Beginners Black Jack

Time misdirection is a technique shown to me by my uncle who was a first class magician. All magicians practice this technique and it takes a long time to master it properly. So what am I taking about, well it is simply a technique of diverting your subjects attention from the key area at the precise moment that you are about to make a move that you want to go un-noticed.

Because the move must be subtle then the time misdirection must also be subtle. Let me give you an example, you want to make a blackjack “quad bet” and to increase your chance of getting away with it, you engage the blackjack dealer in conversation at that precise point. The timing must be spot on as if you distract them too early then they will notice your hand motion and likewise if you attract them too late. You MUST distract them by whatever means necessary at EXACTLY the same point that you are making the move.

It is very difficult to not make eye contact with someone when they are speaking to you and looking at you directly and especially if they are calling you by name. It is for this reason that learning about a blackjack dealers interests as well as learning their name can prove very productive. Giving blackjack dealers an extremely subtle second focus of attention is a very valuable tool to have in your arsenal.

Spreading your action

Despite the fact that casinos lower their guard with games that have machines, you cannot just blindly go about your business for month after month because they will eventually notice that you are ahead. Every casino watches when punters buy in and for how much and also how much they cash out. This is why you need to spread your action around as many casinos as possible and also to try and get the amounts of money that you are cashing out disguised.

If need be, try and get another punter to cash the chips out for you as though it is them that has won the chips through normal casino gambling. Although make sure that this punter can be trusted and also that they are in fact a player and have been playing on that shift. Spreading your action and disguising your cash outs will prolong your career.

Bankroll

At some stage or another, you will have to address the subject of your bankroll. You will still encounter losing streaks even when you are betting with the advantage. This is why I recommend that you need at least 200 big bets. When your big bet in this case is 4×5 of whatever currency you are in say $20 then you need 200 X $20 which is $4000.

There is a mathematical formula called the “Kelly Criterion” that you may or may not have heard of. This formula says that a player must bet the proportion of their bank that reflects the advantage in percent. This would mean that if you spied that the first card from the machine was a ten, this would mean a 13% edge for you. The Kelly Criterion dictates that you should bet 13% of your total bankroll whatever it is at that stage.

In this case of the $4000 bankroll then that would mean betting $460 on one hand. If that first card was an ace with a 51% player advantage then the correct bet according to Kelly would be $2020 which is 51% of your bankroll. Obviously this is not feasible for two reasons which are blatantly obvious to anyone.

Firstly, these bets would probably be above many table maximums anyway. Secondly this would just be pushing the boat out too far in terms of not getting recognised. In fact going from $20 to the table maximum would probably get your action halted unless your act was VERY good. They would start to suspect you as a blackjack card counter if you did this and they would then start to observe you which you certainly would not want.

My suggestion is simple and designed to increase your career. Never bet no more than $100 or 5 times of whatever your maximum bet is in your currency, IE $20,£20,E20 etc etc. You must put on an act anytime you even bet $100 let alone anything else.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
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