. Thoroughbred Horse Racing, Sports Betting, Poker, and Blackjack. I narrowed my choice down to Blackjack for two big reasons. I didn't want to spend the hundreds of hours required to keep track of every player on every team of a particular sport, or all the horses that run track and do all the handicapping required to determine the betting of the horse races. I ruled out poker as well, at least to a second pick since I do like the game. The thing I don't like about poker is I do not like dishonest people, and a big part of poker is being dishonest, a psychological part of the game. They are not cheating, just trying to trick each other into making mistakes.
This left me with Blackjack. When I read all the rules of proper play I couldn't believe how complicated the game was compared to the way my Father taught me to play it. "Hit until you have 17 or more and then stand". Great idea if you want to give about 3% of every bet you will make away. The two big things I had to learn were Basic Strategy and Card Counting. I put the Basic Strategy on a Q-card and memorized that. The card count was really quite easy. I always thought card counting was some kind of genius level memory trick to learn. When I saw that it was only keeping track of the difference in the number of 10s in the decks I knew I could do this! The only disappointing thing about all of this was that the book put a damper on my new excitement by saying a person was lucky if they could gain a 1% advantage this way. Oh well, that was still better than having a disadvantage.
I began to play in charity clubs with a minimum $1 bet and found I was making about $6+ an hour. I moved up to bigger bets and the ratio held. When I was betting $5-$10 I was making about $35 an hour. I knew I was on to something. My studying didn't stop there. I went to a huge bookstore in Toronto and bought "Million Dollar Blackjack". This has got to be the ultimate book about Blackjack. The information is total, and at first, a little deep for me. As I read it over and over, and played for hours and hours, the book began to come alive. No, this is not a ghost story. I was beginning to understand the book through my experiences. I began to try some of the more tricky plays and pull them off.
I found a few sites on the internet that explained that most of the advantage a person could gain beyond Basic Strategy was held within ten or so advanced plays and made up flash cards to memorize them. I learned how to use flash cards from the Million Dollar Blackjack book and this completed my entire arsenal. I wanted to master a more advanced count and tried the APC in the book. I found it too hard to play and dropped back to my Hi-Low count with my advanced plays.
I played and read on. The next book I bought was "The World's Greatest Blackjack Book". I learned the Hi Opt I count from this book. It was easier than the Hi-Low I was using and I got used to side counting Aces. I had heard about the Hi Opt II from the MDB book and that it was as good as the APC. I found the difference was in the way the 4, 5, and 10 cards were counted. The 7 was also counted, and this made sense since it is almost as valuable as the 2 card. I began to learn the Hi Opt II.
My winnings became substantial. I knew I had reached the place I wanted to be. There was no way for me to go back to the wonder of believing in some magic system that was going to make me rich. That fantasy was so exciting and I miss it. It is a little more work to count cards, but I have always enjoyed a challenge. Walking out of a casino with a pocket full of $25 and $100 chips has made up for losing my belief in magic.
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