Blog of the BlackJack`s Fan

John Scarne,, puts the year when this curious rule first appeared at 1912, when twenty-one tables appeared in horse-betting parlors in Evanston, Illinois. According to Scarne, by 1919a Chicago gambling equipment distributor was selling felt table layouts embla-zoned with the announcement: “Blackjack Pays Odds of 3 to 2.” I believe Epstein’s information is taken from Scarne, and Scarne states that he discovered the origins of blackjack in America as a result of his private discussions with old-time gamblers, not from any published texts that can be looked up today.

A favorite stunt is to offer ten times the size of the wager to anyone holding a natural twenty-one with a black jack. This adds interest to the game, but it also tempts a player to increase his stakes.”

That curious bonus payout that gave blackjack its name, however, has long since disappeared. That’s when Ed Thorp dropped another bombshell. Under the auspices of their Vintage Paperback division, Random House published a revised and expanded edition of Beat the Dealer. And the most important addition was Harvey Dubner’s Hi-Lo counting system, which Thorp called the Complete Point Count, with a computer-optimized strategy devised by Julian Braun. To the casinos’ frustration, this was a system that could more easily be applied to multiple-deck games.

Thorp was keeping the casinos on the run.

Thorp also included a Simple Point Count in this new edition of his book, but at the time that strategy seemed way too simple to most players to gain much of an edge, or to be taken seriously by players who wanted to beat the game. Later, the power of Thorp’s simpler method of adjusting the running count, without keeping a separate count of the exact number of cards played, would be shown.

What is The Culture of Slots?

When people join clubs, it is usually for the shared interests, enthusiasm and passion that everyone in the group shares. For the most part, folks join already knowing what their counterparts are like. Book clubs, movie groups, knitting circles… they all have terms and ideologies about their group’s topics that can be, well, predictable.

Playing online slots can be a different experience, though. When you initially sign up with a casino online you find that you may be new to the terms and phrases. Things like “progressive slots” may go right over your head. When this happens, it is usually okay and common to ask questions and even get together with other online slots players.

After you begin to play online slots a few times and you learn more about the lingo that slots players use, you will find that you are not alone. There is a community of slots players who choose slots over any online casino or traditional casino game out there. They do this for many reasons; one is of course the ease of online slots. With this, they take to the community of online slots always, forsaking all other games in the casino. There are levels of the slots community. Tiers of slots players begin with the novice player. Soon, you can build your way up to the professional level, that’s how easy it is to learn slots and develop a passion for winning money at the game.

In the beginning of the levels of slots online, you will see that there is always a willingness to help from more advance players. When you are playing in a regular online casino, you will see other players look over when they see you struggling. They will always help you out if you have a question. The culture of slots in traditional settings is a pretty uniform in comparison to online slots. While the majority of slots players in land based casinos are more inclined to drink or smoke given the social circumstances, online casino players will come in various shapes and sizes. Keep in mind that online casino players are playing from the convenience of their own homes and PCs. This means that anyone from Joe Law Student to The Mailman or your local Elementary teacher may be playing a fun stress relieving game of slots online.

The culture of slots online is a very unique one because it is made up of so many kinds of people. You can easily join a chat room or forum that deals with any online casino game, more specifically, slots online. Ask questions, discuss strategies, or just connect with folks who have the same gambling enthusiasm as you. When you are ready to experience the slots community and culture that so many others have already fallen in love with, sign up to play today.

In 1978, Resorts International opened in Atlantic City, the first legal East Coast casino in the twentieth century. Their four- and six-deck blackjack games offered a new form of surrender, dubbed by card counters as “early surrender,” since the casino allowed players to surrender half a bet even when the dealer showed an ace or 10 up, and before the dealer checked for a blackjack. This rule gave basic strategy players a small edge over the house right off the top, without any card counting whatsoever! And the advantage to card counters was even greater. From opening day, card counters had a field day at Resorts’ tables. Ironically, as word spread through the gambling community that card counters found the Resorts’ blackjack game to be the most lucrative game for players in the country, gamblers from all over the world - most of whom knew nothing about basic strategy or card counting - flocked to their tables. And, ironically, Resorts International was soon the most profitable casino in history, winning an average of $650,000 per day.

A team of blackjack players whose founders were from Czechoslovakia that had been playing in Las Vegas flew all of their members to Atlantic City to take advantage of this new surrender rule. This team, which later became known in the casino industry as simply the Czech Team, found the Resorts’ game to their liking and stayed for months.

A New Jersey college student named Tommy Hyland, who had just turned twenty-one, started going to Atlantic City in 1978 when he heard about the favorable black-jack game at Resorts. Within a year, he had organized about twenty of his college and golfing buddies into a team of blackjack players. Hyland’s team continues to this day as one of the most successful casino gambling operations in history.

It was also in 1978 that the first MIT blackjack team was started. This team actually consisted of students from MIT, Harvard, and other East Coast colleges. Johnny C.j now a legendary player who joined the team in 1981, plays high-stakes blackjack to this day and continues organizing teams of professional players. The Czechs, the Hyland teams, and the MIT teams would be the scourge of the casino industry for decades to come. Many believe these teams owe their existence to the Resorts’ game with its early surrender rule that made the game so easy to beat. College kids found that they could pool their money, play blackjack with a modicum of intelligence, and get rich quick.

