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I disagree. 1-deck games are not lucrative, they always come with horrible caveats, like blackjack paying 1-1. I’d even say the 6 deck games are better than the 2 deck games. The 6 deck games, they usually have the cutcard 1 deck before the end. The 2 deck games, they also have the cutcard 1 deck before the end. But the standard deviation of the count is a parabolic function of your progress through the shoe. Meaning 1 deck before the end, you’ll be at the top of the parabola of a 2-deck game, in a 6-deck game, it’s most of the way to the base of it. The bottom line is that the standard deviation of the count, 1 deck before the end of a 6-deck shoe, will be sqrt(5/3) times as high as it is 1 deck before the end of a 2-deck shoe. It’s easier for that 1 deck at the end to be jampacked full of the high cards from all 6 decks than it is to be jampacked with just the high cards of 2 decks, basically. You just have to suffer through counting through 5 decks accurately, that’s the cost. But the minimum bet of a 6 deck game is generally 5 and sometimes 3 dollars as opposed to 25 or 15 in the 2 deck game. Your expected earnings are actually about the same if you play to minimize risk of ruin in either case, except the risk of ruin in the 6 deck game is smaller for a given bankroll size.
As for playing face down, what I do is just count them when they’re overturned and I don’t play if there are more than 2 other people at the table face down. But who needs that, 6 deck games are almost always face up.
There are still good one-deck games in northern Nevada, but you are right that the games are rarely found elsewhere. The GameMaster’s lessons were obviously written a few years ago when 1-deck 3:2 games were not dinosaurs.
7 et 9, vos réponses sont fausses. 7 est 0,4*M-2 et 9 est M/3-1. Vous avez également oublié de diviser votre variable M par le nombre de jeux restants.
Le "M" n'est pas une variable. Il s'agit d'une abréviation mentale pour garder une trace du fait que le compte est négatif. Au lieu de penser "moins 1", pensez simplement "M1".
Les réponses aux questions 7 et 9 sont exactement correctes telles qu'elles ont été affichées.
I live in France. I was a Blackjack player who use indexes by Stanford WONG, I am mastered the way Hi-lo. Because of big accident, I had a problem for my bankroll. If somebody need to organize a blackjack team, please tell me. Thanks!
Hi Ken I’ve learnedken Uston Advanced plus minus really kind of struggling with all the – numbers is there any reason to learn the minus numbers above -5 you aren’t you’re not going to run into that much. I would like your advice on that.. and do you think this is the best count for today’s action or should I switch to a high low I don’t think I’m able to play level 2 account thank you spraymaster and I’m also from the same area you are from would love to meet you sometime I admire all your website very much and very respectful to your knowledge I would like to find someone to help find tune
A few points:
1) You are correct about ignoring the high negative count indexes. You shouldn’t be playing many of those counts anyway, and when you do you will have your minimum bet out. It’s not worth the effort knowing the indexes for these situations.
2) I recommend everyone start with either KO or Hi-Lo until you are quite experienced. The extra errors you will make with a complex count combined with the mental fatigue will mean you are likely to do worse with an advanced count. I know one full-time pro who still uses KO exclusively. He understands that ease of use really is important.
3) You mention being from the same area, but I suspect you are mistaking me for the GameMaster. As for me, I’ve recently moved from Mississippi to Texas.
hi ken !!! these choices are the same also for european blackjack ? in very bad- low counts a hand like pair of 6 against a 4 or a 5 dealers how should be played ? hit stop or split ?knowing the remaining cards it plays a little with your mind and the bs .thanks 4 your answer
No-hole-card rules only change anything when the dealer has a ten or an Ace up. Therefore all strategies and index numbers other than against the dealer ten and dealer Ace are identical in the US game and the European game.
I don’t have index numbers for not splitting sixes against a 4 or 5. They would likely be worse than -10. In the event you did reach such an index, you would hit instead of split. In general, remember that strategy variation is far less important than bet variation, and you can easily do more damage than good by deviating from basic strategy when you aren’t sure of the appropriate index. If you don’t know the index for sure, just play basic strategy, no matter what you think you know about the deck composition. Index numbers are complicated, and deviating when you shouldn’t is expensive.
i have also hitting in negative counts my 13 and 14 againt dealers 3/4/5/6 and most of the times i saved all the players but thet never remember this they only remember when i took the “bust ” card instead to leave it gor the dealer.i dont even try to explained them ….
The issue is what happens in negative counts. To many people, the phrase “-2 or more” is confusing, and they may think it means “more negative”, instead of the expected -2,-1,0,+1 etc.
Al’s recommendation of using “better” or “worse” avoids this confusion.
The bottom line of course is do whatever works for you! As long as you are clear about the meaning of indexes, you can use whatever phrase is best for you for the memorization.
Actually, Hi-Lo has a betting correlation (BC) of 0.9682, while your recommendation (AKA the Silver Fox count) has a very slightly lower BC of 0.9625 instead. (See https://www.blackjackinfo.com/card-counting-efficiency-calculator/ ou https://qfit.com/card-counting.htm) Yes, the playing efficiency (PE) is improved with Silver Fox, but the Insurance Correlation is far weaker. For beginning players I absolutely stick with my recommendation of either Hi-Lo or KO.
