Reference to "Playing safe" by Thetahoescout, 14 Sept.

I refer some new players to the articles "You Won't Win" and "Waiting For The Long Run", by Arnold Snyder, which was a psychological help to me along with my superb instruction from the tutorial by Ralph Stricker.
Robbie

one thing you don't see mentioned here is the quality of the game. Many think just because they count they can beat a blackjack game. I wonder if those advising others to go play in Pennsylvania ever bothered to actually look at the games. While there on other business I went to about 6 casinos over a week and the games were garbage. Horrible penetration. During the entire week I saw one cut I'd play after multiple visits to each place over all the shifts...and the table was full. "Oh...you can still beat such and such pen", "but the rules are good", blah blah blah. The games sucked and you don't play as good as a computer sim can on top of it. If someone put a gun to my head and said, "Play the current games in Pennsylvania or else..." I'd say "Pull the trigger." I was actually going to start playing again out of boredom but I wrote that off after what I saw.
It started with single deck. Pen was king over all games and then, as the casinos reduced pen, The Rule of Six in single deck was suddenly "an excellent game", in many peoples opinions, because that was all that was available. I'll tell you what a good single deck game is: playing heads up and hearing the dealer say, "Just tell me when you want me to shuffle." I played this game full time for 15 years and had a good to outstanding year every single year. I subscribed to CBJN and every other week flew for a week to a different cluster of good games around the country. When the local games were good I concentrated on them. I played from 1200 to 1300 hours a year and swallowed a $700 - $1100 nut every trip. That's what you have to do to succeed at this game. Long hours, good rules, good pen. I played my eyes out then ate a cheap meal then retired for the night running sim after sim, burning out laptop after laptop in a Super 8 or Motel 6 or whatever the cheapest, moderately safest dump in the area was. You have to play high quality games or forget it. Would I do it all again under the same circumstances? In a heartbeat. The money was good and I made friends with the smartest, for the most part the most honest people anywhere.
And now you know what it takes to beat the game. Dedication.

Something very few even know the meaning of.

Patience and discipline are of utmost importance according to what I have learned. I have learned that, through training and experience. I may not be the best player in the world but I think I know how to count cards well enough to win money in a casino.
Sincerely,
Robbie

over my time, easily 3 or 4 "the best card counter alive". It was usually after they were on a positive fluctuation and I always heard, "Well, I use 'such and such' count" and "I know this many variations", etc. It's always been my opinion, if you are accurate, game select well, have good cover and work at it then you're as good as any player alive no matter what count you use or how many indices you memorized or whatever fluctuations you suffered, positive or negative. I never even thought of rating myself as better or worse than anybody...it was always an "us against them" attitude in my mind as well as those I met or traveled with. Somebody was getting smashed, we made sure they knew where the best games were and which pit people to watch out for. I traveled on occasion with a guy that played on two of the biggest teams of all time and we just took each other for granted spending our effort getting the best cut and getting the money down. We didn't even know what count each other used the first year. Never came up.

Thanks, that's good advice which I always follow and adhere to.