I'm sure you're thinking, "What's the big deal?" Well, I thought the newbs might appreciate this story. Actually, I'm still one. And I've had just awful luck during high positive counts. The first 3 times I wonged into multi-deck shoes I got really creamed. I walked away from the game stunned and discouraged. No joke, I wondered if the gods of probability had singled me out for sport! How could I possibly lose when the count was so stratospheric!!! It was time to re-evaluate this thing. OK, the casino has a .5% advantage. Each +1 - in true count - adds +.5% to my edge. So at +3 I have a 1% advantage, at +5 a 2% advantage, ad infinitum. So with a true count of +5, I can expect to win 51 times and the dealer 49 times out of a hundred, right? In other words, I can expect to lose almost half of these bets! That realization is scary because that's when we have our big money out there. I didn't understand this at the beginning and became very discouraged. Haven't we all at some time wondered if there was a curse hanging over us, dooming even our best efforts to succeed? Well, at least that's how I felt the first time. Sure, I shook it off. But I still wag my head every time I remember the god-awful luck that accompanied my first wong-ins. So now the good news: today I finally cleaned up!!!!!!!!!!!! Big count, big bets, big wins - isn't this the way it's supposed to work! I felt like the curse hanging over my shoulder had been replaced with the ghost of Kenny Uston. Are you proud of me, Kenny? (OK, I got carried away....my bad). So when this counting thing works, it works beautifully, huh? I just wanted to celibrate with this board and let the other newbs know that it's a wild ride out there. Wear your seat belt and hold on!!! (BTW, I'm not very sharp with the math thing, so I welcome any criticism if my numbers are incorrect. Thanks. 49_)
