Blackjack Card Counting Teams

Most card counters in blackjack go it alone: one player grinding away at the tables all day, all week for a $20 profit or so. But the really ambitious ones sometimes form card counting teams to make the work easier and more effective. Several benefits can be derived from playing with a card counting team instead of solo.

Being in a card counting team, for one, increases a player's earning potential. This is because the team members combine their bankrolls into a single team bankroll. With more money, a player can bet more money when the count is favorable, and thus earn more profits.

To assess a player's earning capacity in a card counting team, simply multiply his or her average income per hour by the number of players in the team. E.g. $25 x 5 = $125 per hour in a team of five players.

Another benefit of playing in a blackjack card counting team is that the card counter's long term advantage is sooner realized. This is because more hands are played each hour. The more hands played, the sooner the long term mathematics take effect. For the individual player, it means having to endure blows to one's bankroll much less.

Finally, playing in a blackjack team makes card counting easier since each player has less to do. A blackjack card counting team usually divides labor among its members. Some will be the card counters, others the bettors or big players. The card counters are those who keep track of the count while flat betting (minimum bet) when the count is low. When the count is good, they will not increase their bets (which would make the casino suspicious); instead they will signal to the other players, called bettors or big players who then enter the game. Pretending to be high rollers, they will bet maximum amounts until the card counters again signal to them that the count is low. Then they leave.

It is easy to see from above how blackjack card counting teams can avoid casino detection. But team members need to have complete trust in one another and there must always be a clear accounting of all player activities, losses and earnings.

The most famous card counting team of all is undoubtedly the MIT Blackjack Team, a group of young college people from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cleverly disguised, of mixed racial stock, the group evaded detection for a short time, during which it raked in millions of dollars from the casinos.

Casinos of course, have taken measures against blackjack card counting teams. Some forbid players from entering at mid-game (middle of the shoe/deck). Others allow you to join but only if you flat bet at the minimum. Still others have resorted to the dreaded continuous shuffling machines, which make card counting useless as used cards are put back into the shoe immediately.

But for those who are serious about beating casinos in their own game and want to join forces with others who have the same goal, a blackjack card counting team seems like a good idea.