The skill, if you can do it.... one hell of an advantage, and you want to be able to do it from any point in the shoe.beyondbj said:whats the skill to cut card?
Or where the count drops very quickly. Both can been good, but obviously would be handled differently.Blue Efficacy said:Look for sections where the count rises very quickly.
Look where they end up in discards.
The rest is self explanatory.![]()
Wait, don't you want the small cards out of the way?1357111317 said:The advantage of cutting small cards to the front can be huge. If you look at a TC and advantage at each TC chart just imagine if you moved all the TC's down 1 or 2. Your WR is going to skyrocket.
Yeah, he must have misspoken. When shuffle-tracking, it's the portions where the count dropped fast that you want to cut to the front (meaning the big cards, not the small ones). It's a common mistake... we're so used to worshiping sections of the deck when the RC is high, but that is in reference to the cards to come. When shuffle-tracking, you're thinking about the cards that already went, so you have to reverse your thinking.moo321 said:Wait, don't you want the small cards out of the way?
It should just be the difference between making the front of the shoe slightly richer in high cards—allowing bigger bets from the top, allowing for better camouflage—and making later in the shoe (perhaps even further in than is penetrated) slightly richer in high cards. Seems like the obvious choice is to put the high cards at the front.Nynefingers said:Someone here explained to me once that they played a game with a weakly trackable shuffle. For that particular shuffle, cutting big cards to the front or small cards to the back wasn't really practical because the density of our cards or interest isn't high enough. This poster was, however, able to cut a slug slightly rich in small cards to the front. They explained to me that by doing this and not adjusting the count in any way, the counting and betting worked as usual, but the likelihood of the high counts later in the shoe goes up. The small cards at the front don't cost much since you are betting min. The theory makes sense to me. You don't gain some of the cover benefits in a case like this, but I think the EV/SCORE are still somewhat better than not tracking at all. I haven't run sims to confirm this, but if it helps manufacture high counts at low cost, there's no reason it shouldn't work. Obviously though if you can move small cards to the back or big cards to the front, that will be much superior.
But you don't get is that first deck of small cards shouldn't keep you in the game for the entire shoe, as those are cards you'd want to wong away from, aggressively.21gunsalute said:I don't know, I've had a lot of success cutting the small cards to the front. When you cut big cards to the front it's harder to judge how big to bet and when exactly to stop betting big. Sure, you may cut some big cards out of play when cutting small cards to the front, but you're going to cut some big cards out of play anyway, so if the pen is good this shouldn't be much of a problem. Cutting big cards to the front gives a clearer indication of when to bet big IMO, and it also keeps the small cards more clumped together, which is actually a good thing. There's nothing worse than having a high count later in the shoe that is infiltrated with with several small cards. Lastly, cutting the small cards to the front keeps you in the game for the entire shoe, which is critical where I play since wonging in and out isn't really an option.
Again, I disagree. The small cards are only going to come out for a few hands and your chances of winning these hands are virtually the same as when the big cards come out. If you lose these hands you're only going to lose minimal bets. I'm not sure how you'd vary your bets if you cut the small cards out of play, or do you just make max or near max bets every hand? How do you know when to stop betting big?Blue Efficacy said:But you don't get is that first deck of small cards shouldn't keep you in the game for the entire shoe, as those are cards you'd want to wong away from, aggressively.
This also gives you increased chances of cutting good cards out of play, resulting in getting burned with large bets out in deck 4-5, before the shuffle, versus a blind cut.
It's easier to make mistakes with betting if you cut the small cards to the back, yes. But you're playing with a much better overall edge, so if you're only making minor betting and playing errors as a result, you should still be okay. If sufficient low cards are cut into the netherworld behind the cut card, you are playing the whole shoe at an overall advantage. If the count does in fact go up, you know you're at an even bigger edge.
. . .21gunsalute said:Also, double downs are going to be virtually non-existent if you cut small cards out of play. You need a small card or 2 to make a 2-card 9,10 or 11, so cutting them out of play would lower the EV I would think. You're going to miss out on a lot of 5,6 5,5 4,7 3,8 hands ,etc., and get a lot more 8,7 and 9,7 hands. Hard hands of 17 and 18 will be more likely, which will also now be more likely to lose, and if you have to take a hit on a stiff hand you'll be even more likely to bust.
