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Repeat Until Rich: A Professional Card Counter's Chronicle of the Blackjack Wars
A deliciously wry, edge-of-the-seat memoir of making a fortune with card counters across a wide swath of blackjack in America.
At twenty-four, Josh Axelrad held down a respectable and ominously dull job on Wall Street. Adventure was a tuna fish sandwich instead of the usual turkey for lunch. Then one night, a stranger at a cocktail party persuaded him to leave the nine-to-five behind and pursue an unlikely the jackpot. The stranger was a blackjack card counter, and he sold Axelrad on the vision of Vegas with all its intrigue, adventure- and cash.
Repeat Until Rich is Axelrad's taut, atmospheric, and darkly hilarious account of ditching the mundane and entering the alternative universe of professional blackjack. Axelrad has one thing in common with his Jon Roth, the leader and a former options trader; Neal Matcha, a recovering lawyer; Aldous Kaufman, a retired math Ph.D. candidate. They all thrived in the straight world, found success boring, and vowed to make life more exotic. Axelrad adopts Roth's philosophy-"repeat until rich"-and from his strategy and skill spring hasty retreats across casino floors, high-speed car chases, arrests on dubious grounds, and the massive cash paydays that make it all worthwhile.
Along the way, he unveils the tactics and debunks the myths of professional card counters. In team play, he's either the "big player," who bets the big money, or the "controller," who subtly coordinates the team's betting while wagering only the minimum himself. Counting is not illegal, and it's less intellectually daunting than its MIT-level mystique suggests. With clarity and wit, Repeat Until Rich proves the old gambler's maxim that "if you can tip a waiter, you can count cards." But it also proves how zealous, even forceful, casino bosses can be in "backing off" counters-seeing past their undercover methods and banning them from the tables. Josh soon grows to love all this trouble, and discovers, more than the money, what he needs most of all is the rush.
Filled with actual bad guys, chase scenes, and high stakes, Repeat Until Rich offers an intoxicating, unprecedented view of the dangerous allure of living off the cards and one's wits.
At twenty-four, Josh Axelrad held down a respectable and ominously dull job on Wall Street. Adventure was a tuna fish sandwich instead of the usual turkey for lunch. Then one night, a stranger at a cocktail party persuaded him to leave the nine-to-five behind and pursue an unlikely the jackpot. The stranger was a blackjack card counter, and he sold Axelrad on the vision of Vegas with all its intrigue, adventure- and cash.
Repeat Until Rich is Axelrad's taut, atmospheric, and darkly hilarious account of ditching the mundane and entering the alternative universe of professional blackjack. Axelrad has one thing in common with his Jon Roth, the leader and a former options trader; Neal Matcha, a recovering lawyer; Aldous Kaufman, a retired math Ph.D. candidate. They all thrived in the straight world, found success boring, and vowed to make life more exotic. Axelrad adopts Roth's philosophy-"repeat until rich"-and from his strategy and skill spring hasty retreats across casino floors, high-speed car chases, arrests on dubious grounds, and the massive cash paydays that make it all worthwhile.
Along the way, he unveils the tactics and debunks the myths of professional card counters. In team play, he's either the "big player," who bets the big money, or the "controller," who subtly coordinates the team's betting while wagering only the minimum himself. Counting is not illegal, and it's less intellectually daunting than its MIT-level mystique suggests. With clarity and wit, Repeat Until Rich proves the old gambler's maxim that "if you can tip a waiter, you can count cards." But it also proves how zealous, even forceful, casino bosses can be in "backing off" counters-seeing past their undercover methods and banning them from the tables. Josh soon grows to love all this trouble, and discovers, more than the money, what he needs most of all is the rush.
Filled with actual bad guys, chase scenes, and high stakes, Repeat Until Rich offers an intoxicating, unprecedented view of the dangerous allure of living off the cards and one's wits.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 26, 2010
16 people are currently reading
236 people want to read
About the author
Josh Axelrad
2Ìýbooks20ÌýfollowersJosh Axelrad is a former professional blackjack player and author of the memoir
. He was born in Southern California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
May 16, 2010
When prose suggests a real man lurking somewhere in back of the page, you go to your knees and clasp hands and mouth "thank you" and you cry.
