Knowing when to quit.

#1
I have been working hard for the last mouth at cardcouting, and understanding the rule of thumb to cardcounting. i say i would put about 20 hours a week practicing with my six deck shoes. still it is not enough to make long term profit at the casinos. i feel that no matter how hard i tried i still am losing like 500 to 700 dollars out of my mouthly income of 1000 dollars. now please i need some advice on what to do. i feel that i might start to become addicted to the game, and just trying to break even is just starting to get me really frustrated. Even when i have a high count of plus 10 and there is only 2 decks left, i should have gotten atleast a plus 5 tc, and yet the dealer is still pulling out the card he needs to beat me. like i am starting to wonder if cardcounting even works. Or maybe i am not cut out for blackjack.
 

shadroch

Well-Known Member
#2
With a monthly income of $1,000, you need to be playing at stakes so small that there would be little difference between winning and losing. Losing half your monthly income can , quite simply, not be an option.
 

Meistro

Well-Known Member
#3
With a bankroll of $700 your max bet should be around $5. Really the only way to play with a bankroll of that size is to back count hard and wong in at +1.5 TC. Wong out often, say TC.5 or TC1. You'd need a busy casino, with a lot of tables at red chip levels.
 

kewljason

Well-Known Member
#4
Meistro said:
With a bankroll of $700 your max bet should be around $5. Really the only way to play with a bankroll of that size is to back count hard and wong in at +1.5 TC. Wong out often, say TC.5 or TC1. You'd need a busy casino, with a lot of tables at red chip levels.
Actually, if he really has $700 that he can contribute towards a BR each month, using the formula for a replenishable bankroll he would be able to bet as though he had a BR of several thousand dollars. maybe spreading $5-$40 or so. But that is assumming he does not need that money to live on (lives at home ect) or for any other purpose. I am not recommending this path, but that is the formula. :rolleyes:
 

StandardDeviant

Well-Known Member
#5
krazyplaya said:
...losing like 500 to 700 dollars out of my mouthly income of 1000 dollars...
If you truly have a monthly income of $1,000, and if you need to use any of that income for living expenses (food, clothing, lodging, transportation), then you really shouldn't be in the casinos at all unless you are looking for a job.

If you have 1,000 per month to spend on gambling, then it's another matter. Which is it?
 

johndoe

Well-Known Member
#7
krazyplaya said:
now please i need some advice on what to do. i feel that i might start to become addicted to the game, .... Or maybe i am not cut out for blackjack.
You've answered your own question. You are not in a position to play blackjack. You don't have the bankroll, or the flexibility. Stop right now. Get help if you have to.
 

Deathangl13

Well-Known Member
#8
krazyplaya said:
Even when i have a high count of plus 10 and there is only 2 decks left, i should have gotten atleast a plus 5 tc, and yet the dealer is still pulling out the card he needs to beat me. like i am starting to wonder if cardcounting even works.
Okay... To address what you've stated; does card counting work? It does work, it's also the ONLY thing that works mathematically. However that doesn't mean you will win every hand, or even every session. Due to variance, you can experience major swings in your BR, sometimes winning much more than expected, and sometimes losing much more. This is the reason you need a sufficient BR. It is also the reason you feel like blowing the casino up when you get back to back Blackjacks on a negative count when you had the least amount of money on the table.

The reason the dealer is still getting low cards and pulling awesome 21's three times in a row during a high count is because of what is known as the cut card. At any given time, there can be more high cards behind the cut card than in the shoe, which has the same effect as if they were taken out of play. Your count, based on what high and low cards have already been taken out of play, has no way to tell you if the remaining high cards are before or after the cut card. Another reason for these strings of cards is the shuffle. The worse the shuffle, the less likely the cards are to be separated, causing large amounts of high cards to be taken out of play in the least amount of hands. I'm sure this is by design, as it favors the house. Years ago they did what was called "short-decking", which is when the house would take high cards out of the decks, or even replace them with low ones. The truth is, we don't know what they're doing these days but it works. High cards make up 4 out of 13 cards in a deck. Next time you're watching a game, count 13 cards out on the table and note the number of highs to lows. I've even seen 13 high cards come out in one round, out of the first 16 cards on the table. Purely coincidence? I doubt it....

Ghost
 
Last edited:

politcat

Well-Known Member
#9
Deathangl13 said:
I've even seen 13 high cards come out in one round, out of the first 16 cards on the table. Purely coincidence? I doubt it....
Ghost[/SIZE][/FONT]
you left the table after that hand, right?
 
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