Must be some kind of fluke

[EasyRhino]

Wow, I didn't do any online gaming on saturday on sunday. All of the likely candidate casinos either didn't feel like setting up any promotions, or I was waiting for cashouts from them. Part of this must have been because I played pretty hard on thursday or friday. But it's still strange, I usually have trouble keeping up with just the spam in my inbox.

Of course, that didn't stop me from hitting up some of the B&M indian casinos and losing a couple hundred bucks. Stupid "card-counting".

[frank_b]

This thing just doesn't work, unless you're some kind of a mathematical genius!

If you wanna have a bit more chance at beating the casino, try NOT playing - that's a 100% money back guarantee

Now seriously, so far I didn't find ANY method that can surely give you an advantage over the house. The house always win, and the question is - how much are you willing to give.

[winbig]

The house always win, and the question is - how much are you willing to give.

Amen to that. I always leave the CC's, debit cards, checkbook, extra cash, spare change, title to the house, title to the car, kids, wife, pets, and anything else valuable at home when I go to a B&M casino.

[amatrine]

LOL Agreed! I wont take anything but cash and my ID in case I win I forgot the ID once and hit the top jackpot ona machine and had to call my husband to drive it down to me,lol

AMa

[aka23]

This thing just doesn't work, unless you're some kind of a mathematical genius!

You certainly don't need to be a mathematical genius for a basic card counting system, such as high/low. Just about anyone can do this with enough practice. However, it certainly won't be like Rainman either. You might gain an edge of ~1% on the house. If you are patient, then you could go a few percent above this. Variance is huge compared to an edge of this size. Over the short term, you may win or lose quite a bit.

If you wanna have a bit more chance at beating the casino, try NOT playing - that's a 100% money back guarantee

Now seriously, so far I didn't find ANY method that can surely give you an advantage over the house. The house always win, and the question is - how much are you willing to give.

Try playing with bounses. If you reduce you make your bet size small enough, you can have a 99+% chance of making a gain with some bonuses. If you can find a casino that allows bets on all outcomes (for example bet on both player and banker in baccarat), then you could increase this to 100% chance of making a gain.

[EasyRhino]

The best way I can describe card counting is, it's not difficult, but it is hard. It's really just low level rote arithmetic, done while playing. What you need is practice to build up speed and stamina so you can do it in a casino environment. For an idea of what it takes to get started, there's a quickstart here for the basic system that I use:
http://www.koblackjack.com/K-O_Rookie_System.html

However, at the level I'm doing it, card-counting is nearly a joke. Self-imposed bankroll constraints limit my max bets to $50, and at that level, playing six deck games, it's barely profitable over the long run. Plus, I do occassionally tip dealers, which probably makes me break-even at best. So I'm really just in it for the comped meals

And when playing on days like yesterday, when the cash is just slipping away from my wallet, I had to stop and ask myself "am I steaming?". And while I was indeed tired, and pretty annoyed, my counting skills still seemed as good, I was still betting the same, and if anything, I got more rigorous on avoiding negative counts of games. Of course, it didn't help me win anything, and I dropped $250 for the weekend.

Contrast that with online casinos this Monday evening, when I attacked four casino casino bonuses (those emails finally hit my inbox). Note that instead of the conservative strategy that aka mentions, I play bonuses really aggressively, so this evening was marked by a few minutes of sheer insanity, followed by about 1000 hands of blackjack, and winnings of about $500 (which was a couple hundred better than expected value)