These counts are so similar in practice that you are unlikely to gain much camouflage value by including the 7s and 9s. Yes, I agree that the 7 is effectively a low card, and the 9 effectively a high card, but to weight them the same as the others is iffy. If these kinds of things concern you, use the more complex count that I actually use, Wong’s Halves.
La réponse est que cela dépend des paramètres du jeu. De l'endroit où se trouve la carte à découper. Si vous donnez l'argent en livres, vous jouez probablement selon des règles différentes. En Angleterre, ne vérifie-t-on pas la présence d'un blackjack après avoir doublé ? En Amérique, vous n'avez même pas la possibilité de doubler ou de partager si le croupier a un blackjack. Aux Etats-Unis cependant, si la carte coupée est 1 paquet avant la fin, si le croupier vérifie d'abord s'il a un blackjack, si le double après le split et le resplit des as sont autorisés, alors la bonne réponse est d'ajouter 3 fois la mise minimum pour chaque 1 que le truecount dépasse 1.8. Vous misez la mise minimum tant que le croupier a l'avantage. Vous l'augmentez lorsque vous commencez à avoir l'avantage, c'est-à-dire à partir d'un truecount de 1,8, qui est le seuil de rentabilité. Donc, si le compte réel est de 0, vous misez le minimum. Si le truecount est de 1, vous misez le minimum. Si le compte vrai est de 2, vous misez le minimum, si le compte vrai est de 3, vous misez 4 fois le minimum, si le compte vrai est de 4, vous misez environ 7 fois le minimum. C'est ainsi que vous minimisez le risque de ruine. Si vous voulez maximiser le rendement statistique attendu sur une échelle linéaire sans vous soucier de la ruine, vous devez miser le minimum chaque fois que vous avez le désavantage et le maximum chaque fois que vous avez l'avantage, aussi léger soit-il, sans rien entre les deux, et si vous pouvez faire cela, vous pouvez vous attendre à perdre tout votre argent en un rien de temps et si vous ne le faites pas, vous pouvez vous attendre à être expulsé du casino en 20 minutes environ.
I disagree. 1-deck games are not lucrative, they always come with horrible caveats, like blackjack paying 1-1. I’d even say the 6 deck games are better than the 2 deck games. The 6 deck games, they usually have the cutcard 1 deck before the end. The 2 deck games, they also have the cutcard 1 deck before the end. But the standard deviation of the count is a parabolic function of your progress through the shoe. Meaning 1 deck before the end, you’ll be at the top of the parabola of a 2-deck game, in a 6-deck game, it’s most of the way to the base of it. The bottom line is that the standard deviation of the count, 1 deck before the end of a 6-deck shoe, will be sqrt(5/3) times as high as it is 1 deck before the end of a 2-deck shoe. It’s easier for that 1 deck at the end to be jampacked full of the high cards from all 6 decks than it is to be jampacked with just the high cards of 2 decks, basically. You just have to suffer through counting through 5 decks accurately, that’s the cost. But the minimum bet of a 6 deck game is generally 5 and sometimes 3 dollars as opposed to 25 or 15 in the 2 deck game. Your expected earnings are actually about the same if you play to minimize risk of ruin in either case, except the risk of ruin in the 6 deck game is smaller for a given bankroll size.
As for playing face down, what I do is just count them when they’re overturned and I don’t play if there are more than 2 other people at the table face down. But who needs that, 6 deck games are almost always face up.
There are still good one-deck games in northern Nevada, but you are right that the games are rarely found elsewhere. The GameMaster’s lessons were obviously written a few years ago when 1-deck 3:2 games were not dinosaurs.
7 et 9, vos réponses sont fausses. 7 est 0,4*M-2 et 9 est M/3-1. Vous avez également oublié de diviser votre variable M par le nombre de jeux restants.
Le "M" n'est pas une variable. Il s'agit d'une abréviation mentale pour garder une trace du fait que le compte est négatif. Au lieu de penser "moins 1", pensez simplement "M1".
Les réponses aux questions 7 et 9 sont exactement correctes telles qu'elles ont été affichées.
I live in France. I was a Blackjack player who use indexes by Stanford WONG, I am mastered the way Hi-lo. Because of big accident, I had a problem for my bankroll. If somebody need to organize a blackjack team, please tell me. Thanks!
Hi Ken I’ve learnedken Uston Advanced plus minus really kind of struggling with all the – numbers is there any reason to learn the minus numbers above -5 you aren’t you’re not going to run into that much. I would like your advice on that.. and do you think this is the best count for today’s action or should I switch to a high low I don’t think I’m able to play level 2 account thank you spraymaster and I’m also from the same area you are from would love to meet you sometime I admire all your website very much and very respectful to your knowledge I would like to find someone to help find tune
A few points:
1) You are correct about ignoring the high negative count indexes. You shouldn’t be playing many of those counts anyway, and when you do you will have your minimum bet out. It’s not worth the effort knowing the indexes for these situations.
