My favorite BJ moment

kewljason

Well-Known Member
#1
Was playing heads up in Vegas earlier this year, early in the morning. The count went positive midway through the shoe, so I went into my heads-up card saving plays. Borderline plays designed to save cards but at a minimum cost. Don't split 2's, don't split 3's, don't split 4's,6's or 7's vs dealer 2,3,4, don't split 9's vs 2,3,4,7,8,9, don't double A7 vs 2,3 dont double A8 vs 4,5,6 (even at the proper index), ect. All plays designed to save cards, but according to BJA the cost of these incorrect plays is less than half a cent per $100 wager.

Towards the end of the shoe I get 9,9 vs dealer 4. I stand and win when dealer draws 17. Cut card comes out during next hand. Had I split I wouldn't have gotten this extra hand @ max bet ($400 x 2.5% advantage= EV $10.00) :) So any way on this last (extra) hand I draw 9,9 vs dealer 4 again! Same exact hand. Since the cut card is already out I split and win both. Now here's the best part. Well, winning all hands was the best part, but here's an extra bonus. There was a floor guy who had been standing watching me play. Not in a threatening way but more a it's 2am and I am bored way. So he says to me, "You got the same hand twice in a row and played them differently", to which I reply, "yeah, I never go by any set rule, more my gut feeling". He walked away shaking his head. :laugh:
 

21forme

Well-Known Member
#2
Good story.

Wonder if you've ever simmed the strategy deviations vs. the extra round of play to see what the real difference really is?
 
#3
Here's a good one: playing SP21, count was astronomically low (around 15 TC's below neutral) but with a somewhat trackable shuffle if you can get the cut card. I have hard 18 vs. dealer 9, I see the cut card and I will be the last player with an opportunity to get it, so I figure taking the hit is a worthwhile sacrifice for the next shoe.

Got the 3. Got the cut card. :grin:

Got the good count on the next shoe. And got totally crushed. :flame:
 

Nynefingers

Well-Known Member
#4
Automatic Monkey said:
Here's a good one: playing SP21, count was astronomically low (around 15 TC's below neutral) but with a somewhat trackable shuffle if you can get the cut card. I have hard 18 vs. dealer 9, I see the cut card and I will be the last player with an opportunity to get it, so I figure taking the hit is a worthwhile sacrifice for the next shoe.

Got the 3. Got the cut card. :grin:

Got the good count on the next shoe. And got totally crushed. :flame:
What determined who got the cut card? Did it just go to whoever it was dealt to?
 
#5
Nynefingers said:
What determined who got the cut card? Did it just go to whoever it was dealt to?
Yes that's the procedure here. The cutoff gets distributed across a half a shoe for the next shuffle, so you can cut 1 deck of them behind the cut card and the rest up at the front of the shoe, to manufacture a nice count for yourself.
 

Nynefingers

Well-Known Member
#6
Automatic Monkey said:
Yes that's the procedure here. The cutoff gets distributed across a half a shoe for the next shuffle, so you can cut 1 deck of them behind the cut card and the rest up at the front of the shoe, to manufacture a nice count for yourself.
I'm still pretty green at tracking, but wouldn't it be preferable to cut a deck in front of the good half and use the extended NRS formula? That would keep all of your good slug in front of the cut card. Not that I know the math for extended NRS at this point, but...
 
#7
Nynefingers said:
I'm still pretty green at tracking, but wouldn't it be preferable to cut a deck in front of the good half and use the extended NRS formula? That would keep all of your good slug in front of the cut card. Not that I know the math for extended NRS at this point, but...
No that's not sufficient with this kind of shuffle. The slugs are too diluted to get a good count with tracking alone. What you have to do is use the cut to decrease the possibility that an unfortunate low card will show up in the part of the shoe where you tend to get good counts. So you can cut one deck of the low stuff behind the cut card and the rest up front to get it out of the way.
 

Nynefingers

Well-Known Member
#8
Automatic Monkey said:
No that's not sufficient with this kind of shuffle. The slugs are too diluted to get a good count with tracking alone. What you have to do is use the cut to decrease the possibility that an unfortunate low card will show up in the part of the shoe where you tend to get good counts. So you can cut one deck of the low stuff behind the cut card and the rest up front to get it out of the way.
That makes sense, I think. I had thought you were talking about cutting a deck of the half-shoe containing big cards to the back. Couldn't figure out why we would want to waste a deck that is slightly rich in big cards just to move big cards to the very front. I'll learn more about this stuff eventually, but for now I'll stick to the easy shuffles.
 

21gunsalute

Well-Known Member
#10
kewljason said:
Was playing heads up in Vegas earlier this year, early in the morning. The count went positive midway through the shoe, so I went into my heads-up card saving plays. Borderline plays designed to save cards but at a minimum cost. Don't split 2's, don't split 3's, don't split 4's,6's or 7's vs dealer 2,3,4, don't split 9's vs 2,3,4,7,8,9, don't double A7 vs 2,3 dont double A8 vs 4,5,6 (even at the proper index), ect.
Do you usually split 4's against a 2,3 or 4?
 

kewljason

Well-Known Member
#11
21gunsalute said:
Do you usually split 4's against a 2,3 or 4?
I split 4's vs 4 at tc of +4. I personally don't split vs 3 or 2. The index for doing so is too high to make it worthwhile for me. Anyway, I guess your point is I could have been a little more precise with my wording. Point taken.
 

Meistro

Well-Known Member
#12
My favourite blackjack moment just happened.

Last night at my local store I was grinding it out on the quarter tables with some grumbly plops, back counting and wonging in place like a champ. I jump in for two spots at the min with a very minor dis advantage, mostly to lock up the spots (TC 0.5 or so) and get a sixteen and a twenty. Running count is positive so I am all set to stand when the random plop beside me hits! Dealer pulls me the ace of diamonds and I start to complain. So they set it aside.

So I stand. Never in my life have I been so happy to see the dealer with a monkey under his monkey, and I grab my push bet and hop to the right of the bewildered plops, throwing down everything in front of me on the first seat. I found a ten of clubs to go with my ace of diamonds and shipped a pretty sweet blackjack; running good as always hitting them for 3* my expectation. Now I played it right but my bet was $50 under the maximum, and in restrospect that is a TON of EV to give up ($25) when you consider what I normally have to risk and the variance I have to go through to get that $25 in EV.


Incidentally at that store I recently saw someone double a hard 13 with a $2000 table max bet out to pull an 8. Was the fix in? I'm not sure, and I've seen people make hard doubles for serious money before, but he didn't look like a degenerate, more like a slick operater, and later I saw him tip the door guy $10 on his way out.
 
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