Early last year 2001 I embarked on a full-time BJ career again. The goal was to make a decent living playing blackjack and to enjoy again the experience as much as possible.
I know at the time that I probably will not have a similar entourage like I did back in the 70s and 80s, but Hey! That�s life! - Since that time my life has been drastically changed anyway.
I am using the Silver-Fox counting system with about 60 indices. This system counts 2-7 as +1, ignores the 8, and 9-A as �1. I use the TC for playing deviations mostly for Hit/Stand and for some Doubling Down and few split decisions. Also I use +3 for Insurance. Now, my betting system has a correlation with the count but also with the fact if I did or didn�t won the previous hand. This helps me to avoid large losses while the dealer is on a wining streak and the count is positive. It also camouflage the fact that I�m counting. I was barred only once in this time and that casino was an old one where I�ve been barred about 4 years ago.
While I show a nice profit, the hourly rate is about twice the mathematical expectation for the 2000 hours of play that I just completed last night in Vegas. I never lost a single session. I had negative fluctuations but nothing spectacular and I was able to recover during that session and make some extra. But I never left the session with less money that I come in. A couple times I end up the session with one chip only but never with less chips that I start with. Probably because the discipline of not increasing the bet even on supper positive counts if I lost the last hand. The most increase in bet size was a parley of the last bet and many times I manage to reach the table limit while on a winning streak.
Did a lot of things right, played with extremely discipline in good games all over Vegas. I don't think I made a lot of strategically mistakes but you never know for sure. Biggest mistakes that I am aware of are: first, over tipping, and second probably applying to much index for when I had 12,13,14,15,16, vs. 2,3,4,5,6. I relay do not know how much I gained overall but for sure many times even during a single session I�ve made the hand drawing a small card and beating the dealer. I�ve been a couple of times in a close encounter with some of the pit critters for the fact that I hit 14 vs.6 hands like. The creature took the cards out from the discard and scanning several cards, I guess he was looking to see if big cards have been out that drop the count down when hit the hand. Well, I will be working on that in the future.
But again, �, probably was luck, .., But again, .., in 2000 hours I estimate that about 180,000 hands of BJ and I doubt that Lady Luck was there for me all this time. I will never know for sure.
Anyway, I�m home and I will take some time off from the game for awhile. I just order the CBJN the other day to mark all the clubs where I�ve played during my journey. Boy!, I did a lot of clubs and to my surprise I never fail to hit the best ones.
The biggest pleasure for me besides the money, has been making new friends. Now I look forward to my trips knowing I'll be seeing old friends again. An observation: with a few exceptions, most of the players I know are male, but the ladies that play professional blackjack that I�ve met are all intelligent, personable and very attractive women.
Puiu
