Here are all the comments posted on the site, with the most recent discussions listed first. To participate in any of these discussions, you can reply on the article page.
Getting an account on Quizlet.com for free is great for doing drills. You can make your own flash cards, and it will drill you at break-neck speed. The advantage is you can access your flash cards from any internet source, even an iphone. Doing so will give you the ability to burn through thousands of repetitions as opposed to the old fashioned way. It’s really easy to set up. Just go to the website, give your email, and set up cards however you want them. Once you get the basic strategy down, you can make sets of cards that cover strategy deviation as well.
The Knowledge Base is a WordPress plugin I coded from scratch. It reads the data from the original vBulletin forum database and injects it into WordPress for normal page handling. While I was at it, I spent a lot of time to accomplish two more objectives… I wrote code to merge the old CardCounter.com message board content into the vBulletin database. And I wrote code to analyze all the outgoing links to see which ones were dead and which ones could successfully be redirected to archive.org. It’s not perfect, but it’s a far sight better than the state of things beforehand.
I like the ease of use. It’d be nice, as a novice to the game, to understand why the strategy is what it is. It’ll tell me what I should have done, but not why. That makes it difficult to not make the same mistake in the future. (Also, this form says the email is optional. It’s not)
An explanation of why basic strategy recommends certain plays is on my list of future blog topics, and maybe the new trainer can offer a link to that when it is available.
As for the emails not being optional when leaving a comment, thanks for letting me know! It’s fixed now, and comments no longer require an email address.
Went to vegas first time. Slots left me ho hum. Thought I might like blackjack as you actually have to use your brain. So im reading up on all the basic stratigy. Will memorize that and not deviate from the rules. In a nutshell , please advise me. Like which tables. Where to sit. importance of SP and Dh. Im okay with moderate minimums.
Starting out, you are likely better off playing at a “shoe game”, where all the cards are dealt face up. Just make sure blackjack pays 3:2.
After you gain some experience, look for good rules in a 2-deck game, which will usually be dealt face down. Where you sit at the table matters very little.
For free, our own Strategy Trainer will coach you for basic strategy. If you’re looking for something to play offline, Casino Verite includes basically every feature you can imagine for practicing blackjack and card counting. It sells for $90 and runs on Windows PCs.
Hi Ken, Recently, during a visit to Genting Casino in Malaysia, I found out that they don’t offer Blackjack games anymore to ordinary players like me.The staff told me that it is only offered to high stakes players in the VIP rooms.Instead they offer pontoon and other variations of Blackjack games in the main Hall.
Why do some of your indices differ from Wong’s when using the same benchmark rules? For example you that the index for a hard 8 v a 6 is a double at TC 3, whereas Wong says it is at TC 1. There are quite a few other examples that differ greatly from yours can you explain why.
Index generation is trickier than it sounds, and some indexes are close calls over a range of numbers. I’m not sure what process the GameMaster used when creating his, but seeing small differences in some numbers is not surprising. He did say that his numbers were risk-adjusted indexes. (My opinion of RA indexes is that for the vast majority of players, they are not appropriate. Almost noone plays close enough to Kelly betting to make them relevant.)
I spent many hours fine-tuning the indexes on my advanced card set, and they are straight indexes, not RA. For this game my index for doubling 8v6 is TC +2, which happens to fall right in between Wong and GameMaster.
The good news is that even a 2-point difference in some numbers will not affect your results much, because the EV in these close call cases varies only slightly from one index to the next. The decisions where the differences are more pronounced are generally going to also be those where everyone agrees within a point plus or minus.
I’ve recently started training with your program very helpful thanks it just seems that on a pair of 4s againsts a 6 i woudve been better off doubling? also i always hit on a12 0r 13 against a 2 and more often than not i woudve been better off standing (based on my own tracking?thans
Splitting 4s vs a dealer 5 or 6 is better only when the rules allow double after split. If the actual numbers would help, here they are for a 6-deck S17 DAS game: Splitting 44v6 wins 0.168 of your initial bet on average. Hitting makes 0.124. Doubling makes only 0.104, making it the third-best option.
You mention hitting 13v2, which is not correct. You probably meant hitting 12 against a 2 or a 3 up. Again, just trust basic strategy. With (8,4) vs 2, hitting loses 0.254 of your bet on average. Standing is quite a bit worse, losing 0.291 of your bet on average.
Short-term results can be very misleading. Just trust the math.
I’ll reply since the GameMaster is still not available.
Mixing up two systems when switching is very common if you have a fair amount of table time with the old system. It doesn’t take too long for that to go away though. It’s just a matter of concentration and time. I’m glad to hear you were successful in your first Hi-Lo trip. Thanks for the report!
pair of 4s
against a 6 your suppose to split but 90% of the time id have been better off doubling down?
