If you learn the basic strategies described in this site, learn to count cards and to alter your bets according to the count, study these principles carefully, and practice at home until you feel confident about handling any playing situation, you can beat the blackjack tables at any American casino. You can't expect to win thousands of dollars at one time, for twenty-one isn't that kind of game. You will have to strike when the deck is favorable and only then. Doing that, with a $20 neutral bet, you can expect to win about $200 a day if you devote three hours to the game each day:

You won't always win, and you won't win that exact amount, of course, but over a period of time you'll be able to average that kind of money. You might think to yourself what’s $200? After all, you've seen players winning thousands at the table (on very rare occasions) and how is $200 going to make any difference in your life?

Here's how. we've had pupils who studied the game under my supervision, and then decided to play it on a professional basis. Winnings of $200 a day, if the game is played 250 days a year, add up to $50,000. And this is a $20 game, not a really big game by casino personnel, and there's little chance of getting barred. And what's wrong with $50,000 a year for a few hours work five days a week and one hundred days off a year? If you think that way and put the whole picture into perspective, it makes all the difference in the world.

But few are able to do this. They get greedy at the tables, and, when winning, raise their bets to incredible heights, trying to take advantage of one good rush, one winning streak, to empty out the table's trays in one fell swoop-and end up not only losing it all back, but being barred in the process.