betting ramp

[willhou]

Hi, everybody... I'd like to get some advice about my betting progression. I'm playing hi-lo using a modified illustrious 18 (no splitting 10s, a few other adjustments), against $10 DD. I had a couple of great trips and now two bad ones in a row (lost $800 and $600), and though I'm still up for 2008, losses like that make me want to double, triple check everything

I'm betting:

bathroom break or sit out at very low counts
$10 at TC >= 0
$25 at TC = 1
$50 at TC = 2
$75 at TC = 3
$100 at TC > 4

also I "fill in" between those... if TC is .667 I'll bet $20, if TC is 1.5 I'll bet $35 or 40... and I also finesse it here and there in terms of cover (like letting $50 ride instead of putting out $75).

Any ideas or criticism would be most appreciated.

[Harman]

Sounds like you're very organised keep it up You're betting ramp is good, and I like the way you use decimal counts to decide your bet, makes for a more accurate bet.

Good luck for the future, and what are the rules like in your casino, this could help us decide on whether you need to spread further

[willhou]

thanks for the kind words, and sorry I forgot to add rules:

Generally I play $5 DD (with min bet lowered), occasionally $10 DD, and $10/$15 2D (with min bet raised). Dealers stand on soft 17, double any two cards, no surrender.

I enjoy Tunica trips now and then but don't have the strategy adjustments memorized for H17, so I think that might hurt me there.

[rukus]

if your basic unit is $10 but you play at $5 min tables, feel free to come off the top with a $10 bet, if the count goes negative (but not enough to justify wonging out, especially if no re-entry is allowed), drop down to the $5 bet for minor negative counts. then when the count goes back positive, resume your normal ramp. so by using $5 bets instead of $10 in the slightly negative counts you are effectively increasing your spread from 1-10 to about 1-20. i think a lot of people who play pitch work this little routine. some who really want to camouflage their bets will even use an off the top bet higher than their base unit and only drop down to their base unit if the count goes south. this helps alleviate some heat.

also, not so sure hitting your max bet by TC=4 is optimal, it might be around 5 or 6.

[willhou]

hmm, good advice there. so if I'm willing to put down $100 before splits/doubles, I should be putting $100 down on TC=6 instead of TC=4? should i keep it an 'even' distribution, just spread it out further? (something like 1=$10, 2=$35, 3=$50, 4=$65, 5=$85, 6=$100?)

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by rukus

if your basic unit is $10 but you play at $5 min tables, feel free to come off the top with a $10 bet, if the count goes negative (but not enough to justify wonging out, especially if no re-entry is allowed), drop down to the $5 bet for minor negative counts.

NO, do not drop to $5 - INSTEAD keep at $10 but bet EVERY OTHER HAND. zg

[rukus]

Originally Posted by zengrifter

NO, do not drop to $5 - INSTEAD keep at $10 but bet EVERY OTHER HAND. zg

some pitch games dont allow you to re-enter the game if you sit out a hand. but let's say you can sit out every other hand, what is the advantage of playing this way? EV should remain the same but wouldn't std dev/variance be higher with the $10 bets?

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by rukus

some pitch games dont allow you to re-enter the game if you sit out a hand. but let's say you can sit out every other hand, what is the advantage of playing this way? EV should remain the same but wouldn't std dev/variance be higher with the $10 bets?

I'm guessing not much. I didn't realize he said pitch games, all the more reason to NOT show them $5 bet.

How about this:

$10 at TC <0
$10-10 at TC = 0
$20-20 at TC = 1
$40-40 at TC = 2
$50-50 at TC = 3
$75-75 at TC > 4

[rukus]

Originally Posted by zengrifter

I'm guessing not much. I didn't realize he said pitch games, all the more reason to NOT show them $5 bet.

How about this:

$10 at TC <0
$10-10 at TC = 0
$20-20 at TC = 1
$40-40 at TC = 2
$50-50 at TC = 3
$75-75 at TC > 4

works for me if he's comfortable playing 2 hands.

[Kasi]

Originally Posted by willhou

Hi, everybody... I'd like to get some advice about my betting progression. I'm playing hi-lo using a modified illustrious 18 (no splitting 10s, a few other adjustments), against $10 DD. I had a couple of great trips and now two bad ones in a row (lost $800 and $600), and though I'm still up for 2008, losses like that make me want to double, triple check everything

I'm betting:

bathroom break or sit out at very low counts
$10 at TC >= 0
$25 at TC = 1
$50 at TC = 2
$75 at TC = 3
$100 at TC > 4

also I "fill in" between those... if TC is .667 I'll bet $20, if TC is 1.5 I'll bet $35 or 40... and I also finesse it here and there in terms of cover (like letting $50 ride instead of putting out $75).

Any ideas or criticism would be most appreciated.

I don't know - I'm just used to TC's under the assumption they are being floored so a TC of .667 would still be TC0 for betting purposes. I'm not even sure a 0.667 TC would actually be an advantage anyway? I guess it might be though. Are you rounding TC's?

I'm just trying to say if you do alot of that in between stuff, your $25 bet is really maybe more on average and might in essence be changing the units bet at each TC. Not that there's anything wrong with but maybe it could create bigger swings.

Anyway - guess there was nothing wrong with it when you were winning

If you don't already, maybe it couldn't hurt to get a broad idea of what to expect on a "plain vanilla" spread for what you play most often and take it from there and maybe put those losses in perspective.

How bad would it be for you if they had occurred before the wins?

Good luck. Pretty sure it's never easy out there