Hey,
I'm new to this forum, been lurking and learning from all the informative posts on here. Quick background info, went to Vegas over Christmas and gambled for the first time in my life. I learned basic strategy 2 weeks beforehand (during lots of "study breaks" while prepping for finals lol). Had it down I would say almost perfect, only things I had issues with were playing soft 18s, but I have that fixed now. I flat betted most of the trip, then did some stupid progression system the last night one of the guys I was with was doing. Won $600ish first night playing CSM (after losing about $400 earlier that afternoon), thought it was the be all and end all to play at. Next night lost $700+ in under 3hrs playing in these "great" games. 3rd night lost probably another hundred-ish but still stumbling at my terrible lost the night before. Last night luckily won it back and a bit more. The last few hours I played $25 hands flat betting with everything I had, almost went broke but luckily ended the trip on a tear to finish a bit on top. After this I was hooked, very interested in the game and started learning about counting. I also realized I really lucked out and probably overbetted my bankroll like crazy lol
I bought Blackbelt in Blackjack, Professional Blackjack, and Blackjack attack to read. I've read the first two and on Blackjack Attack, but I'm finding it's a harder read than the first two. Once I'm done I'm gonna reread them again and make some questions. I want to use this thread to hopefully put up questions for you guys to answer that arise. I have another trip planned end of April and I want to be good at counting to try and have fun and make some decent money. I've been practicing since beginning of January. I started counting down one deck, then worked my way up to 6 decks. Then played against a dealer while counting with single deck and I'm up to playing 6 decks with 4 hands. Accuracy is good, speed is slowly building up. I've also incorporated using bets to make it automatic I know how many units to put down at each situation depending on the count. I plan on playing with I18 and Fab4. Slowly learning the I18 and I'm using the indexes I know so far while I'm simulating my hands.
Going from what I've read so far, my plan will be to attack 6 deck shoe games on the strip with Hi-lo, I18, Fab4 (when surrender allowed). I don't know if I'll be doing any backcounting, but I will definitely Wong out at TC -2. My planned betting ramp will be 1unit (-2 to 0), 2 units (tc=1), 4 units (tc=2), 8 units (tc=4), 10units (tc=5+). Ideally I'd like to play $5 hands, but I'm going by $10 in case I have trouble finding them. $15 hands worse case scenario, but I will avoid it as much as possible to help lower my ROR. I'm going to use a trip bankroll because I don't plan on playing when I'm home. Me and my buddies hope to go to Vegas 1-2 times a year just for fun. So I will use a trip bankroll every time when I go. My trip bankroll plan right now is $3000 for 4 nights, estimating about 36hours (I might have overestimated this a bit). Spread 1-10, maybe 1-12 if I feel I can get away with it, but I'll assume the worst and use 1-10. Going by Blackjack Attack, this should put my ROR at 5% or less I think (sims used 1-12 spread). Expected win rate is approximately 60 units, which would pay for my trip, shows, and probably a little bit of shopping. Probably small peanuts to most I'm sure, but I'll be happy since it'll be a great time in Vegas and will limit my expenses! :grin: I hope to be able to go to a local casino 1-2x end of March before my trip with a friend to watch them play and practice counting in that environment. I may play a couple $10 hands or something at high counts for some practice.
Anyways, sorry for the long winded intro. Going to hopefully use this thread as a journal on my progress and hopefully triumph on my trip! Opinions, suggestions, and criticism are welcome :grin:
I'm new to this forum, been lurking and learning from all the informative posts on here. Quick background info, went to Vegas over Christmas and gambled for the first time in my life. I learned basic strategy 2 weeks beforehand (during lots of "study breaks" while prepping for finals lol). Had it down I would say almost perfect, only things I had issues with were playing soft 18s, but I have that fixed now. I flat betted most of the trip, then did some stupid progression system the last night one of the guys I was with was doing. Won $600ish first night playing CSM (after losing about $400 earlier that afternoon), thought it was the be all and end all to play at. Next night lost $700+ in under 3hrs playing in these "great" games. 3rd night lost probably another hundred-ish but still stumbling at my terrible lost the night before. Last night luckily won it back and a bit more. The last few hours I played $25 hands flat betting with everything I had, almost went broke but luckily ended the trip on a tear to finish a bit on top. After this I was hooked, very interested in the game and started learning about counting. I also realized I really lucked out and probably overbetted my bankroll like crazy lol
I bought Blackbelt in Blackjack, Professional Blackjack, and Blackjack attack to read. I've read the first two and on Blackjack Attack, but I'm finding it's a harder read than the first two. Once I'm done I'm gonna reread them again and make some questions. I want to use this thread to hopefully put up questions for you guys to answer that arise. I have another trip planned end of April and I want to be good at counting to try and have fun and make some decent money. I've been practicing since beginning of January. I started counting down one deck, then worked my way up to 6 decks. Then played against a dealer while counting with single deck and I'm up to playing 6 decks with 4 hands. Accuracy is good, speed is slowly building up. I've also incorporated using bets to make it automatic I know how many units to put down at each situation depending on the count. I plan on playing with I18 and Fab4. Slowly learning the I18 and I'm using the indexes I know so far while I'm simulating my hands.
Going from what I've read so far, my plan will be to attack 6 deck shoe games on the strip with Hi-lo, I18, Fab4 (when surrender allowed). I don't know if I'll be doing any backcounting, but I will definitely Wong out at TC -2. My planned betting ramp will be 1unit (-2 to 0), 2 units (tc=1), 4 units (tc=2), 8 units (tc=4), 10units (tc=5+). Ideally I'd like to play $5 hands, but I'm going by $10 in case I have trouble finding them. $15 hands worse case scenario, but I will avoid it as much as possible to help lower my ROR. I'm going to use a trip bankroll because I don't plan on playing when I'm home. Me and my buddies hope to go to Vegas 1-2 times a year just for fun. So I will use a trip bankroll every time when I go. My trip bankroll plan right now is $3000 for 4 nights, estimating about 36hours (I might have overestimated this a bit). Spread 1-10, maybe 1-12 if I feel I can get away with it, but I'll assume the worst and use 1-10. Going by Blackjack Attack, this should put my ROR at 5% or less I think (sims used 1-12 spread). Expected win rate is approximately 60 units, which would pay for my trip, shows, and probably a little bit of shopping. Probably small peanuts to most I'm sure, but I'll be happy since it'll be a great time in Vegas and will limit my expenses! :grin: I hope to be able to go to a local casino 1-2x end of March before my trip with a friend to watch them play and practice counting in that environment. I may play a couple $10 hands or something at high counts for some practice.
Anyways, sorry for the long winded intro. Going to hopefully use this thread as a journal on my progress and hopefully triumph on my trip! Opinions, suggestions, and criticism are welcome :grin:
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