Introduction
“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Us card counters, being a fairly nerdy bunch, love to read the Great Books of our people. Beat the Dealer. Blackjack Attack. Blackbelt in Blackjack. You know, the classics.
After we burn though a few of these, we start trolling the internet forums. Maybe we start reading some blogs, or e-books. Maybe we sneak to the UNLV library to spend some time with “The Bible”. This is all well and good, it’s important to learn the craft from our peers.
But do we ever stop to think about reading things written for our enemy? You know, casino industry publications? Is it possible those goofballs on “The Dark Side” might know a thing or two?
Foolishness Springs From A Lack Of Knowledge Of The Enemy
I am convinced that much of the foolishness I read from APs comes from a near total lack of knowledge of their enemies. For example, Don Schlesinger is clearly a genius when it comes to card counting strategy and math. Yet he is so full of his own thinking, so unable to think like his enemy, that he advises card counters to throw away perhaps half or even more of their advantage on silliness like cover plays. Don knows himself, but he does not know his enemy.
(Side note: part of this is because Don, like most blackjack authors, does not make a living playing blackjack. Professionals think different than theorists. Always give substantial deference to the opinions of the professional over the theorist).
How Much Do You Know About Your Enemy?
Do you know the following:
- All of the job titles and functions of the employees at the casinos you play at?
- The pay grade of each job?
- The hierarchy of the employees?
- How casino employees are evaluated for termination or promotion?
- The methods used to protect games from advantage players?
- The motivations of most casino employees? (hint: they’re not the same as yours!)
This is just scratching the surface of knowing your enemy. There is certainly a lot more that you should learn.
But how can you possibly learn these things? Personal interviews? Asking the pit for an org chart (that might draw some heat)? No, silly! There are dozens of different publications that will just tell you this information for free, or a few bucks an issue.
There are publications for slot operations, table games, food and beverage, poker, game protection, game development, personnel, and casino management. If you want to learn more about how to beat a game and get away with it, I suggest you read them. How easy would it be to win a war when you could read your opponent’s strategies, tactics, and even where his guards are stationed.
In upcoming posts, I am going to discuss some of these publications in detail, highlighting interesting content, and discussing why you might want to consider reading each one.
Conclusion
Knowing yourself (the AP world) is a good beginning. To do this, you can read books,
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