Martin J. Silverthorne. The. SILVERTHORNE PuBLICATIONS

Transcription

1 Martin J. Silverthorne The Simplex Blackjack Strategy! A Powerful Strategy That Reveals Exactly How to Exploit a "Flaw" in the Blackjack Game to Make Thousands of Dollars, Safely and Consistently! SILVERTHORNE PuBLICATIONS

2 COPYRIGHT 2006 by Silverthorne Publications Inc. All rights reserved. Except for brief passages used in legitimate reviews, no parts of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher. Address all inquiries to the publisher: Silverthorne Publications, Inc. 848 N. Rainbow Blvd., Suite 601 Las Vegas, Nevada United States of America The material contained in this book is intended to inform and educate the reader and in no way represents an inducement to gamble legally or illegally. 2

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Editor's Notes 4 Foreword 7 Introduction 11 The Game of Blackjack 20 Playing Strategies 26 Simplex Playing Strategy 35 Betting Strategies 61 Simplex Betting Strategy 79 Playing on the Internet 95 How to Find an Internet Casino 103 Skilful Play 109 Casino Comps 124 Casino Etiquette 139 Money Strategies 144 Putting It All Together 151 Are You Ready to Make $9,674 by Next Tuesday? 159 3

4 EDITOR'S NOTES I left the accounting profession many years ago and have never turned back since I learned how to successful as a gambling entrepreneur. I say "gambling entrepreneur" because there is very little "gamble" to what I do. I use a handful of carefully turned and proven strategies to regularly take large sums of cash from both land-based and now from Internet casinos. What I do does not require an extraordinary memory. It doesn't take a lot of specialized training. It is not dependent on being in the right place at the right time, like so many chances in life do. What I do, and have taught to others, is apply a set of learnable rules and strategies to certain select casino games and then methodically and regularly beat them. The net result of this approach is that my friends and associates who use these same techniques have a source of income 4

5 that is surprisingly regular, consistent and even predictable. These are none of the characteristics that most people have in mind when they think of gambling or gamblers. is a practical strategy that anyone can use to win in casinos. It is not difficult to learn, although you will do better if you practice a little before you risk real money. It is not theoretically perfect (I can't think of much that is). It does not require a large bankroll. And, it is used to win on a "hit and run" basis. The name of the strategy "Simplex" is derived from combing the words SIMple (which describes learning the strategy, and complex, which refers to the fact that the strategy performs as well or better than more complex strategies. This is a strategy that has been 100% proven to: Win from $51.50 to $ an hour playing day in and day out in land-based casinos. We have absolute proof that anyone can duplicate these results, hour after hour, day after day, week after profitable week! Pull in profits as high as $900 an hour off of Internet casinos that really have few defenses against the power of this strategy! 5

6 Win quickly time after time, game after game, using a powerful "hit and run" approach that is so effective that even our most successful players seldom spend over one to two hours a days "working." Create a predicable source of winnings that caused one of my associates to refer to a casino as his "casino bank." Then, with a smile he added, "They just keep the money for me until I go in and make a withdrawal." This is Not Just Another Card Counting System! This strategy has nothing to do with card counting or card tracking. Card counting has been around about forty years and is no longer a reliable approach to winning at today's blackjack games. The card counting approach was originally developed for the single deck, hand held blackjack games offered in the 1960's and 1970's. Those games really don't exist anymore. Oh, you can still find single deck blackjack games. But they usually offer poorer rules for the players and the dealers shuffle the cards frequently. With card counting, a card shuffle negates any advantage the player might gain. In addition, using multiple decks of cards almost eliminates any edge a card counter might develop. 6

7 Today, multiple decks are the norm. For example, most Atlantic City casinos use eight decks of cards. In addition, many casinos, such as the Indian casinos just a few miles from my house, use continuous shuffling machines which replicate the results of continuous shuffling. Internet casinos shuffle the "virtual cards" after every hand. As a practical matter, there is no way that you can use "Card Counting" to gain any real edge at blackjack any more. But the Simplex Blackjack Strategy has nothing to do with card counting or any of the old blackjack playing techniques that have mostly been neutralized by casino countermeasures. Instead of being a "theoretical strategy" that might win under the right conditions (like the card counting strategies), the Simplex Strategy is a highly effective practical strategy that you can use to win in any blackjack game. 7

8 FOREWORD One thing I have learned about human nature is that I have become very reluctant to give advice, whether solicited or otherwise. This especially applies to advising people on how to make or place wagers in casino games. I can recall very clearly one Blackjack game in the Dunes, on the Las Vegas Strip, when I was playing my favorite strategy and doing moderately well. A rather attractive young woman was sitting next to me and asking me how to play her different hands. The dealer was obviously bored (it was almost shift change time) and didn't react negatively to my assisting the young woman so I helped her with her hands, showing her how to use Basic Strategy at Blackjack. While I continued to win slowly, but steadily, she seemed to bust on every hand after taking my advice. I could almost read her mind, "This guy doesn't seem to know what he's talking about, and I am sure I could lose just as easily on my own." Finally, I left her to her own devices and she began to win with much greater alacrity than with my assistance. 8

9 I can recall yet another instance occurring at one of those Las Vegas night functions. I was invited by a business acquaintance who knew that I played Blackjack regularly and invited me along to help him learn the game. You can probably guess the outcome. Even though I was showing him the correct play for each hand, he continued to lose hand after hand. Plus, he was resenting my advice. There are at least a couple of conclusions that can be drawn from these experiences. First, anything can happen in the short run, and those who expect to start winning fabulous amounts of money in just a few hands have been watching too many movies. It just doesn't work that way. Perhaps more importantly, I learned to keep my mouth shut. People, especially men, really don't want my advice or any one else's when it comes to gambling. Sometime after the Dunes experience, while playing at the Four Queens in Vegas, another woman playing at the same table asked my advice. I remember one instance where she stood on a Soft 15 against a dealer's 8 up-card and won. She asked me if this was the right play. I told her, "If it works, do it!" So, with this in mind, I will proceed to violate this principle and advise you that Simplex Blackjack really does work. I have known "Dr B." for some time, and the system described in this book does work. Dr.B., in the tradition of some other gambling writers, prefers not to use his own name. I don't blame him. Some 9

10 gambling writers who have had their photographs on the back book jacket have found that their Blackjack play became extremely difficult as they became recognized as gambling experts. The late Ken Uston became a master of disguises to overcome this stigma. As for myself, I will not share my secret with you as to how I play without undue heat or who Dr. B. really is. But rest assured; I have verified everything that is written in this book, and I will attest that the Simplex approach is a sound money maker. The Blackjack crowd seems be divided into three camps. Those who couldn't care less about learning or applying any correct strategies to the game constitute the vast majority of players. These are the players in whose honor the casinos build new wings. A second group of "Blackjack experts" spend all of their time on computers devising more and more complex strategies to beat the game. With these experts, the basic object of any blackjack research has become forgotten in their quest for more and more complex, and I might add increasingly unusable, approaches to playing the game. The final group, of whom I am hopefully a member and in whose ranks Dr. B. certainly belongs, believe that the object of Blackjack research is to beat the game. This means playing in real casinos - with slot machines going off in the background, cocktail waitresses with cleavage from here to Thursday plying you with drinks, with less than cordial pit bosses scrutinizing your play, with players seated next to you with no skills and a need to share their every thought - with the sounds of casino life surrounding you. This is my purpose in playing Blackjack. I want to experience the real world and at the same time beat the casinos at 10

11 their own game. Dr. B. shares this enthusiasm for "real" blackjack, and his strategy superbly meets the goals of those of us who play to win with real money. I am sure that this book will make you a better Blackjack player and hopefully a winning one. Martin J. Silverthorne 11

12 INTRODUCTION Blackjack used to be a simple game. As card games go, it is probably on par with gin rummy in terms of learning the rudiments of the game. Ten-year olds can learn how to play the basic game in about thirty minutes. However, you would not believe that this is a simple game if you have read any of the blackjack books published in the past twenty-five years. This has been the era of "card counting," and you would not recognize the game if you learned it in earlier and simpler times. Card counting is filled with myths and half truths, and the public perception of how to go about card counting, as well as its effectiveness, is little understood. A common belief held by many of the uninitiated is that card counting is so powerful that fabulous sums of money can be won in very short time periods. The recent movie Rain Man demonstrated this myth when the Dustin Hoffman character, suffering from autism, but possessing an exceptional memory, proceeded to win thousands and thousands of dollars in a couple of hours because he could remember cards. 12

13 This probably expresses the public perception of blackjack winners and especially card counters. The card counter is a very unusual person with extraordinary memory abilities, and with these talents, a casino is virtually defenseless against the onslaught. The reality is very different. First, a card counter does not really have to have an extraordinary memory as hours of practice are used to build up the skills needed to be successful at card counting. Second, card counting is not nearly as effective against the casinos as the public believes. Many times an expert card counter will lose, and lose big! Consistent winnings are not guaranteed even with expert card counting. The difficulty in learning to be an effective card counter is underestimated by people who at least understand the concept. Understanding the concept and applying it in an effective and expert manner with few errors are two very different things. The concept can be explained in a few pages. However, the strategies to use as a successful card counter will take many many pages to explain, and the would-be card counter must learn them cold. However, all this effort must be worthwhile for one to learn a foolproof way to beat the casinos, right? Well, the sad news is that card counting is not foolproof. I am not talking about errors the player makes either. Card counting played without any errors is still not a guarantee of winning at blackjack. The principle of card counting is simply this: A player tracking cards played can use a special playing strategy and betting strategy to gain a mathematical advantage over the casino of from 13

14 one to two percent over the long term. Please note the use of the words "long term." I seem to recall a statement made by the economist Keynes that "in the long run, we are all dead." That in a nutshell is the problem with playing for the long term. We may die before the long term comes. Card counting, then, is strictly a long term strategy, which if played correctly, should provide a theoretical advantage over the casino - if you live long enough to realize it! Interested in playing blackjack for a weekend, or even two or three days? Card counting probably won't help you win because the time period played is too short for card counting to provide any significant advantage. Do any of the writers telling you about card counting bother to tell you that it probably won't do you any good to learn the skills unless you play long enough to reach the long term (however long that is). Maybe in a footnote on page 273, between strategy charts number 42 and 43. Yet how do most of us play blackjack? One or two days at a time? Or at the most, maybe three or four days? If we rely on card counting for these blackjack sessions, we probably will not win, or if we do, it may be in spite of card counting rather than because of it. Clearly, in order to win at blackjack as it is ordinarily played, we need a short term strategy - one that can be applied for an hour here and an hour there yet gain a real advantage for the 14

15 player. This is the purpose of the Simplex Blackjack Strategy - to win in the real life short term intervals that exist in actual casino play. There are other differences between the long term and short term schools of blackjack. The long run approach, which consists mainly of card counters, relies on a complex basic strategy for playing card hands which must be modified depending on the count. Computer simulations are used to test and evaluate each variation of card counting. And a large bankroll is required, as it is only with a large bankroll that the card counter can hope to weather the short term storms and emerge victorious in the long run. For many of the long term card counting camp, the game of blackjack has become almost irrelevant. Competing theories and techniques are tested and retested on the computer, regardless of their relevance to real life play. What matters is a theoretically "correct" approach even if it is too complex to ever be used in a casino. If you are a theorist, you may want to stop here as I am about to commit heresy. I believe that the most relevant approach to blackjack is one that can be easily learned and used to win in the short term, even if it is not theoretically perfect. This is the essence of the Simplex approach. The name "Simplex" is a combination of SIMple and complex, indicating that the strategy is simple to learn and use, yet is capable of handling complex situations. is a practical strategy which I use to win in casinos. It is not difficult to learn, although you will need to spend some time with it. It is not theoretically 15

16 perfect. In fact, I will point out how it can be improved, and you can be the judge as to whether the effort is worth the results. It does not require a large bankroll. And it is used to win on a "hit and run" basis. I don't like to play blackjack more than an hour and a half at a time as I start to lose my "mental edge" if I play longer than this at one stretch. Believe me, you will appreciate the short session approach, especially when the winnings start building up. My publisher, Martin Silverthorne insisted on testing the Simplex Strategy on his computer before agreeing to publish this book. To his surprise (but not mine), this strategy even beats the card counting strategy in computer simulations. The reason I am not surprised is that I have known and played next to counters for years. I have tried counting myself, and my conclusion is that the Simplex Strategy will beat the pants off card counting - anytime, anywhere! Best of all, Simplex is an easy-to-learn, real world strategy that you can use to make money without dying of old age waiting for the long term to arrive. I use it frequently, and I know that you will be pleased with its results. There are three valid approaches to beating the game of blackjack. Card counting, or more properly card tracking, is the one which has received most of the publicity. A second, and probably more reliable method, is based on taking advantage of player biased groups of cards and avoiding dealer biased groups of cards. This technique may be called the "clump strategy," and it relies on the fact that most shuffles are not thorough enough to totally mix the cards, resulting in portions of the deck which favor 16

17 the player over the dealer. Martin Silverthorne's favorite strategy for winning is based on exploiting these clumps of favorable situations. The third valid approach to winning uses a statistical variation discovered in the distribution of blackjack wins and losses. The Simplex Strategy uses this methodology to beat the game. Most other methods of blackjack play consist of betting progressions, many requiring the player to increase his wager after losses. I strongly recommend that you avoid most of the progressions for blackjack, especially the ones requiring increased wagers following losses. As we have discussed, card counting is a long term strategy which may or may not produce wins over the long run. The card clumping approaches and the Simplex method are to be used for short term blackjack play. Simplex is an excellent system for both the player who only plays on one or two weekends a year, or the player who plays several days at a time, many times a year. It is short term strategy which provides good results when played over the long term. For what is the long term but the cumulative results of the short term? The Simplex Strategy is divided into several parts. The first concerns itself with Playing Strategies, or more simply," How do we play our cards on each hand dealt to us?" Playing strategies, sometimes called "Basic Strategies," have evolved into an 17

18 increasingly complex maze of rules and rule variations through the years of blackjack research. As we shall see, Simplex will live up to its name in its playing strategy in that the Simplex Playing Strategy is both simple and effective. After developing a Playing Strategy, we will consider the Betting Strategy. While the Playing Strategy determines how we play each hand, the Betting Strategy helps us determine how much to bet on each hand and when to bet it. As you will see, much of the power of the Simplex strategy lies in its ability to "forecast" the best times to increase wagers. This timing is based on a statistical variation discovered in the distribution of blackjack wins and losses which tells us when the time is best to increase wagers and when wagers should be reduced. is rounded out with a sound Money Strategy and the mental preparation needed to "pull it all together." With the correct Money Strategy we shall see exactly when to quit a session (whether winning or losing), how much money we need to take to play, and how much we can expect to win. We shall see examples of how we can fine tune our bankroll and playing style, and we will know the amount of time we intend to invest in blackjack to actually forecast our expected winnings. Mental preparation is the glue that holds it all together. Hopefully your journey through the Simplex Strategy will be as exciting for you as my experiences in playing the system have been for me. Besides being a reliable winner, Simplex is also 18

19 relaxing and fun, and for me, there is no better combination than winning money in the adult Disneyland atmosphere provided by casinos. Before getting into the specific Simplex strategies, I will review the basic rules for playing blackjack. If you are an experienced player you may want to skip the next chapter and go right into the Simplex strategy. 19

20 THE GAME OF BLACKJACK Blackjack is played with from one to eight decks of cards, with one dealer, and with from one to seven players. Each of the players can win or lose independently of the other players as the players' sole objective is to beat the dealer. There are two ways to beat the dealer. The player can have a higher point total than the dealer, or the dealer can bust by having a point total greater than 21. There are also two ways a player can lose. If the point total for the dealer's hand is greater than the player's hand, without either hand exceeding 21, then the dealer wins. If the player's hand exceeds 21 and the player "busts," then the dealer wins. Because the players always play out their hands before the dealer plays his, the player will lose a busted hand even if the dealer also goes bust. This is the principle advantage the casino has over the players, for even if both the player and the dealer bust, the dealer will always win. 20

21 The game is played with 52 poker-sized cards per deck, and the suits of cards are ignored. The numerical value of each card is important: Twos through nines are counted at face value, all tens and picture cards are valued at 10, and Aces are counted as either a 1 or an 11, at the option of the player. Bets are paid off at even money. If a wager is $5.00 and it wins, the payoff is $5.00. The only exceptions to this are blackjacks, which are paid at 1.5 to 1 and insurance wagers, which are paid off at 2 to 1. Before a new game of blackjack begins, the dealer spreads the cards across the table to ascertain that no cards have been marked or are missing from the decks. The cards are shuffled, and the dealer deals from left to right giving each player a total of two cards. The player makes his wager before each round of cards are dealt, so that the betting decision must be made before the player sees any of his cards. In games with one or two decks, the dealer will hold the cards in his or her hand and deal the cards face down. In the multiple deck games, which can have from four to eight decks, the cards are dealt from a container called a "shoe" and are dealt face up. If the first two cards dealt the player total 21, the player has a blackjack which is an immediate win unless the dealer also has a blackjack, which is then a standoff called a "push." Blackjacks pay 1.5 to 1. With any two cards which total less than 21, the player has a number of options for playing his hand. 21

