Question for Ken Smith

[thedweller]

1. A card counter needs at least 65% penetration into the deck if it's gonna be worth the effort, right? What if we're only granted 63%? Suppose we play we very low bets, i.e a minimum of $0,1, maximum $10, DAS, Resplit, hit allowed after splitting aces, (that allows us higher betspreads without putting too much risk into the game), and are allowed to leave on negative counts, would we still be able to avail ourselves of card counting effectively? If we still won't cut it despite our leaving on negative counts, could you have a slighty higher bet spread than 1-12, such as 1-14, or 1-15.

2. With larger betspreads, what will happen to the betting scheme?

[KenSmith]

Any game that deals more than one hand between shuffles can theoretically be beaten with a large enough bet spread. Your figure of 63% must be a six or eight deck game. (63% in two decks is a decent game.) If this is truly the best game available to you, you'll need to use all of the tactics you mention, especially leaving during negative counts. However, it is likely you could gain a small advantage by using every available tool at your disposal. Leave during negative counts, and spread as much as you are able, and even this really bad game can probably show a miniscule profit.

One of the projects on my wishlist for this site is to add some detailed statistics for the various games at various penetration levels. It would be useful to have such a reference for questions like this. As it stands now, I can't give definite answers without running an elaborate simulation.

[thedweller]

In the aforementioned game, there is an easy way resolve the issues with the bet spread, and that is simply to go for an unbalanced system, i.e. the simplified version of Knock Out, Knock Out Rookie, with an 'early' bet ramp (as referred to by in Gamemaster's Blackjack section, denoting an early top bet at a low count) and with only two bets, one high and one low.

If we are to talk about High Low again, in Gamemaster's Blackjack School, a bet spread of 1-12 is recommended for multideck-games.

1. Suppose we have slightly higher bet spreads than 1-12, do you know any good bet schemes for highlow?

2. If you are to go for Knock Out Preferred, do you know of any good bet schemes?

3. To what extent can you adlib a betting scheme?

4. The game in question is offered by a Russian Online Casino, hence the consideration for unbalanced counts, since you can't visually estimate the number of remaining decks.