July 19, 2010
I sincerely wish I had read this one before Bringing Down the House. This book tells a similar story, but with much more depth. Josh Axelrad talks about the excitement of card counting: throwing tens of thousands of dollars in cash around, comped suites, being chased out by security, and traveling around the country hitting casino after casino for thousands. But he doesn't stop here. He also addresses the attraction of professional gambling and the holes it leaves in his life. After the game is over (as it always ends, apparently, when counters are so recognized they can't enter casinos anymore) Josh turns to internet poker and squanders away a year of his life and most of his profits. He has a hard time making permanent connections with women. He talks about the sheer number of card counters there are out there, and how the idea that card counting is possible has substantially increased casino's profits. In short, he tells the whole story, not just the Hollywood parts. Also, he does it artfully. Despite his constant denigration of his own ability, Josh Axelrad is quite a writer.
August 9, 2017
We found this funny, eccentric, and strangely insightful. We never even thought about what goes on in the head of a casino employee until we read this book! Check out the rest of our review here:
June 6, 2013
The story was interesting enough, but the writing was just hilarious. The author wasn't trying to be funny. It was clear he was trying really hard to write articulately and sound impressive, but most of it just made me laugh. The people around me ended up hearing me quoting him throughout the book. It is a quick read.
I made notes of my favorite quotes from the books. Here are some of them: Everyone should read #6
1. "I never know quite what to say to a woman in the absence of sexual tension."
2. The couches "were gray; exactly the color of dolphin hide, not quite as shiny."
3. "Ten months of war against H&H's policy of only selling cream cheese on the side (in those hard silver packets-impossible to spread with a cheap plastic knife!), and I had nothing to show for my protests. I will wear them down, wear them down, I thought, feeling ill."
4. "I drew back the curtain-oh, God, oh God oh God-I hadn't realized they had Budget Suites directly on the surface of the sun. The daylight was blinding. The daylight was more than needed. The daylight was all too much. It was a sunny day, I noticed."
5. "Don't you people know there's a war on?" Speaking about the war between professional gamblers and pit bosses and directed at tourists in Vegas.
6. "I was like an animal-a lioness. An attack beaver."
7. "I held her strong arm as we frenched."
8. "...my body felt sickly and ravaged, something like an inflatable sex doll whose air has gotten squished out due to violent love. I thought I might easily vomit, pass out, have a heart attack, or shit."
9. This one is when he goes into a bank to open a checking account. A woman comes out to help him. "She was a grown-up, a Normal, early to mid-forties, with lip gloss, good posture, hair arranged with sculptural precision and Aqua Netted into place, wearing clothes that looked bought in a store rather than found in an alley."
10. "The bridge goes right over the pit. It looks like some kind of an autopsy down there. You can feel the pain of the cliffs, you share in the agony, but that's how you get to Indiana."
11. "I felt a hard jolt in my nooksack. That's where it hit-the adrenaline..."
12. This is the first thing that comes up if when thinking about what he would do with 200k. "I could buy a hot-air balloon and paint genitals on it, then float around Salt Lake City perturbing the Mormons."
13. "I'd always meant to be a writer. I'd figured that what a man did. The only impediments I was aware of were lack of talent, absence of experience, stunted vocabulary, short attention span..."
I made notes of my favorite quotes from the books. Here are some of them: Everyone should read #6
1. "I never know quite what to say to a woman in the absence of sexual tension."
2. The couches "were gray; exactly the color of dolphin hide, not quite as shiny."
3. "Ten months of war against H&H's policy of only selling cream cheese on the side (in those hard silver packets-impossible to spread with a cheap plastic knife!), and I had nothing to show for my protests. I will wear them down, wear them down, I thought, feeling ill."
4. "I drew back the curtain-oh, God, oh God oh God-I hadn't realized they had Budget Suites directly on the surface of the sun. The daylight was blinding. The daylight was more than needed. The daylight was all too much. It was a sunny day, I noticed."
5. "Don't you people know there's a war on?" Speaking about the war between professional gamblers and pit bosses and directed at tourists in Vegas.
6. "I was like an animal-a lioness. An attack beaver."
7. "I held her strong arm as we frenched."
8. "...my body felt sickly and ravaged, something like an inflatable sex doll whose air has gotten squished out due to violent love. I thought I might easily vomit, pass out, have a heart attack, or shit."
9. This one is when he goes into a bank to open a checking account. A woman comes out to help him. "She was a grown-up, a Normal, early to mid-forties, with lip gloss, good posture, hair arranged with sculptural precision and Aqua Netted into place, wearing clothes that looked bought in a store rather than found in an alley."