22 The first decision the player must make is whether to surrender or to take insurance, if these options present themselves. These decisions will be discussed in more detail later. The most common decision the player must make is whether to accept only the two cards dealt, which is called "standing," or to ask for more cards, called "hitting." Doubling down and splitting pairs are the two final options available to the player. The doubling down decision occurs more frequently than the option of splitting pairs. After receiving the first two cards, if you believe that you will beat the dealer with just one more card dealt, you are allowed to double your wager and draw only one more card. Some casinos will allow you to double down on any two cards, and others restrict this option to hands totaling 10 or 11. If the first two cards dealt you are a pair, such as a 6-6, a 9-9, or a 10-Jack, then you have the option of splitting the pairs and playing each card as a separate hand. All tens and face cards are counted as tens, so that a 10-Jack or a Queen-King are counted as pairs. To split a pair, you must make an additional wager equal to your original wager for the second hand created by splitting the original hand. Players' hands are either dealt face up or face down, depending on the number of decks of cards used and the rules of the casino. Games with one or two decks are usually dealt face down, and the games with four or more decks are dealt face up. It 22

23 really makes no difference to the player as it does not matter who sees his hand. While the players' hands will be either face up or face down, the dealer's hand will always have only one card showing, called the dealer's "up-card." The other dealer card will be face down and is called the "hole-card." Whenever the dealer's up-card is an Ace, the dealer will ask, "Insurance, anyone?" If you believe that the dealer's hole-card is a 10, so that the dealer has a blackjack (10 + the Ace counted as 11), you are allowed to make a side bet of up to one-half the amount of your original wager, that the dealer has a blackjack. If the dealer has a 10 valued card as his hole-card and therefore has a blackjack, you will be paid 2 to 1 on your insurance wager, but lose your original bet, unless you also have a blackjack and tie with the dealer. The final option available to the player is Surrender. Very few casinos offer the option of surrender. If you are not satisfied with your first two cards, you may announce "Surrender." The dealer will then pick up your cards and take one-half of your bet, the amount surrendered. This is the only instruction given verbally in blackjack as all other decisions are communicated by hand signals to the dealer. Occasionally, the player may have to verbally clarify a decision such as doubling down on a pair of 5s to make sure that the dealer understands that he is not splitting a pair, but in general, hand signals are used in place of verbal ones. To indicate that you want to stand with the cards dealt, you simply wave your hand, palm down over your cards, signaling the 23

24 dealer "no more cards." To ask for another card, you will either point at your cards or make a beckoning motion with your fingers. In a face down game, where you will be holding the cards in your hand, you will scrape the cards on the table felt to signal that you want a hit. If you wish to stand in the face down game, simply place your cards face down under your wager. If you have a blackjack in the face down game, you will immediately place your cards face up on the table so that the dealer can pay your blackjack. In the face up game, the dealer will notice your blackjack and pay you without any action on your part. Doubling down and pair splitting are signaled by placing additional wagers next to your original wager in the betting box in the face up game; you will not touch the cards. In the face down game, you will place your cards face up on the table and make an additional wager to tell the dealer that you want to double or split your hand. While the player has several options for playing his hand, the dealer must play by an unvarying set of rules. In Atlantic City the rules are set by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and are the same in every New Jersey casino. The rules vary in Nevada with Downtown Las Vegas casinos, the "Strip" casinos and northern Nevada casinos forming the major groups having rule variations. However, in Nevada the rules can vary from casino to casino even in the same locale, and the best way to find out about rule variations is to ask casino personnel. After completing his deal to all players and giving additional cards to those players who ask for them, the dealer will 24

25 complete his own hand. He will turn over his hole-card and complete his hand in accordance with the rules established by the casino. Dealers will draw on any hand with a total of 16 or less and stand on any hand totaling 17 to 21. If a dealer has a 16, he must draw, even if this hand beats a player's hand. In New Jersey and on the Las Vegas Strip, the dealer will stand on a soft 17, which is a hand containing an Ace counted as 11 (Ace-6). In Downtown Las Vegas and in Northern Nevada, the dealer will draw to a soft 17, but will stand on a hard 17 (a hand containing no Aces counted as 11). If the dealer breaks, all remaining players win. If the dealer reaches a hand between 17 and 21, the dealer will collect bets from players with lower hands and pay off at even money the players with higher hands. Please note that a player drawing a total of 21 may not count this hand as a blackjack, as blackjacks only occur with the first two cards dealt initially. Any players with the same point totals as the dealer tie the dealer and neither win nor lose. The basic information available to a player on how to play each hand comes from the information conveyed from the knowledge of his own hand and the exposed dealer up-card. Some players may choose to ignore this information and play each hand the same way regardless of the dealer's up-card. However, considerable study has been made of the optimal ways in which to play each hand using the information derived from seeing the 25

26 dealer's up-card and seeing the two player cards. The study and analysis of the playing decisions to be made from this information is termed "Playing Strategies." 26

27 PLAYING STRATEGIES Blackjack has become the most popular casino table game, replacing craps as the number one choice for the majority of gamblers. If you ever observe people playing blackjack, you will notice that there are many more scowling faces than cheerful ones and that the majority of players are losing. Can you guess why most players are losing consistently? If you guessed that the casinos are cheating or that the game just can't be beaten, you are wrong. The reason that most players are losing with such predictable regularity is that they have no idea what they are doing. The number one failing of most blackjack players is that they have no conception of the correct strategy to use in playing their hands. By playing hands, I mean making the best decisions for each hand among the options offered to the player. These options are hitting, standing, doubling down, splitting pairs, taking insurance or surrendering a hand. 27

28 This is a real shame because the information on how to correctly play blackjack hands has been around for almost thirty years. If you have ever read another book on blackjack, you have probably been exposed to a long section in the book with many complex looking charts describing the Basic Strategy to be used for blackjack. I believe that most blackjack players are familiar with the concept of a basic strategy to be used for playing their hands and that the majority of them have not bothered to learn it because it is too complicated! Therefore, instead of using a correct playing strategy, most players shrug their shoulders at its complexity and use their own methods. The most common strategy used for playing each hand is the "Hunch Strategy." Variations of this strategy are the "What- Do-You-Think?" approach and the "Coin-flipping Decision Making System." All of these systems boil down to the same thing. The player has no idea how to play each hand and hits, stands or doubles depending on his mood, the atmosphere at the table or on the comeliness of the cocktail waitress. The worst offenders in this category are men (sorry guys). Place an attractive female next to a male blackjack player, and he will proceed to strut his stuff by making the worst possible blackjack decisions to impress the female. I guess we all recall James Bond who would plunk down his bet at roulette with typical masculine indifference to the game and as likely as not win. 28

29 While this approach may work for James Bond, it is not a very good one for blackjack. The average "Hunch Bettor" probably gives the house an advantage of from 10% to 20%, depending on how bad his play is. A second, and seemingly more logical approach is to mimic the dealer. The reasoning here is pretty straight forward. If it works for the dealer, it must work for the player. At first glance, this method seems to produce an even up game as the player's odds must be the same as the dealer's, right? Well, your odds and the dealer's are the same on the first hand. However, you must always play your cards first, and you will always lose to the dealer when you bust. The dealer will also lose on busts, but only if the players have not busted first. In other words, the player will lose all of his busts and the dealer will lose only by busting after the player. In effect, you, the player, will lose all ties when both you and the dealer's hands exceed 21. The calculated house advantage over this method of play is about 5.5% against the player. After you have played blackjack a short time, you will be sure to notice the number of times that you bust and the dealer also busts but beats you because you busted first. Ah ha, you think, the way to beat the dealer is to quit drawing cards to hands where you can bust. From this you evolve the "Stand on Any Hand Less Than 12" system. The table below shows the probabilities of busting when hitting different hand totals. Even with a total of 12, you will bust when drawing additional cards - almost one third of the time. 29

30 This approach to playing blackjack will grind you down in a hurry. While you will never bust and will win every time that the dealer busts, you will never win enough of the time to beat the dealer. With this "no bust" approach, the casino edge against you is about 17%, very tough odds to overcome. PROBABILITY OF BUSTING WITH DRAW Hand Total Risk of Busting % 20 92% 19 85% 18 77% 17 69% 16 62% 15 58% 14 56% 13 39% 12 31% 11 and lower 0% The preferred playing strategy is the so-called Basic Strategy developed originally by the mathematicians Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel and McDermott in the early 1960s. Their work was improved on by Edward Thorp and Julian Braun. Braun used an IBM computer to analyze the correct playing strategy for every combination of cards which can be dealt a player and a dealer. 30

31 In doing this type of analysis, the computer is the only way to go. Imagine playing millions and millions of hands of blackjack and recording and analyzing the results of every hand. But this is exactly what Braun did. These studies confirmed something that old time gamblers had known for a long time, even if they applied this knowledge imperfectly. The correct play for each hand is determined by the dealer's up-card. The worst possible up-cards for the dealer are 5s and 6s. With these two up-cards the dealer will break about 43% and 42% of the time, respectively. A 4 is almost as bad, with the dealer breaking on 4s about 40% of the time. The next worst up-cards for the dealer are 2s and 3s. With a 2, the dealer bust rate is 35% and with a 3, 38%. With this information, and information developed on every combination of dealer up-cards and player combinations, a Basic Strategy was developed. As we have seen, the worst up-cards for a dealer are the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, which form the basis for most "stiff" or busting hands. With the dealer showing these cards as up-cards we want to bet as much money as possible and we will be more aggressive in the strategies which allow us to increase our wagers after we have already seen our first two cards, doubling down and splitting pairs. The best up-cards for the dealer are 9s, 10s and Aces. The cards 7 and 8 tend to be neutral, neither offering an advantage to nor being detrimental to the dealer. 31

32 You might be wondering why we can categorize these cards this way. The easiest way to understand this is to think of the dealer's hole-card as a 10-valued card. Because of the high number of ten-valued cards in a deck of cards, it is correct to think of the dealer's hand having a total of 10 higher than the up-card. Thus, a dealer with a 6 exposed, will tend towards a total of 16. With a 2, 3, 4 or 5 as an up-card, the dealers totals will tend towards 12, 13, 14 and 15. All of these hands are potential busting hands for the dealer because under the standard hitting and standing rules to which the dealer must adhere, he must hit these hands. With a 9, 10 or Ace showing as an up-card, a dealer is more likely to have a "pat" hand, a hand where no further draws are needed. For purposes of understanding the correct playing strategy, it is useful to think of these dealer hands totaling 19, 20 and 21. These hands are strong playing hands, and against these hands, we must be willing to draw cards to our own potential busting hands (hands with totals of 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16) because of the high probability that the dealer will beat us anyway! With dealer up-cards of 7 and 8 our strategy is neither aggressive nor conservative. We probably do not want to increase our wagers by doubling down or splitting pairs, but we may not be as likely to draw to our stiffs. With these cards showing we are in a fairly "neutral" position versus the dealer. The correct playing strategy is a way to make the best possible decision on how to play each hand given the information we have that is, our own cards and the dealer's up-card. So far, this outline of the ground rules sounds reasonable. We will get more money on the table when the dealer has a 32

33 potential stiff hand (shows a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6), be forced to draw to our own stiffs when the dealer shows a 9, 10 or Ace, and be in a neutral position when the dealer shows a 7 or 8. Correct playing strategies do not turn every hand dealt into a possible winner. When you receive hands totaling 14, 15 or 16, the probability is much greater that you will lose rather than win this hand. What the correct playing strategy does is allow you to make the best playing decision no matter what combination of cards are dealt you and the dealer. Many of the correct playing strategies will reduce the expected loss on a hand rather than turn the hand into a winner. Suppose you are dealt an A,7 versus a dealer up-card of 10. Your options with this hand are to stand with a hand totaling 18, or to hit the hand, knowing that because of the ten bias in blackjack, a dealer showing a 10 will have a hand that gravitates towards a total of 20. The correct strategy is to hit this hand. With a hit, the probability of winning this hand is 43%. However, if you stand on this hand, your chance of winning is only 41%. In this case, the correct play causes you to lose less! Now suppose that you hold the same A,7 but the dealer shows a 6 as his up-card. With your hand totaling 18 and the dealer's tending towards 16, the probability of winning is on your side. In fact, by standing with this hand your win rate is 63%. So what's the decision to make? Why not just stand with the hand? Because this is one of those situations where you can turn a money making hand into an even bigger money maker by increasing your wager and doubling down. 33

34 If you double down, your win rate will decrease slightly, from 63% to about 59.5%. However, the amount of your winnings will increase. If your original wager was $1.00, then we can compute your net win rate by subtracting the dealer win rate from your win rate ( ) and compute a net win rate of.26 for this wager. This means that with a $1.00 wager, you can expect to win $.26 with this hand by standing. If you double down, your net win rate is only.19 ( ). However, you will apply this net win rate to a larger wager of $2.00. We see that your net win is $.38 (.19 X $2.00) for an increase in winnings of $.12 ($.38 - $.26). In this situation, the correct playing strategy has helped you win more in a winning situation. There are 550 combinations of dealer up-cards and player hands, and a correct strategy has been devised for each different combination. However, another factor must be considered before formulating a basic playing strategy. This is the influence that rule variations in the game of blackjack and the number of decks used have on the correct playing strategy. The number of decks used in a game primarily affect the rules used for doubling down. In a single deck game, you will double down more aggressively because mathematically you are more likely to receive a high card than you are in a multi-deck game. The rules of the game affect both the doubling down and the pair splitting decisions. For example, in Northern Nevada, the casinos generally limit doubling down to the two initial cards 34

35 totaling 10 or 11 only. The correct playing strategy calls for doubling on additional hands such as the hand with an A-7 as we saw above, but this will not be allowed in casinos which restrict doubling to only 10s and 11s. The Atlantic City and Nevada rules also differ in whether doubling is allowed after splitting pairs. In Atlantic City, a pair which is split may not be resplit if another like card is received; however, a split pair may be doubled. In Nevada, the general rule is that a pair many be split up to four times, but that a split pair may not be doubled. Because of these and other rule variations, a slightly different playing strategy must be used. So, if you are interested in learning the correct playing strategy, you must learn one strategy for single deck games and another one for multi-deck games. In addition, you must learn a slightly different strategy depending on the rules adopted by the casino where you are playing. And, these variations must encompass 550 possible combinations of player and dealer cards! Does this sound a little complicated? The Simplex Playing Strategy considers that a Basic Strategy including all of the variations occurring because of rule variations and deck size is just too complicated for most players to learn. The Simplex approach is to use a conservative playing strategy which works for single as well as multi decks and with any set of rule variations you are likely to encounter. As you will see, using this approach produces a playing strategy which is very effective and is very easy to learn and use. 35

36 SIMPLEX PLAYING STRATEGY We believe that it is all too easy to make critical playing errors when trying to learn a complex playing strategy. It is easy to make a mistake confusing one strategy for another under the pressure of actual play in casinos or in moving from one casino to another where rules may vary. Using only one strategy is the logical thing to do since the difference in performance is so slight that you will not notice any difference in short-term play. The Simplex Playing Strategy tends to be conservative. Where other strategies may call for splitting pairs, Simplex may call for a "hit." Where doubling may be recommended with a different strategy, Simplex may suggest a hit or standing. The rationale behind this approach is simple. Every time you split a pair or double down, you are risking more money on that particular wager. By reducing the amount risked, you can't get hurt too badly. However, the Simplex Playing Strategy will not neglect those profitable opportunities for splitting pairs or doubling down. It will only reduce the number of times that these decisions are recommended. 36

37 The Simplex Playing Strategy is presented in a step form. Each aspect of the playing strategy can be learned separately. We will cover hitting and standing, doubling down, and splitting pairs, in that order. Learning the rules for hitting and standing will take precedence over doubling, and doubling will come before splitting. Insurance and Surrender rules will be presented as separate topics. The majority of the player decisions in blackjack involve hitting and standing. The decision of whether to hit or stand occurs in 68% of all blackjack decisions and contributes 53% of the player's advantage derived from using correct play. The table below shows the frequency of each type of blackjack decision and the relative effect making that decision has on your overall playing effectiveness. Frequency and Advantages of the Simplex Playing Strategy %Frequency %Player Advantage of Decisions with Correct Play HIT OR STAND 68% 53% DOUBLING 19% 37% PAIR SPLITTING 13% 10% 100% 100% 37

