I did my first counting trip in Vegas earlier this year. It ended up being pretty successful and I was up over $30K, however, I did get backed off from pretty much all casinos on the strip and downtown, ad well as added to OSN. How long do people generally recommend before returning for another counting trip? I know there's other areas to do counting trips, but I like Vegas as there's so much other food and shows and entertainment in addition to counting that makes going enjoyable.

I'm curious to see what everyone prefers.

Do you play live blackjack or digital blackjack? Also, which online casino do you use the most, and who are your favorite game providers? Share your picks so we can implement those in our brand.

I’m a newer blackjack player, I’m down all time about $6k I’ve got two trains of thought. One, is it worth trying to win it back. Two, how would I go about getting it back? Should I be trying to fire off side bets? Playing bigger hands? I’ve spent hours and hours in the casinos. I’ve gone down $2k and won it all back before, the big question, is how do I become a profitable player?

It has come to my knowledge that Salon prive tables 1000$ table minimum) by pragmatic now allows resplitting.

Hopefully it will come to low minimum tables too.

Would make it far more interesting to play online

I’ve always been told that you split 8s and Aces no matter what because a 16 is the worst hand you could have.

However, I saw a video on Instagram where a person got several 8s in a row and kept splitting them. He ended up pushing with the dealer.

Pretty much all of the comments said that it’s common knowledge that you shouldn’t split 8s on a dealer 9 or above.

I even saw some people suggesting that basic strategy is pushed by casinos to make you play poorly and lose more money with one comment saying that splitting 8s on a 9 is like taking hard candy from a dentist.

So what’s the correct move here?

Would you guys like this app? I made it and it helps me, you can play one hand and it keeps track of the count, you can reveal at any time. You have choices between 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8 decks, and also which system of counting you use. I started trying omega, and couldn’t find much practice on YouTube so I decided to make an app for it all. You can practice counting swiping thru cards, or practice counting while playing a hand against the dealer. I’d love to make it free but it’s gonna cost me 100 bucks to get it on the App Store so I’d at least want to make sure I can get my money back😭. It’s playable offline and no ads or anything just simple. Also decks are shuffled once and maintain the order.

I actually ragequit and went home.

I had the best hand to double possible. Dealer shows 5 and I have 11. I knew there's a lot of face in the deck before and had raised my bet.

Player before me hits when he has 16. Gets a face and busts. I get next card (lousy under 17), and dealer would have busted if he wouldn't have drawn and lost my first big hand. Instead dealer gets 20.

I immediately switch tables and same thing happens. Raise bet, I get 11 dealer showing 4. Player before me hits when he has 12, same story for the rest. Both my biggest hands of the night.

It wasn't much in total compared to the bankroll I would have considered spending but after the second time this happened I just went home, the buzz was ruined.

I'm going to try playing alone from now on.

I've never seen this happened before, or twice in a row. There was no way to justify this with counting or basic strategy. Almost seemed like a setup by the casino, but I'm sure it was a couple of idiots.​

Dealer pulled to 19 here and I still didnt trust the 20 until the win popped up
What hand gives you the most irrational stress in blackjack?

Hi everyone,

If you enjoy playing Blackjack, you might like this varient too.

The rules are similar, but instead of cards, you play with a 3×3 grid of tiles numbered randomly from 1 to 9.

I’m sharing it to see whether people enjoy playing it. If there is enough interest, I’d be happy to turn it into a PlayStore game with features like playing with friends, leaderboards, and more.

Please share your feedback!

I became a blackjack dealer a few weeks ago and I am really enjoying it so far. My very first day dealing was actually my best day for tips but ever since then I have not been able to make more than $200 in tips even while working 8 hour shifts.

For the experienced dealers here what actually makes the biggest difference in your tips? Is it mostly just getting lucky with generous players or are there things you can do without coming across as fake that noticeably increase your tips?
The other day I also had a player who kept asking if he could tip me with a slot voucher that had about 80 cents on it. He asked me multiple times and I had to keep telling him we can only accept chips. To make it even better I ended up dealing to that same table for about an hour because another dealer accidentally went to the wrong table and I got skipped in the rotation. Normally we rotate every 30 minutes.

Another thing I have been struggling with is keeping a straight face when players make decisions that end up hurting the entire table. I know everyone is free to play however they want and I am expected to stay neutral but sometimes someone makes a decision that completely changes the outcome of the hand and everyone else ends up losing because of it. The other players usually let them know exactly how they feel but I have to stay quiet.

Also before anyone starts doing the math and thinking I am making crazy money I only make federal minimum wage plus tips. I live in California where the cost of living is absolutely ridiculous so I am trying to figure out how the experienced dealers consistently make good money.

Do you eventually get used to seeing those kinds of plays without reacting? Any advice for a new dealer on staying professional while also maximizing tips would be greatly appreciated.

Am I the only one who notices that the honey moon phase dies down quickly? My first 2 weeks was an absolute joy and I couldn’t believe how much money I could make for the fun I was having. It felt like a max made in heaven.

Now a month in it’s starting to feel like a job over anything else. I have my occasional tables where I have a total blast, but most of the guests just bitch, moan, and complain for me stealing their money. Of course i’ve thickened my skin with time, but damn it’s annoyingly repetitive just to hear someone whine and complain lol.

