- Hey guys, this is Colin from Blackjack Apprenticeship,
and I wanna spend some time talking about
some of the most common mistakes
that I find new card counters making.
(mellow music)
So I've been training people quite a while now
at card counting.
And these are some of the most common things
that either I've tried to do,
or had to learn from,
or a lot of the things that I find when I'm training people
or even reading YouTube comments or whatever.
And the first one
is people choosing too complex of a card counting system.
So, there are a lot of counts out there
and you can think, "Hey, if I choose
the most complicated count,
like hi-opt 2 with an Ace side count,
then I'm really going to make the money."
But my advice for you is learn Hi-Lo.
And don't just take my word for it.
You could ask Richard Munchkin,
who is a brilliant advantage player.
You can ask pretty much any pro
and they're going to say just use Hi-Lo.
It's what all the major teams,
the MIT team, the Highlanders,
the teams that I've run, the church team,
it's what we've all used.
We've been very successful at it.
And I think just sticking with Hi-Lo, and mastering it,
getting fast at it, getting efficient at it,
that's going to be much better
than spending an extra one or 200 hours
learning a more complicated count.
While you spent that extra one or 200 hours
learning hi-opt 2 with an ace side count,
I maybe just went out
and generated $50,000 of EV with Hi-Lo,
because I was able to master it so much faster
and even play more rounds per hour doing it.
So, a second common mistake
that I find with new card counters
is using too much cover.
So here's what happens.
Someone takes the time to learn and master card counting,
and they think, "I don't want
to just get kicked out of every casino using this."
And so there's the thought of,
"well, if I use some cover,
some betting covers, some cover plays,
then I won't get found out as a card counter."
But here's the problem.
We're playing with about a 1% edge
and those playing mistakes add up.
We're playing with too small of an edge
to worry about using incorrect strategies.
And here's what I'd really challenge you with
as a card counter or an advantage player,
is don't care more about heat than you care about EV.
If you're spending your time worrying about
not getting kicked out,
there's a good chance
that you're actually not going to be making any money.
If your goal is to spend lots of hours in a casino,
fine, go for it.
If your goal is to make money,
you gotta care more about generating EV
than worrying about heat.
I'll just put it this way.
The most profitable card counters I know
all use little to no camouflage.
That means no playing camo
and little to no betting camouflage.
And these are people betting
up to thousands of dollars a hand.
So, if you want to imitate them,
do yourself a favor and don't worry about
using all this playing camouflage.
The third common mistake I find with new card carriers
is overestimating or over-betting their advantage.
So yes, we make real money by putting bets out there
in positive true counts,
but if you're over betting,
you are going to lose your bankroll.
And another way people overestimate their advantage
is at a true one.
So we start to get the edge at a true one or around there,
depending on the casino's rules,
but it's a small edge right there at a true one.
And you don't want to just start firing large bets
out of true one.
That is the surest way to lose a large portion
of your bankroll.
Another way people overestimate their edge
is by not really understanding
where their advantage comes from.
So some people think, "If I use a really complicated count
with a whole bunch of deviations,
I'm going to make tons of money."
And feel free to use a complicated count,
and there's nothing wrong with learning extra deviations,
but the real edge comes from a perfect count
that you implement perfectly with a well-managed bankroll
and bet-spread, and getting those hours in.
If you don't manage your bankroll properly,
if you don't have perfect skills,
you will lose money no matter what extra things
you try to add to your game,
like complicated deviations and complicated cover.
What you really need to focus on
as an early card counter,
is perfect play, perfect bankroll management
and getting in those hours.
Another common mistake I find with new card counters
is playing through negative counts.
And I guarantee some of you watching this
are cringing when I say this,
'cause you don't wanna hear it.
But I say this all the time at our bootcamps
and at Blackjack Apprenticeship:
We're not there to play blackjack.
We're not at the casinos
to play lots of rounds of blackjack.
We're there to play positive rounds of blackjack.
And when you sit there playing through those negative shoes,
you're doing two things.
You're skyrocketing your risk
and you are just giving away valuable EV.
So, just like our advantage goes up
as the true count goes higher and higher,
the casino's advantage goes up
as a true count goes more and more negative.
So you've gotta do yourself a huge favor
and not play those negative true counts.
It's the quickest way to save bankroll,
lower risk, increase EV.
So, if the account's going negative,
just find an excuse to leave the table.
Go get a drink, go to the bathroom.
Just say, "I'm going to sit out,
wait for the shuffle," whatever it is.
I use all those excuses all the time.
It doesn't look odd,
or even if it does look odd, get over it.
You're a card counter, not a gambler.
But also another thing to be aware of as a new card counter
is if you drop the running count, you gotta Wong out.
If you say, "Er it was seven
and I have no idea what it is right now,"
don't just guess,
don't just play through the shoe, playing basic strategy.
You're just wasting money if you do that.
If you don't know the running count,
step away from the table, or sit out,
or say you gotta check your messages on your phone,
or whatever, just don't sit at the table,
continuing to play when you don't know the running count.
Another common mistake I see with new card counters
is letting the game control them
rather than them controlling the game.
So, you know that feeling,
you sit down at a table and, you know,
your heart rate is pounding and the cards are flying out
and you've got a playing decision to make.
And everyone's looking at you and the dealer's like,
"What are you going to do?
What are you going to do?"
And you just make a decision.
You cannot do that.
You can't just put a bet out there
because it's your turn to place a bet,
and you don't know what your true count is.
You've got to learn to control the game.
And there're a few things
that can really help you with this.
One is to keep training at home.
Keep getting faster and faster at basic strategy,
counting, true count conversion and deviations.
The faster you get,
the easier it's gonna be in the casino
to make those decisions quickly.
But it takes more than just getting faster.
It takes being in control.
It takes being okay being uncomfortable.
It takes not caring
if the other players are giving you a hard time,
or the dealer is saying, "Hurry up and make a decision."
You've gotta learn to control the game.
With the church team,
sometimes we made our players pause the table for a minute.
So, this was during a test out.
This is when we were saying,
"Prove to us that you can do what you're gonna need to do
for us to hand you a hundred thousand dollars
and play for our team."
And we'd say, "Pause the table for a minute."
And they'd sit there and, you know,
couple of seconds go by and the dealer is like,
"What are you gonna do?"
And they would have to continue to just sit there
for a full minute, which felt horribly painful.
It feels awful sitting there doing nothing for a minute.
But when you do that, you realize you're in control.
The dealer can't deal until you make a hand signal.
The other players in the table don't matter.
They're there to gamble.
You're there to make money.
So do yourself a favor and learn how to be in control
while you're playing at the tables.
If you don't, you're not going to make it as a card counter.
So these are just a handful of common mistakes that I see.
I know there are some more.
Feel free to leave a comment below with some other mistakes
either you've experienced
or you've heard or seen other card counters use.
Put in the time.
Keep training, and also check out our video,
"How To Keep The Count
With All The Distractions In The Casino".
If you're new to playing in the casino,
this video gives you some tips
to help you control the game in the casino
so you have the best chance of taking the casino's money.