38 By learning only the correct strategy for hitting and standing, you will have learned how to play 68% of the blackjack decisions and have achieved 53% of the effectiveness possible using the Simplex Playing Strategy. After learning the rules for hitting and standing, you will next want to learn the strategy for doubling. By adding the knowledge of correct doubling to your knowledge of hitting and standing, you will be able to handle 87% of all blackjack playing decisions (68% + 19%), and you will increase your playing effectiveness to the 90% level (53% + 37%). By adding the strategy for pair splitting, you will have knowledge necessary to play 100% effectively at blackjack. Playing at the 100% level does not mean that your play will always be perfect; it means that you will have mastered the correct strategy for playing any hand which can be dealt you. Learning the correct rules for hitting and standing is obviously the place to start. Not only are these rules easy to learn, but over two-thirds of the correct playing decisions entail knowing when to hit or stand. Hitting and standing decisions can be divided into three different groupings of player hands: hand valued 11 or less, hands valued and hands valued We will look at each in turn to see how it affects our playing strategy. Before making these decisions, we must consider whether our hand contains an Ace. If after receiving our first two cards, our hand does not have an Ace, then it is a hard hand. Hands like 8,10, 3,7 or 8,8 are all hard hands. If our hand contains an Ace valued as "11," then it is a soft hand. Examples include A,9 A,3 38

39 and A,A. There are different playing strategies for hard hands and soft hands. The strategy for soft hands is more flexible because of the versatility of the Ace, being counted as either 1 or 11. With hands totaling 11 or less, we will always hit (unless a doubling or splitting option is more profitable). By hitting these hands, we have no risk of busting, and we can substantially improve our total. We will always hit, double or split when our hand is 11 or less. When our hard hands total we will always stand. The risk of busting makes a draw too risky with these hands. While the 17 and, to some extent, an 18 are weak totals, the risk of exceeding 21 is too great to draw to these hands. We will always stand when our hand is 17 or greater, regardless of the dealer up-card. With hard hands totaling we will have the majority of our decision making. With these hands, we have a great risk of busting. If the dealer hand appears to be weak enough, we may stand with these hands, reasoning that the likelihood of the dealer busting exceeds our probability of being beaten with these totals. If the dealer hand is strong, we will be forced to hit these hands, hoping that we might beat the dealer (while recognizing that our risk of busting is high). The table below shows the correct decisions for hitting and standing for hard totals. 39

40 Hitting and Standing Hard Hands 1. Stand on any hand with a 12 or higher versus a dealer hand of Hit on any hand with a total of less than 17 versus a dealer 7-A. 3. Stand on any hand of 17 or higher, regardless of the dealer up-card. 4. Hit any hand with a total of 11 or less. These rules are simple and can be learned in just a few minutes. Using this hitting and standing strategy for hard hands, you will always hit any hand (or double or split if appropriate) with a total less than 12 as there is no single card which can cause this hand to bust. Hitting can only improve the hand. If your hand totals 17-21, you will always stand as the risk of busting is too great to draw a card to these hands. So, for hard hands, if the total of your cards is 12 or less, or 17 or greater, you may ignore the dealer up-card for making hitting and standing decisions. If your total is from 12-16, you must look at the dealer upcard to make the correct decision. If the dealer has a high card 40

41 from 7-A, you will hit. If the dealer shows a low card from 2-6, you will stand. Some of you may have noticed, if you are familiar with the typical basic playing strategy for blackjack, that this strategy is slightly different when the dealer shows a 2 or 3 as his up-card. Most playing strategies call for the player to hit any total less than 13, so that rather than standing on a 12 versus a dealer 2 or 3, you will hit. This strategy will improve the effectiveness of the Simplex Playing Strategy very slightly. If you want to add this strategy to the hitting and standing rules for hard hands, by all means do so. However, you will be called on to make this decision in only 1.2% of all playing decisions, and the advantage to you of making this play is so slight that it is really not worth learning for short term play. Ignoring this rule variation will help you eliminate some of the clutter associated with learning the correct playing strategy. Its use is strictly optional. The effectiveness of the Simplex Playing Strategy will not be adversely impacted by ignoring this rule. Soft hands, defined as those hands containing an Ace counted as 11, have different rules for hitting and standing. With a soft hand totaling 17 or less, you will always hit because no single card can bust these hands. Some players question the validity of hitting a soft 17. After all, most dealers will stand on a soft 17, and the correct play for hard hands is to stand on a total of 17. The reason that you will always draw to a soft 17 is that 17 is not a very good total for standing. The best you can hope for with a 17 is to tie the dealer if he doesn't bust, or hope that he busts. The reason we stand on a hard 17 is not that it is a good total, as it 41

42 is a weak hand, but rather that with hard hands the risk of busting with a draw exceeds the risk of losing by standing with a 17. With soft 17s there is no risk of busting, so it makes sense to always hit the hand. With a dealer up-card of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8, you will always stand on any soft total of 18 or greater. If your hand is A,7 versus a dealer 8, you will stand. As we shall see later, if the dealer was showing a 3-6 as his up-card, we would double down on this hand. If the dealer shows a high card of 9, 10 or Ace, you must draw until your soft hand has a total of 19 or greater. If the dealer's up-card is a 10, and we have an A,7, we must draw. In this case with an up-card of 10, the dealer's hand will gravitate towards a total of 20 because of the ten bias in blackjack. If we draw to a 19, we will still lose to the dealer's 20. Why not continue to draw until we reach a total of 20 or higher? We don't try to draw beyond a total of a soft 19 because the risk of losing to a higher dealer total of 20 or 21 is less than the risk of drawing to a lower total than 19. In other words, if we have a soft 19, we are not very likely to improve this total, and we had better keep what we have, even if it might lose to the dealer. These rules of hitting and standing with soft hands are shown below. 42

43 Hitting and Standing Soft Hands 1. Always hit any soft hand with a total of 17 or less. 2. Stand on any soft hand with a total of 18 or more versus a dealer Stand on any soft hand with a total of 19 or more versus a dealer 9-A. Another way of stating rules 2 and 3 is to always hit any soft hand until at least an 18 is reached versus any dealer hand, and a 19 is made if the dealer has a high card of 9, 10 or Ace. It is important to keep in mind that a soft hand can change into a hard hand after drawing a card. For example, if you hit an A,6 and receive a 10 valued card, you now have a hand valued as 17 (A,6,10), with the Ace counted as 1. Since this hand is now hard, you will use the rules for hard hands in making any additional hit or stand decisions. Since a hard 17 is considered a pat hand, you will now stand. When you master these simple hitting and standing rules you will have achieved 53% of your playing efficiency possible with the Simplex Playing Strategy. If you don't learn anything else about blackjack, learn the hitting and standing rules. You will play better than most blackjack players, and you will be able to play at 43

44 only a slight disadvantage to the casino. If you are planning to rush off to the casino in the next day or so and don't have time to learn anything else, just learn these rules and the Simplex Money Strategies, and you will have a very good chance of at least breaking even in the game. Because lists of rules are not the easiest form in which to learn new information, the hitting and standing rules are summarized in a table form which you will find is easier to learn. It is strongly recommended that you learn the hitting and standing rules before attempting to learn any additional rules of playing strategy. However, you should try to learn all of the hitting and standing rules as a group, as well as the additional playing strategies which follow. Learning studies have shown that we learn new concepts faster when we link a series of rules together rather than trying to memorize each subset of the rules. If you will spend a few minutes studying these rules and maybe writing them down a couple of times, you will reinforce your memory and be well on the way to learning correct hitting and standing strategy. 44

45 Hitting and Standing Rules DEALER MINIMUM UP-CARD TO STAND ================Hard Hands================= 2,3,4,5,6 Hard 12 7-Ace Hard 17 ================Soft Hands================== 9,10,A Soft Soft 18 =========================================== Writing these rules down on a small card that you carry with you is an easy way to learn them. Whenever you have some slack time during the day, you can study the card. If you do this, you will find that you will probably master these rules in less than an hour of actual study time, broken into two and three minute concentration periods. Now that you have mastered the Simplex Strategy for hitting and standing, the next item of information is learning the correct doubling rules. Doubling down is a valuable player option in which a player may double his wager in favorable situations. The only disadvantage to the player is that when he doubles down, he may receive only one additional card. Doubling down is an effective 45

46 strategy for the player in two situations. A player will double when the dealer's hand is so weak and the dealer is so likely to bust that the player wants to take advantage of the dealer's weakness and get more money on the table to double his winnings. Taking advantage of the dealer's weak hand as evidenced by an up-card of 2-6 is the reason we will want to double on certain soft hands such as A,6. In these cases, by doubling against the potentially weakest hands of the dealer, we are hoping that the dealer will bust against our doubled wager. A player will also want to double when his hand is so strong versus the dealer's hand that he is likely to win by beating the dealer's point total. The player's hard totals of 10 and 11, and to a lesser extent 9, will be doubled against weaker dealer up-cards as the prospect of beating the dealer's point total is high. Thus a player total of 11 will be doubled against a dealer up-card of 7, for example. With an 11, the player's hand will tend towards 21 while the dealer with a 7 showing will gravitate towards a 17. An important concept to remember in doubling down is the high probability of drawing a ten-valued card. We will double very aggressively when our totals are 10 or 11 as by drawing a tenvalued card our totals will be 20 and 21. With a 9, we will double less aggressively as our prospect of drawing to a total of 19 does not give us as strong a hand as a 20 or 21. We will never double on any hand of 12 or more as the probability of busting the hand is too great. 46

47 The ten factor affects our doubling against the dealer stiffs. We will double against the dealer up-cards of 4, 5 and 6 very aggressively as we know that the dealer has over a 40% chance of busting with these up-cards. We will double somewhat less aggressively against the dealer up-cards of 2 and 3 as even though these are potential busting hands for the dealer, he is less likely to bust with these up-cards than with a 4, 5 or 6. Potential hands for doubling consist of hard hands and soft hands. The only hard hands which will be doubled are two-card hands totaling 9, 10 or 11. The strongest doubling hand is a hard hand totaling 11. This hand will be doubled against every dealer up-card except an Ace. The next most powerful hand for doubling is a 10. A hard 10 will tend towards a 20-valued hand, a very powerful hand. We will double against any dealer up-card less than a 10, that is, against dealer up-cards of 2-9. The weakest hard hand for doubling is a 9-valued hand. This hand we will double only against the dealer stiffs of 3 to 6. It is a close call whether we should double a 9 versus a dealer 2, but we will limit our doubling to dealer stiffs of 3-6. The doubling rules for hard hands are shown on the below. 47

48 Doubling Down Hard Hands 1. Double an 11 versus a dealer Double a 10 versus a dealer Double a 9 versus a dealer Never double any other hard hands. In contrast to doubling with the hard totals of 9, 10 and 11, where we expect to beat the dealer's total, with soft hands, such as A,6, we will double with the expectation of the dealer busting by drawing to a stiff. We will double certain soft hands only against the dealer up-cards of 3-6. We will never double hands of A,9 or A,8 as these hands total 20 and 19, two respectable hands in their own right. Our prospect of winning with these hands is greater than the odds of increasing our winnings by doubling. So we will leave these hands alone. The most doubling possibilities occur with hands of A,6 and A,7. Because of the high probability of drawing a ten, these hands will tend towards totals of 17 and 18. We will double these hands against any dealer up-card of 3, 4, 5 or 6. With soft hands of A,4 and A,5, we will double only against the dealer up-cards of 4, 5 and 6. 48

49 Our weakest soft hands for doubling are A,2 and A,3. We will double these hands only against the weakest dealer cards of 5 and 6. The rules for soft doubling are shown below. Doubling Down Soft Hands 1. Stand on hands of A,8 and A,9. 2. Double on A,6 and A,7 versus a dealer Double on A,4 and A,5 versus a dealer Double on A,2 and A,3 versus a dealer 5-6. Here are some tricks to help you remember the hard and soft doubling rules. With a hard total of 10 or 11, you will double if the dealer up-card is at least one less than your hand. If you have a 10, the dealer card must not be greater than one less than 10, or 9 for you to double. With an 11, you will double versus a dealer's 10 or less. With a hard 9, you will double against a dealer's 3-6. Remember that their sum is 9. For doubling on soft hands, you will remember a pattern. The lower your cards, the fewer dealer cards you will double against. For the lowest totals of A,2 and A,3 you will only double down on 5 and 6. With hands of A,4 and A,5 you will add a card and double on 4, 5 and 6. With the highest totals of A,6 and A,7 49

50 you will add still one more card and double versus a 3, 4, 5 or 6. You will never double on any hand 19 or higher. Remember "nineteen, high enough." These rules, summarized in the following chart, you will find are fairly easy to learn. Doubling Down Rules DEALER UP-CARD DOUBLE DOWN ON =============================================== 2-10 Hard Hard Hard A7, A6 4-6 A5, A4 5-6 A3, A2 =============================================== Congratulations! When you have learned the information presented so far you have almost learned enough of the Simplex Playing Strategy to play even with the house. If you have learned the correct hitting, standing and doubling rules, you have reached 90% of your playing efficiency. The last set of rules to complete the playing strategy rules are the rules for splitting pairs. For some reason, learning the rules for pair splitting is the most difficult for players. You will encounter the opportunity to split pairs on only 13% of your hands. Thus, one problem with learning these rules is lack of practice. Another problem is that the pair splitting rules don't seem to fall into patterns as easily as the 50

51 hitting, standing and doubling rules, and are therefore more difficult to learn. Splitting pairs is advantageous to the player for two reasons. It offers the option of turning weak hands into stronger ones. It is always advantageous to split an 8,8 as a total of 16 is the worst possible hand for a player to have. So the 8,8 is always split as two hands with starting totals of 8 each have the possibility of becoming two hands of 18 each, which are more playable. Another weak hand we will always split is an A,A. With this hand, we have a total of 12, a potential busting hand. However, with two hands of Aces, we have the possibility of drawing to 21 on each hand. Besides improving weak hands, a player will also split pairs to exploit a dealer's weakness when he has a stiff up-card. A hand of 6,6 will be split against dealer's up-cards of 3-6. A hard total of 12 is not a very favorable hand, and neither are two hands starting with cards of 6 each. However, against the dealer's weakest upcards, it makes sense to split the 6s as the dealer's high probability of busting makes this a winning move for the player. Some pairs will never be split. We will never split hands of 10,10, 5,5 and 4,4 regardless of the dealer up-card. In each of these situations, the card total is powerful enough that we have more to lose by splitting than we are likely to gain. A 10,10 totals 20 which is a high hand. A 5,5 totaling 10 is an excellent starting hand, and we will want to double on it versus a dealer 2-9. A 4,4 may lead to a total of 18, a respectable total, while split 4s are likely to end up as two 14s, terrible hands for the player. 51

52 As mentioned earlier, we will always split 8,8 and A,A. Casinos impose one more rule with split Aces. Each Ace may have only one additional card drawn to it. Most casinos will not allow Aces to be resplit if another Ace is drawn to a split pair. We will split 9,9 versus a dealer 2-6 and a dealer 8-9. We will not split a pair of 9s against a dealer 7, as the dealer hand will tend towards 17 which we have beat with a 9,9 totaling 18. We will split against the dealer stiffs of 2-6 for obvious reasons: In these cases we want to get more money bet with the dealer showing his weakest potential hands. We split against the dealer's 8 because the split 9s will have a tendency to become two hands totaling 19 each, beating the probable dealer total of 18. With a dealer showing a 9 we are probably beaten if we stand with a total of 18. However, by splitting our pair of 9s, our possibility of drawing to 19 on each hand is great enough that we will split the hand hoping to at least tie the dealer. If our hand is 7,7 we will split if the dealer shows a 2-7. We split against the dealer stiffs of 2-6 because we want to take advantage of the dealer busting. Versus a 7 we want to split to at least tie the dealer. Standing on a 14 will most likely be a loser against a dealer's hand gravitating towards a 17, and turning our split 7s into two possible hands of 17 gives us a chance of tying the dealer. A hand of 6,6 will be split against a dealer's 3-6. With this move, we are hoping to exploit the dealer's weakest up-cards. The final hands we consider candidates for splitting are the hands of 2,2 and 3,3. We will split these hands when the dealer's 52

