When you hear the name Don Johnson, you will probably think of the TV series Miami Vice and undercover police detective Sonny Crockett. However, there is another Don Johnson worth your attention. He became infamous for winning $15 million playing Blackjack at Atlantic City-based casinos. Following his success, Johnson got banned from further playing in Caesars Casino and became the member of the Blackjack Hall of Fame we have recently written about. Stay with us to learn more about the Blackjack legend and his winning strategy.
Don Johnson was born in Salem, Oregon, in 1962. As a kid, he rode horses and although he dreamed of becoming a professional jockey, he didn’t manage to pursue such a career because of his height. However, he stayed committed to his favourite activity and managed racetracks as a racetrack and casino executive. Johnson also worked as a gaming regulator and while observing Blackjack players, he learned more about game strategies. Johnson has also founded the software company Heritage Development in Wyoming that provided the software for horse race bettors.
Back in 2001, Don Johnson started playing Blackjack as a casual player and he played only low bets up to $100 initially. After he had learned the basic strategy and the perks of being a high roller, in 2010 he started playing at stakes going up to $100,000 per hand at Atlantic City casinos. Some of the casinos he played Blackjack at were Trump Taj Mahal and Caesars, the casinos that recognised him as an advantage player and were ready to negotiate special rules with him.
As a high roller, Johnson didn’t want comp points. His strategy was to have better game rules that would help him gain an advantage over the casino. Initially, he won $220,000 in Taj Mahal, but his future wins were far higher than this one. With a help from his friends and a couple of attractive women, Johnson applied his winning strategy which included card counting and playing low or high bets when the card count was favourable.
Without fancy clothes and a perfect strategy, Johnson won $4.2 million at Caesars. His next stop was Borgata where he accumulated wins worth over $5 million. All the time, his strategy included certain rules and advantages he claimed from the casinos that helped him reduce the house edge. These included a 6 deck and a hand-shuffled shoe, the dealer standing on a soft 17 and 3:2 payouts for a natural Blackjack. He was also allowed to split up to four hands per round and double down on any hand including the split ones as well.
With such rules, he lowered the house edge to 0.263%, but that didn’t make him satisfied as he also requested a maximum bet of $100,000 per hand, no minimum play requirement before he could quit the game and a 20% loss rebate. Whenever he lost $500,000 or more, he was able to claim a 20% loss rebate that was reset after each session.
The truth is that Atlantic City casinos were desperate with their businesses not going well at that time and Johnson managed to take advantage of their situation. What Johnson also did was taking advantage of the dealers’ mistakes by distracting them with an atmosphere he created with alcohol and hot girls, complicated side bets and making hand gestures when he played high stakes. Whenever the dealer didn’t register his gesture to split or double down, he would receive a free bet. The last “victim” of his winning strategy was Tropicana where his winnings amounted to over $5.8 million during a 12-hour Blackjack session.
After beating the casinos and winning $15 million, Don Johnson was banned from Caesars. Other casinos, like Tropicana, invited Johnson, who is called the Beast of Blackjack, to play but under a bit changed rules, like the exclusion of the 20% loss rebate.
Johnson has not become infamous only for his Blackjack playing style but also for the way he partied with celebrities like Jon Bon Jovi and Charlie Sheen and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on liquor. Apart from that, his life hasn’t changed much since he walked away from the table with $15 million in his pockets and became one of the living Blackjack legends.
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