Estimating Rounds Played

How do you guys estimate how many rounds you play per hour?

It is too much of a pain to actually keep a running tally of every round that you play so some type of reliable estimate is called for, for the sake of record keeping.

The best I can come up with is estimate the penetration of the shoe, and then divide the # of cards dealt by 2.7 x # of players at the table.

For example, in a 4 deck game with 1 deck cutoff,

# rounds = 156 / (2.7 x N)

where N = # players at the table plus the dealer.

Now all you have to do is keep track of how many shoes you play per trip, far easier than counting each round played.

What do you guys think?

MJ

I think I just pick up a copy of Wong's Professional Blackjack and look at the study he did.

Although the game speed is an important factor in evaluating a game, it would be too laborious to figure out the number of rounds you play during a session.There are too many variables: number of players, dealer speed,players speed,penetration,shuffle time etc.Also, clocking a shoe would be a bit suspicious, and believe me, they would notice.
It's enough to know that one should concentrate on the least busy tables with hopefully decent dealers.

Francis Salmon

If that is the case, Francis, how do you compare your actual results to those of your expected results? In order to do that, you need some reliable method to estimate the # of rounds played per session.

I don't think this requires too much work to record the requisite data. All you need to track are 2 variables for each shoe: penetration and # players. So I might think 1.25, 4 for the 1st shoe; 1, 3 for the 2nd shoe. This means 1.25 decks cutoff and 4 players. The 2nd is 1 deck cutoff and 3 players. Every couple of shoes, take a restroom break to record this info in a stall.

The other idea is to place a $1 chip out there for every 5 rounds played. This idea is undoubtedly easier, but it might draw suspicion.

MJ

For tracking purposes, I usually classify a game as "slow", "moderate", or "fast", and figure that a slow game is <75 hands per hour, a moderate game is 75-125 hands per hour, and a fast game is >125 hands per hour. I consider a moderate game speed to be a game with one or two other players and an average dealer. I'll adjust the game to "slow" if it's a newbie dealer, the table is full, or if the other players are taking a long time to make decisions. I'll adjust the game to "fast" if I'm head's up and the dealer is able to keep up with my pace.

Your approach is good but I think that you underestimate the differences.
At a packed table with a slow dealer you might not get more than 30 rounds per hour.
In a head-on game with a fast dealer you can easily get 300 hands per hour.
According to Bill Zender, Casino average is 60 rounds per hour(5 spots played).

Francis Salmon

...Unless it's the only game in town, and even then, why bother playing? Are we talking theory or practice here?

Cobbson

To see what I recommand you just have to read my first post in this thread.
But sometimes conditions at the table deteriorate and its good to know that hands per hour could vary by a factor 10.
By the way, in a promotion game -say 2:1 for Blackjack - I would actually pay for a seat in a game with 30 hands per hour.So speed is just another factor.

Francis Salmon