Beginner Basic Strategy Question

[saltthesnail]

I am beginning to learn counting, and have memorized a BS chart. However, it recently occurred to me that because of the many variations in the game, there are many variations of BS that I would have to learn to truly know BS. Should I attempt to:
-Concentrate on one BS that covers most BJ games. (If so, which?)
-Memorize the all of the variations
-Concentrate on the games that I should expect to come across the most.

Any pointers on this would be much appreciated. Thanks fellas.

 

[StandardDeviant]

I would suggest that you learn the strategy for the game you will encounter most. That will very likely be 6 deck or 8 deck, with either H17 or S17. You can find the BS you want here on this site.

 

[shadroch]

The authors of Knock Out Blackjack suggest learning and using the BS for 4 decks.
They argue that the 0.03% gain you get by memorizing all the other tables is not worth the effort. I'm not sure they are right, but they are highly thought of, so I give them the benefit of the doubt

 

[StandardDeviant]

The authors of Knock Out Blackjack suggest learning and using the BS for 4 decks.
They argue that the 0.03% gain you get by memorizing all the other tables is not worth the effort. I'm not sure they are right, but they are highly thought of, so I give them the benefit of the doubt

I read somewhere, maybe in KO Blackjack or was it BJA, that most (i.e., like something on the order of 85%) of the gain in shoe games comes comes from the betting strategy, not the playing strategy, deviations. This would, I think, particularly be the case for low playing efficiency (PE) counts like Hi-Lo.

To me this says: learn a multideck BS, and then move on to other aspects of the game. If one is playing a multi-parameter, high PE count at a SD or DD game, then perhaps she should use a different BS.

 

[saltthesnail]

Thanks a ton. You guys are great.

 

[QFIT]

In the Basic Strategy section of my book (www.qfit.com/book/ModernBlackjackPage49.htm) I discuss the various compromises and actual penalties for using the wrong strategy. Not as bad as you might think in most cases.