Cutting low cards out of play / high cards into play

#1
Single deck, heads up. The dealer consistently shows me the bottom card of the deck after shuffling when I need to cut. If it's a low card, I cut that card out of play, and if it's a 10 or ace I cut it into play near the top so it would come out the first or second hand. How much is this worth? Is it like starting every deck with a +1 count?
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#3
alwayssplitaces said:
Single deck, heads up. The dealer consistently shows me the bottom card of the deck after shuffling when I need to cut. If it's a low card, I cut that card out of play, and if it's a 10 or ace I cut it into play near the top so it would come out the first or second hand. How much is this worth? Is it like starting every deck with a +1 count?

Yes.
 
#4
alwayssplitaces said:
Single deck, heads up. The dealer consistently shows me the bottom card of the deck after shuffling when I need to cut. If it's a low card, I cut that card out of play, and if it's a 10 or ace I cut it into play near the top so it would come out the first or second hand. How much is this worth? Is it like starting every deck with a +1 count?
Practice precision cutting -- the ability to cut off a, say, 12 cards plus or minus no more than one card. It's not as hard as it sounds. And then work with a partner.

TX
 

London Colin

Well-Known Member
#5
Cutting a small card out of play is obviously like starting the deck with a +1 count: You've seen one card that can't be played and account for it just the same as you do the cards that you see used up during play.

But cutting a big card to the front is surely worth a lot more. The greater the precision with which you can steer it to a particular hand, the more it must be worth. (Assuming you raise your bet for the hand in question to reflect the boost in EV.)

[I have no experience of doing this; I'm just theorizing. I'm sure there are many practical constraints on what can actually be achieved.]
 
#6
London Colin said:
Cutting a big card to the front is surely worth a lot more. The greater the precision with which you can steer it to a particular hand, the more it must be worth. (Assuming you raise your bet for the hand in question to reflect the boost in EV.]
I think that's what I was trying to say. You said it much more coherently. (The partner would be useful for making the big bets.)
 

RG1

Active Member
#7
If you can steer the high cards to yourself, how much would it be worth to steer the low cards (2-7) to the dealer? What if you could steer it as their hole card?

It seems like something worth figuring out and practicing.
 

Sucker

Well-Known Member
#8
London Colin said:
But cutting a big card to the front is surely worth a lot more.
A player getting a 10 as his first card has a 13% advantage over the house. If the DEALER gets the 10 the player is playing at a 17% DISADVANTAGE.

I'm not saying don't try it, but if you do; you better know what the hell you're doing!
 

London Colin

Well-Known Member
#9
txlouder said:
I think that's what I was trying to say. You said it much more coherently. (The partner would be useful for making the big bets.)
Yes, I thought that was what you were hinting at. It just seemed worth spelling out for the OP.
 

London Colin

Well-Known Member
#10
Sucker said:
A player getting a 10 as his first card has a 13% advantage over the house. If the DEALER gets the 10 the player is playing at a 17% DISADVANTAGE.

I'm not saying don't try it, but if you do; you better know what the hell you're doing!
Indeed. I wasn't trying to promote this as an easy thing to do. I just wanted to draw a clear distinction between the two cases (which seemed to be being viewed as more-or-less equivalent).
 

Dyepaintball12

Well-Known Member
#12
Sucker said:
A player getting a 10 as his first card has a 13% advantage over the house. If the DEALER gets the 10 the player is playing at a 17% DISADVANTAGE.

I'm not saying don't try it, but if you do; you better know what the hell you're doing!
Wait a second. After reading "Busting Vegas", although Fiction, it says that while steering 10s to the player is a huge advantage, they steered tens to the dealer because it gave him a much larger chance of busting.
 

Sonny

Well-Known Member
#13
Dyepaintball12 said:
...they steered tens to the dealer because it gave him a much larger chance of busting.
And how did that work out for them? If you find a situation where you know the exact location of a card then you might think about it, but most of the time you will only have general information that can easily backfire if you try to get "fancy" with it.

-Sonny-
 

Sucker

Well-Known Member
#14
Dyepaintball12 said:
Wait a second. After reading "Busting Vegas", although Fiction, it says that while steering 10s to the player is a huge advantage, they steered tens to the dealer because it gave him a much larger chance of busting.
If the dealer's UP card is a ten he has a 17% advantage. If his HOLE card is a ten and you know for sure it's a ten, he still has the advantage, but because you know the hole card, it will be much less; largely because he can't get a blackjack without you winning the insurance bet.

If you can steer 10s to the dealer as a HIT card, it's a whole new ball game! I'm sure that that's what they were talking about in the book.
 
#16
Sucker said:
If you can steer 10s to the dealer as a HIT card, it's a whole new ball game! I'm sure that that's what they were talking about in the book.
Refresh my memory - what is the pre-deal advantage% knowing that dealer's first hit will be 10? zg
 
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