The Man Who Beat Casinos for $15M: Don Johnson

In this exclusive interview, meet Don Johnson, the man who took Atlantic City by storm and walked away with $15 million in winnings! Join us as we delve into the remarkable journey of this Blackjack Hall of Famer, who went from being a horse jockey to a high-stakes gambler, using his insider knowledge to beat the casinos at their own game.
Discover how Don negotiated his way into favorable terms with casinos, leveraging loss rebates to gain a massive advantage at the Blackjack tables. He shares his insights on what it takes to win big, the importance of discipline and strategy, and the behind-the-scenes tactics that helped him secure his legendary victories.
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0:00 - Introduction to Don Johnson
0:37 - First Steps in Horse Racing and Gambling
3:26 - Developing an Edge in Blackjack
5:37 - Negotiating with Casinos
11:53 - Major Wins and Casino Reactions
17:42 - Handling Variance and Losing Streaks
20:55 - Backoffs and Tactics in High-Stakes Play
24:02 - Stopping a Game for Days
28:07 - Finding Games After Success
34:49 - Gambling with Bruce Willis
43:47 - Phil Ivey Stories
46:31 - Philanthropy and Future Endeavors

[@mirrorportal1587]

I’ve always been curious about this guy’s story and how he made his 15 million. Finally a long interview, thanks Colin!

[@MrFlynn-bt6mt]

Yeah, its about time we see the full story.

[@gunsandgaragegear601]

I would like 15 million that’s for sure! lol

[@pozkodeth]

Yeah Colin, this is a great contribution to the blackjack community. Thanks!

[@craptor1234]

I love the fact he knew something was up when he saw who phil was with and just yolo'd in.

[@mrtheominousone]

Thank you so much for this interview. Loved the documentary with him awhile ago. Now two of my favorites in one interview is awesome. Keep up the awesome content Colin.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Thanks!!!

[@pnr8uk]

Truly fascinating and honest. Good to hear the gambler is not complaining non stop about the business model. Also Colin, your interview style is perfect, you ask questions and let the interviewee speak. Not like todays average interviewer who seem to feed the interviewee with answers and words.

[@samweirich5973]

Don has such a pleasant voice and friendly way of speaking. He seems like a great guy to just sit down with, have a couple of beers and just chit chat about random gambling topics.

[@rhymetimeuk]

The legend, so awesome to have this length of an interview, thank you both! Fantastic insight!

[@robdickson6705]

Mirror some comments, but true, really like Don and his story and actually what Don is doing today, as well as Colin and his team. Thank you for sharing, this is a FANTASTIC interview and another learning tool. Thank you

[@johnlittle8267]

always love listening to Don Johnson - so impressive in many ways! thanks for bringing him to us!

[@cadillacmoto]

I like this guy. Talks about being honest and the impotance of honesty, but not like the mob guys that found a career on podcasts and talk about respect like its their middle name. Great video.

[@Jeffs9304]

Thanks Colin, guys a true stud !

[@asentientgoose]

Thanks for this episode! The production and quality is excellent.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@user-zu2ge9vs6y]

Casinos are your friend when you are losing to them 🤣🤣 nice friendship 👍🤣

[@CBPowerPlays]

Great stuff guys. I had heard his name and story before, but this is the first good interview I have seen with Don.

[@blackjackshooter6547]

Great interview! Enjoyed it very much. ♠️♥️♣️♦️

[@pmzmdf]

So interesting. Thank you Colin.

[@leopabe]

Great interview! I could listen to Don talk all day. Please do more of these interviews :)

[@TMJJack]

I'm really proud of everything I've learned and how much I've built my bankroll over the course of going on four years. It feels like a lot, but then stories like this humble me. I cannot imagine $1M in a year. $15M in even less time is insane.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Me either!

[@AndrewRowe89]

Wow! What awesome stories and game play talk!

[@bullsbears1395]

Great learnings 1. Find the edge 2. Keep a stoploss when things don't go your way 3. Go for the kill when things are going your way. Nice podcast 👌

[@chimbolo89]

Awesome interview! Thanks!

[@justinmorris1134]

Great interview! Love his connection to Ivey.

