Arizona casino info?

The problem with this is that I have zero experience. Technically that's a lie, as I have played at a $5 minimum table. I had $35, wan't well versed in basic strategy and left the table with $30 after an 40ish minutes of play. My last hand saw me doubling on 93 when I thought I had 92. I suppose learning to count would be a good place to start, tournaments or not. :grin:

Surely this is obvious though isn't it? Betting in normal cash games is going to be based on a count and I already explained that I don't believe I have the mental acuity to do. Cash games will also require disciplined bankroll management. Almost a nonfactor in tournaments, as the kinds I'd be playing in at first shouldn't/won't be all that expensive.

Tournament betting will be based off what everone else has bet this round (obviously assuming I'm not first), has bet in the past, and factoring in the min and max bets of the tournament structure. Far easier on the ol' brain. At least, I would think it'd be easier.

Was this good or did I misunderstand your request?

I use the hi-lo count. It's terribly easy, it really is. It takes practice to get good at it, like throwing a football. But once you've got practice down it's easy.

If you can count to 12 and back down to -12 then you can do hi-lo. Then all you have to do is divide, estimate the number of decks left and divide the count by that. It's really not hard, I probably could've learned how to do it, and do it well, in 5th or 6th grade. I'm not joking.

As far as doing it with distractions and over time and everything, again I believe it's just practice.

I believe the reason that most people don't do it is that they believe they don't have the mental capacity for it, when in reality it's that they don't have the time and patience for it. Nothing wrong with that, I don't have the time to learn cribbage or play tennis. Just what I like to do, but if you like BJ and you want to get better then you might be ok with making the time to practice counting.

I would also think counting would help tourney play, no?

true count conversions

I think I could practice and get deck estimation allright, although admittedly I haven't tried. My trouble with it was trying to get the division down for the True count conversions. I guess you memorize the more common fraction>percentage conversions?
I just can't do 13/5 in my head without going through a whole "well, it's about halfway between 10/5 and 15/5, so the answer must be about halfway between 2 and 3." thing and that takes me way too long!
This is why I started learning unbalanced counts I was telling you about.

What are your tricks for the division of the True count?

I don't find it to be that hard, but I'm kind of a math geek. Stats come fairly easy to me. I haven't always been doing the division, in your example I would use 13/5 instead of going down to 2.6.

But I see your point about the conversion and how unbalanced counts could help get rid of that extra mental step. I don't know how I feel about learning a new count as I'm just getting used to the one I use now. It's a good point though.

Time and patience I have.

Would the two of you be able to point me in the direction of where I could learn your two counting methods?

You guys can tell me about the method of counting you use all day, but that doesn't teach me the method. So, where do I go to acquire such knowledge? Ya know?

This would be my problem, but I'm not as afraid of numbers as some people seem to be. Just as long as we're not doing "higher" math, I'll be okay.

Not necessarily. Statistically, it will come in handy, just not often enough (in my opinion) to matter. You don't tend to play a lot of hands in tournaments, thus less time for the count to get advantageous. Though if it does get advantageous and you realize it, by all means go for it I guess.

But in general, the opinion of counting in tournaments is that it's not worth it.

What's the main strategy for tourneys then, just to focus on beating the other players?

And in response to where you can learn, books my friend, books. There are multiple threads around on good BJ books.

Yeah pretty much. Bet more intelligently than they do.

See also: Introduction to Blackjack Tournaments on this here site. :grin:

Learning resources

Best to check the FAQ here at blackjackinfo.com and that will last a while, if you follow the links and read past threads from this forum. There's also a lot of articles out there at qfit.com, advantageplayer.com, and a bunch of others if you google card counting, stanford wong, arnold snyder, etc. When you do this free research you'll probably find an area or a specific count method that interests you, and then you should get the books. you''ll want to research first to know which books will suit you best and which counting method you'll want to focus on, but you wont want to stop with the free web stuff, because a lot can come from the books first hand that you cant get from someone elses interpretation and limited quotes.