Single Deck Betting

Hey guys,

I've been practicing my single deck for a few months now, and I really see the possibilites with this. Plan on flying out to Vegas when I turn 21 just to test my skills out. Anyway, I was wondering how everyone works their bets. Do you steadily increase your bets if the count rises drastically, or do you jump from say 1 unit to 5 units immediately??? I am wondering how bad the heat is on these games and if i could get away with jumping my bets, or steadily increase from say 1 unit to 3 units to 5 units when the count changes suddenly. Let me know any experiences.

Thanks,

Dave

If you are on a 5 dollar table or something, don't even be concered with it. Unless you are playing black or up 1000 or more, its not even a concern at all.

You will find very few playable single-deckers in Las Vegas. There are none on the Strip and they are getting sparse downtown, but they can be found there. If you are a $5 bettor, you can jump to a max bet of $25 without too much worry, although if you plant yourself at a table for hours on end, you may get some undue attention.

One caution about playing single deck games at home and then expecting to repeat your success in the casinos. At home, you have an exclusive heads-up game. You aren't likely to get one at a $5 table in Las Vegas. In fact, often, you will find yourself playing at a full table where only one round is dealt. In that situation, your newly-found counting skills are going to naught. At home, you can deal as deeply into the deck as you wish. In the casino, you will be fortunate indeed if you find a dealer who deals more than 50% of the cards before shuffling. At home, you will encounter none of the distractions that you will find in a casino. Chatty dealers, complaining players, pit bosses standing over your shoulder and buxom cocktail waitresses are but a few of the casino distractions that you won't get at home.

Keep practicing and honing your skills, but don't expect to repeat the experience in the real world of the casino. However, we all started somewhere, and we all had a first time, so best of luck in the world of casino blackjack.

On a recent trip to Vegas, and based on my own arcane screening and target selection process, I hit town with only four reasonable 1D targets. One of these turned out to be Superfun 21 (Lady Luck: Very un-fun).

And one of the three was the Western ( a little schmeary).

In contrast, I had 23 2-D targets to choose from and rank in order of preference. Given three shifts, this yields 92 possible games.

These comments are for low- rollers only ($5 and $10 minima), systematically betting conventional ramps similar to what is described in Blackjack Attack etc.

Another thought - far outside the scope of your question - consider some 6-D on the far south Strip. Combination of S17 and Surrender yields some impressive numbers.

Have fun on your trip - if the bizarre scene doesn't drive you crazy.

Let us know how it goes.

Also, remember Rule No. 4:

Always listen to Bootlegger.

:: ::

I have found that the down town casinos are very quick to spot counters srpeading from $5 - $20 without cover. They generally don't back them off, but often the pit will tell the dealer to shuffle anytime the player "jumps" his bet.

Last year, I was getting good pen at the Four Queens betting up to $300 on the single deck. A counter joins the table jumping his bet from $5 straight to $20 anytime the count was favorable. The pit was wise to him within minutes and the dealer was instructed to shuffle anytime he jumped his bet. The low stakes counter quickly learned he was not welcome and left. The deep penetration immediately returned for me.

Often, dealers will shuffle early on "jumped bets" without instruction from the pit. While I generally agree that low stakes players can not afford cover, they will not get a decent game playing single deck without some cover.

Dr 21

Bootlegger,
Thanks for the advise. I've been practicing at home with many distractions available, and have found that my count is almost always dead on. As for heads up games, I realize that at the casino there will be more players, which creates frequencies, but you do the best you can, right? Also, when I've been practicing, been playing with 50-60% penetration.

Anyway, I'm going to continue practicing my single deck, start working on my double deck, and see how it goes when I go to Vegas. Gotta celebrate your 21st b-day somehow, right?

Also, how have people done down at the borgata. I realize it is all 6-deck games in AC, but is the Borgata playable and can you make decent money at it, or will I need a huge spread?

Thanks everyone!

-Dave

dave wrote:

"...Also, how have people done down at the borgata. I realize it is all 6-deck games in AC, but is the Borgata playable and can you make decent money at it, or will I need a huge spread?

there are a number of things that make the borgata "playable".

there are an awful lot of bj tables. even on a sunday there are a few 5, 10 and 15 dollar mins and a whole slew of quarter tables. they allow you to play 2 hands @ the minimum.

i play thusly: 2 hands for a quarter, spread 8-1 and wong out at tc < -1. this gives a di ~ 6.30.

i don't back count my entry, per se (wait of a + 1 or 2 tc), but i wander around and watch for a shuffle. (with all the tables there is usually a shuffle very 30 seconds or so). if the rc is + 2 or 3, i sit down and play. if its negative or zero after a round is played, i wander to the next shuffling table. this entry at a slightly better point than the shuffle bucks my di above the 6.30 quoted above.

the 2x$25 to 2x$200 spread gets zero attention from the pit. they probably ask if i want to be rated maybe a third of the times i sit down.

with all the tables and the confusion and the amount of much bigger play in the store, my play is pretty invisible. i believe the wi-wo strategy is far less obvious than waiting behind a table for the tc to run to +1.5 or so to make an entry ,or spreading 20-1 to get an acceptable di.

i think the borgata allows one to sharpen their skill set and still play a marginally winning game on the east coast in relative aninimity in preaparation for the better games elsewhere.

for instance the s17, das game at the borgata with the style mentioned above yields a 6.30 di. adding surrender on the strip with the same 6 decker and spread yields about a 7.92 di !!!

I would complain, sounding like a ploppy of course, that the dealer is shuffling too much. Your reasoning could be that it just takes too much time, or maybe, "Other dealers don't shuffle this much." You can put it more eloquently than that. The pit isn't going to stand there and blatently accuse you of counting for only 20 bucks.

Man, I'm going to be in Vegas on Nov. 10th. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Vegas is going to be a culture shock compared to the riverboats here in the Chicago area. I've been there before and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. (That is, except for much lower limits). The riverboat here in the Chicagoland are usually 15 minimums on slow days and 25 minimum on weekends. Maybe thats why I just don't see the significance of some of these discussions. If that's the way it is now, sheesh. It's gotten pretty bad. I mean that's just bad service all around.

if you are playing single deck. They would just tell you to try the shoe game 5 to 10 feet away! Besides, when they start shuffling more often, it means that they already know you are not a plopply.

Dr 21

I play a lot in Mississippi and Louisiana. Maybe Vegas is different, especially downtown Vegas. But where I play, I spread $25 to $250 with no cover for hours and hours and rarely see any heat. I think there is some paranoia about heat. Cover betting can be very costly, and I don't plan on doing any of it until I see a need. If I go to Vegas, I plan on walking onto the strip and spreading $50 to $250 at a double deck game next to some ploppy high roller betting $1,000 a hand. Hopefully, I will stay under the radar.

You state:

"If you are a $5 bettor, you can jump to a max bet of $25 without too much worry.."

One question: On what planet are you going to jump $5-25? Which casino?