Computers are killing blackjack

I believe computers are proliferating good players. They advertise and facilitate the game too well, which may finally ruin the balance of allowing beatable games.

I know I would never have become the player today without the internet. I would not have even been involved with blackjack. It is too damn easy to become a card counter these days. You have everything to your disposal. There are state of the art software practicing drills, game analysis, and simulations. You have a community of knowledgable pros and gurus to converse with around the world at any moment. Everything is spoon fed to you.

Take this 15 years ago. Advertising was low. The average person would have a good deal of trouble to become a player and to know about it. I know I would of. You really only had sporadic books - it was a low chance of comming across a good one. Personal computing was still underground. There was no public community to assist you. A seminar was rare and it cost money.

Now all you have to do is come to a site like this and you are a milestone ahead from these times. The games must adapt as well.

I find it amusing when people criticise the disclosure of specific game conditions here without realizing that this whole cyber existence is part of the problem. I am part of the problem.

I am one of the people you talk about.Only heard about counting through the net and am trying to learn it.But for every 1000 people who come across somthing like the BJ School how many will try to learn to count? and how many will actually succeed.and out of those how many will make good money from the game?
I would think that the web should cause land casinos to offer a better game.As people now can play at in the comfort of their home(why bother getting in your car and going to a smoky casino full of idiots moaning because you made the "wrong play") and also have access to more knowledge about the game.
The ploppy 15 years ago would not know what the difference between S17 or H17 makes,or DAS and NDAS.Now all he has to do is switch on his PC and find out.
I think instead of what the mayor says about legal action.Is to inform the general public that they are being ripped off by certain games and inform them as to what the good games are and where they are.People hate being ripped off.
A good way to do this is to start on the web then move on to newspapers and finally onto most peoples favorite media,TV.
Everybody listens to TV,take out an ad informing the public what a rip off 6 to 5 BJ games are.Anyone know a scriptwriter or director put in a piece in a TV series about ripoff bj games and see the public take note.Look at Rainman!
Anyway I have gone off track but if counters can use the web to inform the general public about where to play and not to play it could change things for the better,probably for casinos and counters

Hardly. Even with a wealth of information at your fingertips, 4 in 5 counter wannabes will lose their shirt.

Why? The info that is out there simply gives a counter enough rope to hang himself. A beginning counter is always underfinanced, and does not usually appreciate risk of ruin, or ways to reduce it. More counters will kill themselves, than any alert pit staff.

in the 1960's and 1970's there were blackjack books that were top national non-fiction best sellers (Beat the Dealer for example) In the 1980's there were late night info-mercials selling the HiLo count system. There was no internet, but people still had the information availiable and knew blackjack was beatable and could get the information at their corner bookstore about as easily as we get it on the internet.

I think the number of serious counters has not really changed relative to the number of blackjack games availiable...there are more casinos today than in 1975 and therefore more blackjack players and consequently more counters.

. . . are greatly exaggerated.

Everything you say is true. Computers and the Internet do make it much easier to become an advantage player.

However, the information has always been there, for those who were willing to look for it.

There has indeed been a proliferation of card counters. However, this does not necessarily translate into a proliferation of good card counters.

While the tools and information have certainly improved, the game itself has not gotten any easier.

However, there is one other, extremely important factor - the explosive growth of gambling and casinos. When Beat the Dealer was first published, the games were in Nevada. Period. This soon became Nevada and Atlantic City, but those remained the only options, other than overseas, for many years.

Now, everyone in the USA has a casino within a few hours drive. The state with the second largest gambling revenues is . . . California! Only two states still flatly outlaw all forms of gambling. In addition, gambling has become more socially acceptable. Bible belt families head for the casinos on weekends.

So, while there are undoubtedly more skilled players, there are also many more semi-skilled and totally clueless players, and many, many more casinos eager to take their money.

even church bingos are illegal. Chalk it up to the missionary influence. They were the first white men to settle in the islands, convert the royalty and commoners, convince them to discard their gods, outlaw the hula, cover up naked female breasts, etc. And guess what? They and their descendents ended up being the biggest and richest landowners in the state!

Neko

I don't think so. While its true that the skills necessary to play blackjack effectively are all over the internet but then so is pornography and how many of us sleep with women that look like porno girls. (the good sites --not the fetish ones. LOL ) anyway all seriousness aside, for everyone of us that gets really good at counting and shuffle tracking there are at least 50 that are only good enough to bring the casino their bankroll. the counting thing is of great benefit to the casinos because they know that very few people will ever put the effort into it that it requires. While the casinos like to picture the counters as Satan where would the church be without him.

From this thread I get the message that someone only qualifies as an advantage player if he learn to count cards without a computer, the Internet, and devoted his life to play the game. Anyone who has sent the time and effort to learn BS, a counting system, and indices is really no better than 'ploppies' because he does not spend 20 hours a week in the casino and have a $10000 BR to back him. It's because 'us',the new or part time counter, that the game of BJ has been ruined for the 'elite' few who deserved to make a living from this venue.

Since I have only being playing for a few months and won a 'small' amount of money, I am pissing in your pool because I did not learn the traditional way. I suppose I am not really a computer engineer because I have never used punch cards, drawn a flow chart, or wrote an assembly language program. I am not a military veteran because I served after Vietnam and before the Gulf War.

Are any of 'us'(I don't know if I qualify as 'us' or 'them') better than the 'ploppies' or even the 'casinos'? We turn up our noses to those that gamble and are ignorant of proper play of a hand. We claim our superior intelligence because we know basic strategy and can determine when the deck is in our favor. But by their playing, we can join the game at an opportune moment, hide our methods, and leave them with the dregs. We state we are better than the casinos because they take advantage of others weaknesses. We claim are innocent since we were not the predator that made the kill, but are only the scavengers feeding off of the remains.

Yes, I enjoy challenge of the game, stealth of counting, and the opportunity to make a little money. I hate to see others lose their money and the thoughts of those that suffer from the gambler's weaknesses. But I am not discouraging them from their choice or educationing them in the improvement of their play. In fact, I am the hypocrite because I know my time could be of better use in some other venture.

You have guessed corectly-the term "Advantaged Player" is a self
applied ego pumpimg piece of garbage. It is a substitute that
eggheads have for DUMB LUCK. Many years ago I had that kind of luck,
but absolutely NO skill. If any of the PHDs, eggheads, and know it alls drew my cards of today-they would not be advantaged players.
They would be their despised ploppies.

"DUMB LUCK. Many years ago I had that kind of luck, but absolutely NO skill."

Nowdays you don't even have dumb luck.

What gambling is legal in Tennessee? There is no lottery, casino, or legal slot machines. Is there something there that I am missing?