- Is card counting something that only geniuses
with photographic memories can master
or with a little practice can anyone do it?
By the end of this video you'll have
a realistic understanding of how difficult card counting
really is and find out if it's a good fit for you.
(low key instrumental)
- When you start researching card counting
it can be a bit confusing
because there are kinda these two extreme camps.
The first camp is the card counting is basically impossible
or only for a very, very select few.
I've had some people tell me that they feel like I'm making
card counting sound like it's easy money or too easy
but to be honest from where I was coming from
relatively speaking, card counting did feel like easy money.
At the time I got into card counting I was waiting tables
making between 10 and 20 bucks an hour
and then I was substitute teaching
making less than $100 a day and I spent a lot of time
practicing but when I got into card counting, before long,
within maybe six months I was making over $100 an hour
and not too long after that, within a year,
I was making about $400 an hour
and I went on to personally win over 600,000
and run teams that won close to four million dollars.
So, it felt easy compared to the other options that I had.
The reality is card counting isn't only for MIT whiz kids.
In my years running teams
and through Blackjack Apprenticeship I've trained
electricians and housewives and fast food workers
and writers to become successful,
professional card counters.
So it's not just for geniuses.
The problem is that's only one side of the story.
So, then there's the other camp which I call
the get rich quick camp.
And this is someone that hears about card counting,
spends some time practicing, learns about 90%
of basic strategy and gets okay at counting
and then goes to a casino and starts doing it.
And the reality is that person is going to lose money.
If you don't learn to be 100% perfect at card counting,
you will not make it.
You will lose money.
And this goes back to the very inception of card counting.
Ed Thorp who wrote the book Beat the Dealer,
it was a best seller when it came out.
Everybody and their mom bought the book, read it,
thought that they were gonna become a card counter,
went to the casinos without perfect skills
and 99% of people walked out of casinos losers
as card counters.
So, here's the deal, card counting isn't only for geniuses
and MIT kids but it's something that takes
a lot more practice than most people think.
It takes 100 to 200 hours of practice
to even start to be a winning player.
Be cautious of people that say
it's gonna be any easier than that.
There's a lot of people out there that are trained
to sell card counting as a get rich quick scheme
and it's not.
It really takes dedicated practice until you're perfect.
The reason it felt like easy money to me is
because compared to becoming a doctor or an engineer
or computer programmer or any of the other things
I was considering at the time,
card counting seemed like a piece of cake
to spend a couple hundred hours practicing
to be able to make the kind of money
that I was able to make.
But it does take a lot of dedicated practice.
In my experience of training players for the church team
that I ran or through Blackjack Apprenticeship,
a lot of people overestimate their skills.
Running the church team,
we had about 40 players come through our team
and we had one person ever show up to his first test out
and ace it.
Everyone else still had some flaws in their game
and they had worked really hard on their game.
So, don't overestimate your own skills, sell yourself short
and end up costing yourselves money at card counting.
That really should be a venture for making money.
Okay, so here's some advice
if you wanna take card counting seriously.
Honestly, card counting isn't any different
than any other skill that you need to master with precision.
So, imagine you wanna become a pilot.
Maybe you see the Blue Angels and you think I wanna do that.
Well, there are three things that you're gonna need.
You're gonna need information, training
and ongoing resources.
So, the first thing you're gonna need
is the right information.
You gotta learn what all the dials are in the cockpit
and all the levers and gears and whatnot.
Secondly, you're gonna need training.
You're not just gonna watch YouTube videos and read a book
and then go try to fly a plane.
That's suicide.
You're gonna need training, maybe in a flight simulator,
you probably need an instructor.
Just to make sure you know what you're doing
and that you've trained yourself to be able to be safe
flying that airplane.
Finally, you're gonna need ongoing resources.
You're gonna need mechanics and technicians
and air traffic control, whatever it is
so that you can continue to do this job of flying planes
in a safe and effective manner.
Well, it's the same with card counting.
You're gonna need information, training
and ongoing resources.
So, videos and books can be great for information
assuming it's the right information you're getting,
but then you're also gonna need training.
Someone recently shared with me the quote,
"Repetition is the mother of all skill."
So, you're gonna need training resources that can coach you
to be playing perfectly, hand after hand, card after card
until you can do it effectively without any correction.
Finally, card counters need ongoing resources.
That's gonna be intel, that's gonna be betting software,
and community- both to ask questions to and in my experience
just because it can be a bit of a lonely grind out there
if you're just out there on your own.
It always breaks my heart when I talk to someone
who read about card counting, practiced just enough
to have a false confidence and then went into the casino
before they were ready and now they're contacting me
because they lost all their money.
They're trying to fly the plane
before they really had trained themselves how.
So, how difficult is card counting?
Well, the good news is, it can be done.
But it takes dedicated practice.
You have to master it.
It's not something you're gonna learn in a weekend
and the worst thing you could do it just head out
to the casino before you're ready.
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