10. "The bridge goes right over the pit. It looks like some kind of an autopsy down there. You can feel the pain of the cliffs, you share in the agony, but that's how you get to Indiana."
11. "I felt a hard jolt in my nooksack. That's where it hit-the adrenaline..."
12. This is the first thing that comes up if when thinking about what he would do with 200k. "I could buy a hot-air balloon and paint genitals on it, then float around Salt Lake City perturbing the Mormons."
13. "I'd always meant to be a writer. I'd figured that what a man did. The only impediments I was aware of were lack of talent, absence of experience, stunted vocabulary, short attention span..."
June 19, 2013
Started great. By the end I just wanted to punch the author in the head.
June 29, 2019
I read this based on a Amazon suggestion. As I stated above this book is not on the level of " Bringing down the house
" even though according to the author he comes across and or works with some of the same people. We follow along as the author progress to the point of being basically being team leader for a group of card counters who travel all over the country and being according to the author quite successful even though they are routinely recognized and sometimes swiftly before they even had a chance to place a bet,
But as seems to be with a lot gambler stories you read about they seem to be successful on one vice but they have another gambling vice that no matter how unsuccessful they are they cannot stay away from. The author has this along with trying to be a published author. This story is at best average but it does seem to flow.
" even though according to the author he comes across and or works with some of the same people. We follow along as the author progress to the point of being basically being team leader for a group of card counters who travel all over the country and being according to the author quite successful even though they are routinely recognized and sometimes swiftly before they even had a chance to place a bet,
But as seems to be with a lot gambler stories you read about they seem to be successful on one vice but they have another gambling vice that no matter how unsuccessful they are they cannot stay away from. The author has this along with trying to be a published author. This story is at best average but it does seem to flow.
June 5, 2010
This is a strange, disjointed book that should have either been a bunch of essays, two books, or a movie, but it fails as a connected novel. The author spends about 2/3 of the book telling about his marginally interesting life as a professional blackjack player before awkwardly moving into his struggles as an online poker addict.
The editor should have wiped the last section from the book and done a better job of cobbling the blackjack story together. The author's escapades on a team of blackjack players who counted cards and took on the casinos would actually make a pretty good movie, but since the author's prose is about as lacking as mine and his character development is basically non-existent, it just doesn't work as a novel. Oh well, at least it was a quick read.
The editor should have wiped the last section from the book and done a better job of cobbling the blackjack story together. The author's escapades on a team of blackjack players who counted cards and took on the casinos would actually make a pretty good movie, but since the author's prose is about as lacking as mine and his character development is basically non-existent, it just doesn't work as a novel. Oh well, at least it was a quick read.
May 15, 2010
This book was nothing special. I enjoy reading about card players. However, this book was poorly written, had no point, and taught me nothing new.
January 10, 2012
The first half had some interesting blackjack stuff, but then the book just took a nosedive in the last half.
October 25, 2012
This book is GREAT!! Well told, well-written, just brilliant. Highly personal and highly engaging. I loved, loved, LOVED IT!!! Cannot recommend it enough!!!
September 18, 2013
Pretty good tale- beginning was very hunter Thompson esque, end was a little pathetic
April 10, 2021
It was fine, not as good as the ones about the MIT team.
January 5, 2020
Great tale from the edge
I liked the beat style and ethos that the author, Josh Axelrad, uses to spin a yarn worthy of a Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ review. I also appreciate the complete and honest view of his descent into addictive behavior and his return to the land of the living. This is an author to keep an eye on.
I liked the beat style and ethos that the author, Josh Axelrad, uses to spin a yarn worthy of a Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ review. I also appreciate the complete and honest view of his descent into addictive behavior and his return to the land of the living. This is an author to keep an eye on.
May 23, 2020
The Blackjack part was reasonably interesting, but the long discussion of his online poker gambling addiction was not, particularly as he made it seem like it came on, it was very, very serious and stayed quite some time, and then switched off.
February 5, 2024
First part dealt with his recounting of the team play he'd experienced card counting in the early 2000s. Second part dealt with the aftermath, as well as his online poker gambling addiction. It was a great read, overall.
June 6, 2019
Compelling! Thought it would be dry but couldn't put it down.
September 28, 2021
Well it took me longer because as I got to the final chapter I was sure I missed something. The book is really about addiction. Become a chef if you have a food addiction�
January 8, 2024
It was fine. The tangents into relationship and stuff felt a little forced it, but maybe they were relevant to other readers.
