I won’t lie to you: the margins are thin at professional blackjack. When people first start researching card counting, they think it’s going to be a get-rich-quick scheme where they spend a couple hours learning the magic formula and then go collect their riches at the tables. You could read a book on your flight to Vegas and probably understand the concepts behind card counting, but it takes much more than that to be successful at it. Nearly 10 years after starting my career as a professional card counter, I’ve played thousands of hours, winning more money than I ever thought I’d make in my entire lifetime. Our success came from obsessing over the details. Here are five tips I give every card counter (beginner to seasoned professional) to increase their expected value.

1. REMOVE ALL MISTAKES!

Before you roll your eyes at me, hear me out. I have yet to find a card counter who does not make mistakes, me included. We aren’t computers. Some of these mistakes are unavoidable flubs. "Whoops, I just waived to ‘hit’ when I meant to signal ‘stay’." It’s happened to the best of us. However, we’ve found that not all of these mistakes are infrequent, unavoidable snafus. Some mistakes are systematic flaws. I’ve trained individuals who have gone on to take over a million dollars from casinos, yet they have let one or two weaknesses sneak into their game. For example, one student busted his hand, and he got lazy about catching the dealer’s undercard so now his count is off. His deck estimation is off by a quarter deck, meaning he’s under-betting several hands per shoe. While dealing to him, I was able to pull off a sneaky miss-pay. (Dealer’s aren’t computers either so they make mistakes, sometimes in casino’s favor. If you miss one of these per session that could negate your entire advantage.) If he would have fixed these mistakes a year ago, he might have won $1.2M instead of $1 Million. Before you think, you’re too good to have your game evaluated, get together with a fellow card counter, and deal to each other. Make it a competition. Whoever makes the most mistakes has to buy the other guy or gal dinner. I guarantee this will improve your blackjack game.

2. Avoid Negative EV Whenever Possible.

For every true -2, you need a true 3 to have the equivalent positive advantage. This became an obsession for us. We started our careers in the tiny card rooms in the Seattle area. There would be one blackjack table to play, so you couldn’t just move to another table if the count went south. Instead, we would casually sit out hands whenever it was negative, "catching up on the sports scores," while continuing to count down the shoe. Once the count was positive again, it was time to "help out the table" by jumping back in. It’s important to remember that, just like every positive round played is money made (positive EV generated), every negative round avoided is money saved (negative EV avoided). You make money at blackjack by saving pennies and making pennies each round. You add it up and your expectation can be hundreds or even thousands per hour, but the game is beaten pennies at a time. At least that’s how we trained players to think.

3. Increase your....