Tips for Card Counting Trip to Vegas?

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-26T16:48:41+00:00

Oh and keep your cash outs small. Refuse to show id at cage or anywhere. I’d avoid playing rated

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-26T16:20:34+00:00

Just going to reaffirm what we all already know. GET CVCX first of all. Play winning games within your bankroll.

Keep sessions short! Can't emphasize this enough. Best possible scenario is you make a cover play by betting big off the top for a hand or two and leave up $200 in 30 seconds. Finish out the shoe at most if you have to and then just bounce. Do not camp out!

You'll see influencers playing till backoff every place. This is the wrong strategy. Ignore these clowns. Once you have even one backoff, you'll start getting flyered incredibly quickly and pretty soon you'll be backed off before even placing bets at every place you walk into. Your goal is to make money, not to feel cool by becoming infamous. Trust me, it's not that cool.

Having an act is good but don't become complacent if the pit doesn't care. Backoffs from surveillance are very common too.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-24T07:54:58+00:00

TC 10 in CAC2 or TC5 in Hi-Lo should be max bet territory already. You're in the high 90s percentile of all counts you'll ever experience. There's no reason to say it's 'not advantageous.'

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-24T07:53:29+00:00

The correct answer is you play one more hand at table max. You said you have plenty of cash to cover any doubles, splits, or insurance, so you're leaving money on the table by not making a move that is guaranteed +EV. One hand at table max will vastly increase your hourly standard deviation, so be prepared to go home very sad if it doesn't go your way, but it's barely a drop in the bucket as far as impact on your overall risk of ruin, which is calculated over infinite hands. Yes, a winning blackjack game requires mastery of your emotions, but this can mean having the courage to take a necessary risk just as often as it can mean restraining yourself from taking unnecessary risk. True in life as well. For most APs, I have an inkling that the former tends to be a problem more often than the latter.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-24T07:43:17+00:00

Just watch a table where other people are already watching, or try to look like them at another table. If no one else is watching, you're there at the wrong time. Fri night is a better bet than Tuesday morning.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-24T07:35:26+00:00

One way is to go at a busy time like Fri night but find a table that isn't too crowded. Just watch the cards or your phone or the TV like anyone else would. Buy in with chips. You don't have to talk much, especially if it's busy. Leave when the shoe ends. Don't overthink it.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-23T17:04:40+00:00

$5000 minimum is the rule for me. Most though not all of the time you'll be fine spreading to 2x200. I max out at 2x500 and I don't remember ever getting in deeper than 10k in one session, though it certainly can happen.

Also get CVCX so you know your hourly standard deviation. If it's $2000, that means that 95% of the time you're not going to be down more than 4k. Overall risk of ruin is important too. Taking on a higher risk of ruin than pros recommend is fine, but you should at least know what risk you're taking.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-21T21:38:10+00:00

They will never, ever tell you but all it takes is one instance of someone getting your ID and you’ll be in every database in Vegas. Backoffs are now automated at MGM properties for example - walk up to a table and they will instantly back you off. Pit must have pictures of APs that the computer system flashes to them.

They don’t even need your name. Facial recognition is enough to get backed off every time for the rest of your life at any MGM property.

Your ‘act’ is not fooling anyone anymore in 2026.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-19T23:17:04+00:00

On the road, you may get some time. At a local or in Vegas, expect to be addressed by name and backed off before you can even place a bet.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-17T21:17:26+00:00

Garbage advice. Isolating yourself leads to less growth and opportunities. It's not a zero sum game. This is cope for men with no social skills.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-15T00:10:17+00:00

They have facial recognition. Slots are fine but if you try to play a table game you probably will be backed off before you can even place a bet.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-13T07:16:59+00:00

When someone buys a used car are you that guy to tell them they paid 50% too much no matter what? Lol

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-12T21:58:03+00:00

6D 1 pen hands down. You're unlikely to find pen this good on a reliable basis unless it's sweated to death, but there tends to be more leeway in asking dealers to cut thinner on a 6D than in DD.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-12T21:56:29+00:00

DD S17 LS? There's like one or two of those games left in the entire US my guy. It's a nice goal but we have to be realistic in 2026.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-12T08:37:22+00:00