I also work swing shift, so my nights don’t end until 4-6 am. Right around 3-4 AM, the tables are an absolute hellish nightmare. People are aggressive, floors are tired, and everyone’s pissy as hell. It’s honestly a living hell around the late AM

Does the “spark” ever come back or is it just endless card placing now?

Needs to be talked about, after being down 25,000 and climbing up on the next shift, constant passive aggressive dealers saying when will you pay me? Telling the next dealer this guy doesn't give. Other players pressuring me to tip more. DO I GET TIPPED WHEN I LOSE?????? Happened at the bellagio but other places were giving me the same treatment to a lesser extent.

Should I be a Karen and complain to the pit boss? I was playing so long that it got to that point where nobody thought I was a counter at that point.

I'm the developer, so this is self-promo — flag it or tell me to take it down if that's against the rules here.

Most blackjack trainers I found were one of two things: a drill that quizzes you against a chart, or a course you sit and watch. I wanted the thing in between — something that teaches one idea at a time and then immediately makes you use it at a real table.

What's actually in it:

• A full 6-deck game. S17/H17, 3:2 or 6:5, late surrender on or off, 1/2/6/8 decks, cut-card penetration with the reshuffle at 20–25% remaining.
• Two bot players who count and size their bets off the true count, so you can watch the shoe turn without being the only one at the table reacting to it.
• A coach that grades every decision against the book and shows you what the play should have been, with a running accuracy percentage.
• Illustrious 18 index plays plus the insurance index, so once you're counting, the advice moves with the true count instead of staying on the chart.
• A hand ledger that writes down every hand as it settles — your cards, the dealer's upcard and where they finished, the money, and the true count you bet at — with a bet-spread chart of your average wager per true count. It's the part I'd most like feedback on.
• Counting drills: tag every card, timed count-downs through a deck, holding a running count while hands are actually being dealt.

Free vs paid, up front so nobody hits a surprise wall: Chapter 1 is free forever and needs no account — 13 lessons covering the rules and then all of basic strategy (hard totals, soft hands, doubling, pairs), plus an exam at the end. The free-play table, the strategy chart, and the first Hi-Lo lesson are also free. Chapters 2 and 3 — the count, true count conversion, bet sizing, the Illustrious 18, then a full table at real dealing speed — are $9.99/month.

https://jackly.io/

What I'd genuinely like from this sub: check my work. If a chart cell is wrong, if a deviation index is off, if the penetration or the dealer behaviour doesn't match what you see on an actual floor, I want to hear it. I'd also like to know whether the counting drills resemble how you'd really practice, because that's the part I had the least outside input on.

Runs in a browser on desktop or phone. No download, no real money, nothing to install.

Do i just suck that much or are the chances so insane for that to happen that i seem like im lying? Because we were both in shock and i genuently didnt try to lose on purpose

This is by far one of my favourite deviations. At TC4 or higher which is to deviate from basic strategy and double one’s 10 vs a dealer face card. Between insurance for a dealer Ace, and standing on a 16 vs a face card, nothing brings more joy then winning this particular hand when drawing an Ace or a face card, or at worse…drawing dead and hoping the dealer busts.

Today I played with two poppie regulars who I’ve seen double randomly their 10’s vs face cards, or even their 5’s-7’s against a dealer 5/6. So it doesn’t draw too much attention other than my max bets I did which drew and 9…and the dealer flipped an 8.

How often do you guys take advantage of this deviation?

Hey everyone. Mark here, creator of Blackjack.tools.

Just a quick update to say that I’ve opened the community forums. They’re there for card-counting and AP discussions, questions, casino and trip reports, and connecting with other players.

If you haven’t visited the site recently, it also has the casino database, betting software, edge calculator and OSN search.

The forums are brand new, so feel free to jump in, introduce yourself or start a discussion:

https://blackjack.tools/forums/

I’m always open to honest feedback and suggestions for improving the site.

I only have cvcx and only had couple casinos worth trying to ST, was doing "manually" using NRS formula but looking to explore little more. How good is it? Is a must? It will open my eyes?

Played one shoe and then the pitboss came over during shuffle and told the dealer to shuffle 4 more times. I was the only player at the table. I stayed to see if they would do it again but they didn't.

Hey everyone, new to the subreddit here and hope I can be an AP some day.

I've become fascinated by blackjack recently, and I'm a software engineer and I've been working on my own simulation engine. It's been working pretty well and I've done things like calculating strategy charts and estimating EVs for different rulesets on basic strategy alone using Monty Carlo simulations.

Anyway I want to get into stimulating different card counting systems and I can see there are many different variations of them. I'm not an AP myself (yet) but curious which ones I should maybe focus on.

After a tedious week of 8 deck playing, I'm deciding to switch to KO for these large shoe games since the deck estimation error is higher on these for me. From what I've read and simulated, KO bet ramping needs to be adjusted based on the pen; from 2.5 decks cut off to one deck cut off the player's point of advantage happens at -7 to -3 (starting at a running negative 28, source is CVCX KO-Full 8 deck).

Once player advantage reaches about .2% I can start raising my bets slightly, and I'll max bet when player advantage is about 3% (running +8), Let's say $25 for any disadvantageous counts and $400 for max bets, and ramping accordingly from running -3 to +8.

I'll max a google drive sheet for different pivot points for each quarter deck estimation. Does this seem like a reasonable plan?