Washington Student Blackjack Player Teaches Winning Blackjack Strategy

Western Uni Blackjack

Jennie Kaufman, a Western Washington University student, has a lucrative hobby: winning lots of money playing blackjack at casinos.

Kaufman began playing blackjack card games for money from the age of 18, while living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where this is actually old enough to gamble. Here, she had her greatest victory. Once she wagered $300 on a single hand, which happened to be a blackjack. She went home with $1,500 that night.

Kaufman claims she truly started enjoying the game when she was still much younger. She boasts “I’ve been playing cards since I learned how to count…. My dad taught me how to play blackjack in second grade when he was trying to teach me how to do addition.”

Kaufman had to cut down on card counting when she moved to Bellingham, Washington for university, but when Kaufman reached 21, she was finally able to begin frequenting Washington casinos a couple times per month, after her father fulfilled a promise. Kaufman elaborated “My dad promised me since I was seven years old that he would take me to [Las] Vegas when I turned 21…. I ended up winning a bunch of money. I walked away up $700.” She achieved her first Las Vegas blackjack within the Bellagio Resort and Casino, which she described as a picturesque casino filled with glamorous people.

Kaufman elaborated on her bankroll stating, “Usually I only go with money I can afford to lose…. I am going to go until I lose it all because there is always the chance to win it back. It’s a dangerous mentality but it has worked it the past. Sometimes you just have to go on your gut.” Moreover, she advises players to leave debit cards in the car. Once players find themselves winning a bundle of money, they should separately pocket that which they came with to ensure that they leave with at least so much.

Kaufman also discussed knowing when it is time to quit, declaring “The art of walking away when you are even can be difficult because sometimes you make it back or sometimes you lose all of it…. If the cards come right and you get on a streak you can’t get up and walk away. That is tempting fate; next time it might be mean to you.” Kaufman decides the deck is cooling down when she has lost three or more hands in a row.

Other blackjack players may wish to take a grain of salt with her blackjack strategy since she doesn’t always win and confesses “I would rather be lucky than good every time…. You can play what the book tells you every time and could lose every hand. There is no guarantee. Yeah, you could lose, but goddammit, you could win.”

Kaufman is now hoping a blackjack dealer school opens up in her area since she would like to become a professional blackjack croupier.