Can I win in a "Double Deck" game with decent rules, i.e., ( Split on any two cards, double after split, split up to 4 pairs, etc...Dealer hits soft 17 and no-surrender) provided I am playing proper Basic Strategy and using your Hi-Lo counting method including starting at a -2 count, when the "Double Deck" has been cut to 1 to 1 1/4 of a Deck?? If so great! If not , why not.. and what is my remedy?
Can I win in a "Double Deck" game with decent rules, i.e., ( Split on any two cards, double after split, split up to 4 pairs, etc...Dealer hits soft 17 and no-surrender) provided I am playing proper Basic Strategy and using your Hi-Lo counting method including starting at a -2 count, when the "Double Deck" has been cut to 1 to 1 1/4 of a Deck?? If so great! If not , why not.. and what is my remedy?
First of all, although those are common rules, there are not decent. You really want S17 and more penetration.
Second, I don't understand what starting at a -2 count means. You start at 0 using HiLo.
To answer your question, according to http://www.qfit.com/cvcxonlineviewer.htm, the c-SCORE for 2 deck, H17, DAS, HiLo+I18, 1-8 spread, 52 cards cut off is 20.35. With 39 cards cut off, the c-SCORE is 39.80. The game is beatable, but is not very good.
Things you can do improve the situation:
- Use a bigger spread.
- Play with fewer people at the table. The c-SCORE value is based on 100 hands per hour. If you can get 200 hands per hour, you double your win rate with no increase in risk. Fine Tuner won Post of the Month last year for an excellent post on this. You need to join greenchip to read it.
- Play two hands. Your c-SCOREs increase to 29.65 and 57.97, respectively.
- Occasionally sit out the rest of the shoe when the count is negative. Doing this after two or so losses in a row is "understandable" from the pit's standpoint.
Thanks for the info Rick. I have read in 2 books recently where the Hi-Lo starting count varies depending on how many decks are being used. For instance -2 2 decks, -4 4 decks, etc. using the (Hi-Lo) running count only. One book is :"Winning Blackjack for the Serious Player" by Edwin Silberstang..page 155. In any event is using just a running count enough, i.e., the deck being either negative, neutral, or positive after each hand in a 1 or 2 deck game? It seems as though this method would negate the benefits of deck penetration. I'm a patient basic strategy player, but need more facts..guts..understanding, etc. before I play the big bet spread. Thanks for putting up with me, I really do want to...."learn and earn".
Thanks for the website info and I am thinking about joining
greenchip.
Black bart
A running count should be enough but you should use a count that is designed to be used as a running count like KO or Red 7. Also, I don't understand your statement about negating the benefits of deck penetration. Any counting system you use will benefit by deep penetration and be less effective against shallow penetration. The deeper the better. You should read Arnold Snyder's "Blackbelt in Blackjack" (which you can purchase right from this site). Its great for beginning counters and contains the full explanation of the Red 7 count as well as a lot of BJ theory in easy to understand terms. Another good book is "Knock-out Blackjack" by Olaf Vancura and Ken Fuchs. The authors present their KO counting system. I would start with Snyder�s book because you will get much more �general� information about BJ and counting cards then the other. Both KO and Red 7 are valid level 1 running count systems � both will get the money.
The running count on hi low is balanced and starts with zero. The expectation of a typical blackjack game (playing basic strategy with typical rules) is around a half of a percent in favor of the house. This negative variation is what I believe you are trying to convey. So, in general terms, you need to establish a positive running count of some small number (depending on the rules) to theoretically maintain even expectation.
I like your screen name.
Thanks for the info Rick. I have read in 2 books recently where the Hi-Lo starting count varies depending on how many decks are being used. For instance -2 2 decks, -4 4 decks, etc. using the (Hi-Lo) running count only. One book is :"Winning Blackjack for the Serious Player" by Edwin Silberstang..page 155.
This site has many quality books on BJ. Trust those.
In any event is using just a running count enough, i.e., the deck being either negative, neutral, or positive after each hand in a 1 or 2 deck game?
It's possible you can gain a positive advantage doing this, but it's probably far from optimal. If you don't want to do a true conversion, use KO blackjack. It's the count I use and I highly recommend it.
Below is a link to the KO blackjack website. It contains the rookie system so you can get a jumpstart on the system. Once you learn that, the book will give show the Preferred system, which includes index numbers (really simple to learn).
