People online think that I have great disdain for card counters. That isn’t true, per se. I have disdain for posers, and it just so happens that almost everyone who brags on YouTube about counting cards, or who claims online to be a “blackjack expert,” is a poser. My respect for the late “MathProf” (Dr. Michael Canjar) went up greatly when I saw him wearing his cargo pants, anonymously blasting 2x$800 on the double-deck at the Atlantis in Reno. One of my teammates had an interesting encounter in the wild with the late Peter Griffin. When someone is out there, putting cold, hard cash on the felt, and consequently growing the chip inventory on the kitchen table, that’s instant credibility in my eyes.
As Tommy Hyland wrote in the Foreword to Colin Jones’s The 21st-Century Card Counter, “the guy walks the walk.” I haven’t encountered Colin in the wild (yet), but I know Tommy is right on this one. It’s easy to talk the talk online, on Green Chip, or the Discord, and sound uber-smart, and knowledgeable about counting and all kinds of advanced plays, but the talk rings hollow if you try to get it past an actual practitioner. I can’t read 10 posts on any online forum without getting the urge to rant, but I resist that urge and refocus my chi.
When I picked up Colin’s book, I half-expected to dog-ear every other page and start a dozen different online threads debating and debunking all sorts of topics. For most blackjack books that hit the scene, I typically find material that is either uninformed (author is not an actual practitioner of the AP technique described), obsolete (written for a Vegas-centric world before extensive surveillance, player cards, beyond-counting opportunities, and proliferation of casinos), irrelevant (dozens of pages charting a random walk … really?), exaggerated (we won $10 million in three days counting the positive-off-the-top game in Panama with a $30 table max), or boring (telling me that you won $36.50 in a 10-minute session in Wendover one night is the kind of thing that should be kept in a private diary, emphasis on “private”).
Expecting fingernails on a chalkboard, I can’t even bring myself to read most AP books, or watch most AP movies, without having a teammate taste-test them first. I always ask my teammates, “Am I going to vomit?” They usually answer, “Maybe.” So I still haven’t seen Holy Rollers, but I did pick up Colin’s book, with some trepidation, primarily fearing some exaggeration or misleading view of the AP landscape that might promote bad habits that are “counter”-productive, but which are counterproductive to aspiring career APs.
When Rounders came out, my BP and I literally high-fived each other during the opening scene, when Mikey grabs up wads of cash and sneaks out to go hit a game while his girlfriend is sleeping. The scene so poignantly captured our own AP experience that we felt immediately engaged, and knew that this movie would speak to us, and entertain.
So it was after the first few pages of Colin’s book. I think it was page 10 when I announced, “Gentlemen, hats off!” I had to put the book down to clap (which is basically giving high fives to myself). You see, when you go online, you get expert advice like, “Flooring is the best way to generate indexes for a count system. The software offers truncating and rounding as well, but flooring is recommended.” But on page 10 of Colin’s book, you get: “zippered pockets.” I have been ranting to teammates for decades about this. At times I even pondering refusing to play with BPs until they got the proper work attire with zippered pockets.
Zippered pockets don’t just protect your casino valuables—cash, chips, phone. Zippered pockets give you peace of mind. Later, when you’re $500 short of what you expected, you and your teammates will know that it isn’t because a purple chip fell out of your pocket. I go on tilt when I see a teammate slouching, with an unzipped pocket gaping towards the floor.
Right now, online posers are wondering if I’m being sarcastic, and thinking perhaps I’m belittling Colin’s book with some backhanded irony by exaggerating a trifle. Real pros know that I’m dead serious. Details like “zippered pockets” cut deep. The fact that Colin as a player appreciated the benefit of ZPs, and as an author felt it important enough to mention, tells me that he knows more about what moves the needle for a real pro than all the fifth-decimal-point online guys ever will.
Colin hammers the topic further (on p. 190): “I’ve been on teams with several people who have physically lost a portion of their bankroll. Every time it happened, it involved something that could have been avoided.” Amen, brother.
In a related example of the physical handling of the money, he gives great advice on traveling with cash, reaching the inevitable, one-sentence conclusion: “I never again used banks to transport money for a trip.” [Part of the allure of cryptos is that banks are super-annoying, even when you want your own money.]
While many books, like Knock-out Blackjack (solid system!), focus on the technical aspects of counting and take pragmatic execution for granted, Colin’s book is the opposite. He doesn’t delve into the technical aspects of what the tags and indices are for a count system. Instead he covers that stuff using online videos, software tools, and optional in-person meet-ups (you can mingle at christiancounters.com). Computer-adaptive testing is by far the best-way to learn the basics cheaply, and no book can have all the charts you’d want, so Colin’s book doesn’t even go there.
Newbies online obsess over the EV they lost by misplaying a hand. They repeatedly ask whether they are supposed to split 88 or surrender, and whether ENHC changes things. While a pro is expected to master such technical aspects, these details are rarely the focus of working pros. If you’re trying to grind out the rent money, not having cash available for a playing trip because you naively tried to use a bank hurts your EV more than a few hundred misplayed hands.
For The Theory of Blackjack, by the great Peter Griffin, my 2-second review is, “I think I might be learning something here, but the title is apt, … yawn.” On Million Dollar Blackjack, by the flamboyant Ken Uston: “Informative, useful, entertaining, but this stuff about signaling big-stiff/little-stiff … naw.” On Steve Forte’s collection: “Wow, does this affect me???” On Exhibit CAA: “Does this guy really expect me to use these charts?”
But with Colin’s book, I quite unexpectedly found myself just nodding, circling passages and putting exclamation points in the margin, and just thinking, “Yup, yup, uh-huh, yeah, true, true, true that, been there, oooh, yeah, that’s the spot, nailed it right there!”
