Hi, my name is Lefty...

[Lefty]

Hey all, just wanted to introduce myself. Not sure if this is the appropriate forum, if not if a moderator could please move it.

I'm a former poker player that became unbelievably bored with the game about 5 years ago. A little over a month ago I decided to get back in the casino and started studying blackjack. I've been in the casino a few times now, using KO Preferred. My bankroll is small (200 units, playing a bit like a hail mary BR) but able to be replenished. I've got BS down cold, and counting is far easier than I thought it would be. I'm comfortable playing heads up with a decently quick dealer.

One issue I've been running into is finding a decent game in my min bet range. Everything in my area is pretty terrible. Bad penetration, hit soft 17. Any pitch games pay 6:5 with bad pen, H17 as well. Min bets are typically 2-3 units for me. The only time I've been having success is wonging in and out.

Any tips or suggestions to increase my advantage? I don't see adding more indexes as giving enough of an advantage to make it worthwhile. Anyone else been down this road before?

Thanks!

Lefty

 

[WRX]

Play the bad games close to home only at minimal stakes, only for practice. When you're confident you've got your game down pat, play only good games, and commit enough of a bankroll that you can play at stakes that make it sufficiently profitable, taking into account expenses and the time you're committing to it. Travel to find the good games. That is, if you want to make money. Realize that you're at a substantial risk of having long losing streaks, even a year or more. It's not a job, it's an investment.

 

[ringlejames]

One issue I've been running into is finding a decent game in my min bet range. Everything in my area is pretty terrible. Bad penetration, hit soft 17. Any pitch games pay 6:5 with bad pen, H17 as well. Min bets are typically 2-3 units for me. The only time I've been having success is wonging in and out.

Any tips or suggestions to increase my advantage?


Lefty

Hey Lefty welcome.

Glad to see you have made the transition.

I was in the exact same predicament when I first started playing the game. I kept getting horrible games and my life style at the time was a hindrance to my basic strategy memorization. 420 :eyepatch: I would never remember the dreaded A,7 moves in BS. As well as a few splits.

So I had a predicament. I could either continue down the road I was on, and never make money or I could learn something that would be easy to apply and offset any trouble I had with memorizing basic strategy 6/5 games and give me a huge edge. So I took it upon myself to learn ACE SEQUENCING.

Then I would have trouble remembering the count and the 3 key cards that would tell me and ace was coming. So I decided to use foot positions too keep the counts as was recommended to me by BJAY COBBSON. Normally I would not listen to that dude but he made a rather compelling argument.

Or you could drop the count completely and just flat bet until your key cards showed up ramping up your bets at the time. Not only giving you a higher advantage than counting but you would not have to count at all and you would have an advantage as high as 7. something percent. If you did decided to enforce counting into you sequencing you could have and advantage as high as 10%. Hope this helps and hope some other experts chime in with their 2 cents.

 

[creeping panther]

Lefty

Hey all, just wanted to introduce myself. Not sure if this is the appropriate forum, if not if a moderator could please move it.

I'm a former poker player that became unbelievably bored with the game about 5 years ago. A little over a month ago I decided to get back in the casino and started studying blackjack. I've been in the casino a few times now, using KO Preferred. My bankroll is small (200 units, playing a bit like a hail mary BR) but able to be replenished. I've got BS down cold, and counting is far easier than I thought it would be. I'm comfortable playing heads up with a decently quick dealer.

One issue I've been running into is finding a decent game in my min bet range. Everything in my area is pretty terrible. Bad penetration, hit soft 17. Any pitch games pay 6:5 with bad pen, H17 as well. Min bets are typically 2-3 units for me. The only time I've been having success is wonging in and out.

Any tips or suggestions to increase my advantage? I don't see adding more indexes as giving enough of an advantage to make it worthwhile. Anyone else been down this road before?

Thanks!

Lefty

Hi Lefty,

In my estimation it is better that you do not play those poor games, just say no

It is tough with very good games to do well. You are correct in the wonging in part, but you will soon tire of that, and maybe get a boot for doing it and so much grief from other players that you will sour of it.

You need a fine game to play, seriously, for a straight counting game.

As to counts, I like hi-lo.

Best to you,
CP

 

[Automatic Monkey]

...The only time I've been having success is wonging in and out....

Yes, keep doing that. Wonging can make almost any game playable.

 

[Lefty]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

Is ace sequencing still effective with an ASM? Every casino here uses them. You can get a hand shuffle only when one breaks. I am lucky to have about 8 casino within an hour driver and another 4 within 2 hours. The ones that are two hours away may have better games...I have yet to scout them out yet. Are indian reservation casino's typically easier games?

As a quick update I've put in about 9 hours over the last two days and I'm down roughly 120 units. Some negative variance for sure. Today I did catch myself getting a little emotional late in a 6D shoe that was at +46 (I start my IRC at 0 and the pivot point is +24). I was considering upping my max bet and actually did pushing it to 15 units on the last hand of the shoe. I ended up winning, but I know it was wrong.

Tried a new store today and actually found a 6D game with decent pen. Between 1-1.5 decks depending on dealer. Wonged in and out for awhile before settling down and 'playing all' for a couple of shoes. I should have continued to wong and cut out earlier than I did before possibly catching heat. How many times do you typically wong in on a trip? It still feels awkward standing behind a game for 10 mins, wonging in, getting out at the end and then walking around a casino with 5 tables open waiting for a new shuffle to do it again. I feel like 3-4 times would be the max before drawing attention.

