The Good, The Bad and the Studly

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Big Game Blackjack

Of all the sports available in this world, blackjack is certainly one of the strangest. In all other sporting pursuits, be it baseball, football, golf, tennis or poker, the best players in the world not only get to bring home the bacon, their pictures are plastered on everything from magaziness to cereal boxes. Yet in blackjack, the best of the best are forced to act like spies not yet in from the cold, hiding their identities and their intentions behind numerous facades, the penetration of which would mean their swift ejection from the game. Like the cold warriors of yesterday, once identified, a card counters days are numbered.

The Real Deal

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of Big Game Blackjack

Sadly, most people's opinion of card counting comes from watching Hollywood blockbusters.  In
these dramatized acconts, the wily card counters, who are either portrayed as MIT grad students or autistic savants, are out to walk away with millions of dollars in profits.  Along the way, they are forced to contend with pit bosses who are only too happy to drag these threats to the casino's bottom line into the back room where they can be taught a painful lesson.  The movies, while entertaining, have taken so many liberties with card counting that I thought I would devote a blog to busting some myths.

Boot Camp for Blackjack

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

Okay, troops, so you think you got what it takes to be a Player? I don't mean no sniveling, bed wetting, mama's boy of a GAMBLER! What I'm talking about is a tough as nails, never say die, lean, mean card counting machine. Well, you better get one thing straight, recruit. If you're going to make the grade and get your stripes you're going to have to live, eat, drink, and breathe this game. You're going to have to make this the single most important thing in your life. Because when the artillery is pounding and the bullets are flying, there's only one thing that's going to stand between you and defeat. And that one thing is D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E. What did I say? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Can You Beat the Casinos at Their Own Game?

by Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of commons.wilimedia.org

The title of the world's first card counting book was called "Beat the Dealer."  It was written by Edward O.Thorpe who wasn't a professional player by trade.  What he was when he wrote the book in 1962, was a mathematician.  That means he was smart enough to realize that the only way anyone could overcome the house edge at 21 was by using math.  He realized that unlike nearly every other game in the house (the exception being poker), every time a card was drawn from the deck, the odds changed.  But what really made blackjack a worthy research project was the fact that sometimes, whether players realized it or not, the edge was not with the house.  Sometimes the odds in blackjack favored the player.

What Happens in Vegas

By Carl Van Eton

Image courtesy of en.wikipedia,org

With casinos being available in every state in the lower 48 with the exception of Utah, you would think that Las Vegas would have lost some of its luster.  But that’s not the case.  Of course, when you think about it, there are more casinos in Las Vegas than in the rest of the country combined.  If you count all the bars, stores and other places that offer slots, there are currently more than 1,700 licensed gambling establishments in the greater Las Vegas area.  You will find it hard to sit down at a bar that doesn’t have a video poker machine built into it there.  Some tourists have been known to drop their bankroll before ever getting out of McCarran Airport, since it too offers slot machines.