Newb card counter. Can the masters of this place help me?

[ninous26]

Hey guys, first of all I apologize for starting a new thread. I searched first and couldn't find specifics. I'd also like to apologize for the ignorant questions I'll probably ask you.

I'll introduce myself first. I've been playing blackjack since I was a little kid.. mainly for fun with family and friends.. I am 22 years old and I frequent the casinos here a lot. I am the typical "ploppy" I guess.. I just use progressive betting and basic strategy. At times it's won me $1500-$2000 a night and at times made me lose $500 a night. I play 6 deck BJ, Dealer hits on Soft 17's.. Double down any 2 cards. Split any two cards. Unlimited splitting aces (but you only get 1 card) 3:2 BJ payout. ( So sorry I don't know your acronyms).

A couple weeks ago I got my ass handed to me pretty bad. Betting minimum $10 a hand and progressively stacking I lost $800. I was losing 9-10 hands in a row, winning one then losing another 6-7 in a row, then winning 1 or pushing. Again followed by losing 10 in a row. I felt so helpless. I left the "store" feeling molested.. How did that happen? What the hell? I felt weird and bad all over.

Since then I swore off blackjack.. Thinking to myself "F that. Never again".

Thing is that I've planned a birthday trip to vegas over a year ago and we are going this weekend coming up.. I decided to try blackjack again but this time I'm trying to pick up card counting..

Now onto the point...

I've picked up on Hi-Lo counting.. I just did a fully shuffled deck in 45.8 seconds with no errors. I can do it faster but I'll end up with 1 error maybe 2.

I've been practicing literally all day for 2 days now just counting.. Watching videos and reading stories (a lot is still very complicated to me. You guys are talented).

So what I want to do is play only single deck, face down dealt BJ.. I know of 2 spots on the strip that do this. ($100 minimum, and $25 minimum). Same rules as above that I play locally. These 2 places I know of are usually dead so everytime I used to play basic strategy I'd be alone.

Now I've been practicing 1 on 1 single deck face down and I can keep up the count. My questions are only regarding single deck Hi-Lo play:

Do you still need a TC in single deck, or do you just stick with the running count on single deck?

If you do need to have a TC on single deck how do you divide and whats the point? Whatever the running count is divided by 1 will get you the same number.

If I get down to a half deck of cards left do I then divide my count by .5?


Last: How do you go about betting when you have a nice high count? By "units" do you mean chips or is the minimum bet allowed the "unit"


Thank you all in advance.. I know for sure I need more practice and reading but I'm trying to get more clear/specific answers. I have no figuered that I'd rather play BJ with little card counting knowledge than non at all and trying to play basic strategy/progressive betting.

 

[zengrifter]

Do you still need a TC in single deck, or do you just stick with the running count on single deck?

No you don't, at very little cost... but you will need to recompute your indices.

If you do need to have a TC on single deck how do you divide and whats the point? Whatever the running count is divided by 1 will get you the same number.

TC is based on decks remaining, so the division becomes multiplication in fractions less than 1 >>

1.0 = 1
3/4 = 1.5
1/2 = 2
1/3 = 3
1/4 = 4

 

[Pelerus]

1.0 = 1
3/4 = 1.5
1/2 = 2
1/3 = 3
1/4 = 4

2/3 = 1.5
3/4 = 1.33

 

[tthree]

Algebra

In a single deck game the TC is always a larger magnitude than the RC. What the people, who no doubt know what they are trying to say, were saying about the conversion goes back to dividing by a fraction in basic algebra. When you divide by a fraction, you invert the fraction and multiply.

TC = RC / (x/y decks remaining) = RC * y/x

dividing by 1/2 becomes multiplying by (2/1 = 2)

Just in case you didnt get it. If you didnt know what they were trying to explain Im not sure whether or not they made it clear.

Sorry guys after rereading your posts I was the one who didnt understand.

 

[ninous26]

Okay, so I think I got this..

Say after the third hand of the single deck I have an RC of +6 and there's half a deck remaining. So I take 6 and divide by 0.5 which gets me 12 so I have a TC of 12? Which in turn means bet huge..

Or say its the last hand of the deck and there is 1/4 deck remaining.. My RC is 2.. I do 2/ 0.25 which gives me a TC of 8..

So if there's half a deck, multiply RC by 2

quarter deck,multiply RC by 4

and so on...


Another question.. Say I find the TC, on the very next hand being dealt do I star the RC from where the TC left off? I'm pretty sure you do but I'm just trying to be 100%

Again, thank you guys very much.

 

[paddywhack]

Another question.. Say I find the TC, on the very next hand being dealt do I star the RC from where the TC left off? I'm pretty sure you do but I'm just trying to be 100%

Again, thank you guys very much.

Running count continues on. You use the TC for betting and index plays.

 

[ninous26]

Got ya..

Another question on converting RC to TC. I played live while counting for the first time in my life.. It looked like a 4 deck game and the cut card was placed so that a deck and a quarter/ a deck and a half was out of play

I was easily keeping count but did not now how to get the true count.. I know you divide the RC by the number of decks remaning but after 1 or two hands with 3 players and the count is +1 how do you divide that? 1/3.75 or 1/3? That leaves you without a whole number like 0.33 or something>>> Do you just forget the .33 part and start the count again from 0?


Also, I must say.. I joined my friend who was playing at a CSM table and started to flat out gamble without counting and I felt at such a disadvantage and had no desire to play without knowing some kind of count. I just learning about counting and it already has this affect on me. Needless to say, I stopped after 2 hands.

 

[tthree]

Rounding the divisor

Round DOWN to a divisor that you are comfortable with mathematically speaking. Rounding down insures the rounding error understates you advantage. That way you dont overbet your situation.

 

[MangoJ]

Round DOWN to a divisor that you are comfortable with mathematically speaking. Rounding down insures the rounding error understates you advantage. That way you dont overbet your situation.

So if 3.5 decks are left, you would divide by 3 rather than 4 ?

 

[Canceler]

Another question.. Say I find the TC, on the very next hand being dealt do I star the RC from where the TC left off? I'm pretty sure you do but I'm just trying to be 100%

Resume the RC from where the RC left off. Keep your running count running until the end of the deck. Reset to 0 at the start of a new deck.

 

[tthree]

correction

So if 3.5 decks are left, you would divide by 3 rather than 4 ?

What I was trying to say was round done your estimation of decks in the discard tray. I should have said round up the way the question was asked. Good catch.