What is Your Favorite Way to Keep Track of the Count?

C

Cplcam

Member
What is Your Favorite Way to Keep Track of the Count?

I've been using one of the chips rotating it like a clock / pick a logo spot as the pointer
(12 oclock postion = 0)
example first round: count is +4 / rotate the chip to 4 oclock postion /next round the count drops by 1 rotate the chip back one to the 3 oclock postion for +3 and so on........

Would love to hear what others have tried.
 
Cplcam said:
What is Your Favorite Way to Keep Track of the Count?

I've been using one of the chips rotating it like a clock / pick a logo spot as the pointer
(12 oclock postion = 0)
example first round: count is +4 / rotate the chip to 4 oclock postion /next round the count drops by 1 rotate the chip back one to the 3 oclock postion for +3 and so on........

Would love to hear what others have tried.
Click to expand...
That sounds OK, sort of, but what happens if the RC is negative? Do you go back to 10:00 for -2? If not, you are keeping the RC in your head for -counts so , therefore you can keep +counts in your head as well. Keep that in mind. It may be more useful to keep other side counts with a chip, such as aces or sevens etc.
 
Cplcam said:
What is Your Favorite Way to Keep Track of the Count?

I've been using one of the chips rotating it like a clock / pick a logo spot as the pointer
(12 oclock postion = 0)
example first round: count is +4 / rotate the chip to 4 oclock postion /next round the count drops by 1 rotate the chip back one to the 3 oclock postion for +3 and so on........

Would love to hear what others have tried.
Click to expand...

that is genius, but i just do it in an obvious manner, i buy in for $300 and ask for $20 in whites, and i keep track with those, stacking them with the + counts, and using my fingers for - counts, and if it goes worse than -10, then i stop counting.. btw i flat bet $10, so i would think that would automatically cut my heat in half, if not much more.. i seriously havent seen any heat in the casinos ive been to in nw indiana, they dont seem to care, ive ever talked to dealers about counting, but i forgot about something which i havent gotten an answer on yet.. what about being rated? i heard there is good, average, bad and most of the time they just leave it on average, but if the pb hears me talking smart or sees a bs card in front of me, will he switch it to good (which is probably like a 1% theoretical loss)?
 
I think most people keep the count in their head. Using a “device” is easier but it can be very obvious, and it might get you into trouble if they decide they don’t like you. Some people use their feet for counting since it is less obvious. Here’s a link to a recent discussion about different techniques:

http://www.blackjackinfo.com/bb/showthread.php?t=7021

-Sonny-
 
Thanks SilentBob420BMFJ, that's what I wanted to hear, what other people have come up with.
Thanks Sonny, nice link to the subject.
I really appreciate that you two took the time to answere the actual question. "What is Your Favorite Way to Keep Track of the Count?"
As a side note let me say I'm keeping a side count in my head of the Aces. I've been using the chip clock for 2 years now and no one at the table or pit has ever noticed or at least said anything.
 
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shadroch,
You wanted to known why I do a side count on the Aces. There are a couple of reasons that comes in handy. Three of the casinos I regularly play at do a hand shuffle. For example: you are at a 6 deck shoe game and looking at the discard tray and only 2/3 deck of cards worth is out of the shoe but within that 2/3 deck deck there has been 12 Aces. When that shoe is over and the dealer breaks the deck in to forths to shuffle (these 3 casinos do the same style of easy to follow shuffle), they split the deck in two then split those into two for a total of 4 piles. As I look at the dealer the stack from left to right are
1) Top 2 decks worth of what was on the top of the discard pile
2) Next is with top 2 decks of the middle section
3) The bottom 2 decks, with the 12 Aces in the bottom decks worth
4) The middle section the was above the bottom 2 decks

Dealer shuffles part of section 2 with section 4
Dealer shuffles part of section 1 with section 3
Dealer shuffles last of section 2 with section 4
Dealer shuffles part of section 1 with section 3
Dealer shuffles last of section 2 with section 4
Dealer shuffles last of section 1 with section 3 (3 is the group with the 12 Aces)

The 12 Aces are in the top 2 decks worth of decks as the dealer squares them up and hands out the cut card. If that card goes in one deck from the back / dealer moves that section to the front and starts dealing. You now know when the you see one decks worth in the discard shoe that the next two decks worth will have 12 Aces from section 3 plus any Aces from section 1 (lets say it's the average of 4) you now know you have a 2 decks worth of cards with 16 Aces instead of the normal 8 Aces coming ~ you may want to adjust your bet.
Also in the blackjack tournaments I play, a Blackjack pays 4 to 2 instead of 3 to 2. So if the discard tray has 3 decks worth and you've only seen 1 or 2 Aces you might want to adjust your bet.
Keeping track of any group of bunched up 10s or small cards in the shuffle ("Shuffle Tracking") in addition to the count means more $$ for me at the tables and more tournaments wins.
I'm new to playing tournaments, been doing it about 7 months now but out of the 13 I've entered I've been at the finalist table 11 times.
If you are a part of this forum you probably received an email about Kenneth Smiths just releasted book "How to win more Blackjack Tournaments" (Sept. 2007), I've read it and it's well worth the money.
 
