What is typical pen for SD?

No further questions....

Around 50-60%. Usually Rule of Six unless they are sweaty.

-Sonny-

what is Rule of Six?

From the BJ Encyclopedia:

rule of 6. A common single deck policy in many casinos. The rule of 6 states that a dealer may deal five rounds to one player, four rounds to two players, three rounds to three players and two rounds to four players. Some casinos will also only deal one round to five or more players.

http://www.bjrnet.com/member/bjapr/R.htm

-Sonny-

Let me add to that, that Rule of 7 is so much better than Rule of 6, it's worth going out of your way to play it and worth soft-playing the game to make it last when you find it.

The only place I play SD on a regular basis, the Pioneer in Laughlin, they limit it to two rounds with three players.

I presume SD everywhere, with few exceptions, is 6:5. So, if the game is good enough a counter can beat it? How good does the game need to be? What kind of spread?

your assumption is way off the mark.

I can name 10 casinos off the top of my head with playable, beatable 3:2 SD games. 1-2 spreads in these games are +EV, but realistically a 1-4/5 spread will make money. or a hybrid 2-1-4/5 spread even has potential.

I'll second that!

It's so exciting I have a secret tape of a chick dealing Ro7 in my porn stash. What a turn on! :grin:

Penetration varies!

Based on the mumber of players and what happened on the hands. The deepest penetrartion I have given is RO12! I give between 9-12 rounds before shuffles but I also tell the pit boss I like about card counters especially if they are stiffs.

For those of you who play a lot of heads-up SD and faced with a Ro5, do you usually wager the exact same amount on each hand of each round (assuming you play two hands given the Ro5)? I found myself in this scenario recently and was spreading 2-1-3 equally to each of two hands but the pit took an awful lot of interest in my game after just a few rounds, so I left. I guess what I'm asking is are there any ways to disguise your spread among the hands in this situation (SD, Ro5, playing two hands, heads-up) or would you be better off avoiding it altogether?

Two spots is often better in RO6 games, But in RO5, it may not be as compelling. I don't have the math, sorry.

Three approaches you could go with:

1) Find an RO6 game
2) Play one spot
3) Implement a sort of progression system where your bets on each hand may vary. Note that this will increase your variance (having one bet of 3 and one bet of 1 is higher variance than two bets of 2). If you're playing at the ragged edge of your bankroll, you'd have to bet smaller in aggregate.

In a few heads up games playing 2 hands I vary my two spots all over the place. pretty much on every hand so that no one knows what i'm doing and to throw off the heat. playing one hand of 2 units + one of 5 or 6, switching them, evening them out, if the count tanks, going to 1,2 or 1,1 or 2,2. But in general I try to keep the total max bet the same and the total min bet the same. Variance increases, but if you keep the bets pretty close in high counts, like 4,6 vs. 2,8 then you can decrease this. If the pit is staring at you for a couple minutes they will figure it out, if it looks crazy enough like 1 unit on one spot and 7 on the other, they might just leave you alone faster.

I know I was successful at least one time throwing off some heat at a downtown LV sweatshop...

RO5 pen is awful, even heads up. SCORE is probably going to be below $40, and you're gonna bet backed off quickly.

You're probably better off playing a decent $5 shoe heads up because the hands per hour is so much better.

Great suggestions, Rhino and Mimosine . . . thanks!

Using a progression can be good cover but it can sometimes backfire. You may start to get heat because you are moving your bets so much. The inexperienced pit critters don’t really know how to spot a card counter so they just look for anyone who varies their bets a lot. If you are changing your bets every hand it may look suspicious to them. Mimo's multi-hand trick is clever but it may cause inept pit critters to panic even more since they don’t know the difference between count-based spreading and random spreading.

I’ve had surprisingly good luck just betting with the count without any cover. You look like a flat bettor most of the time so the pit gets comfortable with you, then when their back is turned you fire it up in high counts. They’ll usually come back and check on you if they hear the “cheques play” call, but if you can avoid that (or keep them busy somewhere else) you can get away with murder. Even if they do come back to watch you, by that time it’s too late. They don’t know what the count is or what’s going on. They don’t know if you’re a counter or just a gambler taking a shot. If you keep your sessions short, move around a bit and leave after taking one or two “shots” you can often survive for quite a while unless they really want to get you for some reason.

-Sonny-