Must Reads for the Professional Blackjack Player
Thinking of playing blackjack professionally? The first thing you need is $5,000 that you can comfortably lose without getting kicked out of your home, starving, or generally harassed by your credit card company. You will need this money to play the $5 dollar tables over a period of time, and since it is still a casino game, you have to be willing to take a few losing streaks without going into panic mode.So let’s say you have the money. But do you have the skills? More or less, if you’re thinking of playing professionally, you’ve won a couple of games and feel confident enough to “go big time”. But remember, blackjack attracts some of the best players in the world, and yet not everyone walks away a millionaire. Being “good enough” is still a big step from “making good money on sheer skill”. That’s why you need to develop your blackjack techniques, more so when this month’s rent is on the line. So before you take the leap, here are some books you should read. The first is Ken Uston’s classic, “Ken Uston on Blackjack”. Uston knows what he’s talking about, having made a science out of card counting (and then took that knowledge to earn millions of dollars). He’s a blackjack guru, and his experience alone makes him a credible and essential authority. Uston also knows how to write and tell a story, and the book is in fact a very interesting read. You’d expect a how-to on training teams would be dull reading, but he tells it with such great humor and style that you actually feel disappointed when the chapter ends. Even his piece on battling it out in the courts is fun, considering that it deals with something as dry as the constitution.
“Knockout Blackjack: The Easiest Card-Counting System Ever Devised” may not be quite the page turner that Uston’s book is, but it’s very useful and contains some strategies that will really help you beat the system. It’s considered a classic text, and was written in the 70’s (an updated edition was released in 1994). The book targets card counters who have just started and would like something simple yet effective. There are chapters that discuss the Hi/Low count, the most commonly used system for counting to date. Of course, as a beginner’s guide, “Knockout Blackjack: The Easiest Card-Counting System Ever Devised” does not always lead to big pots, but many pros have accepted the reduced earnings of this system for the ease of use and reduced error rate. After all if you play professionally you will have days when you suffer from mental exhaustion. This system lets you take the game down a notch and enjoy while still slugging it out at the casino table.
Another important read is “ Blackjack For Blood: The Card-Counters’ Bible, and Complete Winning Guide”. It contains the Advanced Omega II system which is known for having outperformed other strategies and leading to big, big, big earnings. However, be ready to practice the game and memorize a lot of things. You’ll need to really focus on the game and take the book’s lessons and suggestions very seriously to succeed at a professional blackjack career.
Written by The Blackjack Advisor on July 24th, 2006 with
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