53 up-card is 4-7. By splitting against the dealer cards of 4, 5, and 6, we are again trying to take advantage of the dealer's weak position. The split against the 7 may seen a little strange as, at first glance, the dealer would seem to have us beat if he draws to a pat hand of 17. However, computer studies have shown that this is the correct play as the likelihood of drawing to an 18 or better with a split 2 or 3 is greater than the possibility of winning if we don't split the hands. The rules for splitting pairs are shown below. Splitting Pairs 1. Never split a 4,4, 5,5 or 10, Always split an 8,8 and A,A. 3. Split 9,9 versus a dealer 2-6 and 8-9. Do not split versus a dealer Split 7,7 versus a dealer Split 6,6 versus a dealer Split 3,3 and 2,2 versus a dealer 4-7. The most important pair splitting rules to learn are rules 1 and 2. If you only learn never to split a 4,4, 5,5 or 10,10 and to always split A,A and 8,8, your play will be just fine. The other splitting opportunities occur fairly infrequently and do not offer the player as much advantage as the doubling rules. Pair splitting rules can be remembered in groups. You will split 2s and 3s versus 4-7. Think of counting, 2 3 4, then 7, split 2 and 3 versus 4 to 7. For splitting 9s, think of a pair of 9s splits fine 53

54 against 2 to 9, except 7. To remember how to split 6s think of 6 x 6 = 36, split 6s against a 3-6. For pairs of 7s, remember pair of 7s, 2 to 7. Some these associations may seen a little silly, but word associations do work. I still remember learning the colors of the spectrum in the seventh grade. My teacher taught us to think of Roy G. Biv, which triggers the colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet even as I write this. Try my associations or make up your own, and you'll be able to master the pair splitting rules in a very short time period. The table following summarizes the pair splitting rules in tabular form. As you have done with the hitting and standing rules and the doubling rules, you should make a small card which you can carry in your pocket with these rules on them and practice studying them at odd times of the day. At this point we have covered nearly all of the Simplex Playing Strategy. To wrap it up we need to consider two other playing options, Insurance and Surrender. Pair Splitting Rules =============================================== DEALER UP-CARD SPLIT PAIR All AA except =============================================== 54

55 Insurance is offered in virtually every blackjack game as taking insurance favors the casino by 8%. In other words, every time you take insurance, you are at a disadvantage to the house of about 8%. The solution? Never take insurance. The only valid reason for ever taking insurance is when the deck is rich in 10s, and the dealer possibly has a 10 as his hole-card, while showing an Ace as the up-card. Then, you will take insurance against the dealer's blackjack. Since we are not counting cards, there is no reason to ever take insurance, and we will consider it a "sucker bet." Surrender is very seldom offered. Unlike insurance which favors the casino, the option of surrendering favors the player, so you can see why it is not as popular with the casinos. Surrender, when offered, gives the player the chance to surrender one-half of his wager after he has been dealt his first two cards, and the dealer has checked his cards to ascertain that he does not have a blackjack. If the dealer has a blackjack, the player will not have the option of surrendering. In the early days of Atlantic City play, the casinos offered the option of early surrender, where a player could surrender even if the dealer showed a ten-valued card or an Ace as his up-card and had a possible blackjack, so long as the player surrendered before the dealer checked for a blackjack. Early surrender is hardly ever encountered because it is too favorable an option for the player. Conventional surrender, which allows for surrender only when the dealer does not have a blackjack, is also rare. It occasionally crops up so that you should at least be familiar with how to use this option to your advantage. 55

56 The Simplex rule for surrender is simple. Surrender any hand totaling 16 versus a dealer up-card of 9, 10 or Ace. If the 16 consists of an 8,8, you will split it rather than surrender. Hands of 9,7 or 10,6 will be surrendered versus a dealer 9, 10 or Ace. If your hand is a soft hand (A,5) you will not surrender it. Rule for Surrender If the dealer shows an up-card of 9, 10 or A, surrender if you have a 16 except for soft hands or a pair (8,8). You should be able to add the insurance and surrender rules to your repertoire without too much difficulty. At this point, you still may be a little confused as some of the rules for hitting and standing, doubling and pair splitting require making decisions where one hand could offer several options. For example, if you are dealt a 5,5, you will have to consider the options of hitting the hand (always hit hands totaling 11 or less), splitting the pair (after all, 5,5 is a pair) or doubling down (double down on a hand totaling 10 versus a dealer hand of 2-9). The correct option is to double down if the dealer shows an up-card less than 10, or to hit if he shows a 10 or Ace, but you may be questioning how to apply all of these rules in a quick, yet correct manner. The best way to make these decisions is to think of them in a logical order. The chart which follows shows how this decision making flows with each blackjack hand. 56

57 BLACKJACK DECISION MAKING Compare your hand with the dealer's up-card. Is Surrender indicated? Do you have a pair? Should it be split? Should this hand be doubled? Do you hit or stand with this hand? Your first consideration with any hand is to compare your hand with the dealer's up-card. If surrender is available, and you have a hard 16, but not an 8,8, and the dealer shows a high card of 9, 10 or Ace, then you will surrender. You will next check to see if you have a pair. Pairs consisting of Aces, 9s, 8s, 7s, 6s, 3s and 2s require that you consider the pair splitting options. With pairs of Aces and 8s you will always split, with pairs of 4s, 5s and 10s you will never split, and with pairs of 9s, 8s, 7s, 6s, 3s and 2s, you will consider the dealer up-card to make the correct decision. If you do not have a pair, or if you have a pair of 5s, you will consider the doubling down option. With hard hands of 9, 10 or 11, you must consider doubling down against a variety of dealer up-cards and these card totals will offer most of the doubling opportunities. If your hand contains an Ace, this should trigger your thinking of a possible doubling down situation. 57

58 If surrender is not an option, your hand does not consist of a pair and no doubling option are available, then you will use the hitting and standing rules. You might notice that the order of making decisions is in the exact reverse of the order in which these rules were presented. With split pairs, you will play each hand as if it is an original hand, except that the Nevada casinos typically restrict your ability to double on split pairs, and Atlantic City rules restrict resplitting split pairs. The easiest way to learn all of these skills to correctly use the Simplex Playing Strategy is to learn them one step at a time. First, you will write down on a small card that you can carry with you each set of playing strategies, as we have suggested earlier. You will have three cards covering: hitting and standing, doubling, and pair splitting. You should only tackle one set of rules at a time and not move on to the next set until you have learned the previous one. For the reasons we have discussed, you should learn them in the order presented in this book. After studying these cards, you are ready to move on to practicing with cards. When I practice the Simplex Playing Strategy, I usually use four decks of cards, thoroughly shuffled. The use of four decks, rather than a single deck more closely replicates the actual playing conditions in casinos and reduces the amount of time that you have to spend shuffling. The first drill you should try is to place one card face-up in front of you. This will be the dealer's up-card. Now flip over two cards at a time, representing the player's cards. Make the correct 58

59 play each time you deal a new player hand, but do not play the dealer hand. Continue this drill until you feel proficient against this particular up-card, then change up-cards and continue the drill. It is not necessary to go through the entire four decks for each upcard, just deal enough hands per up-card until you feel comfortable with the decisions for that up-card. After you have practiced against one dealer up-card at a time, you will move on to dealing three cards at a time, with one up-card and two player cards. Practice this drill until you can make every decision called on without hesitation. When you are practicing these drills you may peek at the correct decision if you aren't sure. Each time you have to check for the correct decision, repeat the rule for the play mentally. The next step after practicing without playing out the dealer's hand is to simulate a real game. Here you may want to invite your spouse or a friend to join you. Your job now is to make the correct play for each hand dealt. If you want to use playing chips, go ahead. It makes practice more interesting. After you have reached the point of making the correct playing decisions without referring to your crib sheets, you will want to play more than one hand at a time. Try playing two hands and then three hands at once. When you are able to play three hand simultaneously without making any errors, you are ready to use the playing strategy in a casino. With the Simplex Playing Strategy mastered, you will play very close to even with the casino. In a single deck game with 59

60 surrender offered, you will have a slight advantage over the casino. In the more common multiple deck game without surrender offered, you will play at about a one-half of one percent disadvantage to the casino. This is better than the best wagers in craps or baccarat and for all practical purposes an "even up" game for short term play. The following chart summarizes the Simplex Playing Strategy. You may want to make a copy of this page and carry it with you when you play blackjack. If you do, make sure that you keep it out of sight when you play and just refer to it when you are not at the table. 60

61 SUMMARY OF SIMPLEX PLAYING STRATEGY =============================================== Hitting and Standing Rules DEALER MINIMUM UP-CARD TO STAND ====================Hard Hands================= 2-6 Hard 12 7-A Hard 17 ====================Soft Hands================== 9-A Soft Soft 18 =============================================== Doubling Down Rules DEALER DOUBLE UP-CARD DOWN ON 2-10 Hard Hard Hard A7 A6 4-6 A5 A4 5-6 A3 A2 ================================================= Pair Splitting Rules DEALER SPLIT UP-CARD PAIR ON All AA except =============================================== Surrender DEALER UP-CARD SURRENDER 9-A 16 except split 8 8 =============================================== Insurance NEVER =============================================== 61

62 BETTING STRATEGIES While the Simplex Playing Strategy shows you how to play each hand, a betting strategy tells you how much should wager on the hand. Developing a winning betting strategy is the key to turning a successful playing strategy into a winning strategy. A betting strategy is a method of determining how much should be wagered for each blackjack play. There are as many betting strategies around as there are different types of people playing blackjack. Many people base their wagers strictly on their particular mode or inclination. If they feel lucky, they wager more. Or, they may increase the size of their wagers in order to recoup losses. The most popular betting strategy is the hunch method. Its popularity is based on its ease of use. If you think it is time to increase your wager, you do so. If it feels right to reduce your wager, then that is your strategy. With the Simplex Playing Strategy you can use the hunch betting method and not get hurt too badly. Using the playing strategy correctly, you should come close to breaking even in your play. Therefore, unless you are unlucky 62

63 enough to only lose your largest wagers, you will play about even with the casino. If you like to play blackjack, enjoy the ambience of casinos, and would like a strategy to play for long periods of time with little risk to your bankroll, you should plan to use the Simplex Playing Strategy and to make flat bets. "Flat betting" means betting the same amount each hand, regardless of whether you are winning or losing. If this strategy interests you, you may skip the rest of this chapter and read Money Strategies. Using a flat betting method and good money strategies, you will be able to play blackjack without much fear of losses, and you may be able to come out a winner. If you plan on playing on a Mississippi showboat, in Deadwood, South Dakota or in one of the Colorado gambling towns, all of which limit wagers to a maximum of $5.00, then you should use this approach. If you are "out for blood" and playing even or winning small amounts does not whet your appetite, then you must learn a different betting strategy. Blackjack is different from craps and roulette because cards are used in the game. Baccarat and blackjack share the same characteristics in that the odds favoring the house or the player change throughout the game because of the changing composition of the remaining cards. Many betting strategies try to determine the bet size based on the changing composition of the cards. Card counting, and playing into favorable card clumps are two strategies using this approach. 63

64 Other techniques utilize gaining an edge over the casino because of the mechanics of the game. Shuffle-Tracking and holecard play fall into this category. Betting progressions ignore changes in the composition of cards and provide for betting strategies based on the player's wins and losses. The Simplex Betting Strategy is unique in that it uses a statistical variation in the distribution of wins and losses to develop a winning strategy. It has characteristics of the progression strategies and the strategies using information derived from the composition of cards. Since there is a long history of card counting, and it is recognized as a valid betting strategy, I will give you some information about card counting. Once you are familiar with the concept, you will understand the problems with using this technique. In a deck of cards there are high cards, low cards and neutral cards. A point value is assigned to each group of cards, and a card counter keeps a running total in his head as the cards are dealt out, based on the "count value" assigned each card. In the most popular count system, the High-Low Point- Count System, low cards are 2 to 6, neutral cards are 7 to 9, and high cards are 10s, picture cards and Aces. Cards of 2-6 are assigned a value of +1, 7s, 8s and 9s are assigned no value, and 10s and Aces are assigned a value of

65 Starting with zero, you will add +1 for each low card you see, subtract -1 for each high card that is dealt, and ignore the neutral cards. When the count is positive, there are more high cards left in the shoe to be dealt. If the count is negative, there are more low cards remaining to be dealt. A shoe with more high cards favors the player (as a player is more likely to receive a blackjack, for example), and a shoe with more low cards favors the dealer (as the dealer will break less often and win more stiff hands). The count gives the player a mathematical representation of his chances of winning or losing the next hand. If the count is high, his chances of winning are better, and he will raise his wager. If the deck is neutral, he will wager a neutral amount. If the count is low, he will wager a lower amount. Essentially, the player will wager more when he has an advantage and risk less when the advantage is the casino's. There have been more research projects on this approach to playing blackjack than any other. Much of this research has been done by college professors who seldom if ever have seen the inside of a casino. Arguments went on for years as to the merits of the various point-count systems and values to be assigned to each card. Points and counterpoints were made as to which cards should be included in the count. Some factions maintained that Aces could be ignored since an Ace will benefit the dealer as much as the player. Others proffered that Aces were so special that a separate side count should be kept of Aces. 65

66 Increasingly complex count systems were devised. For example, the High-Low system is a level one system as the only values assigned are -1, 0 and +1. A level two system would assign a 2 value to certain cards, and so on, all the way up to level four systems assigning values from zero to four for different cards. What each of these factions ignored was the complexity of putting their system to use in real world play and the biases introduced to their systems because of the methods used to develop them. The battle of the point systems was really a battle of one set of computer generated results against another. The only practical way of testing and measuring the efficiency of card counting systems is on a computer, and these researchers ignored an important item in the development of these different strategies. All computer simulations are based on totally random shuffles, while randomly shuffled decks are seldom encountered in casino play. The effect of this oversight is significant. Because dealers do not shuffle the cards enough times to even approximate a random shuffle, many times card counting is providing misleading information which may devastate your bankroll! Let's assume that you are using a card count and tracking the cards as they are dealt. Your count becomes positive, and you raise your bet. Unfortunately, you lose the hand. More and more low valued cards are dealt, and you continue to raise your bets as the count is going higher (indicating that the proportion of 10- valued cards and Aces is increasing). You are losing hand after hand, wagering larger and larger amounts. Finally, you make your last wager as this is all that remains of your bankroll. You draw a 66

67 10,8 and stand against a dealer's 6 showing. You are thinking that finally the cards will turn your way. The dealer turns over a 10, for a hand of 16. You've got him beat you reason, for he must break with all of the high cards remaining undealt. The dealer draws a 4 for a total of 20. You leave the table on somewhat wobbly legs and wonder how the dealer could win with the count sky high in your favor and so much money wagered on those last losing hands. This scenario points out two of the biggest detriments to card counting. First, it doesn't always work, because the cards have clumped into high and low valued clumps of cards. By playing in a low valued clump, you have increased your wagers hand after hand expecting the higher valued cards to show, and they never did. A second problem of card counting is also illustrated. You must have a very large bankroll if you plan on winning using a card counting approach. Card counting, at its best, is very much a long-term proposition. By this I mean that in theory, at least, card counting will win if enough hands are played for a long enough period of time. Here, we are talking long-term in the statistical sense. If you played blackjack for a week, without interruption, a month, nonstop, or even for six months straight, you would not have reached the long-term. With these considerations, card counting falls into the category of a "grind" approach and is not very useful for short-term blackjack playing. In order to be successful as a card counter, you must have tremendous patience in addition to a sizable bankroll. 67

68 The actual number of persons who make a living with card counting in 1992 is indeed small. I suspect that there are no more than a couple of hundred card counters who have managed to support themselves longer than a year with card counting. I recently read an article by a blackjack expert who sells his card counting system for a mere $100 and claims that it is possible to make $500 a day with it. He admits that he hardly ever plays blackjack, and when he does, he is strictly a $5 bettor. However, he will defend his approach to the game against all comers because his computer "proves" that his system works. I will concede that when only single decks are used, and the dealer deals almost to the end of the deck before shuffling, card counting can be extremely effective. However, these conditions just do not exist in blackjack any more, or are so rare, that when employed by a casino, other countermeasures are used, such as shuffling every time a player increases his wager. When a dealer shuffles every time the player increases his wager, the benefit of card counting is totally negated. As a practical way of winning, card counting is limited in its effectiveness because of the way blackjack is played in the 1990s, is difficult to learn, almost impossible to execute with the degree of accuracy needed to operate effectively, and requires an impossibly high bankroll to have a chance of working. A variation of card counting, which is probably the most difficult blackjack strategy ever conceived is called shuffletracking. With shuffle-tracking you must keep a card count and 68

