The Blackjack Page

An Introduction to Team Play

What I'll cover this time are some of the advantages and disadvantages of team play, particularly from a beginner's point of view, like you the counter and a few friends who do not count. I can honestly say that in my personal experience, the most $$$ I ever made at the game came from team play. If you really want to “kill” the casinos, team play at Blackjack is a great way to do it.

We have to keep in mind the fact that most casinos are aware, at least in a general sense, of how BJ teams operate and many have taken steps to try and defeat these teams. But in reality, all they’re able to do is cut a good team’s hourly earnings somewhat; there’s very little they can do to stop a well-trained, experienced team from winning in the long run, short of identifying who the team members are and then subsequently barring them from the premises. Sure, they can catch the “amateur” team and teams with known counters on them, but if you’ll follow my advice through this series, there’s very little chance you’ll get barred unless you really screw up.

By the way, all of what I’ll talk about here is legal in U.S. casinos, but I cannot say that’s true for every casino in the world; I just don’t know, so guide yourself accordingly. Yes, a U.S.-based casino might throw you out, but I’m not aware of anyone who has ever been successfully prosecuted in a court of law for what I’m going to teach you. Now, if you’re playing in Russia or some other country I cannot guarantee that this is true. Here’s my disclaimer: Those who act on this advice do so at their own risk.

The primary advantage of team play is how it multiplies the power of your bankroll. If you, as a lone counter, have a $3000 bankroll then reasonable money-management principles dictate that your top bet should be no more than $60 or two percent of the total. But, if you have two friends who also have $3000 bankrolls and you create a $9000 team bankroll, all three of you can play with a $180 top bet, which is two percent of the total and the team’s “risk of ruin” will still be the same. It’s as though you each had a $9000 bankroll. This works because a team gets to that famous “long-term” quicker. Playing as individuals off a combined bank has a tendency to smooth out some of the inherent variance of the game; you might have a losing session, but your teammates may make up for it. There’s nothing fancy about this type of play; you all play as individuals at different tables and then each shares equally in the resulting profit or loss. Not only can you bet more as a team, you’ll also be multiplying your hours of play, so even though you will split the profits three ways, you’ll ultimately make more $$$ from your effort. There are a lot more advantages to team play, which I’ll cover in future articles, but for now, let’s talk about how to form a team.

Blackjack team play in general requires three main factors (besides money, of course) in order to succeed. They are:

Honesty – While a team may be able to get a bigger-than-normal edge over the casino, that edge will seldom be large enough to overcome theft or other dishonest actions by members of the team.
Trust in each other’s skill – Simply put, if the members of your team are not skilled at their assigned task, which is usually counting the cards and betting properly, then your team will probably fail.
Game selection – If your team does not play games where it’s possible to gain a long-term edge of at least 1.25%, it will probably fail.

Honesty

A long time ago, I learned this fact: People are funny about money. I can almost guarantee that the biggest argument your team will ever have will be about money and it works both ways; you’ll have too little or you’ll have too much. Yes, too much money can be a problem at times (believe it or not), but most money problems from the losing side can be eliminated by following one simple procedure: “grow your own.” No, you don’t grow your own money, but you should “grow” your own team. Teams composed of players who all have an affinity with one another outside of Blackjack – relatives, good friends, co-workers, neighbors, etc. – will usually be much more successful because your relationships are typically built on something more important than money, like trust or love or at least familiarity with one another outside the BJ arena.

Of course, your friends, lover(s), spouse, co-workers or neighbors probably aren’t card counters, so you’ll need to teach them. That’s what I mean by “grow your own.” There’s no need for you to all of a sudden become a Blackjack guru. Just point them to my site and they’ll find lessons posted there at no cost for all the world to see. The best way to go through this process is to schedule regular team meetings and do a group study thing. It’ll only take about 8 to 10 hours for the average person to learn how to count the cards; that’s just two hours per week for a month to six weeks. Once they learn the basics of counting the real work begins, but if you can do most of your training together, the team dynamics will start to take hold and you’ll be amazed at how quickly everyone’s skills will develop. The fast learners can help the slower ones and there’s nothing quite like a little friendly competition to motivate everyone. Before you know it, you’ll have a group of good counters – not great counters - but good counters. Practice like I’ll describe below will eventually make them great; it’s just a matter of time. And, if all goes well, they’ll be honest counters.

