Author: Ed Trice
Date: 09:30:06 01/29/06
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On January 29, 2006 at 10:42:03, Robert Hyatt wrote: >This reminds me of a "hobby" of mine, playing blackjack. > >Card counters often discuss the many "basic strategy departure index plays" and >ask "how important is it to learn the indexes for the uncommon plays like when >to double 8 vs 6 and the like?" > >The answer is in two parts: > >(1) the hands are not very common, which means playing them correctly or >incorrectly will not have a great influence on your long-term winning edge; but > >(2) when the situation comes up, and you have a big bet on the table because of >the positive count, suddenly that "not very important play" can be the >difference between a couple of hundred bucks and zero. > I have been playing "professional" blackjack for about 9 years. I teach classes down at Atlantic City on site one weekend a month, so that my students can watch me play and observe first hand what is being taught. I stress that Basic Strategy should only be used to guide the play of the hand, and counting should be used to vary the bet. As such, counting becomes the important vehicle for bet determination, and Basic Strategy is the mindless tool of 220 rote hands you must simply commit to memory. Sensitivity analysis shows counting to be the source of many more misplays than Basic Strategy. Also, simple one-level counting systems do not give you enough edge to combat "The Gambler's Ruin" scenario. The basic notion is that if you and The House engage in a simple coin toss game, you will eventually become bankrupted since the house has betting limits and you cannot recover your losses that occur from long streaks. Given that is the case, I teach a multi-level counting system that gives a much more accurate representation of your actual disposition with respect to any advantage or disadvantage against the house. It takes about 3 months to get fast enough to be able to use it in the casino environment. I used to sell a cool little Macintosh program, "Blackjack Deluxe". You can still find it on the "wayback" web site. http://web.archive.org/web/19970522045301/www.circumflex.com/Blackjack.html
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