shadroch said:
If you can't keep track in your head,you haven't had enough practice.
Click to expand...

i actually can keep track in my head, but i choose not to, as i have nothing to gain from it, except going from like 1% heat to .5% heat

Cplcam said:
Thanks SilentBob420BMFJ, that's what I wanted to hear, what other people have come up with.
Thanks Sonny, nice link to the subject.
I really appreciate that you two took the time to answere the actual question. "What is Your Favorite Way to Keep Track of the Count?"
As a side note let me say I'm keeping a side count in my head of the Aces. I've been using the chip clock for 2 years now and no one at the table or pit has ever noticed or at least said anything.
Click to expand...

i could easily keep an ace sidecount, but people say you shouldnt if you use hi-lo, because it already accounts for it, but i was thinking, what if i kept a side count of aces for wonging purposes?
 
Hi,

The Hi-Lo as you said already includes the ace in the main count and it does a damn good job for betting purposes achieving a BC of .97. The main thing you should be interested in for wonging purposes is BC and sidecounting the ace will not add to your BC. The only reason you would want to sidecount the ace for the Hi-Lo would be for playing purposes. Since it already has it in the base count your doubles are already covered, so you would make adjustments for your hit/stands based on the richness or leaness of aces. But, that is straying away from the point.

Best,

Beast
 
Cplcam said:
What is Your Favorite Way to Keep Track of the Count?

........

Would love to hear what others have tried.
Click to expand...

i used mental repetition to keep track running count and of the true count. that worked ok but was kind of tedious.
what i do now is dispense with the running count and true count number but instead keep in mind what that number means game value-wise and bet level-wise. so on a round by round basis i make a mental judgement of the value of the game and the bet level i should be at for that particular point. this is done on a cummulative basis. for some reason for me it's much easier to remmember where i'm at in the game in this manner.
 
To........

shadroch
~and~
SilentBob420BMFJ
~and~
Beast

The reason I do a side count on the Aces is just for "Shuffle Tracking".
I do it as a totally seperate count from the running count / true count.

=======
sagefr0g,

I'm not quite sure what it is you are saying. Are you saying you no longer keep any count and just look for trends.
 
Cplcam said:
To........
sagefr0g,
I'm not quite sure what it is you are saying. Are you saying you no longer keep any count and just look for trends.
Click to expand...

yea it's confusing even to me and i'm doing it :joker:
a given TC represents a bet level for a given bankroll, desired ROR, nature of the game ect. so instead of remmembering the TC or RC i'm keeping in mind the bet level that i'm currently at. so i'm doing the RC, TC calculation lickity split and comming up with the bet i want to make. then i just remmember that bet and forget the RC and TC. next round same thing which may or maynot change the bet level. so it becomes a what's this game worth betwise or whats the value of this game to me now that takes precident in my mind instead of what is the count. i'll play I18 deviations according to this also.
if i'm at or near my max bet and depending on how far in the shoe i might dispense even the RC but just be watching for the degree to which high and low cards are comming out and move my bets that way.
 
shadroch said:
If you can't keep track in your head,you haven't had enough practice.
Click to expand...

That's one way to look at it, but if you could have one less thing to have to remember...why not?


With regard to the topic:

I use chips to keep the count most of the time. A green chip counts for 5 and red for 1. I keep that stack intermixed with the rest of my chips and have never had too much of a problem. Of course, I use KO and set the beginning count for a 6-deck shoe at -16. Sometimes, though, I don't begin the stack until after the first hand.

good luck
 
Beast said:
Hi,

The Hi-Lo as you said already includes the ace in the main count and it does a damn good job for betting purposes achieving a BC of .97. The main thing you should be interested in for wonging purposes is BC and sidecounting the ace will not add to your BC. The only reason you would want to sidecount the ace for the Hi-Lo would be for playing purposes. Since it already has it in the base count your doubles are already covered, so you would make adjustments for your hit/stands based on the richness or leaness of aces. But, that is straying away from the point.

Best,

Beast
Click to expand...

i was thinking more of wonging out if there are less aces, because the count could be positive with no aces remaining.. the other day i saw like 9 aces come out in 2 rounds, so i stopped playing, and im pretty sure thats a good move regardless of the count, because there are 24 aces in a shoe, and usually only 18 of them are played, so you could say that half of all the aces im going to see in a shoe have come out in 2 rounds

ChefJJ said:
That's one way to look at it, but if you could have one less thing to have to remember...why not?


With regard to the topic:

I use chips to keep the count most of the time. A green chip counts for 5 and red for 1. I keep that stack intermixed with the rest of my chips and have never had too much of a problem. Of course, I use KO and set the beginning count for a 6-deck shoe at -16. Sometimes, though, I don't begin the stack until after the first hand.

good luck
Click to expand...

you use KO? i always thot you used something more complex.. is that a picture of you? because i keep thinking your like 60 years old because of your picture
 
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