In fact, it was a combination of that easy-to-beat early surrender game and Ken Uston’s The Big Player that had just been published in 1977 that worked together to create an environment where new teams of smart young kids could make millions playing blackjack.

Here’s how it happened. Al was in a casino with his brother, who was also a card counter, and his brother was playing dollar blackjack, spreading from $1 to $5 while they were killing time before dinner. Al wasn’t playing, but was standing beside the table talking to friends. On a whim, whenever he noticed his brother had a $5 bet on the table, AI would shoot out a $100 bet, knowing that the count must be high, but otherwise paying no attention to the game. He did this for about half an hour. As he was walking out of the casino, however, the pit boss chased him down. To Al’s amazement, the boss had caught up with him in order to offer him dinner or a room, telling Al that he was the type of player the casino wanted to cultivate as a customer.

Within weeks, AI was training three players to count cards and signal him when the count was high. He was the first Big Player. The strategy proved to be a huge success, and within a year, AI Francesco had more than twenty players trained as spotters, and three BPs that he could mix and match with his spotters in different casinos on playing trips. This team approach was a major advance in professional blackjack strategy. Blackjack teams today still use Al’s BP approach with great success.

In the early 1970s, card counting became big business. One of the most creative and successful players from that time (or any time) was AI Francesco, who had been playing since 1963 and had traveled with Lawrence Revere for a while. As a poker player, Al knew that the best way for a player to make money was to disguise his strength from his opponents, but he couldn’t figure out a way that a card counter could do this at a blackjack table. Then, in 1971, it hit him. That year, AI started his first blackjack teams, using the Big Player (BP) approach. It was the method he’d been seeking for eight years.

Another benefit of using audible signals - in addition to being able to use mnemonics as a helpful aid in remembering what signals stand for what count number in games - is the fact that the eye in the sky can’t relate a specific motion of one player to the arrival and large betting of another, if surveillance tapes are later analyzed. These signals are the same for all particular casino blackjack games.

Go ahead and come up with ten or so mnemonic words that could be used in any as true-count indicators for counts ranging from +1 to +10, and create a list. If you’re naturally reserved, or think you or your teammates might sound foolish making utterances similar to the examples given above, then perhaps silent communication might work better for you. The last thing you need is to have to repeat something verbally that sounded awkward the first time - because the Big Player didn’t hear you. In that case, feel free to devise a group of nonaudible signals similar to those presented in the next section. Who takes an initiative wins the Jackpot!

Any of the above would work, all of which are comments commonly heard in a casino. Mnemonics may be used for all positive true counts. Cats supposedly have how many lives? Aren’t there five gold rings in the Christmas song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”? Why not use “ring” or “rings” for a True 5, and “cat” or “cats” for a True 9?

The trick with using audibles, of course, is to sound natural - as though you’re thinking out loud or simply making small talk with the dealer or other players at the table during a particular casino blackjackgame. Thankfully, small talk at a table is common, and it’s highly unlikely you’ll have to use the same audible twice in a row during the same sitting. And even if that does happen on occasion, rest assured that no one is really paying that close attention. The MIT teams used audible signals, which is now known by most informed casino bosses. So be extra careful if your team decides to do the same.

To be continued…

A spotter for a level-one team can convert the running count to the true count and convey that information right to a Big Player entering the game. This way, the Big Player is already armed with what information might be needed for deviations from Basic Strategy. But remember that the Big Player must reverse the process and convert the true count back to the running count if he or she is to be involved in the next hand. Useful information: some blackjack bonus offers for a good play.

The signal indicating the true count can either blackjack beats be a silent, subtle movement or an audible cue in the form of a key word said as part of a longer sentence. It really depends only on which method team members feel most comfortable with.

Audible signals can include the use of a mnemonic to Blackjack rules: Hit or Stand help in remem bering which signal stands for what count number. For example, since many people consider “7″ a lucky number, a verbal cue that the true count is +7 might be any statement with the word “luck” or “lucky” in it.

• “Another slot jackpot? How do people get so lucky?”
• “I’d rather be lucky than good any day of the week.”
• “With my luck, it’s not happening any time soon.”
To be continued

There is a whole host of reasons as to why some teams fare so much better than others, or why some teams fail altogether. Staffing, compensation, training, funding, scheduling, and even negative forces such as casino heat and the consequences of that heat are just some of the many issues confronting successful blackjack team operation. In many ways, running a successful team is very much like running a successful business. Only the strong survive and prosper for an extended period.

And, just as they are in many forms of business, people are a blackjack team’s most important asset. But as we all know, people aren’t the same - even those who share a common interest. Different people obviously have different dealt a blackjack personalities, talent levels, stamina, etc. And what fills one person’s cup often does not fill another’s. So, as if winning consistently in a casino wasn’t tough enough already, enter a wide variety of human factors that must be dealt with or addressed to allow for a team’s greatest asset to function at its highest level.