Newbie Intro and Questions

Hi all,

Great to find this useful forum. Have played BJ off and on for a few years using only basic strategy. Have not played enough to get the strategy down 100%, but played many charity ganes with low bets and when I do play a casino, pretty much stay at the min bet. Kept my losses to a min and consider that spent for entertainment and learning. Have more time now to devote to practice, learning and playing.

The strategy software here is a big help, but I still stumble ..... especially on soft doubles and less obvious splits. Use my own reference card that helps me decide pretty quick, but hate to rely on that too often. I probably play strategy 98-99% right (without the reference)

I'm not looking to make a living playing, but making a few bucks in play and comp for some free entertainment would be nice.

The questions:

1) Any easy way to narrow my practice of strategy to spend time on just soft hands and/or splits? Why waste time going over plays I know in my sleep. Be real nice if the software could be set to deal only soft hands or splits or soft splits.

2) Should I consider learning an easy counting method when my strategy is not yet at 100%? Seems to me better to up my advantage, bet conservatively and not worry about a few strategy mistakes on marginal hands.

Casey

Well, blackjack-bst.com used to have a good crucible of a test program that focused on the hard stuff. hitorstand.net has a "hard mode" sim which, well, it's not bad, I guess.

Personally, I learned most of my BS from memorizing the chart. I was easier for me to visualize the whole thing rather than focus on factoids. Another useful tool was to draw my own BS chart.

Personally, I had three different learning experiences. Learning BS, learning the basic act of counting down a deck/shoe, and being able to count while playing BS. All three processes were intermingled some, but it was still three separate things. You could work on them one at a time, or all together.

Thanks. I'm not good at visualizing a chart, but need to have correct rules in my head.

blackjack-bst.com seems to be gone ... at least didn't come up when I tried. The hitorstand.net game seems pretty good especially in difficult mode.

I understand I can practice BS abd counting at the same time, but am wondering if I should play for real, though conservatively, with my BS a little bit off and/opr using my reference card for difficult hands. Maybe the question is: how much more of an overall anvantage will I give the house if I occasionally miss on BS ... like stay on A7 with a dealer showing 9, or not double an A6 on a dealer 3

Casey -- Soft double downs are probably the most butchered hands in the game. Yet, where soft doubles are concerned, there's a fairly simple rule to guide you, without having to get mesmerized by all those zig-zag steps in that section of a basic strategy chart.

Just recognize going in that whenever you have A/2 thru A/7 against a small dealer's up-card, you're "apt" to double down. But of those 30 hands, only 18 are correct doubles. These three rules of thumb from pg 69 of B/J Bluebook will zero you in on 17 of the 18 correct basic strategy doubles for the shoe game.

1) If the dealer has a deuce up, never double down.
2) If the dealer has a 5 or 6 up, always double down.
3) If the dealer has a 3 or 4 up, play by the "Rule of 9"

The Rule of 9 says to add your "kicker" (the card next to your Ace) to the dealer's up-card. If that totals 9 or more -- double. If it's less -- hit. For example, if you have A/5 against a 3, your total is only 8 and you should just hit it. But with A/5 against a 4 or with A/6 against a 3, they total 9, so you should double them both.

The only hand the Rule of 9 misses is A/4 against a 4, which is just barely a correct double. If you can remember that one exception, you'll have it all nailed perfectly. And if you always miss that one double, it'll take less than 1/1000th of a percent off your total game.

I can see how visualization may not work for some folks. For me, it was the only way I could keep the soft doubles straight (the stair-step pattern is what I memorized).

Of course, in the usual game I play, (H17), BS still tells me to double with A,7 vs 2.

That's a nice little rule i've never heard of, but my personal favorite method is to just memorize it! Then you dont need to use any little rules, you'll just KNOW it!

Newbie

To practice soft hands I would just keep an ace in front of me while I deal myself cards.

The first card dealt to me would actually be my second card since I am keeping the ace in front of me. Then play off the card that I dealt as the dealer's up card.

You can do this at work with a single deck. Keep an ace in front of you and whatever you deal as the second card is your hand and whatever you deal as the dealer's is what you play off of.

Sure beats dealing cards, hoping for a soft hand so you can practice your BS.

Good idea!

That's the way I did it.