Observations from a beginner (and thanks to LVBear)

I noticed on my last trip that i seemed to be doing a lot better on shoes than pitch games. Got me thinking about some stuff.

i think what's happening is that it's getting easier for me to keep the running count in spite of distractions. One of the advantages of SD, at least for me, was that if I had a brain fart it usually wasn't long until I got a chance to start over. Now that I don't lose my head as often, that advantage of SD seems less important.

Thus, I presume two other factors have come into play:
1. At least early in the pack, a shoe game is less sensitive to errors in counting. (ie, thinking youre at a RC of +2 instead of +1 doesn't throw you off as much early in a six-deck pack as it would in SD).
2. Late in the pack, a shoe count takes longer to regress to the mean. Thus, more hands in a row are dealt while the player has an advantage, and the game is less sensitive to the number of players who belly up to the table in the middle of the shoe.

I figure that, in order to exploit single deck effectively, the following have to happen first:
1. Need to eliminate counting errors.
2. Need to focus more on conditions, not play when conditions are poor.

I spent some time studying playing strategy, although at my level of play, I'm not sure that's helping me much yet, except for insurance decisions. It would have been a better investment in my time to do counting drills, and to study up on choosing a good SD game.

With that in mind, for anyone just starting out, I would highly recommend LVBear's post on choosing a single deck game, which was the June 2002 post of the month. (Green Chip membership is required to view this). LVBear, thanks a million for taking the time to share this knowledge with us.

At least in Las Vegas, the six deck games are generally better than the single deck games. Specifically, the 6 deck, S17 or H17, DAS, LS, 4.5/6 games found on the strip is better than the 1 deck H17 0.5/1 games found downtown and in Laughlin. This becomes clear if you read Blackjack Attack 2.

Unfortunately for me, I proceeded to lose half my bankroll when I made the switch from single deck to shoe games.

The problem I've found with the shoe is that the negative counts can be interminable. I like the volatility of the single or double decks. And as my sojourns to playable games are so infrequent, my inclination is more to play all rather than to wong shoes. While I have done it, it just isn't, for me, very much fun.