Sorry if I come off as condescending but you have much to learn, young padawan.21gunsalute said:Again, I disagree. The small cards are only going to come out for a few hands and your chances of winning these hands are virtually the same as when the big cards come out. If you lose these hands you're only going to lose minimal bets. I'm not sure how you'd vary your bets if you cut the small cards out of play, or do you just make max or near max bets every hand? How do you know when to stop betting big?
If you are not counting cards you won't know, sure. But hopefully you can count cards as well as shuffle track, otherwise you're wasting your time. Cutting a slug of small cards allows you to know that a neutral count is really slightly positive, slight negative is actually neutral, etc.
You are proclaiming that playing a few definite negative EV hands is no worse than playing a 5 deck shoe that has an overall player advantage, which is absurd.
Also, double downs are going to be virtually non-existent if you cut small cards out of play. You need a small card or 2 to make a 2-card 9,10 or 11, so cutting them out of play would lower the EV I would think. You're going to miss out on a lot of 5,6 5,5 4,7 3,8 hands ,etc., and get a lot more 8,7 and 9,7 hands. Hard hands of 17 and 18 will be more likely, which will also now be more likely to lose, and if you have to take a hit on a stiff hand you'll be even more likely to bust.
This is completely absurd. If I found a small card slug that was huge so as to eliminate double down opportunities, the deck cut to the back must contain nearly every small card in the whole six decks, the odds of which are likely next to zero. Also, if you had to choose between blackjacks and double downs, which one would you choose? There is only one correct answer.
Of course you'll get some 17s and 18s, you will NEVER win more hands than you lose in BJ. Your aim isn't to win more hands than you will lose, your aim is to win more than you lose with the help of splits, doubles, and ESPECIALLY blackjacks.
Lastly, I have somehow received double down hands at very high true counts, going by what you're saying this shouldn't happen. And somehow I have also been burned doubling 11s at ridiculous counts, and we ain't just talking getting the ace. Again, how should this happen? At high counts all the low cards are gone right? :laugh:
To each his own I guess. If I were playing one on one against the dealer and could easily wong out and know when to do so I might opt for your method. And cutting the small cards out of play certainly makes more sense in single and double deck games. But I think cutting the small cards to the front makes much more sense in shoe games where the penetration is good and wonging in and out isn't really plausible.Wonging is much more plausible in shoe games, generally speaking. You don't want to wong out very often at all when cutting a substantial slug of babies to the back, as it would take a much more negative count to justify wonging than in a straight counting situation. But you are right, heads up using your method would be a poor choice because you will be playing even more -EV hands
Convincing defense. Oh wait, no... it contained nothing of substance. In fact, it sounds like the defense of someone who realized he was wrong but can't admit it, so he just resorts to a condescending and unbelievably pointless response. Nice!Blue Efficacy said:Sorry if I come off as condescending but you have much to learn, young padawan.
It's the easiest method of shuffle tracking and a great place to start. You would estimate the count of the low-card slug and add it to your initial running count. If the slug was small (just a few cards) then you can do your TC conversions and bet sizing normally. If the slug was a significant size then you just subtract it from your discard estimation. For example, if you cut a one-deck segment with 3 extra low cards to the back, start your running count at +3 instead of 0 and consider one deck to be in the discards (since you already counted it and it is out of play). You can use the same betting spread and indices that you normally would. All you are doing is playing against a smaller shoe with a positive running count off the top. It's every card counter's dream! :gaga:21gunsalute said:I'm not sure how you'd vary your bets if you cut the small cards out of play...
The double downs are going to be the same during the "hot" section of the shoe either way. You are not changing the results of your big bets at all, and that is where all of your EV is. The only difference is that you are playing a few -EV hands off the top while waiting for the count to increase.21gunsalute said:Also, double downs are going to be virtually non-existent if you cut small cards out of play.