Automatic Monkey said:
Maybe what still needs to be said is that TCT gives you useful information after you have determined a true count and have no additional knowledge of the number of unseen cards. If you walk away from a true count, and discover when you return that the dealer has thrown a newspaper over the shoe and the discards the TCT gives you the most accurate information you're going to get. If you know the number of cards that have been dealt in your absence, you have additional data that the TCT was not derived to take into account.
Not the best analogy, because it also says to kill the unbelievers, and because the postulates of math are more difficult to prove than those of religion. More people have seen God than have seen the ultimate fate of two parallel lines.
I don't want to open up a can of worms here but the number of cards dealt while you are away gives you no additional information.
All the information you have is number of cards dealt to the point at which you left, RC at point left, number of cards dealt when you resume, and change in RC on resumed rounds (incrementing or decrementing what RC was when you left.)
Again, London Colin sums this up very well:
At any stage all you know is the RC and the number of unseen cards.
You are right that God-like abilities might give you added info though. Think Lucky Ned, "Go with gutz." Maybe he's on to something.
