Your advice on my old schoolness

[dbldown]

Hi all,

I'm new on this board, hopefully this isn't an out of line or too often asked question.

I've been playing BJ for about 5 years. I chose to stick to one book/strategy: Edwin Silberstang's "The Winner's Guide to Casino Gambling." I enjoy the book quite a lot. But I did make a hard and fast bet to stay with this one book, because I'm not a real math whiz.

I've mastered his strategy recommendations below and some of his counting techniques. Right now I can pretty much double my money depending on the right table conditions.

However, I've noticed that on this site and others that people tailor their basic strat to many variables. Well, to be honest, this is very hard for me to do.

My question (and I do have one): Can I rely on the basic strat below to do pretty well in all conditions? It's really hard for me to tailor this strategy. I've been practicing it for so long now. It would be hard to "break" old habits.

Oh, and I pretty much only play in Vegas. Thanks.

SPLTS 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T A
(a,a) Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
(t,t) N N N N N N N N N N
(9,9) Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y N N
(8,8) Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
(7,7) Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N N
(6,6) Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N
(5,5) N N N N N N N N N N
(4,4) N N N N N N N N N N
(3,3) N N Y Y Y Y N N N N
(2,2) N Y Y Y Y Y N N N N

SOFTS 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T A
(a,9) S S S S S S S S S S
(a,8) S S S S S S S S S S
(a,7) S D D D D S S H H S
(a,6) D D D D D H H H H H
(a,5) H H D D D H H H H H
(a,4) H H D D D H H H H H
(a,3) H H D D D H H H H H
(a,2) H H D D D H H H H H

HD 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T A
17 S S S S S S S S S S
16 S S S S S H H H H H
15 S S S S S H H H H H
14 S S S S S H H H H H
13 S S S S S H H H H H
12 H H S S S H H H H H
11 D D D D D D D D D D
10 D D D D D D D D H H
9 D D D D D H H H H H
8 H H H H H H H H H H

[KenSmith]

Yes, that's a reasonable generic basic strategy.
The variations in basic strategy because of rule changes are always slight, and they generally have a minimal impact anyway.

Your current strategy will serve you well in pretty much any game you find.

[Mikeaber]

I only saw one or two minor differences. I split 4's against a dealer 5 and 6 if I can double after splitting. Usually catch heat from tablemates for this, but I do it anyway.

Soft-19 I'll double on against a dealer 6 if I'm playing a game where the dealer has to hit soft-17. Most games I've found have this rule in place though you can still find tables where the dealer stands on soft-17.

These are both pretty minor deviations.