69 attempt to track clumps of cards which have either a large number of ten-valued cards (which are valuable to the player) or clumps with a large number of low-valued cards (which help the dealer). The idea with shuffle-tracking is to keep a count of cards as they are dealt. At the end of each deck dealt from a multiple deck, you will use a chip to mark the count (paper and pencil is strictly verboten at a blackjack table). By positioning your chips in certain ways you can "record" the count at the approximate end of each deck. For example, if you have been counting cards and you estimate that about one deck has been dealt, and your count is a +8, meaning that 8 more low cards had been dealt than high cards, you would move a chip to a position signifying a low count for this deck. You would continue to record the counts for each deck as it is dealt. Now for the next part of your plan to work, the dealer must cooperate. For example, in a six deck game, the dealer may divide the cards into six stacks of approximately one deck each. If the dealer picks off a deck which you have "recorded," then you know the relative contents of this deck. Assume that the dealer picks up a deck containing 12 extra high-valued cards. If you are able to track this deck into the next round of play, you know that when cards are being dealt from this deck a very favorable situation exists for the player. You will increase the size of your wagers when this deck is being dealt. Likewise, if you track a deck with low-valued cards into the next round of play, you know that this deck is unfavorable for the player. 69

70 To use shuffle-tracking as a winning strategy, you will increase the size of your wagers when a deck of high-valued cards is being dealt and wager minimum amounts when a deck of lowvalued cards is dealt. Ideally to use shuffle-tracking, you want to control the placement of the cut card, when the dealer offers the players the option of cutting the newly shuffled stack of cards. This can be accomplished by playing in face-to-face games with the dealer or by having several accomplices play at the same table, so that the designated "counter" can signal where the cut card should be placed. Of course, it is not always possible to control the cut of the stack of cards. Another problem arises in that not all dealers shuffle in such a way that clumps of decks can be tracked. Some dealers pick up larger or smaller amounts in shuffling than the one deck stacks with recorded counts. The ideal shuffle is for a dealer to break a six deck stack (assuming six decks are used) into two three deck piles and shuffle them one time picking up about one-half deck in each hand when shuffling. If the stack is shuffled more than one time, then tracking becomes extremely difficult. While shuffle-tracking is a viable winning strategy, so long as conditions exist allowing for tracking of decks after a shuffle, it does not fit the criteria of a simple, effective and easy to learn strategy, and it is not recommended. Playing into favorable clumps of cards is a more viable strategy for using groups of high or low valued cards to your advantage. The Silverthorne Blackjack Strategy, published by 70

71 Silverthorne Publications, uses this approach to winning. With this strategy a mechanical method is used to increase wagers during player favorable clumps of cards and to reduce wagers, or to change tables in the face of card clumps favoring the dealer. Because it is mechanical, no card counting is required, and it is a very effective winning strategy. Betting progressions are another type of betting strategy. Here the composition of the cards is ignored, and a predetermined series of bets are made, regardless of the way that the cards are running. Many betting progressions call for the player to increase his wager after losing bets. I have found that these types of progressions are dangerous in blackjack because long losing streaks occur all too frequently. You are cautioned to be wary of any blackjack betting strategy which calls for you to increase your wagers after losing bets. Examples of this type of strategy are the Martingale types of progressions, where the player will "double up" after a losing wager with the expectation that when he eventually wins a hand, the win will pay for all of the previous losses. Because of the rules of blackjack, losing streaks are longer than winning streaks, and any type of progression calling for increased wagers following losses will wipe out your bankroll in short order. The only "safe way" to use progressions in blackjack is to increase your wagers during a winning streak, but not too steeply. There is nothing sadder than to win three hands in a row, but lose the forth one and have nothing to show for your trouble. If you try 71

72 to double your wager after each win, this is exactly where you may end up. Hole-card play has received a tremendous amount of attention in the 1980s, and I would be remiss if I didn't at least discuss this technique. Hole-card play is simply a technique for finding out the dealer's hole-card or hidden card and then adjusting your strategy according. This can be done in several ways, the easiest of which is to find a dealer who inadvertently exposes the hole-card. You will recall that the only time the dealer looks at the hole-card is when the exposed card is a ten-valued card or an Ace. The purpose of peeking at the hole-card is to determine if the dealer has a blackjack. Some dealers will expose the hole-card to a player, especially one sitting directly to the dealer's left in the first base position at the table. This can happen if the dealer lifts the card a little too high so that the player can see it. If this situation occurs, by all means take advantage of it. Let's say for example that you are sitting with a stiff total of 14,15 or 16 and the dealer shows a 10 as the up-card (exposed card). Normally, the Simplex Playing Strategy will call for you to hit the stiff, even though the probability of busting is high. But, what if you saw the dealer's hole-card, and the dealer had a stiff? With a hole-card of 2 to 6, the dealer's hand would total 12 to 16, and you could decide to stand and wait for the dealer to draw with a strong possibility of breaking. If the dealer was clumsy or careless 72

73 enough to do this every time he or she peeked at a hole-card, you would gain a significant advantage over the house, probably in the range of 4-5%. Unfortunately, this type of dealer is a rare exception. Many casinos have changed the rules to the European style of play, forbidding the dealer to check the hole-card until all player hands have been played. This virtually eliminates the possibility of a player seeing a hole-card. Another technique for reading hole-cards is to watch for "dealer tells." Some dealers will subconsciously signal the hole-card through body mannerisms called tells. For example, let's say that you have been playing at a table for some time and have developed a certain amount of rapport with the dealer. In our modern mercenary age, this means that you have been tipping the dealer regularly as well as engaging in pleasurable conversation. The dealer may reach a point where he wants you to win. This is a very natural human reaction. If the dealer likes you and recognizes that when you win they win (in the form of tips), then the dealer will be rooting for you. The dealer may start sending you body signals after he or she checks the hole-card. If the dealer has a pat hand, and you have a stiff, the dealer may lean a little closer to you indicating that you should hit. If the dealer has a stiff and is likely to bust, the dealer may lean slightly away from you telling you "no more cards." 73

74 A common tell is when the dealer peeks twice at the holecard. Why? Because the 4 looks a lot like an Ace when it is only partially exposed under another card, and the second peek is required so that the dealer can ascertain that it really is a 4 under there and not an Ace. If the dealer peeks twice at hole-cards, you should play the dealer's hand as a stiff hand and stand on your own stiff hand. If you have a soft hand or a hand totaling 9, 10 or 11, you will double down. Another legal method for hole-card play is called "reading the warps." This method is described in Stanford Wong's Winning Without Counting. The idea of reading warps is that 10-valued cards and Aces tend to bend a little in the middle when the dealer lifts them to check the hole-card. After a number of hands the cards will develop a visible warp, and you are supposed to be able to observe this. As a practical strategy, the value of warps in nonexistent. It doesn't work in hand held games because the cards are changed frequently enough that readable warps never develop. It isn't usable in multi-deck games (where the cards are dealt face up) as it is just not possible to read any warps with any accuracy. In short, it is a worthless strategy. In addition to these legal ways of trying to read the dealer's hole-card, there are a number of illegal ways. Front loading is a quasi-legal way of hole-card reading. To front load, the player will slide down in his chair until his eyes are level with the table and 74

75 attempt to see the hole-card when the dealer slides it under the upcard. Spooking is definitely illegal and is definitely not recommended. A "spook" acting in consort with a player will stand behind the blackjack table across the pit and attempt to glimpse the hole-card. The spook will signal the player the value of the hole-card. The ultimate method of hole-card cheating is for the player to form a partnership with the dealer. The dealer will signal the player the value of the hole-card in exchange for a share of the profits. My advice is never to get involved in any schemes involving collusion with the dealer. Serving prison time is too great a risk to become entangled in these kinds of schemes. We have reviewed card counting, shuffle-tracking, holecard play, playing into favorable clumps of cards, and betting progressions. Card counting is difficult to learn and use and is unreliable. Shuffle-tracking is impractical except in rare instances when the dealer cooperates by shuffling "correctly," and hole-card play is pretty much a hit and miss proposition. Betting progressions, if followed blindly, and especially those calling for increasing wagers after loses, can be disastrous for your bankroll. Playing into favorable clumps of cards can work very well especially when a good system is devised to take advantage of player favorable clumps and to avoid dealer biased clumps. When I was researching playing strategies, I employed a computer to test variations of playing strategies. The Simplex Playing Strategy is a product of this research, as well as my 75

76 experience using it in casinos. As happens so many times with projects of this nature, I ended up in a different place than I had originally intended. In researching playing strategies, using literally millions of computer simulated hands of blackjack, I discovered some interesting patterns and variations in patterns in the distribution of wins and losses in blackjack. You first should realize that because of the nature of blackjack, the house is going to win more individual hands than the player, even if the player is playing perfect Simplex Playing Strategy. For every 100 hands of blackjack played, you should expect to win about 47.5 hands, with the casino winning about 52.5 hands. With correct pair splitting and doubling, the actual difference in money will be close to even because you will wager more when it is advantageous to you, and the wins will be for higher amounts. Blackjack is a streaky game, and long strings of losses can be expected to occur more frequently than long strings of wins. In simulating millions of hands of blackjack, I uncovered a situation that is unique in the blackjack game. While the above statistics of about 47.5 hands won per 100 will not change, I found that you are statistically more likely to win the wager following a winning bet than the expected average of 47.5 wins. The table below shows the average number of wins and losses of wagers made following a single winning wager. 76

77 Wagers Following a Single Winning Wager Second Bets Lost 51.5% Second Bets Won 48.5% 100.0% You will notice that the win rate of 48.5% is higher than the average expected number of hands won of 47.5%. This should tell you something. If we are just about breaking even by winning 47.5 hands per hundred played, then the higher win rates of wagers following a win should produce positive results. The percentage of 48.5% hands won needs to be adjusted for the effects of hands which pay off at higher amounts, such as blackjacks and doubled hands. If we make this adjustment, we show the following amounts of dollars won per hand. Dollars Won on Wager Following a Win $ Lost on Second Wager.4904 $ Won on Second Wager If we round these numbers, we have losses on the second wager following a win of about 49%, and wins on the wager of about 51%. This can be a significant advantage to the player knowing how to take advantage of it. With flat betting, this knowledge is of no advantage to us. The dollars won per hundred bets will be the same as the win rate of 47.5, adjusted for the player advantages of blackjack paying 1.5 to 1, doubling and pair 77

78 splitting, for an adjusted win rate of close to.50. With this win rate, we can expect to break even playing blackjack. What if instead of flat betting, we increased our wagers at the time that it is advantageous and reduced our wagers during less favorable situations? This is exactly analogous to what a card counter does, except now we have a bit of knowledge that the card counter does not have. We know that our probability of winning a wager following a single wager win is greater than our overall average of winning. We will want to increase the size of our wager for the bet following a single win. This is the essence of the Simplex Betting Strategy. Using this strategy correctly, and I will show you exactly how to do this, and using the Simplex Playing Strategy, will produce a winning system that is easy to use and need take a back seat to no other blackjack system! 78

79 SIMPLEX BETTING STRATEGY The essence of the Simplex Betting Strategy is: take advantage of the player favorable wager available on the bet following a winning wager. Since the player is favored to win on the second wager after a win, it would seem to make sense to make as large a wager as possible on this wager. Or does it? While the player has an advantage on this wager, which I call the "Bump" since the amount wagered will be bumped up for this bet, it does not make sense to wager the farm on this bet. Even though the player has a higher chance of winning rather than losing the bet, the advantage is only a slight one, and a string of losses where the Bump wager has been increased by too large an amount can wipe out the player's bankroll. Even though, theoretically, we want to get as much money bet on the Bump bet as possible, reality dictates that we moderate this strategy and wager an amount that is large enough to help us significantly because of the advantage of the wager, but not so 79

80 large that our bankroll requirement becomes inordinately large. In other words, we will have to stay within reasonable limits when bumping up our wagers. Another question arises in putting this knowledge to practical and most advantageous use. And that is the question of how to take advantage of winning streaks. We know that winning streaks are less common than losing streaks in blackjack; however, we want to take advantage of one when it happens. Our problem then is to find the optimum amount to wager for the Bump bet and to decide on how much, if any, we should increase our wagers when we encounter a winning streak. And, we must accomplish these objectives within the confines of minimum and maximum wagers permitted by casinos at their blackjack tables, and within the limits of realistic bankroll amounts to be used for applying the strategy. When this strategy was being developed, these questions were tested by using computer simulated blackjack hands. With the computer, we can decide on a particular betting strategy and program the computer to play thousands (or millions) of hands using this strategy. Then we can review the results. This was the approach used to develop the Simplex Betting Strategy. After going through numerous computer tests and retests, an optimum strategy was developed. It was then tested in real blackjack games in casinos. 80

81 In general, testing of betting strategies incorporating the concepts of raising the amount wagered for the bet following a single win (the Bump wager) and pursuing winning streaks of two or more consecutive wins showed that the optimal amounts for the bump wagers were in the range of 10 to 25 times the basic wager. Testing showed that attempting to take advantage of a winning streak should be confined to a maximum of eight consecutive wins, and that the amount wagered for the third and fourth consecutive wagers should be significantly less than the amount wagered on the Bump wager, but could be larger than the basic wager. If we are fortunate enough to win four wagers in a row, then we may start increasing our fifth and sixth wagers; however, the seventh and final eight wager in a string of wins should be reduced. After millions of simulations and extensive testing in casinos, the optimal betting series was determined to be one in which wagers are made in the following proportions, with the first wager being the basic wager and the second wager being the amount bet for the wager following a single win: To use this betting series, we would find a blackjack table with a $2 minimum wager. Our basic wager at this table is $2. We will wager $2 so long as our wagers are losing ones and continue at this base level until we have a winning wager. Our next wager, following the winning wager will be the Bump wager, and we will increase our bet to $40. If this wager loses, we will revert to our basic wager of $2. However, if the Bump wager wins, then our next wager will be for $4. If this wager loses, we will drop back to 81

82 making basic wagers of $2 and wait for the next winning wager to bump up our wager again. If the third wager of $4 wins, we recognize that we are in a winning streak and our next wager will be for $8. We will continue to wager in this manner. This is a very easy series to follow. So long as we are winning, we will move up to the next wager in the series. As soon as we lose, the series is over, and we will revert back to the basic wager. The table below shows six different betting series which may be used, ranging from basic wagers of $2 to as high as $25. SIMPLEX BETTING SERIES # TOTAL B

83 The top row in this table shows the wager number which corresponds to a particular wager. The column on the left shows the betting series, with "B" representing the Basic series using $2 as its base bet. The final column shows the total amount wagered in each betting series. This table helps a player tailor his playing style to the casino's minimum bet requirement at the blackjack tables and the player's bankroll. Obviously, the Basic Betting Series can not be used at tables with $5 minimum wagers. These series are designed such that a successful winning player can move up to a higher series as his bankroll increases. In a few pages, we will show you just how to do this. The Simplex Betting Strategy performs very well. The Table Win-Loss Amounts with Simplex Betting shows the results of testing this strategy. The amounts shown in the table are based on sessions of 500 hands each. A session of 500 hands will take a little over 8 hours playing time in a casino, with an average number of hands of per hour. While each amount in the table is for 500 hands, many sessions of 500 hands each were played to derive these amounts. For example, we see that the Average Net Winnings using the Basic Betting Series ( ) is $284. This is the average result of playing 500 hands with the Basic Betting Series with many 500 hand sessions averaged to calculate this amount. The results in this table show us what we can expect if we play an average of 500 hands using a particular betting series, and we do not stop playing until we have completed 500 hands. We 83

84 recognize that this is not a realistic way to play blackjack, and that losses can be reduced by setting limits, and wins can be maximized by stopping when we are ahead. Thus, the results for playing 500 hands using the Basic Betting Series tells us that we can expect to win an average of $284 at the end of 500 hands, that our average maximum win occurring at some point during the session will be $572, and that the maximum loss during the session will be $270. WIN-LOSS AMOUNTS WITH SIMPLEX BETTING SERIES AVERAGE NET WINNINGS AVERAGE MAXIMUM WIN AVERAGE MAXIMUM LOSS Basic $284 $572 $(270) (484) (1656) (1939) (2300) (2515) Of course, this is not necessarily the way we will want to play. You will notice that the wins and losses are not proportional to the amounts wagered in each betting series. Comparing Betting Series 3 and 4 we can see that the Average Net Winnings for Series 4 is smaller than Series 3. And Series 5 is even smaller than Series 3 or 4. This occurred because we have arbitrarily stopped at

