card counting in Cardiff

Hey

Hey I'm new to the forum :), I've been searching an active card counting forum for a while.

I'm in Cornwall but i'm going to Bristol uni (UWE) next summer and most of the motive for me going is actually the city and the casinos because I'm in southern Cornwall at the moment and theres nothing down here. Anyway I doubt i'll be much help just yet, I'm only 17 (although i'll be 18 in July) but I am extremely dedicated to training, I train at-least 2-3 hours a day (even in lecture on my blackjack app on my phone) I can count down a deck accurately in about 20-23 seconds (my best is 19 but not my average) and know basic strategy 100%. I have yet to memorize the recommended amount of playing deviations (I only know a few common ones and a few big plays such as 10s). I understand the basics of EV SD, how to convert running count into a true count, how to calculate your percentage advantage over the house and how to bet based on the true count. This is sort of an introduction of me so im sorry if I'm being annoying by posting it here, however I will be in Bristol which to my knowledge is fairly close to Cardiff like a hour away or something and I plan to rigorously train in-till then.

Thanks.
 
Grant,

Welcome to the board and to card counting.

You sound like you are very committed to learning and achieving your goal. This is great and will stand you in very good stead.

I noticed you hadn't mentioned anything about your bankroll. Having and managing your bankroll correctly is critical to your success as a card counter. If you haven't already, I urge you to read up on this (in nearly all good card counting books and on this site) and purchase relevant software (e.g. Casino Verite Chapter X).

Good luck with it all. If you stay hungry and proactive, I have little doubt it will happen for you.

Have fun at Bristol too!

Percy
 
Percy,

Thanks a lot :), i'll be sure to keep researching and I'm also planning to purchase a few books. I heard that "Burning the tables of Vegas" is good and "beat the dealer" by Edward Thorp. But yeah I think there is still a lot for me to learn, and even before I attempt card counting at a casino I'll probably get some experience in a casino environment and spend some cash at the tables.

As for my bankroll I don't have much, I'm thinking of investing some of my student loan (which is probably an amazingly stupid idea) but I'll try to only invest money that I am emotionally prepared to lose as I understand that there is some sort of risk of ruin.

I heard that a good unit amount is something like a 500th of your bankroll but in other places I have also heard that a 1000th is the minimum recommended unit size, I don't know much about betting spreads yet but am I right in saying that a x6 spread means that you wont bet over 6 units? even if the TC warrants it? I reckon my bankroll is going to be about £1000 and I know that one of the casinos in Bristol has a £2 minimum although I still need to find out about the other casinos.

Thanks
 
I'm fairly sure Beat the Dealer is mostly out of date by now (although it will always remain an important historical reference). If you want to learn HiLo, I would recommend reading Stanford Wong's Professional Blackjack. If you want to learn an unbalanced count I would recommend Knockout Blackjack by Olaf Vancura or altenatively QFIT's free Modern Blackjack contains the REKO count. Blackjack Bluebook II by Fred Renzey also contains an unbalanced count and is an excellent resource for beginners. Best of luck (I mean variance :grin:).
 
cool thanks, I think I'm going to stick with Hi-Lo for now so I'll probably check out Stanford Wong's Professional Blackjack.

thanks.
 
Not bad, I just done a whole unit on it at college, and I made a spreadsheet that calculates EV and SD, it also tells you what percentage advantage you have based on the TC. Im not sure if its all correct but its based on the information I got from the seminar videos with seymon duckach on youtube.
 
Grant2600 said:
Not bad, I just done a whole unit on it at college, and I made a spreadsheet that calculates EV and SD, it also tells you what percentage advantage you have based on the TC. Im not sure if its all correct but its based on the information I got from the seminar videos with seymon duckach on youtube.
Click to expand...

Good stuff. I found when I built mine, the two most important pieces of info to know were:

(a) distribution of hands by true count.
(b) the %age positive and negative edge at each true count.

The first you'll find buried in Wong's Prof BJ somewhere or Mr Schlesinger's Blackjack Attack (get 3rd edn). The second is roughly steps of half a percent.

When you've got these you can apply your betting ramp, and any Wong out plans in neg counts to come up with a pretty reasonable indication of the return on the game you're planning to tackle. Just constructing the spreadsheet will give you an insight into the game.

Re your earlier post, I've found in my number crunching that a 1-8 spread will give you a marginal postive EV. For the UK game, you'll need a larger spread to have any worthwhile advantage, with a consequent need for a bigger bankroll to ride out the flux.

Good luck.
 
Also, the Theory of Blackjack by the late Peter Griffin is an amazing resource for further study once you've gotten some experience.
 
thanks

awesome thanks guys. My spreadsheet has a table with the TC/percentage and I'll also look into the distribution of hands, im planning on going to pick up a load of these books soon.

UK-21,

Thanks for the info on my betting spread :), how did you calculate the recommend bet spread and how much of a percentage advantage it would get?
 
Grant,

A lot of information must be taken into consideration when working out advantage, E.V, SD etc..

I recommend going to Blackjackforumonline.com and downloading the 'powersim' software to evaluate your games. Unfotunately this software does not take into account the No Insurance rule here in Britain, so SIM results will be overly optimistic.

A 1-10 spread will suffice, however I use a much larger spread at the expense of increased variance.

A tip: Value does not necessarily lie in just a number or percentage...
Something to think about if you continue to play seriously.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top