One thing that I found surprising was that the casino hosts and that department were separate from the department that tracked counters. So while you could get 86’d from the BJ tables, the casino host could still be calling you trying to get you to come out and play.
100 big bets is a good rule of thumb if you want to virtually eliminate your risk of ruin, but I wasn’t willing to bring that much money. I settled on $5000 and did a risk of ruin calculation according to a formula I found in one of the books. The risk was high but not outrageous. Luckily, I never busted out completely, though I did come within $500 a couple times.
I always knew that if I busted out I could save up money from my normal job and try again (if I wasn’t scared away completely.) For a full-time player, that’s not an option, so their risk tolerance is far lower.
I really enjoyed playing at Mandalay Bay (still go there sometimes for fun) and the NYNY. Bellagio has really good rules but their minimums are too high (good luck finding a $25 table on the weekend.) Aria is also really pleasant.
I have a collection of $1 chips from all the different Vegas properties I played at. Here’s the list, from north to south:
Riviera (a dump)
Rio
Palms
Caesars Palace
Bellagio,
Paris,
Aria,
Monte Carlo,
NYNY,
MGM Grand,
Excalibur,
Tropicana,
Luxor,
Mandalay Bay
Have you ever played on a cruise ship? I don’t think they fall under a governing body, so I imagine the rules vary. Which lines have rules that most favor the player?
Never been on a cruise ship. I hear they have pretty terrible rules, though. It’s not like you can go to the cruise ship across the street if you’re dissatisfied. 
So $9.50 an hour?
Better than minimum wage. At least in Nevada. 
One of the big myths about card counting is that you can just sit down and start making crazy money. As pointed out in the posts above, if you want to make a good living at it, you need to have a very big bankroll, play at least black units, and grind it out for many thousands of hours of play.
How many decks of cards are in a show?
Why dont the casinos just switch out shoes every 4th hand or so to stop card counting?
Between four and eight. Six is probably the most common on the Vegas Strip.
They will sometimes do this or equivalent things. But casinos have noticed that when they start messing around with shoes or using continuous shuffle machines (which are equivalent to shuffling the shoe every hand) that revenue drops at those tables. Even though 99% of players are not counting cards, blackjack seems to be popular because people know it can be beaten in the long term by skilled players. It’s the principal of the thing. I’ve met tons of just-for-fun players who refuse to play at tables with CSMs because it’s “just not right.”
They have found that it’s to their advantage to offer games that are mathematically beatable, because they are popular. The extra expense of keeping an eye on advantage players and backing off the occasional counter is negligible in comparison.
I think this is the case because the spread was not optimal. Typically you’d target about 1/4 of a big bet (or slightly higher) per hour. This would have yielded about $75/hour or so based on **friedo’s **$300 big bet.
A lot depends on play speed too - you want a dealer that can deal pretty fast.
Read one of the books I mentioned and then practice. (A lot.)
Here’s a simple drill that you can work on even before you memorize any strategy charts. Take a shuffled deck of cards and turn it upside-down so you can see the face of the bottom card. Now turn over the top card of the deck (which is now on the bottom) so its face is towards the floor.
Now deal cards off the bottom of the deck. For every high card you see (10, J, Q, K, A), subtract one. For every low card you see (2-6) add one. For every middle card you see (7-9) do nothing.
When you get through 51 cards, if you counted correctly, you will have a value of -1, 0, or 1. Depending on that value, you should be able to predict i the last card (which you flipped upside-down) is high, low, or middle.
Do this until you can do a whole deck accurately in under 20 seconds.
Then try with two decks.
The system I learned years ago (but can’t remember the name) counts 2, 8 and A as zero; 3-7 +1; 9-10-face cards as -1.
Do you see any significant difference between this and your Hi-Lo?
We basically have the same philosophy, but I = You divided by 5. Nickel chips, $100 buy-in, $1000 bankroll.
When do you get up and leave a table – do you set high and low limits? My problem is that I panic when my $100 gets below $50, and I bail out.
What’s your motivation for playing blackjack? You readily admit you’re a relatively small time player, and you calculated your earnings are just above minimum wage. So it’s clearly more than monetary.
Do you think casino rules are inherently unfair? I mean very few businesses can stop serving someone just because they’re too successful. Would you prefer card counting be 100% legal?
I’m not familiar with that particular count, but it is also a balanced count and the main difference I see is that it devalues aces as a neutral card. My guess is perhaps this count is meant to be used with an ace sidecount, but as I said I don’t have any experience with other counting systems so I’m not really qualified to analyze it. There is a large community of people who write detailed simulations of different counting and betting strategies to see what has the highest EV. My feeling has always been that more complexity => greater likelihood of mistakes, so any EV advantage is erased when you mess it up.
I didn’t set any table limits per se, except that if I ran out of money I’d be done. But fortunately that didn’t happen. My limit was always just a function of fatigue; counting for a couple hours or more gets tiring and when I noticed myself losing track, I would get up and take a break for a few hours.
I did it solely for the challenge. I wanted to see if I could learn to count cards and do it accurately in a casino. After I did, I kept doing it because it was fun and I got to meet all kinds of interesting people and get in wacky adventures.
Card counting is 100% legal, but I know what you mean. I don’t think the rules are particularly unfair. A business should have the right to kick people out for behavior they don’t like, even if the person engaging in such behavior thinks doing so would be unfair. Whether it’s a good idea to kick such a person out is a different judgment.
But I don’t own a casino.
Players are not allowed to be barred for card counting in NJ casinos. To combat this they employ many different rule changes from the standard set in Vegas. Continuous shuffles, super deep burns, different blackjack payouts, etc.
I played Blackjack in the late 1970’s and very early 1980’s with experiences not unlike Friedo’s. My gross win was somewhat higher, but with hotel and entertainment charges subtracted it paid less than my “day job.” Like him, I did it for the challenge and the thrill more than the money. I often combined Blackjack with other trips, for example detouring to Korea or Macau when I had business in Japan.
I was barred from five casinos(*), but for every time I was barred there were a dozen times they took countermeasures like shuffling up or “dealing down.” I didn’t have the will to fake a personality and I suspect I “looked like” a counter. I don’t think I was in “The Book” but I was recognized immediately in some casinos I hadn’t visited for years. :smack: I seldom played single-deck which becomes a game of psychology – trying to control when dealer shuffles. Playing against a shoe is much more relaxing, though favorable bets much less common.
As Friedo implies, balanced counts actually require little mental effort to maintain; I used to count multiple tables. For example I could stand near the bar in Las Vegas Club and count three shoes several yards away via an overhead mirror! That trick didn’t last long – when I walked over to the table that had become ten-rich the floor-lady walked over and told dealer to shuffle. 
I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore having lost both mental acuity and visual acuity (I have monocular diplopia in both eyes.)
(* - Not only was I barred from both the Harrah’s in northern Nevada, I was barred from their corporate computer room for completely unrelated reason! But that’s another story.)
Hey man, you’re talking too smart for us. We can’t have you talk here anymore.
For a non-counter playing perfect basic on vacation, I imagine how you do overall is significantly improved if you take into account comps. How do you maximize comps? Is there some level of betting you need to maintain? Is there a number of hands per hour you need to play? Who do you talk to to get comped? Are there some general tips you have for us?
Comps are no longer a secret-handshake/nod & wink deal, like Back in the Day. Every casino has a players club; join, get the card, and hand it to the dealer when you sit down. The pit boss comes over and picks it up, and tracks your play. You can see how much you’ve earned just by swiping your card at a kiosk located throughout the casino.