85 hands. This table reports the results of playing an average of 500 hands, win or lose. As often happens with tests of this type, significant variations can, and will, occur reporting results when we impose an arbitrary cut-off point. In the real world, we don't normally sit and play 500 hands of blackjack and then compute our results after the 500th hand. Instead, we play until realistic win or loss targets are reached, and then we take a break, go for a walk, take a nap, go to a show, or otherwise remove ourselves from the blackjack action. The table, Target Wins and Losses, shows what we can expect when we quit after reaching realistic wins, or after suffering the maximum losses we are willing to accept. You will notice that the target wins are larger than the Average Net Winnings shown in the previous table. This happens because we will not wait until our winnings dissipate before quitting a blackjack session. Let's say that we are up $500 using the Basic Betting Series. We have a number of losses and notice that our chips are down to $440. This is probably a good time to quit. The target win for the Basic Betting Series is $429, and we are not too far from the target. Conversely, we may have suffered a number of losses, and we notice that in fact we have lost over $200. Our loss is approaching the stop loss amount of $216, and we should think about quitting. 85

86 The Target Wins and Losses Table shows realistic amounts of wins and losses for a blackjack session, matched with the betting series used. TARGET WINS AND LOSSES SERIES TARGET WIN STOP LOSS Basic $429 $(216) (540) (1080) (1620) (2160) (2700) You will notice that the ratio of Target Wins to Stop Losses is about 2:1. Simply stated, this means that during an average session of blackjack, we will expect to win about twice as much as we expect to lose. Another way of saying this is that our wins should be twice as large as our losses. In reviewing any blackjack system, we must ask how long the system takes to win a targeted amount of money. If it takes two days to win $100, then we might question the efficiency of the system. 86

87 Combining the Simplex Playing Strategy and Simplex Betting Strategy produces respectable wins per hour. If you are looking for a short-term way to make money at blackjack with a high return for your time invested, you need look no further. The table, Average Wins Per Hour, shows what you can expect to win using the Simplex Strategy. We can see that the average win per hour using the Basic Betting Series is $51.50 per hour. If we are betting using the Series 3 Series, our expected win is $ per hour. The Average Wins Per Hour table shows us the amount we can expect to win per hour with 60 blackjack hands dealt per hour. If the table is crowded, and there are a number of inexperienced players at the table, there may be fewer than 60 hands dealt per hour. If we are playing head up with the dealer, or with only one or two other experienced players, then there may be more than 60 hands dealt per hour, with higher expected winnings. AVERAGE WINS PER HOUR SERIES AVERAGE WIN PER HOUR MAXIMUM BET IN SERIES Basic $ $

88 In short term playing sessions, your averages will not be the same as the amounts shown in the Average Wins Per Hour table. The table amounts are based on millions of hands of blackjack, and significant variations can and will occur over the short run. If you use the Basic Betting Strategy, play for an hour, and win $200, this does not mean that you can expect to win $200 an hour using this betting series. Conversely, if you lose $200 in an hour of play, the same conclusions will apply. These averages should apply to your play if you play enough blackjack sessions and follow the Simplex Strategy correctly. For short term sessions, you will need to use our money strategies to control losses when they occur, and to maximize winnings when you are winning. An important consideration in any gambling endeavor is the amount of money you need to be successful, commonly called the "bankroll." The Table, Simplex Bankroll Requirements, shows the bankroll needed to use the standard Simplex Betting Series. The bankroll needed for a session is the amount of money recommended that you bring with you to the table. In the case of the Basic Betting Series, this is $240. The Short-Trip Bankroll is the total amount of money you need for a short visit to the casino of from one to three days, where you expect to play blackjack several hours each day. For the Basic Series this is $720. The Long-Trip Bankroll is the bankroll requirement for an extended stay, of four days or longer, with intensive blackjack play. Using the Basic Betting Series, you will need a bankroll of $1,200 for extended play. 88

89 SIMPLEX BANKROLL REQUIREMENTS SIMPLEX BETTING SERIES SINGLE SESSION BANKROLL SHORT-TRIP BANKROLL LONG-TRIP BANKROLL Basic $ 240 $ 720 $ With these bankroll amounts, you will have a high probability of winning using the Simplex Strategy. I recognize that for many players these amounts may seem high. If you can't find a $2 table, you may be forced to play on tables with $5 minimum wagers. This requires at least a $600 session bankroll and a $1,800 trip bankroll for a short trip. Faced with this situation, many players will be tempted to cut corners and play at a $5 table with an inadequate bankroll. This is not the best procedure to use, and it will impair your chances of winning. Fortunately, there is an easier way to fit a smaller bankroll to use at the higher minimum wager tables. This is to use a different Simplex Betting Series. The original Simplex Betting 89

90 Series, which we have discussed to this point, is based on using a multiplier of 20 to 1 for computing the Bump wager as compared to the basic wager. This is at the higher end of the acceptable range for Simplex Betting Series. If we use the lower end ratio of 10 to 1, then the amount of money required to successfully use the Simplex Strategy is reduced. The Table, Reduced Simplex Betting Series, shows the betting series to be used for Simplex Betting using the lowest Bump bet ratio of 10 to 1. REDUCED SIMPLEX BETTING SERIES # TOTAL B Using the Reduced Simplex bets, the bankroll requirements are cut in half. The table, Reduced Bankroll Requirements, shows the bankroll needed using the Reduced Betting Series. 90

91 REDUCED BANKROLL REQUIREMENTS SERIES SESSION BANKROLL SHORT-TRIP BANKROLL LONG-TRIP BANKROLL Basic $ 120 $ 360 $ Playing with a reduced bankroll will produce lower wins per hour. These wins will be proportionally lower than the amount the bankroll was reduced, because some of the advantage of the bump wager is reduced when the amount wagered on the bump bet is lowered. Thus using a Simplex Betting Series with a bump bet ratio of 10:1 will produce winnings per hour that are less than onehalf of the hourly winnings generated using a bump bet with a ration of 20:1, as the advantage gained on the bump wager is reduced by a greater amount than the reduction in the bump bet size. Nonetheless, because of bankroll considerations, many players will want to use a reduced simplex betting series. If you do this, your goal should be to build a large enough bankroll to graduate to the 20:1 full Simplex Betting Series. 91

92 A reasonable question to consider at this point is what to do when a pair splitting or doubling opportunity occurs on the bump bet. The answer is that you should double or split in accordance with the Simplex Playing Strategy regardless of the amount wagered. Bump wagers, just because they are larger, should be treated no differently than any other wager when a splitting or doubling decision is called for. In using the Simplex Strategy I will sometimes temper splitting or doubling on the bump wager with bankroll considerations. If your bankroll is depleted, you may decide to pass on a pair splitting or doubling decision if the gain on the play is marginal, and you are concerned with the size of your bankroll. Doubling on hard hands is always a strong decision in favor of the player; therefore, you should not hesitate to double on a 9, 10 or 11, versus the appropriate dealer up-cards. Soft doubling is not as strong a play for the player, and you may decide to stand on an A-7 versus a dealer 6 when the amount you have wagered is sizable, even though the correct strategy is to double in this situation. With pair splitting, it is always extremely advantageous to the player to split pairs of Aces and 8s. The other pair splitting strategies are less advantageous to the player and may be ignored if your wager is very large in relation to your remaining bankroll, and you wish to be more conservative. Another decision to make on bump wagers is resplitting pairs and doubling on split pairs. Nevada casinos usually allow 92

93 split pairs to be resplit, while Atlantic City play allows for doubling on split pairs. Here I use the same guidelines for doubling and pair splitting discussed above. For example, I will always resplit a pair of Aces if house play allows this. Let's say that you are using the Simplex Betting Series #1, requiring a $5 minimum wager and a bump wager of $100. You are dealt an A A. You should spit this pair even if you are concerned about the size of the wager. You are dealt a 9 on the first split hand, for an A 9, and another Ace on the second split hand, for an A A. You should resplit the A A as this play is so advantageous that it would be foolish not to take advantage of it, even though this decision will entail a total wager of $300 on this hand. Assume instead that you split a pair of 6s against a dealer 6, with $100 as your original wager. You now have $200 on the table, and you are dealt another 6 to your split hand. You very well may decide not to resplit the hand, as splitting 6s only gives you a slight advantage. You may decide that this advantage is not great enough to outweigh the risk of having $300 riding on this play. I am not suggesting that you always change strategies when you have a large amount wagered. The essence of the Simplex Strategy, and the one that makes it a winning one, is to play consistently and not to use hunch play or other strategy varying techniques when playing. The statistics which I have presented in this chapter are based on using correct consistent playing and betting strategies. I have only mentioned these exceptions because there may be a few occasions, when, in the interest of conserving 93

94 your bankroll, you may want to deviate from the Simplex Playing Strategy. These guidelines are presented for this purpose only. If you find that you are shying away from making the correct playing decisions on large wagers, you should consider using a betting series requiring a lesser bankroll or using a reduced betting series. Either of these options are preferable to deviating from the correct playing strategy. You can design your own Simplex betting series within the ratios of the bump wagers of from 10:1 to 25:1. For example, you could develop a betting series using a 15:1 ratio (we have presented betting series with 10:1 and 20:1 ratios). Just make sure that any betting series you design is proportionate to the series used with a 20:1 ratio of

95 PLAYING ON THE INTERNET Fueled by the explosive growth of the Internet and by a general acceptance of gambling as a legitimate form of entertainment, online gambling is growing at a torrid rate. There are now over 3,000 online casinos with software provided by at least 40 suppliers. Games offered on the Internet range from traditional games like video poker and slot machines, to poker, keno, bingo and other games. Here is a list of games offered by just one online casino: baccarat, blackjack, craps, pachinko, the dragon spirit pachinko, victory poker, Caribbean poker, free ride poker, pai gow poker, red dog, roulette, sic bo, slots, gold rush slots, magic hat sportsbook, video poker, deuces wild video poker, jacks or better video poker, joker wild video poker, king of decks, war and battle royal. Because of the uncertain legal status of Internet gaming in the U.S., virtually all online casinos that accept wagers are located outside of the United States. 95

96 As of December 12, 2003, only Nevada has legalized online gambling. New Jersey is trying to legalize Internet gambling, while California, Oregon and Iowa are seeking an outright ban. As an individual, there is little risk of prosecution because of gambling on the Internet as the thrust of prosecutorial power is invariably directed at online casino operators, credit card providers and software providers. Technologically, many of the casinos are very similar, as there are a relative handful of large software developers who dominate the industry. Each casino using software from the same developer will have a similar appearance to other casinos using the software. Generally, online gaming sites are one of three types, based on the type of technology used to provide their games. Many online casinos require that you first download their software before you can play their games. This first category of "downloadable software" has to be first transferred from the host computer to your own computer via downloading and then it must be installed in order to function. Usually these programs are free. The online gambling sites offering this type of software can be good places to start your play as, once installed, the programs offer great graphics, sound, animation, and of course, the chance to play for free. The second type of software used by online casinos is JAVA software which does not require downloading. JAVA 96

97 software allows programs to create little programs known as applets that are embedded directly into a web document. When online casinos use JAVA, the programs run right on your web browser. I am not a fan of casinos using JAVA. With a JAVA casino, you have to load the software every time you play; whereas, with downloaded software, you can began playing almost instantly once the software has been installed on your computer. I have also had incidences when the JAVA software will freeze my browser. In such a situation, you may not be sure whether your last bet was accepted or not. As a minimum, it is very disruptive to have to start a game over. And, not knowing where you stand is not a lot of fun either. It is sort of like someone turning off all the lights in a land-based casino, and when the lights come back on, you are not really sure if you still have all of your casino chips. The third type of software found uses HTML code which is the standard language used to create web pages. Sites using 97

98 HTML are fast to play, but they often have cheesy graphics and no sound or animation. Perhaps the biggest fear most people have is the fear of being cheated out of their money by the next big "scam" and they don't want to be one of these people. All sorts of government agencies and personnel are anxiously hoping that the prosecution of online gambling will be their ticket to the big time. Guess what? It is not likely that any of these folks are going to find major problems with online casinos cheating people. Are there any crooked casinos online? I am sure there are. There are not very many, but since there are a few rotten apples in every industry, there are bound to be some in the online gaming group. Almost all online casinos use random number generators to create their gaming results. This is part of the software package used by the casino and most of these programs are encrypted, effectively locking out the casino's ability to modify the programming. This is designed to reduce the risk of any unscrupulous operator changing pay out ratios or otherwise seeking to gain an additional edge over the players. The software programs all record bets and results as well as the time they occurred. In other words, every thing you did online can later be reconstructed if necessary. This is designed to safeguard both the players and casinos as an "audit trail" is created which can be referred to in the event of an unresolved dispute. 98

99 Of special importance to those who are afraid to use their credit cards on the Internet is that fact that most online casinos don't get your credit card number. Third party processors who forward the money to the casino's account handle the monetary transfer. If you complain about a casino's fairness, you will most likely be given a refund, resulting in a chargeback against the casino. This is one of the reasons online gaming is so safe. To stop a charge against your credit card, send a letter to your credit card company. They will nearly always take your side in a dispute with an online company and refund your money. If you are interested in playing online let me give you some pointers: 1. Select on online casino that gives you several ways to reach its personnel. As a minimum, I would look for a toll free number that is promptly answered by a responsive human being. A simple phone call can be a way to eliminate any unresponsive casinos before you deposit a nickel with them. If the casino's employees don't offer you good service before you become a player, you sure don't want to risk any money with them. 2. Check to see if the casino is licensed. The book Beat the Internet Casinos by Silverthorne Publications has complete information on how to check licensing. (See When you call the casino (see item 1 above), you can ask where they are licensed, how long they have been in business and the name that will appear on your credit card statement if you make a deposit there. 99

100 3. Before you play, you should try out the casino's software by playing for free. If the software is of the downloadable variety, you will have to invest some time downloading and installing the software. If you have any problems downloading and installing the software, call the casino's technical support department. If the casino can't help you, it's "So sorry Charlie, no techie support, no playie." 4. Before you play, decide how much money you are willing to risk. I suggest you buy in for $100 to $200 and get a feel for the game by making small wagers. 5. Before you start playing, decide how long you will sit in front of your computer playing. Time spent in an Internet casino can fly by very quickly. You must also set a stop loss before you start playing. I suggest a stop loss equal to 50% of your buyin. If you buy in for $100 and lose $50, that playing session is over. Make sure that you stick with this, even if you hit your stop loss in five minutes. If you are just dying to continue playing, log off from the casino and play in the "fun mode" where you won't be risking any more money. 6. Many online casinos offer better odds than land-based casinos. Because it costs much less to construct a virtual casino, and its overhead is but a pittance compared to that of a land-based casino, you may find that an online casino can offer you everything but a free drink. Specifically, many Internet casinos offer sizable bonuses for signing up. Playing at a casino offering a sign-up bonus can be very lucrative if you know how to go about it. 100

101 7. When you win, expect to wait up to two weeks for your winnings. I have had some casinos take up to a month to send me winnings. The money for payouts comes from offshore banks that seem to operate on "island time." Once you understand this, you can calm down, as I have never had a casino refuse to pay me a legitimate win. It just takes them more time. When you call the casino before you play, I suggested you get the name that the credit card charge will appear under. The charges and credits you will receive for winnings hardly ever appear in the casino's name, and if you don't know the name of the bank card processor, you may be in for a difficult time figuring who has paid and who hasn't, especially if you gamble at several online joints. 8. The backend software that runs the games should be supplied by a major software developer. Some of these software companies are United Gaming, Starnet, Microgaming, Cryptologic, Boss Media, Real Time Gaming and GamblingSoftware.com. 9. Make sure that the site is a member of the Interactive Gaming Council. The sites that are members follow a strict code of conduct as a condition of membership. 10. Avoid casinos which appear on numerous online "blacklists." There are substantial Internet resources you can use to investigate an online casino before you play. Beat the Internet Casinos gives you complete information on how to do this, as well as a complete system on how to play and win. 101

102 Are you interested in playing craps on the Internet? You can actually do very well if you pick your casinos well. If you pick the right casino, which also happens to pay a 10% or greater bonus just for playing, you can gain a substantial edge over the casino. However, you must know how to play in such a manner that the casino personal will consider that you have "earned" the bonus and will not try to interfere with your right to withdraw the bonus. As you can well imagine, online casinos offering bonuses to players are not interested in attracting players who sign up just to get the bonus and then try to withdraw it with very little play. There is a way to do this that will keep the casino happy and will still give you a large edge over the casinos. Online blackjack play can be very lucrative. The Online Gambling Toolkit focuses on beating the game of blackjack. See If you want to play roulette in the online casinos, you can easily make $1,000 a day without leaving your home. If your nearest land-based casino is some distance away, you may very well consider playing on the Internet. In my opinion, online gambling is here to stay. While I have played many more games in land-based casinos using the Simplex Blackjack Strategy than in online ones, my results playing online have been outstanding. Because the heart of Simplex Blackjack Strategy is an assumption of randomness, is it quite 102