January 11, 2025
Solid view of what team-based counting can look like, interspersed with an insight into Josh’s life, he is an interesting man.
June 13, 2010
Since GoodReads doesn't have fractional stars, I sometimes get stuck figuring out my basic rating. With this book especially, how much entertainment can be derived from it depends on how interested you are in the subject matter (which is clearly spelled out in its title). Usually I'm not particularly interested in the subject of gambling (I've never had the desire to enter a casino or even buy a lottery ticket), but the idea of legally cheating casinos out of money by running a complicated, organized team system somehow hooked me. It's really pretty cool how they did it. The math is totally beyond me, but Axelrod does a good job of doling out specifics and generalities such that I could follow and be impressed. I must mention that the book is flawed by its inconsistent quality of writing. (Axelrod, to his credit, cops to sometimes "florid" writing and his general inexperience as a writer in the introduction.) The writing quality generally improves as the book progresses, but it never quite loses its self-consciousness. I know, I know, it's a Catch-22--how can you write memoir and not be focused on yourself at all times? What I mean is, I often felt the effort at forming sentences, at trying to "write well", which always had the unfortunate effect of taking me out of the text. On the other hand, sometimes he writes with a wonderful dry wit that I loved. So I'm rounding my rating up with the thought that this debut book is a rushed product given that it was sold before a word was written, and that Axelrod will continue to develop his skills. Anyway, the story of how he and his teammates beat the casinos doesn't necessarily need a first rate, experienced author--it's a good yarn on its own. The other enjoyment-mitigating factor I feel I must mention is that Axelrod himself, as a protagonist, is not very sympathetic. Though his self-awareness made it possible for me to keep reading, he's an arrogant guy at his very core (which he freely admits). At one point toward the end, when he's almost reached rock bottom with his online poker addiction, he laments having to see a therapist who wears Kenneth Cole shoes, "the shoes of the underclass...which appear to be well-made but aren't." I'm still wondering: could the same be said of this book?
July 15, 2010
I really enjoy true life gambling memoirs, but "Repeat Until Rich" just didn't deliver. This book started out okay, with standard blackjack counting scenarios a la "Bringing Down the House". There were also some good stories and adventures in there. But some of the writing was just too generic and glossed over. I would have liked more details and descriptions of the systems, gambling trips, player lifestyle and actual battles with the casinos. There were some good ones, but just not enough.
What really got me is that the book started off okay, but then after about 2/3 of the way through, the book just peters out. He gets out of the card counting racket and the rest of the book details his addiction to online poker and crappy life. A lot of the writing at this point also focuses on his trouble with writing of the book itself. It's kind of weird - like he ran out of stories and was facing a deadline or length requirement so he just threw in some filler about the writing of the book you're reading. He even describes in the book how he wasn't much of a writer and he approached the publisher with a change of direction which they didn't like but accepted. It was surreal because you could see this disaster unfolding while you were reading about how it unfolded.
Overall, this probably could have been an interesting read, if it stayed on topic and didn't drift into the whining of a poor writer.
What really got me is that the book started off okay, but then after about 2/3 of the way through, the book just peters out. He gets out of the card counting racket and the rest of the book details his addiction to online poker and crappy life. A lot of the writing at this point also focuses on his trouble with writing of the book itself. It's kind of weird - like he ran out of stories and was facing a deadline or length requirement so he just threw in some filler about the writing of the book you're reading. He even describes in the book how he wasn't much of a writer and he approached the publisher with a change of direction which they didn't like but accepted. It was surreal because you could see this disaster unfolding while you were reading about how it unfolded.
Overall, this probably could have been an interesting read, if it stayed on topic and didn't drift into the whining of a poor writer.
May 29, 2010
Ah-ha! That's what all those card-counters are up to! Dissipation in Vegas, of course, but also a lot of roaming the country facing down the true bleakness of casinos and 'gaming' culture. This would've been an OK book as it was originally planned, but then in the process of writing it, Axelrad fritters away his book advance on online poker, which adds a whole other dimension to the story. Bad for Axelrad, but great for the book. And the last chapter, about meditation, was just as fascinating, if not more so, than all the tales of derring-do in the casinos.
(As you can probably discern from my links, Josh Axelrad is a friend of mine, so I'm of course biased. I was delighted to finally learn what he'd been doing all those years, in detail. But I was also delighted to read a book by a friend and have it be really good. Because you know it's awkward when someone you know writes something and it's not good...)
