My first time at the table
Hi everyone, I'd like to share my first time experience. Sorry for the wall text.
I was never interested in casinos outside of movies, but early this year a friend took me to one near home, and from there a certain interest developed. I went back last month, out of curiosity, without playing, just to watch the rules of the games, and I ran into a coworker who was returning for the first time after a 6 month ban. I stay with him while he bets €250 (I live in south EU) and I see live blackjack for the first time. Over 4 hours, through ups and downs and buckets of sweat, he manages to double up. He buys me a drink and explains he uses basic strategy. He tells me about his experiences (it was his mother who had him banned from every casino in the country because he had become an addict), sends me a chart, and from there, for me, it's the beginning of something new. I practice a ton at home, alone, and then discover the world of card counting. I dive in, also with the help of ai, but it's too complicated to follow everything, so I tell myself I need to get experience with basic strategy first and last night, finally, I decide to go for it.
A note: I have 10 years of experience as a trader, and last year decided to quit because it wasn't bringing in anything financially, but I'm still grateful for it because I learned a lot about emotional management. If there's one thing I enjoy, it's controlling emotions: the ability to stay cool under pressure and make the right decisions because you can see "further ahead." At work I've always stood out for exactly this reasons: in the most delicate moments, others would get overwhelmed while I stayed calm and focused.
So back to last night: I grab a cocktail to relax and jump in with €150, flat bet to min allowed (10€). The table rules are the standard ones: S17, DAS (except with aces, where you get one card and stop), surrender, no OBO (you lose all chips if you double or split), medium-low penetration (the cut card is randomly placed between 50%, saw it once the whole evening, and 80%), 6 decks and 5 burn cards after the shuffle (when dealers rotate they don't draw additional burn cards). It's a small local casino, the atmosphere is relaxed and the dealers are friendly.
To keep it short: I felt in control when I was playing by basic strategy, and the chips grew accordingly but when my brain stalled because I didn't remember the chart well and didn't know what to do, the chips dropped. In about two and a half hours I doubled my chips, left a small tip, thanked the croupier team, cashed out, and walked out. I could have kept going because I wasn't tired, on the contrary, I was ready for another game but doubling up is already a great result for a first time, and besides that, I went more to take the first step and see how it'd go than to make money.
I enjoyed it a lot: the emotional management, the composure when you watch your chips shrink, the general atmosphere.. and I'll definitely go back with those €150 won. But first I need to sharpen my basic strategy. I know about 90–95% of it, I still need to memorize some soft hands, some pairs, and the surrenders. I'll admit it's as if they don't exist for me, when things get tough I'm a battering ram, the concept of retreating/surrender is hard to grasp not just in blackjack but in life in general. I need to work on that.
Anyway, all this to say: I'm one of you now. I know it was just the beginner's luck, that with basic strategy alone you don't profit long-term because the house edge stays around 0.5%, and so I shouldn't get any ideas. Fair enough, but I still think it's not a bad start.
Now I have a question. Only today I found out that they play the ENHC version here, and this changes some surrender decisions. I downloaded the correct chart from Blackjack Apprenticeship and started memorizing it. I then discovered the Archer count (also called the one-two count or the ten count: A to 9 +1, T -2, IRC -4*numbers of decks) which is great for insurance, the count itself is simple enough and I can handle it. However, how do I integrate it with ENHC? If the count is positive, should I surrender or take insurance?
Thanks to anyone who had the patience to read this entire wall of text