103 likely that this system will work even better against virtual casinos using randomly generated results than against real casinos. My own experiences seem to indicate that trends in one direction or the other seem to be longer in real casinos than in virtual ones, and if this is true, it will tend to work in favor of the Simplex Blackjack Strategy. I personally love online gambling. I love its accessibility and its efficiency. About the only drawback to playing online is the long wait to withdraw funds. You may want to give it a try. 103

104 HOW TO FIND AN INTENET CASINO Each player has his own preferences when it comes to choosing a casino. Some players are Bonus Hunters, jumping from casino to casino looking for the newest and best bonuses. Some slot-machine junkies want the casino with the best slot payouts. While others are just looking for some entertainment, multi-player capability, or certain games. Here, I'll tell you the major differences between online casinos, and what you should know before you download and deposit. Software: first and foremost, you want to play at a casino with decent software. Software includes graphics, speed of play, rules, and more. See our report "The Ten Best Online Casinos" for specific recommendations. All of the casinos listed in this report use software that is fair, reliable, and virus-free. 104

105 Speed of play is also important to many gamblers. Some software slows play by dealing cards slower than others. Some newer software vendors even have an 'Automatic Mode' on some games, where the software will bet and play hands very fast based on your preferences. Different software providers have different betting increments and rules on table games. For instance, some software only allows betting in increments of $2, up to $20, then $10 increments thereon. If you use a betting strategy, beware of software that restricts bet increments. Payouts: Payout percentages indicate how much money the casino gives back to players every month. For example, If a casino received $1000 in deposits last month and their payout is 97%, they kept $30 of that $1000, or 3%. Usually, the higher the payout, the better the odds are for the player. Casinos often break down their payouts into total payout, table game payout, poker payout, and slot payout. Some even disclose payouts for the more popular games. If you exclusively play table games at casinos, you should always check the table payout before you play to determine your odds. A great bonus can be easily offset by a poor payout. Match Bonuses: match bonuses are the reason why many people are attracted to online gambling from the get-go. Casinos will match deposits in order to entice players to download their software and make a deposit. A casino with a bonus of "150% 105

106 match bonus up $50" means that they'll give you an additional 150% of your deposit free, up to $150. So if you deposit $100, the casino will give you a bonus of $150, allowing you to start playing with a balance of $250! Players should beware of some restrictions of these match bonuses, though. Of course it wouldn't be fair to get a $150 bonus and then simply cash out, so the casino will require you to bet a certain amount of money first. This wagering requirement is usually a multiple of your deposit and bonus amount. Using the previous example, if the wagering requirement is 15x bonus & deposit, you have to wager 15 x $250, or $3,750 before you can cash out. This helps keep the bonuses fair, and gives players enough opportunity to win. All bets that you place count against the wagering requirement, but some casinos exclude bets in certain games. Many casinos don't count bets on craps, roulette, and baccarat toward the wagering requirement, but some leave out even more. Make sure to check the details before playing. Free Money Bonuses: A lot of casinos will give away 'Free Money Bonuses' to try to attract players and introduce new people to gambling. These free money bonuses really are free money, and are a great way to get started gambling with no risk, and still feel the thrill of gambling with real money. Most Free Money Bonuses come with a catch, though -- you usually have to deposit a minimum amount before you can cash out. Customer Support: Customer support at most casinos is cutting edge, and all of the casinos listed on in our report "The Ten Best 106

107 Online Casinos" have support reps available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.. Almost every major online casino offers 24/7 tollfree customer support, and you should use it! Online gambling support reps are friendly and available to help. If you have a question, ask! Games: Online casino games are fun, and it's great to be able to play a wide variety of games in one casino. Most casinos offer a great variety of games, but you'll find all of the standard casino games in nearly every casino. If you specifically want to play video keno, you may have to look a little harder than if you were interested in playing blackjack or slots. In rating dozens of casinos I found that casinos that offer 50+ games are roughly equivalent to casinos that offer 25+ games. The only difference is the bragging rights. The medium sized casinos have all the major table, poker, video poker, and slot games. The bigger casinos have all the same games, plus slight variations of them. Deposit Options: Some casinos don't accept credit cards anymore because of a high rate of fraud, so it's important to choose a casino with secure and quick alternative deposit options. To gamble online, you'll need an 'Electronic Cash' account like Neteller or FirePay. Most casinos take these two major ones, and they provide decent customer service. We have just completed another Free Report "Alternative Casino Banking Methods." This report will give you the complete details on the major alternatives to using your credit card. 107

108 Withdrawal Options: When you win big, you want a fast and easy way to withdraw your money. Most withdrawal transactions are done manually by the casino manager, so they tend to take some time. Don't be surprised if your withdrawal takes a few days... or even weeks. Casino managers must perform due diligence to make sure that there is no fraud involved, such as multiple registrations to obtain more bonuses and that you have met the playthrough requirement, etc. Most casinos will return money to your Neteller or Firepay account, or will send you a check in the mail. Comp Programs: Most online casinos have formed comp programs to rival the traditional brick and mortar casinos that keep players coming back. 'Comp' stands for Complementary, and that means free! Most casinos offer money back while some go so far as to raffle off cruises or offer plane tickets. The majority redeem betting points for cash. For instance, Roulette yields 3 points per $1 bet, and the redemption ratio is 100 points per dollar. Every $33 dollars you bet playing craps you will get $1 back.. 108

109 SKILFUL PLAY There are a variety of games and playing situations available. Each player has his own preferences. Some prefer single deck games while others like the multi-deck games. Some players like to play at full tables; others prefer to play one on one. The way the games are dealt can affect the player's expectation sometimes more than rule variations. I will run through a number of these issues, giving you the pros and cons and telling you the options which are best for the Simplex Blackjack player. Single, Double or Multiple Decks As a general rule, the fewer the decks used, the better it is for the player, unless the rules are changed. Single deck games are popular with many players who think they know how to count cards because they have heard that single decks are easier to beat. While single and double deck games offer slightly higher advantages to card counters, many times the advantages are only theoretical as the house counters these slight mathematical advantages with less liberal rules, earlier shuffles, and greater heat for players making larger wagers. 109

110 I prefer the multi-deck games for a number of reasons. The first and most important reason is that the constant reshuffling tends to render the Simplex Blackjack betting progression fairly ineffective in the single and double deck games as there are not enough rounds dealt between shuffles to really use it effectively. For the Simplex Blackjack player, the decision of whether to play hand held or shoe dealt games is easy. Always go with the shoe. A question arises as to what to do when you are in the middle of a betting series and the dealer shuffles. If I have been winning at the table, I will tend to leave my bet alone and continue my current betting series. Also, by leaving the betting series up when I am in a winning streak, I may be in a good position to continue to take advantage of a player favorable game. In addition, by sometimes keeping my bet sizes at the same level and reducing them at other times, I will look exactly like a gambler playing from hunches or superstitions rather than a skilled player. Playing Alone or With Others Playing alone has its advantages. By playing one-on-one against the dealer, I can get in more hands per hour. I also don't have to worry about some other player commenting on my play because I drew some card instead of standing, or stood instead of hitting, or otherwise offended him. I also avoid obnoxious players by playing alone. 110

111 The other side of the coin is that I am more visible when I play heads up with a dealer. My play is more likely to attract casino surveillance, especially when I am playing with black chips. Is there a compromise? Yes there is. Bring a companion with you, preferably one of the opposite sex, who can act as your accomplice or cohort in your mission to relieve the casino of some of its stash. The perfect gambit is for a fun loving couple to sit down and play a little blackjack, especially if they are friendly to the dealer and floor personnel. It is not necessary that your partner know the Simplex Blackjack Strategy. I recommend that he or she at least learn the basic playing strategy. If your partner only learns this strategy, he or she should make small wagers. On the other hand, becoming a skilled Simplex Blackjack player can substantially increase your earnings as well as your partner's. If you are married, your spouse is much more likely to become an enthusiastic supporter of your gambling activities if he or she is involved. If you are a single man, I can think of worse ploys than to invite an attractive female companion for a trip to Las Vegas. Women love conspiracies, and if you let her in on your little secret that you beat the casinos and ask her to act as your co-conspirator, who knows what might transpire. If I don't have a playing partner, my next preference is to play at a table with one or two other persons. Another player or two is enough to provide some cover for my level of skill without my having to tolerate crowded playing conditions. 111

112 The number of players at the table will definitely affect the number of hands you play per hour. The table below shows how the hands played per hour will vary with the number of players. Number of Players at the Table Average number of Hands per Hour Casino Heat If you bet with nickel and quarter chips, you will not encounter a great deal of casino heat unless you are playing in a sawdust joint where every dollar lost causes the pit boss to grimace and run for his ulcer medication. Once you move up to black chip play, look out. From the moment the dealer barks out, "Checks play" to announce your hundred dollar or larger wager, until you depart, you will be observed much more than the smaller bettors. 112

113 From the casino's viewpoint, this makes perfect sense. They can lose more to one black chip player than to twenty red chip players. So, if you decide to play at this level, you will have to become accustomed to more than average attention. However, you will able to sense when you are getting more than normal surveillance. A group of executives standing back and talking to each other in hushed voices while glancing your direction is usually a bad sign. Many dealers have been instructed by their bosses to shuffle up whenever a player jumps his bet by more than three or four hundred percent. If you are using a larger betting series geared for green and black chip play, don't be surprised if the dealer shuffles every time you increase your wager to a certain level. If you find a casino which routinely does this, my advice is to take your business elsewhere. The good news is that using the Simplex Blackjack betting strategy, you will not encounter much heat. Your wagers will change at different times dependent on how well your betting is doing. The dealer may even ask you about your betting system. You can explain that you usually increase your bets gradually when you are winning, but sometimes you will raise them after losses to try to recoup a little. This is perfectly true as the Simplex Blackjack betting strategy incorporates these features. More important though is that counters don't use betting progressions; therefore, when you play this way, it is less likely that you will be labeled a counter and therefor perceived as a threat. 113

114 Tipping If you don't like to tip, most international play will suit you fine. Most casinos in Asia, Europe and Commonwealth countries like England, Australia and New Zealand forbid tipping the dealers. In the U.S. you really have no choice but to tip. Many counters refuse to tip, arguing that tips come right off their bottom line. I can't argue with the logic, but I will question the results of a no-tipping policy. I personally have a great deal of respect for most casino personnel and especially dealers. I enjoy tipping them in exchange for good service and once it is established that I am a "George" (slang for a good tipper), the level of service increases appreciably. When I tip, I never just give the dealer the tip. I only tip by making bets for the dealer. I tip by adding the dealer's tip to the top of my own wager, making the dealer a partner for the bet. If we win the bet and the count is still high, I will leave the dealer wager up and give her the payoff. I want her to become involved in my betting. By tipping the dealer more when I am in a winning streak, I will have a better opportunity to ask for another deal near the cutoff point and get another round of cards dealt before the shuffle. This can work two ways. If I have been struggling to win a game, I would just as soon get a shuffle. I can signal the dealer by not tipping and saying something like, "I don't feel very lucky, so I am not going to bet for you right now. Maybe after the next shuffle I'll feel better." 114

115 Some dealers will respond to tipping and become your silent partners. Many casinos now require that all blackjack dealers on a shift pool their tips, but I have not found that this rule has really reduced my ability to influence dealers. Roughly three out of four dealers will respond positively to the tip partnership concept. The key to pulling this off is to do it in a natural way. If you have not said two words to a dealer or made any eye contact and then you throw out a tip expecting the dealer to help you, don't be surprised if the dealer is unresponsive. Start by making eye contact and small talk. Most dealers are interested in where you are from, what you do for a living, what you think of their casino and so forth. Talking to a dealer is not the time to share your complaints about their casino. I always find something positive to say about the casino and the dealer. Once you have established some rapport, it is much easier to pull off the tip partnership concept. If you have done your job, tipping will feel almost like one friend helping another, which is exactly what you want. Some dealers don't react positively to your attempts at conversation. If you get an unfriendly, uncooperative dealer, just change tables. Another advantage of multi-deck play is that you will generally have a good selection of dealers you can chose from. Act Like a Gambler If you are black chip player, you ought to look like a black chip player. Casino personnel have preconceived notions of what counters look like usually based on previous experiences. Many card counters come from academic backgrounds and dress 115

116 the part casual to the point of being sloppy. I know that many rich people also dress casually, but you need to dress like you can afford the kind of money you are betting. Wear sharp casual attire for daytime use and a sports coat or suit for the evenings. Some expensive looking jewelry is also helpful. I know a lot of wealthy people don't dress this way to gamble, but they don't have a winning gambling system they are using to reduce the casino's bankroll either. When you first sit down to play, cash in for less than the required session amount. If you are a black chip player, buy in for $1,500 or $2,000, and if you need additional chips, either sign a marker or pull the cash from your pocket to continue to play. This is the way most gamblers play. Act natural. If you never engage in conversation, you do not look like a casual player out to have a good time. From the pit's perspective, you may look like someone up to no good, and you will be watched more carefully. The easiest way to act natural is to be with a person of the opposite sex. Couples are the least suspicious players from the casino's perspective. I would wager that 95% of card counters are males who play alone, and playing as a couple will deter much of any potential casino heat. Play like a loser. If you are in a prolonged winning streak, don't rub it in the casino's face by continuing to play at the same table. If you do, make sure that you consistently make the kinds of moves which will throw the pit off. Insure all of your blackjacks. Leave large wagers up after a shuffle. Occasionally make erratic plays which vary from basic strategy. But your best ploy is not to overstay your welcome, especially if you are winning a bundle. 116

117 If you have a nice win and a floorman comments on it, you can casually mention that you dropped a bundle at craps last night and you still are not even close to even. But don't do this if you never play craps. Make your story plausible. Hide Chips As a winning player, you will want to look for ways to disguise the amount you are winning. The easiest way to do this is to pocket chips. This is harder to accomplish if you are playing alone, and is easiest to accomplish if you have a playing partner. How to Survive and Prosper as a Professional Gambler, published by Silverthorne Publications, has some excellent suggestions on chip hiding routines. With a female accomplice, it is easy to slip chips to her and let her hide them in her purse. Sometimes my wife carries a shopping bag with her, which is a great place to stash chips and offers additional cover to help us look just like a happy pair of typical tourists. If you are a black chip player, you are better off hiding green chips, as the bosses are more concerned with watching your stack of black chips. If you commonly wager $500 or more, then you can get away with hiding $100 chips, but don't try to stash the $500 chips as the bosses may catch on. 117

118 Play for Cash or on Credit? There are many advantages to establishing credit with several casinos. Once you have established credit, it is there anytime you want to use it. You don't have to carry cash, arrange for wire transfers or try to talk casinos into cashing checks. You generally will not be able to even cash a cashier's check in a casino until it has been verified. If you show up on a Saturday hoping to cash a cashier's check, you will be out of luck until your bank reopens on Monday and can verify the check. Another advantage to establishing credit is that when you use casino credit, you get to sign markers at the table, and you will look like a gambler, since most gamblers who play with black chips have casino credit lines. I'll let you in on a dirty secret. Casinos are not in the business of loaning money to gamblers, at least not now. If you have a bad gambling habit and a weak bank account, your local friendly loan shark is more likely to accommodate you than your not-so-friendly casino. When you establish a credit line, the casino is agreeing to advance you no more than the average balance in your checking account for the last six months. Your creditworthiness has nothing to do with getting casino credit. These guys don't care whether you are employed, just filed for bankruptcy or are dodging your other creditors. Casino credit is based on how much bread you keep in your checking account. 118

119 Do you feel a little better about the high rollers signing the markers? They are signing magnetically coded checks which can be run through their checking accounts. Normally markers are not handled this way, as the casino prefers to be paid by check, but if necessary, the casino markers can and will be deposited by the casino, and will be presented for payment at your bank just like any other check you have written. If you are a black chip player, casino credit is almost mandatory unless you want to carry a large amount of cash with you, which I don't recommend. If you know where you will be playing, you can arrange to have cash deposited with the casino cashier and sign markers against your own front money on deposit with the casino. The fascinating book, Gamble for Free by Martin J. Silverthorne, is most informative on how to get and use casino credit. Rated Players Once you start playing with green or black chips, you are going to be asked by a floorman if you want to be rated. Many card counters resent the intrusion of a floorman and answer evasively or even negatively. This is a big mistake. By rating your play, the casino is evaluating your ability to receive comps or freebies from the casino. Comps can really add to your bottom line and can be very profitable once you learn to play the comp game. Another reason to become rated is that being rated and receiving comps from the casino is what gamblers normally do. And you want to look just like another gambler. 119