[@markhuber8345]

Colin, thanks.. this was a really nice piece of content.. I thoroughly enjoyed it.. he seems like a classy guy.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@tonyjaz]

Congrats Colin on reaching 500k 💥Subscribers ‼️👍🏼

[@lindsaymarks3481]

What a Fascinating man. Great interview.

[@TheRussianConcussian]

What an incredible guest

[@roccoconte2960]

Great video very interesting . Fantastic interview with a great guest.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Thanks!

[@mdaje]

watched that video with Trish Regan about ten times. Glad to see him on BJA. It was you gamble 2000, Jim Murren said, he can comp you about $80.00 worth of stuff. From my years of playing its more like they have a chart on you, figure if you gamble from $2,000-$3000 you will probably get your room comped and some beverage and food credit. At Don's level, sky's probably the limit, but he's right over the years, corporate has tightened things up quite a bit. Learn so much from BJA and LVA. Dave

[@dannyneff4195]

Wow, what a stellar interview this guy is a legend, I've always wanted to know what kind of AP was going on at that level, I've seen documentaries about him and I always figured he had some kind of edge figured out. Also what a high note of praise for Colin and everyone at BJA that Don said they're stuff is really on point. Bravo!

[@rrek7]

Another great interview

[@DadeMurphie]

Wow, I didn't know what Don Johnson looked like before this video but I do know I've seen that man playing $500 hands of blackjack at Paris on the strip. He was getting a massage at the table and seemed emotionless about wins or losses.

[@slaniejode2318]

Great interview jonzee!!!

[@roy5737]

excellent video!

[@sleong]

This man is a legend

[@bjkjoseph]

That was a good interview

[@Phlegethon]

The dig at Kelly Sun lol

[@EfficientRVer]

He has very varied circles of friends, so I hope he had a fun and interesting life in more ways than just the gambling. On the other hand, most of the gamblers I know with interesting friends, pretty much only know them in gambling settings. As he said, you know you're just a gambling buddy when you don't even get invited over when they're flipping burgers in the back yard for their neighbors.

[@njh4473]

Great interview great video

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@chrisklupenger4999]

Really good interview. Just wish he described more about how the rebates work

[@yeungx]

The rebate works simply. First he found casinos with good high limit rules (he said he can get as low as 0.2% house edge, so basically a coin flip). Then He negotiated that if he lose 500k, he would be able to get 22.5% of that lost back, for simplicity sake, lets day 100k. But you still lose 400k, how do you make money. But lets say you go 2 days. day 1 you win 500k, day 2 you lose 500k. This is pretty likely, especially if the rules make it a coin flip anyways. Normally you would be even, but with the rebate, you would be 100k up. The key is to play very aggressively. You are a little bit negative on every hand, so you want to win or lose 500k in as few hands as possible. This way, you can maximize the rebate returns.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

I think we have a SUPER old video about them and a blogpost maybe.

[@tmasst07]

Dealer: Blackjack congratulations Brice Willis: Yippee kai yay, motherf....

[@dougnice67]

That rebate situation is crazy!!!! 😮

[@btsdancestudio5691]

Forget Blackjack playing...you can be the best podcaster on YT...Like Lex Friedman 2.0! I love how genuine your interest to learn something new and you are so charming without being fake. Dan Brazilian drives me crazy. So pretentious and not real..at all.

[@gabrielrobinson2253]

"Okay okay sure sure." That was the best deflection of the fact they fu8& Phil!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😅❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@user-lj5gl7le9d]

Best video ever

[@sophiasavanna1329]

A fascinating life

[@markchalled3976]

Thanks for the interview. Has Don Johnson ever written a book about his experience?

[@Billionaireben]

Don mentions 'we'll get back to that' about craps ability but you never do. Show him talking about that! :)

[@prophetmargin7497]

Great interview, so realistically, how much money does it take to become an advantaged player?

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

The bankroll is less important than the knowledge. Small bankrolls can grow with the right choices, but even a large one will go bust if they don't understand how to manage it or how to AP correctly. That said, very few people have the bankroll to do exactly what Don did here.

[@prophetmargin7497]

@@Blackjackapprenticeship No kidding, with all the built in advantages Johnson had in his game, a positive EV was definitely in play here, I'm surprised the casino ever went for his action and that 20% return on losses didn't hurt either. Where are the best BJ games now, any favorites?

