The Card Counter’s Training Manual
Published by Kevin Williams at Smashwords
Copy right 2012 Kevin Williams
Smashwords Edition
No part of this publication shall be reproduced, transmitted, or sold in whole or part in any form, without the prior written consent of the author. All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing in this guide are the property of their respective owners. The information in this guide is for informational purposes only. Users of this guide are advised to do their own due diligence when it comes to making decisions and all information, products, services that have been provided should be independently verified. By reading this guide, you agree that I am not responsible for the success or failure of your business decisions relating to any information presented in this guide.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One Card Counting Overview
Chapter Six: Betting Units & Bankroll
Chapter Seven: Expectation & Standard Deviation
Chapter Eight: Betting Deviations
Chapter Eleven: Deck Penetration/Game Selection
Chapter Thirteen: Final Thoughts
Chapter One: Card Counting Overview
Hello everyone, my name is Kevin Williams and I’m a professional card counter. I’m going to get straight to the point. You don’t have to be a genius to learn how to count cards and MAKE MONEY from doing it. Forget about what you’ve seen in the movies or what you have heard about beating Black Jack. This manual is going to show you how to beat the game of Black Jack based off of mathatical science. I have a couple of objectives for writing this training manual, to teach you how to properly count cards in the game of Black Jack, how to properly manage your money while playing Black Jack, and how to get away with it and preserve your longevity as a professional card counter.
I am going to do this in the simplest and easiest way that you can understand. Now that you know what my objectives are, let me tell you about some of the ESSENTIAL things that you will need to become a successful card counter. First and foremost you will need dedication. The skill of card counting is not obtained overnight, so please don’t think you can go out and win a million dollars after one hour of practice. 99% of the people who have tried that have been cleaned out down to their socks and rightly deserved their results. They didn’t study the art of card counting long enough, they didn’t know basic strategy, they didn’t practice long enough, they didn’t sharpen their skill and they had illusions of turning a couple of dollars into millions of dollars. Essentially they learned just enough to lose. There is a name for these types people. They are called GAMBLERS. Please don’t become one of them. Look at any professional sports, poker, chess player…etc. It took time and patience for them to get there. A little knowledge about aspirin does not make you a doctor. Card counting is no different.
If you follow this manual then you will fall into the category of an investor and not in the category of a gambler. The second skill you will need to be successful professional card counter is discipline. As you will find out by reading this manual, and through experience, card counters do not win every time we play Black Jack. We just know that we are going to win more than we lose. One of the most important skills you must have is the ability to be mentally and emotionally tough. A professional card counter can have extended losing streaks and there is no way to stop it. When Card counters play, we play with a risk of losing money.
It might be a small 5% risk, but a risk nonetheless. Card counting is a game of swings; your bankroll can look like a roller coaster sometimes. Sometimes you will double the money you sat down at the table with, other grizzly times you will walk out with nothing but lent in your pocket. It’s just the nature of the game. So what is the real objective of the player when it comes to beating Black Jack? Most people will tell you that the objective is to get 21. The real objective of Black Jack is to beat the dealer. That’s it.
At its core, it’s nothing more then that. So what is card counting and how does help you to achieve beating the game? Card counting is keeping track of what cards have already been dealt out by assigning values to the cards. By doing this you can decide when to bet more, when to bet less, when to take insurance, when to get up and walk away from the table, or even when to not play at all. Big cards (particularly 10’s and Ace’s) are more profitable for the player and little cards (2’s through 6’s) are more profitable for the dealer.
Here is why, the dealer is bound to certain rules. If the dealer has a 16, then he has to hit his hand until he has a 17-21 or until he busts regardless of what cards remain to be dealt. So if the dealer has a stiff hand (hands that can be busted 12’s-16’s), then there is a high chance of the dealer making a hand with a lot of small cards left in the deck. Now, lets say that the dealer has a stiff hand with a lot of 10’s and Aces left in the deck. Now his chances of busting are very high. Other ways that 10’s and Aces help the player is that the player has a higher chances of catching 10’s and making good hands when you double down.
Another way is that the player has a better chance getting good starting hands such as 20’s or Black Jacks. Yes, the dealer can get a Black Jack just like the player can, but the only difference is when player gets Black Jack, they get paid a bet and half. Let me show how this is HIGHLY profitable for the player. Lets say a player has bet $100 and got 300 Black Jacks over a certain period of time and the dealer has done the same. So both the player and dealer have been dealt 300 Black Jacks against each other. Since the player gets that extra $50 every time he gets a Black Jack, in this scenario the player would be up about $15,000. Not a bad deal huh. The last way that more 10’s and Aces help the player is that the player has the ability to change his strategy based of what cards remain to be dealt. Now that you have a taste of what card counting is, we can get to the good stuff. In the next chapter, I will show you how to play the game of Black Jack.
As I said in the previous chapter, the objective of Black Jack is to beat the dealer without your card total going over 21. Going over 21 is called busting and means that you lose that round. If your total stays below 21 you have a shot at beating the dealer. But the dealer must either have a card total less than yours or bust himself. The game begins with you placing your bet in the appropriate betting circle. Two cards will be dealt to you and the dealer will deal himself two cards as well. One of the dealer’s cards will be face up and one will be face down. If the two cards you have total 21 by themselves, then you have been dealt a natural Black Jack, and you win the maximum payout, usually 3:2.