120 Even if you are a low to mid-range player and want to get full RFB, which stands for Room, Food and Beverages comped, there are many casinos which will accommodate you. Gamble for Free presents a complete system for getting the maximum amount of comps out of your casino. Using casino comps, you can travel just about anywhere and get full VIP treatment. Many casinos will even pay your airfare. But you have to know how to work the system to maximize these benefits. I suggest that you learn how to get the maximum amount of comps and let a casino pay for all of your gambling excursions. As a Simplex Blackjack player, you are in the perfect position to get and benefit from comps. No matter what your level of play, you can increase your enjoyment and profits by availing yourself of casino comps. Finding the Best Table I generally avoid single and double deck games because of more frequent shuffling. In addition, you may find that the rules are more restrictive. Doubling may be allowed only on hands totaling 10 or 11, and you may not be allowed to double after splitting. This leaves us with multi-decks. Most of our testing was done against six-deck games. Streaks may also be more prevalent in multi-deck games because of inadequate shuffling. I have seen tables and dealers lose in streaks lasting several hours at some sixdeck games. 120

121 Another advantage of only playing at multi-deck tables is that there are many more tables to choose from than single or double deck games. Here are some indicators you can look for to help you find the best tables. 1. Look for a table with the lowest minimum bet, the fewest players, with a slow-dealing, young, friendly female dealer. I can feel the hackles rising from the feminists in my audience. I am not being a male chauvinist pig in making this recommendation. My own experiences show that I have done the worst playing against old rough looking male dealers who look like they have been dealing for at least thirty years and haven't enjoyed the last twenty of it. Next worst, are older female types, although I have had mixed results here. It really depends on the dealer's demeanor. Smiling face and a sunny disposition, okay. Grumpy or disinterested manner, stay away. Continuing from bad to best, I would pick young male dealers next. They tend towards being macho and cocky, but this can be used to your advantage. Because they are so seemingly self assured, as long as you don't challenge their egos, you can get a good game. But the best dealers are young female dealers, preferably of the pleasant looking variety. Studies have shown, and it has been proven mathematically, that the combination of low minimum wagers, fewer players and (gulp) a young female dealer will give you the best chance of winning. This holds true whether you are a male or female player. 2. Check the dealer's chip rack and the stacks of chips in front of any players. If the dealers' rack is low, this is good because it means the players have been winning. If the players have large stacks of chips in front of them, this will help confirm that this has been a winning table for players. If the dealer's rack is full of 121

122 chips, this isn't a good sign unless the table just got a fill. The floorman won't let a table run out of chips, so when it drops to a certain level, he will call for more chips to "fill" the table. You can ask the dealer if he just received a fill. 3. Do the players around the table seem to be winning? Two or three players sitting at the table with only four or five chips in front of them is not a good sign. What you want to see is a player or two with a few stacks of chips in front of them. This is a fairly good indicator that they have been winning. 4. How often is the dealer busting? Does the dealer continue to draw to good hands even when he has bust cards showing? You can't expect a dealer to bust every time when he has a 5 or 6 showing, but if he continuously draws to a 20 or 21, watch out! A good part of your winnings will come from dealer busts. If he is not doing it, you probably won't win. 5. Ask the dealer if he is hot or cold. He won't mind telling you. He may not tell you the truth, but if he says he is hot, don't play there. He may have been beating players regularly. You don't want to become another casualty. 6. If you sit down and lose the first three hands, get up! This is why we use the Conservative Starting Rules. My experience has been that if you lose the first three or four hands, your chances of winning a game are severely diminished. Why risk it? If the dealer beats you three hands in a row, he is probably to hot to beat. 122

123 Learn to Play Another Casino Game I highly recommend that you learn to play at least one other table game besides blackjack. My number one choice of the game to learn is craps. Craps is still a favorite game of many high rollers. There is no other game in the casino where fortunes can be won or lost as quickly as in craps. Yet many of the bets on the craps table offer some of the lowest odds in the casino. Pass Line and Don't Pass wagers only give the house an advantage of 1.41% and 1.40%, respectively. Odds wagers give the house no edge whatsoever. Craps is an excellent game for employing hit and run tactics. If you have been playing blackjack and are tired of concentrating on the cards, craps may give you just the break you need. You can stretch your aching legs, as players customarily stand around the table rather than sitting like blackjack players. You can yell, mumble, make many exciting wagers, and in general, look like a degenerate gambler. This can't hurt your reputation with the casino. Because craps gives the casino a slight edge on some wagers and an enormous edge on others (watch out for the bets in the center of the table called proposition bets), counters normally don't play the game. By mixing a little craps play in with your blackjack games, you will look more and more like another gambler to the casino bosses. You may be surprised how well you do at craps. On a typical casino visit, I usually make more money playing craps than 123

124 I do playing blackjack. Silverthorne Publications is the premier publisher for winning craps systems. You can check out some of their fine publications in a listing at the back of this book or by checking their web site at If your casinos offer roulette, you may want to learn to play the game. Your best chance of winning at roulette is at a wheel with a single zero. Single zero wheels with the en prison rule are the standard game in international casinos with house odds of only 1.38%, about the same as the line wagers in craps. If you play on American double zero wheels, you will be bucking house odds of 5.26%. This is a harder game to beat. You can play roulette for relaxation, but even when I relax I enjoy winning money. I use an intriguing roulette system which wins over 90% of the time and throws off nice winnings even against the American wheels. It is described in Target Roulette, published by Silverthorne Publications. 124

125 Casino Comps Whether you chose to become a rated player at the casino table games, join a slot club or both, once you get into the system, you can start getting your share of comps. There are a number of tried and proven ways to multiply the number of comps you get. Here are some pointers. Chose a primary casino and then play there. A basic premise of the whole comp system is to reward loyal players. Casinos offer comps to lure new players to their casino and to make sure that their current customers remain their customers. If you think you have it tough trying to use the comp system to your advantage, just think what the casinos are up against with new competition springing up every day. If you are a whale, you can ignore my advice. Just plan on either bringing or setting up a credit line of $100,000 or larger, and wherever you decide to land will be glad to comp you. If you are 125

126 in the million dollar plus range, the casino will not only comp you, but anyone else you chose to bring with you. They'll even charter a 737 and fly in as many of your friends as you want to bring along. If you are not quite in this range, then it will pay to find a primary casino and reward it with your patronage. A player with as little as $1,000 can get RFB treatment in some of the downtown casinos in Las Vegas. A player with a $2,500 bankroll will have an even greater choice of hotel casinos. Move up to the $5,000 to $10,000 range, and a whole other batch of casinos become available. But, in order to get noticed and adequately comped with a bankroll from $1,000 to $10,000, you have to be willing to reward a casino with your playing time. 126

127 A friend of mine visits Las Vegas about ten times a year. He usually takes $5,000 to $10,000 and manages to lose between \half and three quarters of it per trip. I won't comment on his approach to gambling. Quite frankly, it stinks. Anyway, the subject is comps. Believe it or not, he doesn't get any. He stays at a different casino every trip. I think he believes the constant changes might improve his luck. This is not necessarily bad, if he would play at the casino where he stays. He invariably changes casinos every hour or two and ends up playing in ten to twelve different establishments over the course of two or three days. Because of the size of his buy-ins, he is constantly asked if he wants to be rated. He always declines. He confesses that he doesn't want the casinos to know how much he is losing. I think that he is trying to kid himself about his losses. I have explained the comp system to him. As long as he is losing, he might as well have the casinos kick in $750 to $1,000 per trip. This money is there for the asking if he would only pick a primary casino and give it a reasonable amount of play. I can't convince him to change his ways. But, maybe I can influence you. There are many other benefits to playing more in a primary casino. The first benefit is the application of the old saw, "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." 127

128 The casino will accelerate the rewards offered you the more you play. Some casinos formalize this process and actually accelerate the comps to slot club members as their total number of points increases. Many casinos offer more and more free rooms and entertainment the more you patronize them. The key to maximizing your benefits from this whole process is to find a casino that matches your needs and then start playing there. If you have picked correctly, your loyalty will be well rewarded. Join a slot club and/or get a VIP card. The start of getting comps is to be into the casino comp system. If you bet $25,000 a hand, the host will find you. If you bet $5 to $25 a pop, you have to get the casino's attention. And the easiest way to do this is with a little piece of plastic which looks just like a credit card. 128

129 Once you have a card, getting comped will become part of your routine. The first thing you will do as a machine player is to insert your club card in the card reader. When you sit down at a craps, blackjack or roulette table you will present your VIP card when you buy in. Your card will go down with your cash at the roulette table when you lay five hundred in front of the dealer and tell him, "Chips please." Get to know your casino host. The casino host or the slot host will be your key to getting the most comps in most casinos. If you are a member of the casino's slot club, you will get nearly all of your comps by asking the casino slot host. Many times comps for food, rooms, shows and merchandise are built right into the slot club payoffs. If you have just joined a slot club, try giving them some play for an hour or two and then asking the slot host for a buffet comp. My experience with comps from playing slots or video poker is that the slot hosts are much more likely to be generous with comps than the personnel at the slot club booths. If you want brochures on the slot clubs or general information on the slot club, talk to the clerks at the booth. If you want a particular comp, ask the slot host. 129

130 Casino hosts, catering to the table game players, are at the top of the casino pecking order for granting comps. Their top priority is to cultivate new customers and to keep the current customers happy. The casino hostesses are the persons working for VIP Services who help you check in, arrange your limo service, make dinner and show reservations and so forth. The hostesses will handle most of your scheduling and reservation needs. The casino hosts are the people you need to talk to to arrange RFB and airfare reimbursement. You can meet a casino host a number of ways. One way is to call a casino before coming and ask to speak to a host. This is a good way to ask about the casino's comp policy and to tell the host that you are interested in playing there. If you are playing with front money, you should meet your host after depositing your money with the cage but before you begin play. If you are a cash player and make a large enough buy-in, you may have a chance to meet a host when the casino sets you up with a VIP card. After you have played in a casino, you can make reservations through the casino host. Making a reservation through a host who knows you is a good way to get a room even if the front desk claims that no rooms are available. Casinos always 130

131 reserve a block of rooms for their best customers, and a casino host can get you a room when a reservation clerk can't. I recommend taking a little time to develop a relationship with a host. Part of developing a relationship is consistency. If you make one casino your primary casino and visit several times a year, it will be easier to become known to a host than if he only sees you every other year. If you are using a casino credit line, the host will introduce himself to you. With front money or cash, you will want to make a point of meeting the host. Treat your host with respect and nurture the relationship. He can shower you with all kinds of freebies, including gifts, food, a free room and VIP treatment. And he is paid to do this. For your part, you have to convince your host that your action is sufficient to justify the comps you want. And being a nice person won't hurt either. Be a nice person. Or have I said that? You can get enormous leverage out of maintaining friendly relationships with the people who work in casinos. Start with the dealers and cocktail waitresses. These people have a couple of the hardest jobs in the casino and are at the bottom of the casino hierarchy. A smile and a reasonable tipping policy will do wonders to get these folks on your side. I believe 131

132 that creating a positive atmosphere starts with how you act towards the casino personnel. A positive atmosphere is conducive to winning as well as to getting your fair share of comps. You might look at it this way. If you are a grump, the dealer will probably reciprocate. This is contagious behavior, and soon the whole table will act the same way. The pit personnel not only will not be impressed with your play, they probably will be put off by the whole scene at your table. Not only will your rating likely suffer, you won't have nearly as much fun. You can't always control how dealers and other customers act. If I join a table where no one is talking, and the dealer barely grunts when spoken to, I will make my departure very quickly. Usually a few cheerful words followed by a toke for the dealer will turn the atmosphere around. However, if this fails, you can't be faulted for not trying. Life is too short to play under miserable conditions. It is always better to change tables than to continue to play with an out of sorts crew and crabby complaining customers. Under these conditions, you should just leave. Visit the casino at off times. I nearly always schedule my casino trips for the middle of the week. I will typically arrive on a Monday afternoon and stay until Thursday afternoon. The benefits of visiting during the week are many. If there are any drawbacks to avoiding the weekend crowds, I haven't found them. 132

133 I don't like waiting and I hate lines. By timing my visits to the middle of the week, I can usually walk into any coffee shop, make reservations for a gourmet restaurant just about any time I chose and get show tickets to the shows I want to see. If you want to really reduce the size of the crowds, travel in the middle of the week during off season. Las Vegas is slower during the middle of summer when it is hot and in the late fall and early winter when it's colder. The slowest time in Vegas is usually between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But watch out for conventions. The Comdex is usually in town in November. Then it's impossible to get a room (unless you are a rated player or belong to a slot club). If you like to visit Atlantic City, try visiting during the middle of the week in the dead of winter. You'll not only avoid the larger crowds, but you'll find that the minimum wagers on many tables have been reduced. Visiting during an off time is also an excellent way to get noticed for purposes of getting rated and getting your comp career off to a roaring start. With fewer players to contend with, a host or a floorman is easier to meet and to visit with. Also, during slow times, casinos tend to be more generous with comps. After all, they are more likely to have a slew of vacant rooms just waiting to be given away to qualified players on a Wednesday night in December. 133

134 Ask for comps. If you play $10,000 a hand at baccarat, you do not have to ask for comps. The casino will shower you with them. If you are like the rest of us wagering anywhere from $5 to several hundred a hand, you need to ask for comps. Slot players have the more systematic approach as the card readers on the machines are tied into a centralized computer system, and comps are based on points. If you are a slots or video poker player, getting a comp is pretty straight forward with this system. Table game players have to deal more with people. And unless you are a whale, a boss will almost never offer you a comp unless you have just won big in a smaller casino which watches every loss. Facing a player who might walk out with their money in hand, some casinos will start throwing comps at the player. But most of the time, even rated players can play and play and never be offered a comp unless they ask for it. My advice? Always ask for the comp. I have given you several examples of how to do it. Maximize your comps. Anyone who follows the steps I have described can get comps. Your first step is to pick your primary casino and give it most of your business. Before you pick your casino you want to make 134

135 sure that the casino has a reasonable comp policy and that it has beatable games. You should also like the casino as you will be receiving a lot of invitations there once you get into their comp system. After picking your primary casino, you need to join its slot club and get a VIP card. I usually do both. Some casinos, like Rio in Las Vegas, combine rating slot, video poker and table players on one card. Others track machine and table action separately. However, it usually pays to join the slot club, even if you are mostly a table game player. In many ways, slot club players have an advantage over the table game players. Their rating is automatic, they don't have to get the attention of some boss. By joining the slot club, they start receiving mailing from the casino. I have received offers of free rooms from casinos where I had never played a slot machine, but had joined their slot club. If you are just establishing your rating and want to get a room on a crowded weekend, your slot club membership can be invaluable. After the reservation clerk tells you there are no rooms available, tell her you are a member of the slot club or ask to speak to a slot host. Chances are, the casino will find a room for you. Getting to know the casino personal is critical. The more the casino personnel know and like you, the more comps are likely to flow your way. This is even true for slot players with their 135

136 automated rating system. A slot host can easily "bump up" your comp from a buffet for two to a coffee shop comp for two, even if your rating is not quite there. With table players, interacting with the pit personnel is critical. A boss can make or break you in terms of your rating. If your average wager is $25, your goal is to be rated as at least a $50 to $75 player. It is not enough to increase your wagers when the boss is looking, you need to be a nice person. Playing with front money gives the casino a real shot at beating you. When you deposit the money in the cage, the casino knows that they have a shot at winning all of your front money. If you are willing to risk $10,000, this will open the door to full RFB at most establishments. When you play with front money, be sure to put it all in play. If you deposit $10,000, draw markers for the full ten grand. This doesn't mean you should lose the money. If you look like a loser and the casino sees that you have put all of your front money into play, your rating will increase. Remember to look like a loser. You can save your bragging for when you get home. Appear to lose, but lose gracefully. Dealers and bosses hear players gripe about losing every day. Look like a loser but don't complain. 136

137 If you run into a fantastic winning streak, don't worry about disguising the fact that you are a winner. The bosses will know that you are winning. If you try to hide enough chips to turn a big win into a loss, they'll know. When you have a big win, act like a winner. Go ahead and tip a little more. If you are playing craps, shouting is not out of line. I have had some of my best comps come out of big wins as casinos hate to see winners walk out the door with their money. Once you know how to play the comps game, you will be able to milk the casinos for every dime your action entitles you to. I have given you some pointers on how to get a quarter's worth of comps for a dime's worth of action. When you combine getting the maximum number of comps with the Maximum Advantage Roulette Strategy, you are in the best position to maximize your profits from casino gambling. 137

138 If you at least break even, then the comps you receive constitute a profit for your play. If you are able to win money at the casino games, then your profit will be even greater. 138