These tough economic times beg the question: should you play blackjack to help pay the bills or for a good basic income? The game of blackjack is honest in that if you know how to play properly you should make money on most occasions.
That is, if you use state-of-the-art methods (in other words, you must avoid the old school methods). If you read the old school blackjack books carefully (ones peddling basic strategy or card counting methods), you can see they are, to be kind, highly ineffective. The honest ones admit basic strategy is a losing method and card counting is a loser (with most methods) against four decks or more (according to Playing Blackjack As A Business author Lawrence Revere and The World’s Greatest Blackjack Book authors Lance Humble, Carl Cooper and Julian Braun). The old school methods brag they help you “almost break even.” That’s not what makes for a profitable career.
So, to begin with, you must learn winning, cutting edge methods (such as mine).
But let’s say you understand that. The question remains: should you even consider pursuing this kind of thing, playing blackjack to help pay the bills or provide an income?
Supplemental income is something you can easily earn at the game if you are someone who:
1. Enjoys the game, for its own sake; no – someone whose primary joy and passion comes from out-thinking the cards and beating the house (if you don’t enjoy the game, please don’t play blackjack; you are much less likely to do well)
2. Possesses at least an average memory or someone who’s willing to improve his or her memory through mnemonic training (in blackjack, as in Bridge or poker or any other rich card game, you must be able to remember to a good degree what cards were dealt)
3. Someone with at least an average intelligence, and one who enjoys thinking (which is a requirement for analyzing the cards)
4. Has patience (because this is crucial to the learning process and the discipline required in playing the game)
5. Is disciplined and can get up and leave whether up or down when it’s wise to do so (as opposed to being obsessive or having no self-control, which is a formula for disaster) – someone who will limit gaming to a responsible amount of time (as spelled out in my books
6. Knows enough to seek out and read good books and take good seminars, to get a proper blackjack education
7. Has the time and inclination to practice for hours and days and weeks at home, intensively and seriously, until he or she sees, through records kept during practice sessions, that he or she is winning much more than not (and therefore is ready to head to the casino and try out his or her skills in that environment) – and someone who has the self-control to stay in a practicing mode until he or she masters the game
8. Someone who, in a casino environment, can handle the pressure smoothly in a casino environment
9. Is cool enough to stay anonymous (as I explain in the “Passing The Bar” section of Blackjack The Smart Way, in order to avoid getting barred) and even enjoys the cloak-and-dagger machinations required to stay under the casino’s radar (or within each casino’s “comfort zone” as I explained in my last column)
Anyone who’s not a good card player, of course, or who does not care for card games, should avoid blackjack. There is a correlation between your love of the game and your likelihood of winning.
Personality has something to do with success as well. Those who are flip about learning (that is, those who don’t spend enough time at it) or who cannot play smoothly at the table without tipping off the casino they’re system players (hence increasing the risk of getting barred) or who are not sophisticated enough to remain anonymous are less likely to do well.
Beyond that, earning a living at the game requires a greater commitment than simply playing it to help pay the bills. I’d suggest that most good card players, using my methods, can easily do the latter. The methods in my first bestseller, Blackjack The Smart Way, were tested by a panel of experts and found to have an 85% success rate.
However, becoming a professional is only for those who enjoy the casino environment on a daily basis and enjoy traveling. Because you cannot overfish one town and not expect to eventually get barred. And you must be willing and able to change the way you look to help perpetuate your career. Again, if you’re easily identifiable, you’re more easily barred. Along these lines, you must be disciplined enough not to accept comps and junkets (which also expose you to a greater likelihood of getting barred).
I hope this column helped you decide whether you’re one of those who might find blackjack especially useful in these tough economic times.
P.S. I’ll be doing an Advanced Blackjack Techniques Seminar in Denver April 16th during which we’ll discuss blackjack as a moneymaker in greater detail. Tickets are now available on blackjacktoday.com.
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Richard Harvey is the acclaimed blackjack strategies innovator, expert player, blackjack coach and bestselling author of Blackjack The SMART Way (the NEW Gold Edition), Cutting Edge Blackjack (the NEW Third Edition), NEW Ways To Win MORE at Blackjack and the audio book Richard Harvey’s Blackjack PowerPrep Session. Have blackjack questions? Send them to rharvey2121@netscape.net. For more info see http://www.blackjacktoday.com.
