Penetration in Europe

To everyone that has gambled in Europe (not at CSM blackjack) and played blackjack, do you find the penetration to be good or bad? I ws wondering if they consider counting much of a threat in Europe, especially UK, where there is hardly any counters... ??

I've found it varies with dealers, some chop off over 2 decks and I've seen some that chop about one.

taken from casino.com..

'Basically, card penetration refers to the method of weighting the cards dealt that have already been dealt against the cards that are remaining and about to be reshuffled'

I'm trying to understand the actual meaning of penetration, I thought that it was the amount of cards that are played before being reshuffled? Is this correct? I find that definition above pretty hard to decipher.

Thanks

Si..(a work in progress)

Penetration is the position of the shuffle card in the shoe (or in the hand of cards in SD and DD). You want the shuffle card as far to the back of the shoe as possible.

I agree that there are hardly any counters in the UK i have certainly never seen another person play basic strategy properly let alone counting cards. Penetration varys from dealer to dealer, most casinos i have been to in the midlands offer between 70% and 85% which is good. Occasionly you get 60% but then i just leave the table and go to the bar.

forgive me for my stupidity here but...

Penetration is dependent on where the cut in the decks is....isn't it up to the players where this is is?

when i play in the gala casinos there is a card that is thrown to one of the players as the cards are been dealt and then when the decks are shuffled they cut the deck..

I've never seen the dealer do this

Am i completely misunderstanding penetration here?

Your half right... The player cuts the deck in any place he chooses with the cut card.

The dealer then moves all cards in front of the card to the back of the pack. Then he or she will place the cut card around 1 to 2 decks from the back and place the cards in the shoe.

So the penetration is the percentage number of cards you will play before the cut card appears and the cards are shuffled. e.g if the dealer cuts 1 deck from the back thats 83% penetration (excellent) and you will see 5 decks of cards before a shuffle.

oh right thanks for that..