Getting an account on Quizlet.com for free is great for doing drills. You can make your own flash cards, and it will drill you at break-neck speed. The advantage is you can access your flash cards from any internet source, even an iphone. Doing so will give you the ability to burn through thousands of repetitions as opposed to the old fashioned way. It’s really easy to set up. Just go to the website, give your email, and set up cards however you want them. Once you get the basic strategy down, you can make sets of cards that cover strategy deviation as well.
I would say load time and universal SSL would be the main factors.
How did you convert to knowledge base? gConverter? bbPress?
The Knowledge Base is a WordPress plugin I coded from scratch.
It reads the data from the original vBulletin forum database and injects it into WordPress for normal page handling.
While I was at it, I spent a lot of time to accomplish two more objectives…
I wrote code to merge the old CardCounter.com message board content into the vBulletin database.
And I wrote code to analyze all the outgoing links to see which ones were dead and which ones could successfully be redirected to archive.org.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a far sight better than the state of things beforehand.
I like the ease of use. It’d be nice, as a novice to the game, to understand why the strategy is what it is. It’ll tell me what I should have done, but not why. That makes it difficult to not make the same mistake in the future. (Also, this form says the email is optional. It’s not)
An explanation of why basic strategy recommends certain plays is on my list of future blog topics, and maybe the new trainer can offer a link to that when it is available.
As for the emails not being optional when leaving a comment, thanks for letting me know!
It’s fixed now, and comments no longer require an email address.
I wish at some point this site could include a strategy trainer for Spanish 21.
Thanks for the feedback. Once I get the new trainer going, I would at least consider looking at what’s involved for Spanish 21.
You combined BJINFO and CC.com into a single base … curious to know who the biggest contributors are 🙂
Went to vegas first time. Slots left me ho hum. Thought I might like blackjack as you actually have to use your brain. So im reading up on all the basic stratigy. Will memorize that and not deviate from the rules. In a nutshell , please advise me. Like which tables. Where to sit. importance of SP and Dh. Im okay with moderate minimums.
Starting out, you are likely better off playing at a “shoe game”, where all the cards are dealt face up. Just make sure blackjack pays 3:2.
After you gain some experience, look for good rules in a 2-deck game, which will usually be dealt face down.
Where you sit at the table matters very little.
Can you recommend a good computer game
For free, our own Strategy Trainer will coach you for basic strategy.
If you’re looking for something to play offline, Casino Verite includes basically every feature you can imagine for practicing blackjack and card counting. It sells for $90 and runs on Windows PCs.
Hi Ken,
Recently, during a visit to Genting Casino in Malaysia, I found out that they don’t offer Blackjack games anymore to ordinary players like me.The staff told me that it is only offered to high stakes players in the VIP rooms.Instead they offer pontoon and other variations of Blackjack games in the main Hall.
Yours Sincerely,
Bill
Why do some of your indices differ from Wong’s when using the same benchmark rules? For example you that the index for a hard 8 v a 6 is a double at TC 3, whereas Wong says it is at TC 1. There are quite a few other examples that differ greatly from yours can you explain why.
Index generation is trickier than it sounds, and some indexes are close calls over a range of numbers.
I’m not sure what process the GameMaster used when creating his, but seeing small differences in some numbers is not surprising. He did say that his numbers were risk-adjusted indexes. (My opinion of RA indexes is that for the vast majority of players, they are not appropriate. Almost noone plays close enough to Kelly betting to make them relevant.)
I spent many hours fine-tuning the indexes on my advanced card set, and they are straight indexes, not RA. For this game my index for doubling 8v6 is TC +2, which happens to fall right in between Wong and GameMaster.
The good news is that even a 2-point difference in some numbers will not affect your results much, because the EV in these close call cases varies only slightly from one index to the next. The decisions where the differences are more pronounced are generally going to also be those where everyone agrees within a point plus or minus.
I’ve recently started training with your program very helpful thanks it just seems that on a pair of 4s againsts a 6 i woudve been better off doubling? also i always hit on a12 0r 13 against a 2 and more often than not i woudve been better off standing (based on my own tracking?thans
Splitting 4s vs a dealer 5 or 6 is better only when the rules allow double after split.
If the actual numbers would help, here they are for a 6-deck S17 DAS game:
Splitting 44v6 wins 0.168 of your initial bet on average.
Hitting makes 0.124.
Doubling makes only 0.104, making it the third-best option.
You mention hitting 13v2, which is not correct. You probably meant hitting 12 against a 2 or a 3 up. Again, just trust basic strategy.
With (8,4) vs 2, hitting loses 0.254 of your bet on average. Standing is quite a bit worse, losing 0.291 of your bet on average.
Short-term results can be very misleading. Just trust the math.
Drop me a line, Harold …
… after you read The Zengrifter Interview.
ZG: [email protected]
I’ll reply since the GameMaster is still not available.
Mixing up two systems when switching is very common if you have a fair amount of table time with the old system. It doesn’t take too long for that to go away though. It’s just a matter of concentration and time. I’m glad to hear you were successful in your first Hi-Lo trip. Thanks for the report!