2) I recommend everyone start with either KO or Hi-Lo until you are quite experienced. The extra errors you will make with a complex count combined with the mental fatigue will mean you are likely to do worse with an advanced count. I know one full-time pro who still uses KO exclusively. He understands that ease of use really is important.
3) You mention being from the same area, but I suspect you are mistaking me for the GameMaster. As for me, I’ve recently moved from Mississippi to Texas.
OK thanks for your help I will try this keep you up date in a few months
hi ken !!! these choices are the same also for european blackjack ? in very bad- low counts a hand like pair of 6 against a 4 or a 5 dealers how should be played ? hit stop or split ?knowing the remaining cards it plays a little with your mind and the bs .thanks 4 your answer
No-hole-card rules only change anything when the dealer has a ten or an Ace up. Therefore all strategies and index numbers other than against the dealer ten and dealer Ace are identical in the US game and the European game.
I don’t have index numbers for not splitting sixes against a 4 or 5. They would likely be worse than -10. In the event you did reach such an index, you would hit instead of split. In general, remember that strategy variation is far less important than bet variation, and you can easily do more damage than good by deviating from basic strategy when you aren’t sure of the appropriate index. If you don’t know the index for sure, just play basic strategy, no matter what you think you know about the deck composition. Index numbers are complicated, and deviating when you shouldn’t is expensive.
ken please inform us when your new project will be ready !i wish all the best !
i have also hitting in negative counts my 13 and 14 againt dealers 3/4/5/6 and most of the times i saved all the players but thet never remember this they only remember when i took the “bust ” card instead to leave it gor the dealer.i dont even try to explained them ….
Thanks for the answer ken.i hope all the best 4 you !
I use the terms more and less. +2 or more stand, +1 or less hit. Simplest to say and understand for me.
The issue is what happens in negative counts. To many people, the phrase “-2 or more” is confusing, and they may think it means “more negative”, instead of the expected -2,-1,0,+1 etc.
Al’s recommendation of using “better” or “worse” avoids this confusion.
The bottom line of course is do whatever works for you! As long as you are clear about the meaning of indexes, you can use whatever phrase is best for you for the memorization.
Thanks for the input.
Do you have an upgrade to this software coming this fall?
Merci, Ken. C'était un grand papa !
Really helpful website and app; wish I had known about this in the 1st lesson before I made up my flashcards…
Actually, Hi-Lo has a betting correlation (BC) of 0.9682, while your recommendation (AKA the Silver Fox count) has a very slightly lower BC of 0.9625 instead. (See https://www.blackjackinfo.com/card-counting-efficiency-calculator/ ou https://qfit.com/card-counting.htm) Yes, the playing efficiency (PE) is improved with Silver Fox, but the Insurance Correlation is far weaker. For beginning players I absolutely stick with my recommendation of either Hi-Lo or KO.
These counts are so similar in practice that you are unlikely to gain much camouflage value by including the 7s and 9s. Yes, I agree that the 7 is effectively a low card, and the 9 effectively a high card, but to weight them the same as the others is iffy. If these kinds of things concern you, use the more complex count that I actually use, Wong’s Halves.
La réponse est que cela dépend des paramètres du jeu. De l'endroit où se trouve la carte à découper. Si vous donnez l'argent en livres, vous jouez probablement selon des règles différentes. En Angleterre, ne vérifie-t-on pas la présence d'un blackjack après avoir doublé ? En Amérique, vous n'avez même pas la possibilité de doubler ou de partager si le croupier a un blackjack. Aux Etats-Unis cependant, si la carte coupée est 1 paquet avant la fin, si le croupier vérifie d'abord s'il a un blackjack, si le double après le split et le resplit des as sont autorisés, alors la bonne réponse est d'ajouter 3 fois la mise minimum pour chaque 1 que le truecount dépasse 1.8. Vous misez la mise minimum tant que le croupier a l'avantage. Vous l'augmentez lorsque vous commencez à avoir l'avantage, c'est-à-dire à partir d'un truecount de 1,8, qui est le seuil de rentabilité. Donc, si le compte réel est de 0, vous misez le minimum. Si le truecount est de 1, vous misez le minimum. Si le compte vrai est de 2, vous misez le minimum, si le compte vrai est de 3, vous misez 4 fois le minimum, si le compte vrai est de 4, vous misez environ 7 fois le minimum. C'est ainsi que vous minimisez le risque de ruine. Si vous voulez maximiser le rendement statistique attendu sur une échelle linéaire sans vous soucier de la ruine, vous devez miser le minimum chaque fois que vous avez le désavantage et le maximum chaque fois que vous avez l'avantage, aussi léger soit-il, sans rien entre les deux, et si vous pouvez faire cela, vous pouvez vous attendre à perdre tout votre argent en un rien de temps et si vous ne le faites pas, vous pouvez vous attendre à être expulsé du casino en 20 minutes environ.