Proper deck estimation?

WhoRu

New Member
#1
Noob counter here. Unfortunately I opted to go for the Uston APC as my first card-counting method. It's not like I don't appreciate the efficiencies of other lower level counts (I initially started practicing HI-LO after reading about how good it still is as a professional count and about how lots of major teams use it in tandem.. which might be harder with higher level counts...I guess it depends on the group.. and their philosophy) but I figured using a more 'powerful' count might be more suitable to my situation. Since the only Casino near me has less than ideal rules ($50 min, H17, 8-deck) combined with the fact that I wouldn't be able to play there for many hours per day (3-4 hrs, instead of 6-10 hrs). Anyways, though ill-advised, learning this count has been kinda fun. I've put a lot of hours in and increased my single-deck count down speed significantly. Also learning basic strategy and the deviations wasn't too difficult. I'll admit learning to count aces with each foot has been an interesting experience to say the least, But, I can say that I'm glad I learned it. Now I'm moving on to counting more than just single-deck, specifically 8 decks and using a discard tray to practice. But, I have a problem. I'm not sure if this is just has to do with HI-LO and Uston APC being different counts or what. But when converting the true-count I see people using very different divisors. For example, I've have seen and read that a lot of HI-LO counters divide to the nearest half-deck which I understand, can even be full or quarter..But I have read that Uston APC counters divide by the amount of half decks remaining. Like, if the running count is 9 and you see that there's 3 half-decks remaining (1.5 decks), you'd divide 9 by 3 and get 3 as your TC and bet accordingly. But for HI-LO counters it would be 9 divided by 1.5 and 6 would be your TC... Is this just a product of those two counts being different?
 

DSchles

Well-Known Member
#2
Short answer: yes to all of the above.

Many higher-level counts (I use the Revere Point Count, level 2) advocate dividing by half decks remaining, and, as a result, the index numbers for strategy deviations are almost idential to those of Hi-Lo, whose tag values are roughly half of the RPC, and where TC is reckoned by whole decks remaining.

Note that, in your example, where you properly divide by 1.5 for Hi-Lo, you are still dividing by WHOLE decks remaining, but you are using half-deck precision to make that estimation. This is, of course, different from actually dividing by number of half decks remaining, as you mention.

Don
 

WhoRu

New Member
#3
Thank you for clarifying. I did understand that for HI-LO that it was whole decks and that gauging to the nearest full, half or quarter deck was for precision as you mentioned but not actually the number of half or quarter decks remaining. My mistake if I worded that wrong.
 
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