I also blew it on an insurance call at around +30. After losing 3 previous insurance bets I balked and by the time I was about to put my money in the dealer had already closed insurance and flipped a natural.

Anyways, I know it's all part of the game and I'll be back soon looking for that variance to start working my way!

 

[AR Nick]

I'm a former poker player that became unbelievably bored with the game about 5 years ago.

Wow, I envy you. It took me all of a few days to get bored with poker. Still a very low-variance, low-risk way to build up a bankroll, though.

Regarding Indian casinos, my own personal experience with them has been that the rules are generally worse than at other casinos, but to compensate, the games are much "softer", if you know what I mean. That's not to say I'm recommending you spend all your time at the 6:5 games, since, as you've likely already found out, the edge that the house gets on those is titanic. You can, however, scout around and make a compromise.

Of course, this might not hold true for your area. I've heard enough horror stories from Indian reservations - usually ones very, very far from where I live - that make even Reno's pit personnel look like the Care Bears.

As for your emotional move at the last hand of that shoe, I'm not sure that was strictly wrong. Take this with a large grain of salt, as I'm not familiar with the count you're using, nor do I play shoe games, but as long as the count indicated you were playing at an advantage, a 15 unit bet, while certainly not optimal (particularly with a limited bankroll) is profitable over the long run. Any of the more experienced member, please do correct me if I'm in error with this.

Welcome to the site.

 

[ringlejames]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

Is ace sequencing still effective with an ASM? Every casino here uses them. You can get a hand shuffle only when one breaks. I am lucky to have about 8 casino within an hour driver and another 4 within 2 hours. The ones that are two hours away may have better games...I have yet to scout them out yet. Are indian reservation casino's typically easier games?

As a quick update I've put in about 9 hours over the last two days and I'm down roughly 120 units. Some negative variance for sure. Today I did catch myself getting a little emotional late in a 6D shoe that was at +46 (I start my IRC at 0 and the pivot point is +24). I was considering upping my max bet and actually did pushing it to 15 units on the last hand of the shoe. I ended up winning, but I know it was wrong.

Tried a new store today and actually found a 6D game with decent pen. Between 1-1.5 decks depending on dealer. Wonged in and out for awhile before settling down and 'playing all' for a couple of shoes. I should have continued to wong and cut out earlier than I did before possibly catching heat. How many times do you typically wong in on a trip? It still feels awkward standing behind a game for 10 mins, wonging in, getting out at the end and then walking around a casino with 5 tables open waiting for a new shuffle to do it again. I feel like 3-4 times would be the max before drawing attention.

I also blew it on an insurance call at around +30. After losing 3 previous insurance bets I balked and by the time I was about to put my money in the dealer had already closed insurance and flipped a natural.

Anyways, I know it's all part of the game and I'll be back soon looking for that variance to start working my way!

The trip is well worth the gas money. You would make so much more playing 3/2 and getting hand shuffled machines. Also, asms are not keyable for sequencing. I have ran into a few that dont mix the crads well but those are few and far between.

I would recommend driving the few extra hours. You would be able to get play 3/2 also you will have more hand shuffled games. Ace sequencing is hard to do. You first must find a hand shuffled game that is easily keyable. Copy the shuffle to the tee and key your ace for a few days playing that shuffle to tweek out when you shouldn't bet and when you should bet.

 

[Lefty]

Found a great game today. Dealer was only cutting a .5 deck off a 6D shoe. Very nice...played for about an hour and I was up 103 units. No BS'n around, didn't think twice about insurance and got to ride out some pretty high counts for an extra 5-6 rounds per shoe. I boogied out pretty quick since I didn't want to catch any attention.

Do dealers typically work the same shifts throughout the week or do they move all around?

 

[WRX]

Found a great game today. Dealer was only cutting a .5 deck off a 6D shoe. Very nice...played for about an hour and I was up 103 units. No BS'n around, didn't think twice about insurance and got to ride out some pretty high counts for an extra 5-6 rounds per shoe.

Now you're talking! The next step is to figure out this casino's tolerance for bet size and hours.

Do dealers typically work the same shifts throughout the week or do they move all around?

In most places, a dealer will work the same shift for a week, though it may change from week to week, from say an 11-7 shift to a 12-8 shift. YMMV.

 

[Gambler23]

How do you figure out the casinos tolerance for bet sizing?

 

[WRX]

How do you figure out the casinos tolerance for bet sizing?

A complex subject, certainly. To begin with, you want to look at how much other players are betting. If you stand out too much from the crowd, you potentially have a problem. Note that this can vary depending on the time of day and week. What the casino's comfortable with on a Saturday night may cause sweating of bullets during the day mid-week. As you experiment with increasing your bets, pay attention to how sweaty the pit becomes. But of course, lack of visible sweating doesn't preclude the possibility of greatly heightened scrutiny from the Eye. If you can get information from other APs on their experience with the casino, so much the better.

 

[Requiem]

(I start my IRC at 0 and the pivot point is +24)

Hey Lefty,

I'm practicing using the KO preferred (have not counted for real yet, still learning) for the 6 deck shoe, you customize it so IRC is at 0, Key Count is +16, Pivot Point at +24, and Insurance at +23. Is that right?

What betting ramp do you use?

Thanks! How has the KO been working for you?