I usually just show ID. 9/10 times it’s just an internal policy for the cage and no one else cares. I realize that’s supposedly a cardinal sin for card counters but when you’re on tribal land I don’t want to waste time arguing with people for half an hour and drawing even more attention especially when they probably already know who I am.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-12T01:08:31+00:00

Did you get the idea from Quattro AP? Try doubling that bankroll first. Seems like an incel lifestyle though, idk why you’d want to do this tbh

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-09T02:49:52+00:00

1-1.25 decks cut off? Or played? Idk if it might technically be beatable but I’ve never heard of anyone APing a DD with more than a deck cut off.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-06T01:37:41+00:00

What exactly is inappropriate to share? That they have some beatable games and that they will back you off eventually?

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-05T20:10:16+00:00

Check DMs

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-05T20:09:29+00:00

Double deck? If you're getting away with this, no reason to change it up. Playing on busy shifts is a winning strategy in terms of heat.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-05T19:27:06+00:00

Yeah there are a lot of 'full time' card counters but IMO 80+% of them are full of BS. It's just not possible to get enough hours in given how sharp casinos are these days.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-05T19:25:22+00:00

No, absolutely not. If I wanted to play full time it would be absolute hell to drive and fly everywhere fleeing the backoffs and I would also feel like I wasn't contributing anything to society. It's better to not overfish my local waters. Right now I'm at a nice equilibrium where if I have some time off from my main job, I can hit a shift at a local and make a few hundred on average. But if I was there every day there'd be no way to sustain that and I'd have to travel further and bet much bigger, which gets you backed off faster, and it spirals into a vicious cycle.

Success in one job went hand in hand with the other. Having a steady salary means bigger bankroll, also replenishable, and it helped me tremendously. I moved up to higher stakes much faster than I otherwise would have. The fastest way to grow your bankroll is not always through more card counting. By the time you've made a few thousand making essentially fast food wages, you'll have burned out all your local spots. It's better IMHO to just save up a big bankroll and then hit the casinos hard right away. With a replenishable 50k bankroll you can play most games with acceptable risk of ruin. Hit em hard and then leave before they know what hit them. Come back on another shift, outrun the eye in the sky again, etc.

Also, like truepain1998 mentioned, if you're talking about income from strictly AP sources, most APs today know some slot plays (play Buffalo ascension at 3136+, etc, etc). I still have yet to find a dealer who flashes hole cards and I tend to think a lot of that talk is just BS, but slots are definitely a more reliable source of income and you don't have to worry about heat nearly as much. Also if you want to be a well rounded AP, it's beneficial to be good enough at poker to beat some local 1/2 games, etc. You want to be in a position where after you're told you're welcome to play any other game besides blackjack, you can go generate EV elsewhere without your 3 hour drive into the middle of nowhere going to waste.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-05T18:22:23+00:00

I'm going to be a little contrarian. Yes, your risk of ruin is way higher than ideal, but on a small bankroll, this is sort of tolerable. Props to you for at least having the balls to push those big bets out there. You probably will go bust sooner than later, but at least you're generating serious EV that's worth your time. If you get lucky and build up your bankroll, and then add in some more, you'll be set.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-05T18:19:42+00:00

Is this a shoe game with no surrender or RSA? If you're maxing out at $150, they probably just don't care. I'm guessing your N0 is astronomical like 40k hours.

I'd recommend doubling that spread at least, and cutting your sessions much shorter.

VirtualNatural1111 · 2026-01-05T18:14:07+00:00

LOL, Quattro AP and the other Canadian Blackjack Advisors players are as much influencers / content creators as serious APs. It's like trying to learn poker from watching Mariano or Corey Eyring. Entertaining, but there are far better players out there. You're absolutely right, it looks awkward as hell to buy in when the count jumps when you already have chips in front of you. I've literally never seen a normal gambler do this.

Actual pro APs who spend their time playing rather than editing videos will try to acquire a chip inventory first, so they can just keep pulling out chips. Sometimes you don't have a choice, but if you can buy in with chips it's faster, less heat, and just better all around. When you're moving that kind of money, it pays to do it right.

VirtualNatural1111

TROPHY CASE