Nooby Questions

[Montreal Casino]

All right, i've just gotten into blackjack and this site, and there are some terms that i do not understand and i would like some clarifying. Here is a list of terms that i have commonly seen, but don't quite fully understand them. So if you blackjack players would tell me what they mean, i'd really appreciate it.

RoR: i know this means Risk of Ruin, like the chances of you losing your entire Br. However, why is it so important? when people say you should have a 5 percent RoR, what do they mean? you should have a 5 percent chanc of losing your entire Br? How does one figure your percentage of RoR?

Indexes: I've seen it alot,still no idea what it is..

That's all i can think of at the moment. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and also, lets say your at a table with a RC of 8, and there are roughly 6 and a half decks left. To get your TC, would you divide 8/6.5? or do you just round the 6.5 to 7 or 6, because dividing it by 6.5 is hard, so is it okay if you just round the 6.5 to a 7 or 6?

Thanx guys. I've found this forum to be extremely helpful.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Montreal Casino

RoR: i know this means Risk of Ruin, like the chances of you losing your entire Br. However, why is it so important? when people say you should have a 5 percent RoR, what do they mean? you should have a 5 percent chanc of losing your entire Br? How does one figure your percentage of RoR?

You can’t make money unless you bet money, and you can’t bet money if you’re broke. Even though you are playing with an advantage you will still experience prolonged losing streaks. If your bankroll is not big enough then you will lose it all before you get a chance to win it back. By minimizing your ROR you are minimizing the chance that you will go broke during a losing streak.

You can also use a Trip ROR to determine how much money you should bring on a trip. It is basically your ROR based on a given number of hours of play. Instead of asking "What are the chances that I'll lose all my money at some point" you are asking "What are the chances that I'll lose all the money I bring with me after N hours of play."

You can find more information and formulas for ROR in Don Schlesinger’s “Blackjack Attack.”

Originally Posted by Montreal Casino

Indexes: I've seen it alot,still no idea what it is..

Indices are basic strategy departures based on the count. For example, BS tells you to stand on 12 vs. 4, but if the count is negative then you would want to hit because there are more low cards in the shoe. Similarly, if the count is high then you will want to stand with 16 vs. 10 since the extra high cards will bust you more often.

Originally Posted by Montreal Casino

Oh and also, lets say your at a table with a RC of 8, and there are roughly 6 and a half decks left. To get your TC, would you divide 8/6.5? or do you just round the 6.5 to 7 or 6, because dividing it by 6.5 is hard, so is it okay if you just round the 6.5 to a 7 or 6?

I usually round the discards down, so 6.5 decks left become 7. I think of the discards as “not quite 2 decks yet, so it’s only 1.” Other people may round it up to 2. If you can accurately estimate half decks then you can divide 6.5. I don’t think the difference is that big as long as your betting and playing strategy matches your TC estimation.

-Sonny-

[Renzey]

Montreal -- To arrive at the true count, I use what seems to be an unpopular, but nevertheless very simple and direct (IMHO) method. I use constant, pre-memorized multipliers throughout the shoe.

If you know in advance that two decks into a six deck shoe your multiplier is .25, and that 2.5 decks in your multiplier is .3, and that 3.5 decks in it is .4, etc. -- then all you do is estimate the discard tray and multiply by the appropriate number. You don't need that extra step of subtracting the discard tray from "6 decks" and then divide.

On my way thru the shoe, I incrementally remind myself that "We're in .3 territory now" and "Now we're in .4 territory", etc.