Trust in each other’s skill

Everyone on the team has to know that everyone else can perform at some minimum level of skill, like the ability to accurately count down a single deck of cards in less than 20 seconds, plus other criteria I’ve placed in my lessons. You’ll find the goals established there are challenging, but absolutely necessary for successful play in the casinos. Group training sessions create group confidence and group confidence will come in handy when one member of the team starts losing like crazy. It happens; there’s just no way around it. Losing is easier to deal with when everyone knows their teammate is competent and it’s just standard deviation raising its ugly head, not theft or dishonesty (like over-betting, not following the team’s procedures for leaving on negative counts, etc.) Your team must, as I wrote about in my first column here, “know that they know.”

Game Selection

While team play can be a very powerful tactic in the fight to remove $$$ from the casinos, your joint effort will be in vain if the games you play aren’t “beatable.” There are a lot of bad games out there, especially 6- or 8-deck games where the dealer hits soft 17. Combine that with poor penetration (less than 75%) and it’s very tough to get an edge if each team member is playing as an individual at a separate table. For the most part, such a game can be beaten only by a team where all but one of the team members sit at separate tables and “call in” the other player when the count is favorable. This is known as the “Big Player” (BP) strategy and it can be very effective if the casino will allow you to use it. Earlier, I mentioned that casinos have set up some barriers to successful team play and their primary target is the BP. They do this by restricting or disallowing bets by anyone who comes to the table after the first round has been dealt from a freshly-shuffled shoe. This so-called “no mid-shoe entry” (nms) rule brings the BP strategy to a screeching halt, but it’s not out there at every casino and it doesn’t stop a team from playing as individuals off a combined bankroll. So, if you’re not able to use the BP strategy, you will need to find a good game for your team to attack.

A Little Money Making Trick

If your local casino does not restrict mid-shoe entry and you have a friend who does not count or maybe doesn’t even play Blackjack regularly, then use that friend as a Big Player two or three times in your session. Just give him or her some $$$ and when the count gets good, call in your friend to the table by way of some sort of non-verbal signal (standing up and scratching your back, for example), where s/he will make a bet in the amount you previously specified. You can then tell your friend how to play the hand – hit, stand, split or double – through other non-verbal signals that you worked out beforehand. If the count stays up, have your friend place another bet and proceed as before. If the count drops, give another signal to tell him or her to walk away. It’s okay for you both to acknowledge that you know each other – it just looks like your friend stopped by to see how you were doing and s/he “took a shot”, just like so many gamblers out there do. While any one particular hand can be won or lost regardless of the count, I’ve found that using this method of play a few times in a one- or two-hour session seems very natural to the “pit critters” and can often produce the $$$ for a good dinner.

Next time I’ll go into the money management principles for team play.

See you then.

Every month, I'll be posting an article which will, I hope, make you a better Blackjack player. Naturally, the question follows: Just who am I to say I can make you a better player? My background in Blackjack began in Atlantic City in 1978 where I learned, by attending a four-session school, how to count cards. That lead to considerable involvement with Blackjack teams and travel to a lot of places to take the casinos' money. After the liberal rules in Atlantic City were dumped by the casinos, my Blackjack-playing days went dormant for some time. I'd do the occasional trip to Reno or Las Vegas, but it wasn't until casino gaming came to Missouri in 1994 that I got back into Blackjack with both feet. Now I live close to 6 casinos, can play as much as I want and can tell you - with first-hand experience - how to play winning Blackjack.

I can't promise that all of you will become winners from what I write here, but I can promise that, in time, everything I know about how to beat the game will appear on this page. How much of my advice you embrace is entirely up to you. I realize that few people are willing to put in the time, effort and money that it takes to beat this game and that's probably a good thing, because if all of you did what I do, there wouldn't be any Blackjack games in casinos.So, whether you just want to stick your toe in the water, or plunge in headfirst, welcome to my world.

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