[@GoatReactz]

He not a regular player. He aint about to get backed off. They actually are begging him to play and giving him edge. Big difference

[@Meeky815]

Can you do an audio version of your book

[@NickLPhoto]

You should ask him why he never paid Deadmau5 the $200,000 he agreed to for playing Living on a Prayer at XS!

[@fluriekfluriek2913]

he did, deadmau just didnt get it from his team.

[@asmoday8382]

You should try and interview dom the dominator from golden touch craps talk to him about dice control

[@trentbrown5091]

That Phil Ivey story 😂

[@Billionaireben]

Gotta love dealer errors, I've seen EZ Bac forget that 3 card 7 dealer is a push because no commission (is that a 5% player benefit?) Another good one was dealer paying the ante when he didn't qualify in UTH. For blackjack, mispays and being willing to cut off only half a deck in 8 deck were about it; but other dealers would lecture you for accepting a mispay (weeks after, I haven't been to a casino in years.)

[@You2oob]

Who's the Colin of the UK or London?

[@NewAgeDabbling]

Hey Collin. I don’t know if you have ever talked about this but are there any bet progressions for a super negative count? I feel like when the count gets really bad I tend to win since I know little numbers are ahead. I was thinking about starting to increase my bet during these times to take advantage if there is any. I hate having to count 4-5 hrs and wait for that good count. Please let me know if anyone has ever figured this out completely.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

The only useful thing you can do during a negative count is not play. The more you bet with a disadvantage the more you will lose in the long run. You can't create an advantage by changing your betting.

[@NewAgeDabbling]

@@Blackjackapprenticeship okay. Is there any math to back this up. I believe you just would like to see simulations or something.

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Simply the math that if you're going to lose more than you win, you will not win in the long run - which makes sense. You don't begin to win more than you lose until +1TC in most games. Thats why bet spreads start increasing at +1 and continue as the count rises to take advantage of larger edges.

[@NewAgeDabbling]

@@Blackjackapprenticeship gotcha thanks. Do you know if this has been a thought across many counters in the past? I’m sure it has been can’t find much online

[@randyharris3175]

In the beginning AC had early surrender. A gift for card counters.

[@senseihitmanwayofkempo8305]

The true value of each card ..... not the simple +-1

[@ronaldjtriumph5985]

Seems like a really cool guy - looks like he has very sound morals ...

[@ojaimark]

What a cool guy. Hard disagree on the Phil Ivey situation though. Edge sorting is at the most generous a gray area, but realistically it's just cheating. It kinda irks me that people compare it to card counting. Card counting is 1000% pure strategy based solely on information that the player is allowed by the rules of the game to have access to. So much so that a blind person being read out the cards as they're dealt has all the information needed to count cards. You literally cannot prevent a player from keeping a count without fundamentally changing/ruining a card game. Edge sorting on the other hand relies on exploiting an external vulnerability to gain access to information that a player is expressly forbidden by the rules of the game to have access to. It's in the same category as if someone were playing with magic x-ray glasses. Just because it takes a lot of skill to do it, doesn't change that. For that reason I think the argument that negotiating the terms before hand makes it all okay is very weak. Bad faith claims are a thing in contract law for a reason and I think the fact that Phil was the one pushing for a certain brand of cards falls into that category. If the house cards had the print defect and that's what he used, that's pretty much fair game. That's on them for producing cards that are readable. If the house decided to use see through cards for some reason you couldn't blame a player for using that advantage. If he had informed the casino the reason he wanted his specific brand of cards was because he found a defect and they still agreed, that's definitely fair game. They were aware of his advantage play and still took the action. But at a certain point it goes beyond negotiation and the burden of due diligence and gets into the territory of flat out tricking the casino into letting you cheat.... which is still cheating.

[@kevinbarber4986]

What a G 🏅

[@Jo2lentino1981]

Dude is a legend and freaking gentlemen!

[@MrSunil92]

Hey, what’s the best app to play blackjack online?

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

We're a little biased towards our own app if you're trying to train and learn strategy and deviations. If you're just looking to play for fun then ours won't be what you're looking for.

[@MrSunil92]

@@Blackjackapprenticeship I was actually talking about playing with real money online. Do you have any recommendations?

