Thank you Ken for hosting this site. It has been a tremendous resource for me.
Hopefully we'll find that the boards are not really 'dead' and that it was temporarily shut down to protect anonymity. :p
Ok I was being silly, but I respect your decision to close the boards. It's been great.
I once back-counted a table where someone was playing heads up 2x 200-300 per hand. They raised the table minimum to keep the riffraff out. When I approached the table they pointed to the higher minimum in hopes it would keep me out. Nope! I pulled out my own big bets. The ploppy didn't like it...
Yes EV will be greater if you play 2 hands all the time when compared to 1 hand all the time. At high counts you have more money on the table. At low counts you're eating cards.
Well I'm on Chicago somewhat unexpectedly for most of the weekend. Thinking of checking out nearby places but not getting hopes up. If any of you regular Midwesterners happen to be around drop me a PM.
The way I interpret it is that if you play a HL game solo then they'll know the results just by comparing what's in the tray against what was in there when you started. If you're playing with other people at the table then your objective could be to rathole faster than the other players and be...
I have also noticed this and used this method at first to get the hang of it. I also calibrate my estimation when the cut card comes out. I'm not great at deck estimation, but I think good enough to play with an advantage down to a 1/2 deck resolution on shoes.