“ Sir, please step away from the table”. The life of a blackjack card counter.

CHAPTER 2

I was busy running my own company and had two kids, so I didn’t have a lot of extra time to spend memorizing all of the indices. I wanted to multitask, and use my time productively. I came up with the idea of when my family went snowboarding 3 to 4 times a week at our local ski resort, I would snowboard down the mountain and then on the chair lift back up I would mentally go through all of the index possibilities over and over again. Down and up, down and up. Also, when I was driving alone, I would turn off the radio and do the same thing. I spent all of November and December doing that.
To practice the actual AO2 counting system, I would just deal cards from a single deck and practice keeping track of the count.
I felt I was ready!
I made reservations to return to Las Vegas that January. No more racing greyhound dog sheets, no more walking the entire strip dealing with frightened sports book managers, I was ready to hit the tables and win big, baby!
The first casino I went to was my favorite, Bellagio. Bellagio was ahead of its time, the glass sculptures in the lobby ceiling, the atrium garden, The lake outside with it dancing fountains set to music set Bellagio apart from the others. Steve Wynn is not a perfect man, but when he builds a casino, it’s extraordinary.
The business I ran was an all cash business. I was used to having large sums of cash around me. I took 20,000 with me on the trip. I planned to bet 2 hands of $25 each as my minimum bet, and then ramp up my bet as the count went up. I liked the idea of two hands, because the variance is cut down, and it’s easier to get more money into play and not attract attention. If you have two hands of $200 worth of green chips it does not look as impressive as one hand with 400 Green stacked up. My Bible, blackjack for blood, told me the importance of remaining under the radar and not bringing attention to yourself. Of course, betting big will eventually get the pit’s attention no matter what. My ramp betting was simple. If the count was at zero or negative, I would only bet $25 a hand. If the count was one, I would bet $100 on each hand. If the count was two, I would bet $200 on each hand. 3 to 300, 4 to 400 etc. I had decided to make my max bet $1200 for each hand, for a total of $2400.
I sat down at the table with two other players, and brought in for 400 in green. The dealer was a pleasant middle-aged woman who smiled and dealt quickly and efficiently. The players were experienced and made their decisions breezily. I soon realized that I was in over my head. It’s one thing to deal one deck of cards to yourself and keep track of the count, its vastly different in real life and real time——there’s a lot of cards on the tables, people are talking, waitresses are coming in asking for drinks, other people are coming to the table and asking questions, the TV is on in the pit and when the hands were over she would sweep the cards immediately into the discard tray. I found myself staring at the cards, like a frozen statute, unable to make a decision because my brain was trying to do too many things at once. I think the table thought I was drunk. I would lose track of the count, and then was afraid to bet big because I didn’t know if I was correct. I did raise my bet occasionally, but overall because I could not keep up with all the speed and commotion, I played very conservatively and at the end of the trip I was down about 1600. I did get some heat as I was betting bigger at some of the casinos but since I was not playing very aggressively due to my lack of confidence, the heat dissipated.
I flew home in a thoughtful and pensive mood. I was not exhilarated or high-fiving myself. I believed in the system, and I could see its potential, but I had not adequately prepared myself. I thought I had, but I was at best a minor leaguer, I was not ready for the big time. I needed to make a change. I needed to do something to improve.
Next Monday I will post chapter 3 that will tell you what I did!