We bought it, we used it, we won with it (see details on our test of slot online below) and we recommend it.
If you don’t want to spend hundreds of hours learning to be an expert card counter (which is also a winning system if the casino’s don’t catch you!), you need to try George Papadopolous “Blackjack’s Hidden Secrets” method, which claims you can win 78% of the time without card counting.
How is this? If you’ve browsed around the Blackjack For Everyone site, you know by now that Basic Strategy will reduce the casino’s edge to around .5%. But the casino still has an edge. So how can Mr. Papadopolous system, which uses only Basic Strategy no card counting – claim to win more often than losing?
It’s really very simple. He stresses five rules:
Why are these rules important? Because if you just use Basic Strategy, blindly enter a game, make flat (same amount) bets on every hand and keep playing, win or lose, you will eventually lose the equivalent of the casino’s half percent edge. This is a statistical and irrefutable fact that no system can overcome. However, with intelligent betting, the discipline to not push your wins or your losses, and paying at least general attention to whether or not favorable cards are being dealt before joining a table, you greatly increase the chance that you’ll have a winning session.
The author gives very simple and clear-cut guidelines to follow for each rule (it only takes about two hours to learn the system thoroughly). If you follow them this is where the discipline comes in there is a high likelihood that you will have more winning sessions than losing sessions (we did see our results below).
The real secrets lie in three areas:
- A unique way to determine the trend of the table before joining in.
- A unique and unorthodox betting method (the one we’ve never seen before).
- Very focused rules on when to quit when you are winning and even more important when you are losing.
Along with all this, the system essentially is a Basic Strategy system. It simply shows you how to use Basic Strategy in a disciplined manner and how to take advantage of the softer, more subjective elements of the game. As a result, you’ll have a better chance of joining a hot table, you’ll use a conservative betting system, and you’ll learn when to quit to maximize your winnings and minimize your losses. When you combine this with playing perfect Basic Strategy, which is also explained, you stand a very good chance of winning even without card counting.
- Number of sessions played: 13, with anywhere from 15 hands to 125 hands played per session (the 15 hand session was three consecutive bad shoes in a row that we left early per the system’s rules).
- Type of game: 6 deck shoe with favorable rules (dealer stands on 17, double any two cards, double after split).
Note that 8 wins out of 13 are 62%, not the 78% that Mr. Papanopolous says is possible, although 13 sessions is a very small sample.
While our results were very good, we’re reluctant to agree that you will win 78% of the time. A more reasonable statement is that you have a very good chance of achieving more winning sessions than losing sessions. All we can offer at this point is the above results of our test.
Note: in the interest of full disclosure, we have to insert a note here and tell you we made a couple of tweaks to this system before we used it, which we feel makes it more conservative and thus more likely to win. Please see the Caveats” section at the end of this page for details
Discipline, money management, knowing how to tell when a table is hot, and playing perfect Basic Strategy. These are the basic elements of this method. Unlike many of the systems being marketed that casinos supposedly fear, George Papadopoulos simple and easy to learn system really does teach you how to increase your odds of winning at Blackjack without card counting.
Also, unlike many other Blackjack systems, George Papadopolous is a well-known author and public speaker. He certainly doesn’t hide behind an anonymous web site!
Do yourself a favor and get a copy of “Blackjack’s Hidden Secrets”. The price is ridiculously low far lower than any other system on the market (less than $15 really!).
Caveats To Using This System
We mentioned above that we made some changes to this system before using it.
First, we tweaked the method for “reading the table” to increase the likelihood that the cards really are favorable to the player.
Second, we changed the “loss limit” to be more conservative and thus stop losses earlier.
Third, we modified the betting system a bit to make it more conservative.
We feel these changes increase your chances of having a winning session. They do not in any way change the theory behind the system, but you’ll have to judge for yourself whether these are better than the author’s recommended rules.
We don’t want to reveal our exact changes here because to do so would require explaining the entire system – and that’s not fair to the author. However, if you purchase the system from our site, we’ll be more than happy to send you our changes at no charge. Simply email us at the address on our contact page.
We want to point out that Mr. Papadololous says his system will win “78% of the time”.
What he means is that you’ll end up a net winner 78% of the sessions that you play, not win 78% of your bets. Big difference.
If you win more sessions than you lose, but your total dollar losses are larger than your total dollar winnings, all sessions combined, then you’ll still end up a net loser even though you won more sessions than you lost.
This is why we tweaked the “loss limit” portion of this system. By doing so, we believe we increase the chance of having a net win, all playing sessions combined.
This is still a great system for the non-card counting Basic Strategy player. We can’t guarantee that you will win more money than you will lose – as we did – but it gives you a fighting chance and is extremely easy to learn.