(As you can probably discern from my links, Josh Axelrad is a friend of mine, so I'm of course biased. I was delighted to finally learn what he'd been doing all those years, in detail. But I was also delighted to read a book by a friend and have it be really good. Because you know it's awkward when someone you know writes something and it's not good...)
October 15, 2012
Josh Axelrad delivers on what was promised - an engaging memoir about card counting and life that goes along with it. However, what really separates this from other similar novels is the honesty of his account. The novel begins with Axelrad as a lost aspiring card counter and ends with him as a broken gambling addict aching to reclaim the heights he experienced along the way. The journey is the compelling part, as he recounts the greatest of successes and worst of failures on his way to completing this novel, which is portrayed as his life's work. Aspiring 'professional gamblers' would do well to read this account, as it covers the rise, peak, and inevitable downfall. The moral of the story is to recognize when you're at the peak, and get out while you're ahead.
January 27, 2013
I really, really loved this book. A brutally honest memoir about the extreme highs and lows of professional gambling and gambling addiction, this is a must-read. The subject matter is also something I find fascinating because I don't have the brainpower to do anything like count cards (mine is all used up on TV trivia and facts about bananas).
Loved it. Short chapters kept me turning pages, and the easy, familiar writing style didn't make any of it seem like a chore.
I've been reading a lot of memoirs over the past few months, and this book has been the most riveting so far. I finished Axelrad's story during a bus ride home from work, and I'm ready to pick it up and start again.
Loved it. Short chapters kept me turning pages, and the easy, familiar writing style didn't make any of it seem like a chore.
I've been reading a lot of memoirs over the past few months, and this book has been the most riveting so far. I finished Axelrad's story during a bus ride home from work, and I'm ready to pick it up and start again.
March 17, 2012
This is not the sort of book I would normally pick up, seeing as how I don't care about gambling, seldom get into memoirs, and don't like fast-paced, anxiety-inducing realistic stories. But Josh Axelrad happens to be a sort of friend of mine, and I saw him occasionally in New York during the time of his life that he describes in this book. I bought it when it came out, but it took me this long to get around to reading it. He's a great story-teller, and a I think that (in general and in this book) he's especially talented at letting the reader in to his own self-awareness. I can't believe that people want him to have written this story without the spiraling addiction at the end. Really?
April 20, 2010
A fascinating, if dark, look at the "game" of Man v. Casino. In Axelrad's case, he seemed to win the game, until he stopped working with a counting crew and started playing solo on-line poker.
His vivid recollections of the cat-and-mouse interaction between players and enforcers reveal a whole 'nother world with its own set of rule. And the swiftness with which he lost his "stake" on the internet is scary.
His vivid recollections of the cat-and-mouse interaction between players and enforcers reveal a whole 'nother world with its own set of rule. And the swiftness with which he lost his "stake" on the internet is scary.
July 21, 2010
If there every was a day in your life where you wanted to quit your job and count cards for a living, read this fast-paced book. This was sent to me by my dad and all he wrote was "you can relate" and I really did. I loved the book and read it quickly.....didn't want it to end. Gamblers have something in common and I could really relate to Josh Axlerad's descriptions of his feelings when winning and losing.
April 12, 2010
When I first started reading this book, I thought the writing was heavy handed and the similes a bit much. Once I got into the groove, however, I found that it really fit Axelrad's description of getting into the semi-glamorous world of card counting. Once his life goes off the rails, the books becomes impossible to put down.
February 3, 2011
If you ever have a chance to see Josh give a book read or lecture do not miss out. He will keep you on your toes.
After reading about card reading I only can think how organized a business it is. I once lived near a casino where I took my late night walks. He inspired me to write a story about what I saw in the casino all from my 500 or more visits.
After reading about card reading I only can think how organized a business it is. I once lived near a casino where I took my late night walks. He inspired me to write a story about what I saw in the casino all from my 500 or more visits.
October 16, 2016
If you ever have a chance to see Josh give a book read or lecture do not miss out. He will keep you on your toes.
After reading about card reading I only can think how organized a business it is. I once lived near a casino where I took my late night walks. He inspired me to write a story about what I saw in the casino all from my 500 or more visits.
After reading about card reading I only can think how organized a business it is. I once lived near a casino where I took my late night walks. He inspired me to write a story about what I saw in the casino all from my 500 or more visits.
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