OMEGA II betspread question

Im a new student who learned from "BLACKJACK FOR BLOOD". I need help understanding the bet spread graph on pg.87.The graph looks like this.

BET W/L COUNT BET<1/2 BET>1/2

1 w (+) 2 2

1 L (+) 2 2

1 w (-) 1 1

1 L (-) 1 1

It then has four 2s,4s,and 8s under the "bet" collum. With varying degrees of the same things under the other headings.I would love for someone to explain this in laments terms with examples please.

newbie501,

Much as I admire Bryce Carlson's excellent Blackjack for Blood, I have to tell you that his betting advice is VERY outdated. It'll work fine, as long as you can find heads-up SD games with good rules and outstanding penetration. However, for today's conditions, you have to use a more-aggressive strategy.

Also, today we can easily simulate the game, and so can devise betting strategies specifically targetted to a particular rules set, penetration, and player RoR (risk of ruin) preference.

If you post your particulars, I (or another helpful poster here) can quickly run a sim to provide the optimum betting strategy. For example, you might say, "The game is SD, H17, DA2, NoDAS, with Rule of 6 pen. I have a $12,000 Bankroll and want my RoR to be below 7%. I use the complete set of AOII indexes, with the Ace sidecount. I'll use a 1:5 spread." In which I'd reply that this scheme:

 

TC  Bet 

<2  $35 

+2  $50 

+4  $75 

+5 $100 

+6 $125 

+7 $150 

+9 $175 

Thank you so much for responding to my question on bet spread question. I think some background on myself is in order. Im just a working stiff living paycheck to pay check. A year ago my mother and i started talking again after a very long time. She and my stepfather are complete casino people. She learned the count from BLACKJACK FOR BLOOD about ten years ago.This past year she taught me. She can count extremely well but i quickly realized she only learned the bare minimum,only basic stratagie for multiple decks.Not even the -6 or +6 stratigies. And mostly plays 6 deck games. She has money but lets things like losing,peoples play,and superstition (good or bad dealers)creep in.Still in this everyone who knows including her says she wins overall. Im putting this to the test now.As for me im hooked.I can count good.Iknow the +6 and -6 stratagies. I can also keep a side count of aces.Im now at a road block.Know one i know can explain the other things in the book to help me progress.When you wrote back you used terminology i dont understand.Like da2,noda,rule of pen 6.When you say 1.5 bet spread,i dont know how that looks in real play.In my current position i have 2 grand to play with. im not even using it. My mother and i have teamed up. We play 6 deck games. 5dollar and ten dollar. rules are split any pairs with which you can double,dealer hits soft17,double any to cards,75% penetration easily sometimes 5 1/2 deck out of 6.split aces or any other pair as often as they come. We have a 2 deck game with same rules exept you can only split aces once. My mother has plenty of money but shes not gonna give me 10000 dollars or more. We go to the casino she gives me 500 dollars if i lose it i lose it. if i come up 2 or 3 hundred i get off the table. we have been plying like this for a month and have a profit of 800.So in summary i would love for you to tell me a stratgy i can impliment for the stage im in. Even if that means saving up more mony to do this.Second i need you to explain the index section for the AOII.I dont know how to read it and its the last piece of the puzzle for me.Thank you so much for helping.My stepfather says its not wise to tell you guys how low i am cause it will make you guys not want to help.I hope he is WRONG. HA HA!!!!!!!!

newbie501,

Terminology: "DA2" means "double any two": that is, you can double down on any original two-card hand. Some casinos restrict doubling, especially on SD (single deck) and DD (double deck) games.

"NoDAS" means "No Double After Split": thus, in a NoDAS game, if you split 8's and draw a 3, you CANNOT double down on this 8-3 hand. Again, this rule is mostly seen in SD and DD games.

"Rule of 6 pen": often, SD games are dealt to a specified number of rounds to a given number of spots (not counting the dealer) in play. For instance, if three spots are played and the dealer deals 3 rounds, that's 3+3=6, so Rule of 6. For heads-up play, Ro6 gives 5 rounds between shuffles. Penetration determined this way is almost always seen only on SD games.

"1:5 spread" means that the ratio of the minimum bet to the maximum bet is 1 to 5. Thus, in the example I gave, the bets ranged from $35 to $175: note that 35/175 = 1/5. Of course, the "bets" here are "initial bets": it's understood that if you split and/or double down on a max bet, you'll actually be risking MORE than one max bet.

The game you're describing would be called 6D, H17, DA2, DAS, RSA (for resplit aces). The difference between dealing 4.5/6 (75% pen) and 5.5/6 (92% pen) is HUGE. You would be MUCH better off to play against those dealers giving the 5.5/6 pen, rather than the 4.5/6 pen.

The Index charts in BJFB are explained in the text. As an example, for 15 vs. X, the Hit/Stand chart shows an index of +7. This means that if you have 15 and the dealer shows an X (that is, any 10-value card), you have to compute the updated true count. If the TC is greater than or equal to +7, you would STAND; if less than +7, you would HIT.

Let's work an example. As the round starts, you see about 4 decks in the discard rack (and so there are 2 decks left in the shoe) and the running count (RC) is +12. That means that the TC at the start of the round is TC = RC/(decks in shoe) = +12/2 = +6. The dealer slings the cards, and you (sitting at first base) get the dreaded 9-6 vs. the dealer's 10. Looking at the three other players' cards on the table, you see 3-3, K-6, and 5-6. What's the current RC? Well, it's now the original +12 -2 (dealer's 10) +1 (your 9-6) +2 (3-3) +0 (K-6) +4 (5-6) = 12-2+1+2+0+4 = +17. Since the shoe has about 2 decks left, the TC is then +17/2 = +8.5 (actually a bit higher, since less than 2 decks are left in the shoe because some of the cards are now on the table). Since the TC is greater than or equal to +7, you STAND on your 15 (and hope the dealer busts). On the other hand, if the original RC had been only +1, after the cards are dealt (the same as above) the new RC would be 1-2+1+2+0+4 = +6, and the new TC would be +6/2 = +3. Now, the TC is less than the index of +7, so you HIT (and hope not to bust yourself).

As for your bankroll (BR)... $500 is nowhere near enough to allow you to sit down and play. If you could scrape together $3,000 and play on a $5 minimum 5.5/6 pen table, you could then spread 1:20 ($5 to $100) with a risk of ruin of 13.4% (this means that, if you play until you either double your BR or go broke, you have a 13.4% chance of first going broke). The optimal spread (assuming 4 total players) is to bet $5 for any TC<=+2, $10 at +3, $20 at +4, $25 at +5 & +6, $50 at +7 to +9, $75 at +10 to +12, and $100 at +13 and above. Note that, with this outstanding pen, you'll place a max bet nearly 3% of the time. This bet schedule gives an advantage of 2.117%, with a win rate of $27.55/hr (actually, per 100 rounds played).

What's the penetration like on the DD game? Also, what is the min bet? That might turn out to be the better play for you.

Hope this helps!

Dog Hand

Thanks for the help. I got some studing to do.