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Question: Just what do you teach in the GTB (Golden Touch Blackjack) course?

Frank Scoblete: There are 7 elements to the course; each building on the central foundation, which is the new Speed Count, developed by the brilliant Dan Pronovost (www.HandheldBlackjack.com). Once you master the Speed Count (which you will do in just two days, it’s that easy!) you will have an edge over the casinos. Now, we add to that a new basic strategy that optimizes Speed Count (Golden Touch Basic Strategy, i.e., GTBS), which enhances your edge even more. The GTBS is the primary cover we use to throw off the casinos as to your real skill level as our basic strategy has significant differences from traditional basic strategy.

We give Entrance Strategies so that the games you play are the best ones for utilizing Speed Count and Exit Strategies so you know when to stop playing a given shoe until the next shuffle. Both Entrance and Exit Strategies will also enhance the edge you can achieve if followed precisely as we teach.

The next element is to be able to determine how to bet when the game favors you. We will show you automatic triggers that will indicate when to raise your bets, when to lower your bets, and when to stop betting altogether. These Bet-Sizing techniques will be suited to your tolerance for risk and the size of your bankroll.

Finally, we have excellent information on how to increase the value of your comps, how to get more from coupons and promotions. Those will be icing on the cake and increase your monetary edge against the casinos.

Question: Is Speed Count easy to use in shoe games?

Frank Scoblete: Yes, very easy. Speed Count does not require any of the mental gymnastics of other count systems. There is no card-by-card addition and subtraction to arrive at a running count and no division to find the true count. You never change the Golden Touch Basic Strategy. Many traditional card-counting systems are tough to employ in shoe games – Speed Count isn’t.

Question: What kind of edge can I get just by taking this course?

Frank Scoblete: Each component in the course is designed to give you an edge, either mathematically as with Speed Count, GTBS, Entrance and Exit Strategies, bet-sizing or in terms of getting the most "perks" in the form of comps and coupons, match play, etc., for your play. We believe that for comping purposes, the casinos will rate you as playing against a 2 percent house edge, as you won’t look like a savvy player. The casino will then probably return 30 to 50 percent of your expected loss in the form of comps. But since you are playing with an edge anyway, all those comps are just gravy and add to the edge that the math of GTB gives you. The edge from the math end ranges from 1/2 to 1.5 percent, give or take, depending on your bet spread, the games you play, and whether you use our GTBS, and what entrance and exit strategies you decide to impose on your playing.

If you combine what we will teach in the non-math sections regarding comps and coupons, which give you an effective monetary edge (that just means, how much the casino gives you back based on their perception of your "expected loss") and the mathematical edge of about 1 percent, you have about a 2 percent edge over the casinos – in my estimation.

Question: Can you show me in dollar figures how that edge all works out?

Frank Scoblete: I’m going to do gross approximations here, Dan has detailed figures that will be shown to you during the class but they’d take up way too much space here.

If you are a $25 player and your average bet is about $50 (because you will be raising and lowering your bets), you can expect at a six deck game with, say, three other people, to play about 60 hands an hour. If the way you play Speed Count and the GTBS is how we teach it, and your betting spread gives you a 1 percent edge, you will win about $30 per hour (on a double-deck game, all alone against the dealer, you’ll win about $55 per hour, perhaps even more). Since you should be rated as a "typical" player due to the built-in camouflage of GTBS, the casino will figure you to be playing at around a 2 percent disadvantage.

Now, based on my research I think that the casino will rate you as losing $60 per hour. They will give you back between 30 and 50 percent of that. So let’s be conservative and say the casino will give you back 40 percent. That’s $24 in comps per hour. Add that to the $30 the math gives you and your monetary expectation is about $54 per hour on a 6-deck game with three other players.

Now, we will add to that edge by showing you how to manipulate the comp system. For example, there is a technique that we will "suggest" that can give you a double comp for a meal when the casino actually intended to give you a single comp. We’ll also show you how to get and to maximize your coupons, your chances of winning drawings, when to use match play, and a host of other "tricks" that will also add to the monetary edge.

Of course, none of this is written in stone. Some will get more, some less, some will win more, some will win less. To get that 1 percent math edge, your bet spread would have to be aggressive and not all players will feel comfortable or have the bankroll to get that kind of edge. But the bottom line is that everything we will teach you will contribute to an edge over the casino.

Since we are selling a real method, and not some phony system, we can’t tell you that your edges will be in the stratosphere. They won’t be. But you will have a real edge and you will win in the long run if you do exactly what we teach you to do.

Question: Will the math be explained in a way that I can understand it?

Frank Scoblete: Yes. We will show you the various types of edges you receive with Speed Count and GTBS, etc., and you will then be able to tell what your personal expectation will be when you start playing based on your betting levels and spreads and tolerance for risk. We'll also provide a rough explanation of why Speed Count works, and the unique mathematical principle about blackjack that it leverages.

Question: Will the casinos throw me out?

Frank Scoblete: Since our method of play is quite different from other counting systems and our basic strategy is as well, and since no software programs yet exist to catch a Speed Counter, we anticipate that you will have very strong camouflage and that your chances of being "asked" to leave will be much, much less than a traditional blackjack advantage player. However, nothing is ever 100 percent certain when it comes to playing blackjack in the casinos, as we know non-advantage players who were asked to leave just because they were winning. Still, GTB offers the best possible camouflage because it doesn’t behave the way a traditional count system and basic strategy behaves.

Question: Paying $895 is a lot of money. How soon will I recoup that in the casinos?

Frank Scoblete: We can only approximate how long you will need to play to win back your tuition. The size of your bets, the games you play, your spread, how many hands per hour you play, will all contribute to your expectation. But let’s assume that you do everything just as we teach, then a $100 minimum bet player will win back his tuition on average in about 3 to 9 hours of play, again depending on the above factors. Of course, the key word in that sentence is "on average" because an individual could win it back in the first few hands if the cards come out the right way or take somewhat longer if he hits a bad streak. But the more you play with an edge, the better your chances of being ahead of the game as time rolls by.

Question: Why not just publish this in a book; why teach this in a course?

Frank Scoblete: Although there have been hundreds of blackjack books with millions of readers, a miniscule fraction of a percent of those readers ever had the discipline to learn how to get a true edge by counting cards. However, what we are teaching is so easy that if it appeared in a book, there would be millions of advantage blackjack players – and the casinos would probably screw up the game, drastically change the rules, or make all games continuous shuffle machines. We are offering this as a course so that it is learned properly in two days; and to keep the number of players who know how to get the edge to a minimum – the truly motivated who are willing to take two days out of their busy lives to learn the method.

Question: Do I have to know blackjack to take the course?

Frank Scoblete: You should know how the game is played. You do not need to know the basic strategy but you should be familiar with the various options that a player has when playing. Since we will be utilizing a new basic strategy, knowledge of the traditional strategy is not required, but helpful.

Question: How do I pay?

Frank Scoblete: You can call 1-866-WIN BJ21 and pay by credit card. Or you can write a check or money order to Frank Scoblete Enterprises, Box 783, Lynbrook, NY 11563.