Notes from a beginner

I've been playing for around 6mo and counting for about 3. Here are a few of the mistakes I've made that may help someone else out:

Trust your system: I started out playing Hi-Lo but struggled with the TC conversion so I switched to KO. The KO book tells you when to bet more and when to take insurance. There were several instances where the count indicated it was insurance time but I had it so ingrained in my head that insurance is a sucker bet (or it was right on the line and I wasn't confident in my count) that I didn't take it; sure enough, dealer had bj all but once when the count indicated. The one time they didn't, the down card was a second ace.

Side note on insurance, check your cards first. Last night I was playing and the count was so high that when the dealer showed his ace I promptly put my insurnace bet out there without checking my hand first. Sure enough dealer had blackjack. Unfortunantly so did I. I pushed instead of getting paid even money on my big bet.

I suspect I need to check my cards all the time for cover sake anyway. If the dealer shows an ace on the first hand I don't even bother to look before waiving off insurance. If the count is close I see how my cards impact the count before making a decision and obviously in last nights case my cards couldn't bring the count low enough to make insurance a bad bet so I didn't check then. A watchful pit could pick up on that pattern.

Quit when the playing conditions deteriorate: I've learned enough to not put win/loss limits on myself but I tend keep playing in less than ideal conditions. Where I play they cut the double deck in half. A full table of 7 players only yields two rounds. It's a waste of time and money. Pay attention to being hungry/tired and know that those conditions will deteriorate your play.

Have a plan: Know what you are going to bet at a given count. Know at what counts you are going to change BS. Stick to the plan. I've wasted a lot of money\opportunites waffling on how I should play each hand at extream counts.

I hope this helps someone out there.

Thank you to everyone out there who has made this such an outstanding forum.

b

When you got paid 2-1 on your insurance bet and the dealer and you pushed on your blackjack, it was the same thing as getting even money on your blackjack.

You bet $100 and take even money or $100

You bet $100 and place a $50 insurance bet. They give you $100 on your insurance bet and push your $100 bet.

Either way, you win $100

The cited a rule that I couldn't take insurance on a blackjack and didn't pay me even though I hadn't looked and my intentions were clear.

It's not the first time they have taken advantage of rules like that when it's to their advantage.

I had a $10 coupon w/ a $5 chip out there once with a pair of 6's against the dealers 7. I split the 6's (DD so it was BS) and just matched the chip. The dealer said that I had to match the coupon to do the split. I told her that normally they woulnd't let me do that although I'd like too. She called the pit boss over and he approved matching the coupon. I made both hands. The *VERY* next hand I had a $5 coupon w/ $10 in chips where I wanted to double down my 11 against a 6 and the same PC wouldn't let me match my coupon. He said, "What are you complaining about? You made some money"

in a 1d or 2d game, you should check them anyway. If you have two 10's, the TC just went down no matter what. By 1 or more. That should probably affect your insurance decision. IE just because the TC is at +3 before the deal starts, doesn't mean it will be at +3 by the time you make the insurance decision. If you are near the stop card, with 1d remaining, and you have two 10's and the dealer has an A up, the TC just dropped to 0 anyway and insurance should be avoided.

I suspect that the rule they cited where you couldn't take insurance on a blackjack existed only in the pit critters mind and only after he made it up on the spot.

EE

According to Ian Andersen in Burning the Tables in Las Vegas, you should always insure your Blackjacks. This helps in providing cover because most of the ploppy community does it. And it's usually right to do so when you have big bets out. You give up some EV with his selective covers play which is easily made up by spreading a little higher and also in the form of longer playing time. Anyway, I consider this book one of the stellar contributions to the game of professional blackjack and I highly recommend it. It's also endorsed by Stanford Wong - he wrote the forward. These are sophisticated concepts and are not really conducive to beginning players but it's still worth checking out.

Insurance has an average negative EV of 7.7%, on half a unit, so 3.35% per unit. Thus it takes 7 other plays at +0.5% per unit to make up for that. You would need a hell of a spread to make this worth while, and that in itself hurts your cover. It seems that a better cover would be to tip the dealer (see below), or always stand on 15 vs. 10, or hire Aunt Bea (see below). What am I missing here?

The recommendation was to always buy insurance when you have a BLACKJACK. Obviously, always buying insurance every time it is offered is very expensive. But always buying insurance (i.e. taking even money) when you have a blackjack costs very little because (1) it is an infrequent event, and (2) will sometimes be the proper play anyway. It's cheap cover.

EE

Where I play they cut the double deck in half. A full table of 7 players only yields two rounds.

With that in mind, all I want to know is: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING PLAYING THAT GAME, ANYWAY?

Just curious.

Regards,
drumz1

My point was to quit playing when the circumstances are bad. When the table is full the game goes to crap and I should quit playing.

It's hard to walk away even when the circumstances are lousy. I like to play and my options are extreamly limited (there are only 5 tables to choose from).

Normally I can play heads up or with only one or two other players and then I'm able to make some money.

Something else I'm guilty of of I start thinking of the casino as my personal ATM machine. I win a few sessions in a row and then I get shocked when I loose. I have to keep reminding myself of my EV and know when I'm way up that it's *going* to come back down.

b