METHODS
Card Counting: To understand the game of blackjack it is essential to know card counting. A fundamental, firm foundation upon which to build your skills is necessary to a complete understanding of the game. I wouldn’t want to live in Germany without knowing how to speak the German language and I wouldn’t want to play blackjack without understanding its language, card counting. Contrary to many people’s belief, card counting does not require a photographic memory. An ordinary memory will do. The only ability the player needs to be able to count cards is to be able to do simple addition and subtraction and to keep track of one number. The first step to becoming a card counter is to learn the basic strategy. The next step is to learn a counting system.
Clumping: Clusters of high cards are self evident in several shoe games. See for yourself the next time you're at a casino. Observe a game and note the several groups of cards that have excesses of high cards. This nonrandomization of the cards is exploited daily by professional players.
Location: Location play sometimes referred to as advantage play or Signature Card play is a method of pin pointing (with a degree of confidence) the location of tens and aces for increased betting.
Shuffle-tracking: Shuffle-tracking is a natural development of counting cards. The counter has a general knowledge of the cards left to be played in a shoe but has an exact knowledge of the location of every card that has been seen on the table. Using this knowledge, the counter can locate (or track) these cards by following the dealer’s shuffle procedure. Depending on how random the shuffle is, the counter may have an exact or reasonably good knowledge of the location of various cards in the newly shuffled pack. The counter can then cut the cards to put the area of the deck with cards favorable to the players ("the location") into play. Note that this knowledge need not be very exact: the presence of one extra ten-value card per deck will make the game approximately even for the player.
Money Management: Money management is of utmost importance to avoid losing your bankroll. Even the best blackjack players in the world go through losing periods. It’s a statistical fact and there is nothing a player can do to avoid them. Many good players are not familiar with this element of ruin and make bets that are much too large in proportion to their bankroll. Inevitably they will lose their entire bankroll even if they make all the correct playing decisions, and wonder what went wrong. A wise player will always leave room for a certain amount of ruin. We have developed betting tables to indicate the proper bet size as a function of bankroll and true count.