I didn’t agree with 100% of what’s in there, but I’ll chalk up the few disagreements to my own different playing style and longer-term goals. I think any veteran would be entertained by the book, while any newbie thinking of taking things to the next level would get critical insight into how this gig actually works.
[Next: Will Colin be playing the title character in Season 6 of Lucifer?]
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Long story short – – yes, he’s real. But, much thanks for the color.
And, I have different ideas about who should replace Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar.
“Inside zippered pockets” are much better.
This fella knows whereof he speaks. I’ve often said that casinos love “supposed’ “card counters” so much they might one day put in a special ” card counters” VIP room. Self-described counters lose more money than drunken sailors on payday playing with free money.
Amused that the term “salamander” appears nowhere in this piece.
Now that I’m fully vaccinated and vegas is too hot, I think I’ll go north on a road trip and pack three times as many cargo shorts as I think I need.
You blog would have been more useful if you listed a few places where we can find zippered pockets, rather than velcro.
Re Colin’s book, my +EV play was taking it out from the library. I agree, it was an easy and entertaining read.
Is there any functional difference between velcro and zippers? Velcro pockets in cargo shorts seem pretty safe. The buttoned breast pockets in my shirts seem pretty safe too although a button is not as good as velcro/zipper. A button is inadequate protection for a pants pocket but seems ok for a breast pocket. The only times I lost chips were from pants pockets that had none of the above.
“Your blog would have been more useful if you listed a few places where we can find zippered pockets, rather than velcro.“
By “useful” you mean you’re too inept, lazy, or otherwise to do your own research so you want a handout instead? The most successful APs do their own research and are glad they did it.
Congratulations on saving $20 – and losing likely at least 20 minutes of your life – getting the book from the library. Your apparent low bankroll, low value of your time, and unwillingness to do your own research make me think that you’re not one of the new generation of players looking to evolve beyond counting that OP mentions in his next post and says he’s ready to compete with.
Pretty sure wqforme was being tongue-in-cheek with his original comment! But I appreciate the point about being penny-wise-pound-foolish. Trying to save a few dollars but using up potential game time is a false savings indeed.
Of course time = game time, in your judgment. Heh.
I was playing blackjack a few weeks ago. I had a strange feeling around my ankle and then noticed a purple chip under my chair. I realized chips were falling out of my pocket and through my pants. There was a hole in the lining of the pocket. I put the rest of the chips in another pocket. Thankfully I knew how many chips I had and counted it later and none were missing. Those pants went in the trash later.
I recently had my first close call with losing money out of my pocket. I usually wear pants or shorts with lots of pockets and either velcro or zippers. I have one pair of pants that are like cargo pants but have about 10 pockets and 6 of them have zippers. They do occasionally set off the metal detector at airports.
This particular Sunday, we were going to our local casino after church and I had on a pair of dress pants. The pockets were deep enough and I thought they would be fine. After playing on 3 different machines in about 25 minutes, I called my wife and as I usually do , I check to make sure I have everything; cell phone, slot club cards, money, notepad. This time, I didn’t have my money clip. I use a metal money clip and have the lowest denomination bills to the outside. I checked my pockets 3 times, looked down at the chair I was using and around the vp machine I was playing. Nothing. I went back to the other two machines I was playing ( which were nearby) and nothing. I go back to the last machine I was playing and look around in back of the chair and lo and behold, my money was resting on the circular base of the chair, at the furthest point from the machine. I picked up my cash and breathed a sigh of relief.
I believe I recovered my money because a) the casino was pretty empty on Sunday morning, b) due to frequent checking of my pockets ( my wife refers to it as doing the Macarena) and c) immediately checking all of the places that I played.
I think what happened is that I put my cell phone in the same pocket as my money and when I took it out to call my wife, the money fell out. This happened again a week later at a family event ( with the same pants) so that is certainly a possibility. Or it could have fallen out as I sat down, I don’t know. Anyway, that would be a horrible way to lose a significant amount of money.
Lesson learned from this experience:
If your casino routine changes ( different pants in this case) be extra careful. I find that I make mistakes when either my routine changes or I am distracted by something in the casino.
Other things to keep in mind:
1) Vecro is good, zippers are better. Vecro does wear out but zippers dont.
2) Frequent checking to make sure you have everything may seem neurotic, but if you can minimize the time between when you lose something and when you realize it, you increase the chances for recovery.
3) If you find yourself hurrying ( to meet someone, get to a different casino, etc.) you increase your chances for mistakes.
You can be assured that I will not be wearing that particular pair of pants to the casino anymore.
Macarena–that’s a good one! I do it too when I’m making sure I have my phone. Pat the right front, left front, right butt, left butt, right breast, left breast, sigh of relief …
The phone problem is bad–many cases for smartphones create an effective lip around what would otherwise be the smooth surface of a phone, and that lip can catch an ID or credit card and very neatly pull the card out of your pocket when you pull the phone out, so really important to not put the phone in the same pocket as that stuff!
“Colin hammers the topic further (on p. 190): “I’ve been on teams with several people who have physically lost a portion of their bankroll. Every time it happened, it involved something that could have been avoided.” Amen, brother.”
People only lose their cash because they want to. Every time it happened it seems like Colin was getting a different EXCUSE from team members. Losing cash is a no-brainer. Accidents and excuses are like @ssholes and everybody’s got one. Hearing the different card counting team stories on GWAE I have come to realize that there is stealing that goes on between blackjack team members because they have dishonest teammates who are only thinking about themselves. When I hear such stories I only think, who is vetting the people who are stealing from the team? I love hearing horror stories when high stakes gambling is involved.