laserjet said:
Thanks Flash. Any other practioniers care to comment on this?
I can see you are not convinced. Let us illustrate using an example.
What Flash said is that the Zen most people use is 1 deck TC Zen. So you stick with +5, it is most likely the correct index for insurance. Give you an example,
Assume you are playing 6 deck, assume 1 deck has been played, there are 5 decks remaining, the cards you have seen were 10, 6, 10, 6, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 3,4,6,7, followed by five straight 5
So the running count = -2+2-2+2+1+2+2+2+2+1+2+2+1+2x5 = +25
We are using 1 deck true count (1DTC),
So TC = +25 / 5 = +5
Now dealer up card is A and he asked if anyone want to buy insurance, you should because TC is equal or higher than +5. You can see only two tens came out, so there are many tens in the remaining deck, so dealer's BJ probability is quite high.
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Same cards have been played. We just use 1/2 DTC.
In some book, the author used 1/2 DTC (half deck true count), 5 decks is equal to 10 half-decks.
So TC = +25/ 10 = +2.5
The insurance index is +2.5 for 1/2DTC system. When TC is greater than or equal to +2.5, you should buy insurance.
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If we are using quarter deck true count, since 5 decks is equal to 20 quarter-decks,
So TC = RC / # of quarter-deck = +25/20 = +1.25.
The insurance index is +1.25 for 1/4DTC system. In this system, if true count is equal to or greater than 1.25, you should buy insurance.
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Just remember most people use one deck true count. It is old school true count. So +5 is a good answer for your first question.
Your second question is more like "Under traditional one deck true count Zen, is insurance index +5 the same for 1 deck, 2 deck, 6 deck and 8 deck Blackjack?" The answer is yes.
I just bring up another topic on grain size because more and more people move to half deck true count system because the grain size is smaller so the index will be more accurate in nature. And the indexes you need to memorize will be quite different on different grain size system. But you have to ask yourself, can you spot how many quarter-decks remaining by looking at the discard tray? It is much easier to say there are 2 decks remaining than say there are 8 or 9 or 10 quarter-decks remaining.