Somewhere there's a thread where zg recommends BJRM and Barfarkel recommends it in his book. So I followed the expert advice and purchased it. I found out that the way I was betting wasn't going to win much. My win/100 was only $4 and my ROR was high for my BR. So I used the BJRM to figure out the optimal betting spread for a $10K bankroll for the shoe game I play(even though I don't have that much, I can add later). I couldn't beleive it. Bet $50 at +2? $90 at +3? I though that was crazy. I normally don't raise my bets that high unless the count is +4 or higher. I decided to try it by deviding my bets between two spots.
Last night I started off by winning $200 in my first shoe even though the count never went past +3. I wonged in and out of shoes many times. A lot of my wainting bets were $0. Wonged in at +1, out at -1. Then the battle started. From being up $200, I ended up being down $700. I couldn't win any big bets with high counts. I kept at it and fought back to being down $500. That's when I switched casinos. So I'm driving to the other casino cursing ZG, Barfakel, and thinking that John Auston must be full of sh*t.
The next casino was a lot less crowded and had better rules. I stayed with the same spread $10, $15, $50, $90, $130. I bought in for $200 and never looked back. It took me about four hours to get back the $500 I lost in the first casino. Then in my last hour I won another $500. A total of $1K. So I came home up $500. It was awesome.
This is probably common knowledge amoung you guys, but I found out that I had more success at high counts when there were less players at the table. With six other players, at a high count it seemed like getting good cards was a crapshoot. But I had a couple of shoes go to a running count of +20 after two decks with only one other player at the table. These shoes seemed to last forever and I feel that I had a better chance of getting good cards when I didn't have to share them with so many other players.
So thanks ZG and Barfarkel for your recommendations. And thanks to John Auston for the great software. Slowly, but surely, I am learning more and more. It's good that we have this website to share our experiences and people like ZG and Ken to share expert advice. Thanks again.
Last night I started off by winning $200 in my first shoe even though the count never went past +3. I wonged in and out of shoes many times. A lot of my wainting bets were $0. Wonged in at +1, out at -1. Then the battle started. From being up $200, I ended up being down $700. I couldn't win any big bets with high counts. I kept at it and fought back to being down $500. That's when I switched casinos. So I'm driving to the other casino cursing ZG, Barfakel, and thinking that John Auston must be full of sh*t.
The next casino was a lot less crowded and had better rules. I stayed with the same spread $10, $15, $50, $90, $130. I bought in for $200 and never looked back. It took me about four hours to get back the $500 I lost in the first casino. Then in my last hour I won another $500. A total of $1K. So I came home up $500. It was awesome.
This is probably common knowledge amoung you guys, but I found out that I had more success at high counts when there were less players at the table. With six other players, at a high count it seemed like getting good cards was a crapshoot. But I had a couple of shoes go to a running count of +20 after two decks with only one other player at the table. These shoes seemed to last forever and I feel that I had a better chance of getting good cards when I didn't have to share them with so many other players.
So thanks ZG and Barfarkel for your recommendations. And thanks to John Auston for the great software. Slowly, but surely, I am learning more and more. It's good that we have this website to share our experiences and people like ZG and Ken to share expert advice. Thanks again.
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(just not in your play decisions lol). Oh yeah, if you really want to lose the heat and look like one of the suckers, go to a slot machine that's right in front of the BJ table you want to play at, play for a couple of minutes before you move to BJ (only wager the bear minimum amount because you just want to look stupid, not be stupid lol).