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

We recommend not to do that for a few reasons, we discuss it in another video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4Kno62Ae51loZIsi=MJchTfd9L2nbF-Dg

[@KingSeven007]

3:56 techniques like intimidating the dealers?

[@sunalwaysshinesonTVs]

Crocket went to Vegas after beating Miami?

[@LuisSanchez-hc3sl]

how much do you recomend to read a book of blackjack to leanrd how to play? I bought the blackjack for blood book but I didn't started yet.👀

[@tommyfu9271]

Blackjack for blood is pretty dated. It's an entertaining reason but not much is applicable today. Blackjack attack is an excellent book.

[@jeffv3296]

I thought it was Grant Cardonne when I saw the thumbnail. lol. Needless to say, I’m happy that it isn’t Grant. lol

[@willphill419plus1]

What does C.T.R mean?

[@Blackjackapprenticeship]

Currency transaction report

[@mytouch2085]

The (real) most interesting man in the world

[@ny_wonders]

Im not sure if he was banned because I was playing at a table in AC at Harrah's and he was sitting there with a female

[@eunit599]

Don must be on Ozempic

[@chunckyfreshnut]

Would they let you card count?

[@carlknight6597]

Gotta play no mid-shoe entry...wayyyy better

[@ico2525]

lol joe748 popping in

[@Joe_748]

Who?

[@dirkdiggler9174]

In my experience every casino or bookmaker cries foul when you beat them .

[@daveforeman6931]

INteresting story- but until I see his I.R.S. tax forms showing the winnings, I reserve judgement. He would have had a wopper of a tax bill. Would love to see his 1040.

[@mattydips2887]

Hes banned from all casinos they did a netflix doc on him years ago. Its very interesting. Hes legit

[@catzblu999]

that was a really awkward conclusion lol

[@AngelNortje-wx6ww]

0:08

[@connorrowley2849]

Of course the casino owners son is having a BAR MITZVAH

[@xertion4870]

Ok chill Kanye

[@connorrowley2849]

@@xertion4870 you can have your opinion but my statement is a fact

[@KingSeven007]

Don has the voice of your girlfriend’s favorite suga dd.

[@slaniejode2318]

Hell yeah Don Johnson the whale!

[@wowTharabbi]

Great story about crown,I got blacklisted in 2021, I won 956k in three months, they blacklisted me for apparently being argumentative with a dealer! Still banned 3 years later! I was a mahogany member for 23 years! They are horrible in customer service !

[@vp6019]

sounds like he sold action, which I can understand, ran into him once at cosmo they wouldnt even allow him to play bartop 21 lol

[@JayAr709]

Bill Benter.

[@cornellirons5348]

You read and get educated but the others at the table do the direct opposite.

[@E.Asinus]

A jockey? Is he really that small?

[@tommyfu9271]

About 15 years ago I saw Ivey playing 100k a roll on craps. At the time I just thought he was a degenerate. After the edge sorting thing it made me think he was just setting the casino up for later on playing the long game.

[@joeburch9220]

He knows JRB I only know Daniel Phil ok liar

[@huckleberryfinn8795]

It is a sad time in human history when a grown man is scared to say Redskins.

[@lwmitcham]

I can’t believe he was scared to say redskins

[@princehawker2072]

I think it was so cringe that Bri was asking who she would bone at the end, like feeling out who she would do stuff with to climb a ladder. Why was she pushing for Dave Portnoy so hard?

[@wb5mgr]

I like bruce as an actor, but he was probably into a little coke.

[@rockymntdan1]

He is a "schill". Oldest tatic by peopl who run games. Don't believe the bs.

[@rickellis7312]

That add is ridiculous. Public sexual behaviour should be stopped. What two adults do in privacy is only their business. As long as both are conceptual

[@seanbrower4701]

Conceptual huh... 😂

[@torryminers2177]

Is this ai generated?

[@whereisroom3204]

Yes

[@alexmacdonald9182]

what a low IQ question

[@SEANPOL203]

😄

[@davidjohnson2587]

Yes the whole thing

[@Eric-qv2rz]

Unless those he refers to knew about fixed races or horses being doped . Then don't fool us they beat the ponies 😂😂😂😂

[@joeburch9220]

Parks sucks los almitos where it is