The only time a natural Black Jack does not win is when the dealer also has a natural Black Jack. In that case, that is called a push, and your bet is returned to you. When the cards have been dealt out, you have a couple of choices that you can make and they are described below. Once you have finished making your decisions with your hands, the dealer will flip over his face down card and hit until he gets a 17-21 or he bust. If the game you’re playing has a rule that says hit soft 17, it means that the dealer will hit an Ace,6. If the game is stand on soft 17, it means he will stand on Ace,6. Once your hand has been played and the dealer’s hand has been played the round is over. The next round starts when you place another bet into the circle.
Stand: Standing means that you do not want any more cards dealt to you. You signal this by waving your hand off to the dealer.
Hit: To hit is to be dealt more cards in hopes of raising your card total. You can hit as many times as you want. To signal to hit, tap your hand on the table twice.
Split: If you are dealt two cards with the same face value each, they are a pair. And if the option is available you can split them into two separate hands. To split pairs, put the exact same bet beside your original bet and point two fingers with the same hand at your cards. The dealer will split your hands and give you an extra card on each hand. Then you will play each hand separately.
Double Down: This can only be done at the beginning of your hand or after you have split a hand. This means to double your original bet. But when doubling down, you will only receive one more card and then you have to stand. The signal for double down is put a bet to the side of your original bet and point one finger at your cards.
Insurance: This option is only available if the dealer’s up card is an ace and the casino offers it. The dealer will offer insurance. You will put half of your original bet to the side of your bet. If the dealer has a Black Jack, then you will break even. If the dealer does not have a Black Jack then you will lose your insurance bet and continue to play your hand.
Surrender: You have the option to surrender your hand and you will lose half of your bet at the beginning or the round. This means that you give up on this hand. The signal for surrender is to take one finger and draw a line across the table while clearly saying, “I surrender”.
The rectangle thing to the left is called the discard tray. The long thing to the right is called a shoe. Only shoe games and dealer pitch games are beatable. Continuous Shuffle Machines (CSM) are not beatable. Do not play at those tables. Here is a picture of a CSM machine:
!!DO NOT PLAY AT TABLE WITH THESE MACHINES!!
!!YOU CANNOT BEAT THEM!!
You can go to a casino and just watch how the game is played to get a real life feel for the game. In the next chapter I will discuss basic strategy. This is the basic building block to becoming a successful card counter.
Welcome to the Basic strategy part of this manual. As I said before, this is the basic building block of your Black Jack career. Basic strategy is the mathematically correct play that you make for whatever card the dealer has up. Here is an example: if you were dealt a pair of six’s and the dealer had a two showing, the correct play would be to split your pair of six’s. Here is another example: your cards total up to equal 9 and the dealer has an 5 showing, the correct play is to double down because the dealer is likely to bust with this hand.
Basic strategy came from running billions of hands on computer simulations, and the end result was the computer giving the best play to make for each possible hand. If you are going to be a successful card counter you will have to learn basic strategy 100%. What if you know 95% percent of it? Head back to the lab and learn that other 5% percent!!! It does no good to learn almost correct basic strategy. In the game of counting cards there is no room for your own intuitions or hunches. You have to stubbornly trust the math and NOTHING ELSE. No matter what happens, win or loss, heaven or hades…………...you get the point. On the next couple of pages is a copy of a basic strategy chart. Not utilizing basic strategy can or should I say WILL be detrimental to your bank roll sooner or later.
I will get more into bankroll in later chapters and how this can make or BREAK you. The chart is pretty easy to read. The chart is broken into 3 sections hard hands, soft hands, and pairs. Hard hands are the player’s hands that do not contain an Ace. If you go over 21 with these hands, you bust and automatically lose that hand. Soft hands are player’s hands that contain an Ace. The Ace counts as 11 unless you go over 21. If you go over 21, then your ACE counts as 1. Here example: Lets say your hand is an A,8. This means you have a total of 19. Let say for some sick reason that you hit this hand and get a 3. So now you have a combination of A,8,3 which equals 12. The pair’s section are just when you get the two cards of the same value: 2’2, 4’4, 9’9….etc.
The player’s hand is on the left of the chart and the dealer up card is at the top of the chart. In the middle is the color code for what decision you should make when you have that certain hand vs that certain dealer card. Basic strategy cuts the house edge to about .5%. where as the house will have a 1-2% edge over someone who plays based off hunches. I will get into casino percentages and what they really mean for you in later chapters. For now just make sure that you have basic strategy down packed. I recommend making flash cards to practice with for basic strategy. Also, just sitting down at a kitchen table with a deck cards and dealing them out is good too. DO NOT MOVE ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTER UNTIL YOU KNOW BASIC STRATEGY BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS. This is for your own good; I don’t want you to be like so many others that have failed at this because they are not committed to learning the essentials. In the next chapter I will be teach you the Hi-Lo count system.