OK, I've been playing BJ for a few months, and have studied basic strategy, read SW's book, etc. I've been playing some small local tournaments (usually from 20-65 entries) and have improved to the point that I almost always make the semis and occasionally make the final table, though I haven't come in first (yet). Now I want to improve my play at the regular tables, so I want to learn to count, which could occasionally help a bit at tourneys too. I have a two part question: 1) What's the easiest/best system for a rookie to start out with? 2) In selecting where to play, what is the effect of penetration on the effectiveness of counting? Pretty much all of the local casinos use a 6-deck shoe, except for the high-limit tables which are single or double deck. The penetration into the shoes (I hope I'm saying this right) where I regularly play varies from about 65% and up. One house has their dealers cut the shoe at about 90-95%, which has at least once led to problems with running out of cards in hand in a tournament game. Thanks for any thoughts or recommendations. CJ
Penetration is quite important for win rate. Somehow I expect that the 90-95% cut you've seen at one casino might be for tournament play only! It would certainly be an excellent find at the live tables. A typical shoe cut would be 75%, though I've seen half a deck cut off before, which would be over 91%. There are two systems I generally recommend for players just learning to count: One which really lives up to the claim of "easiest" is Knock-Out Blackjack and the K-O system. Without getting into details, it's an unbalanced system which means you don't have to convert the running count into a true count to use it. While that ease-of-use comes at the price of lower effectiveness, it's still a good place to start. The second system is powerful enough to use for a lifetime. It's the most popular system out there, the Hi-Lo count, detailed in Wong's book 'Professional Blackjack'. Plug: Both of these are available at my store, as well as many other bookstores.
Not just tournament play Actually, even the regular table that I play there has an 85-95% cut. I was surprised when I first saw it, as I had never seen a shoe cut that deep, and thought that it must have just been an error by that one dealer. But it wasn't, it was repeated by the other dealers. At the tournament game where the dealer ran out of cards in the middle of a hand, he looked at the shoe before the hand and saw how few cards were left to deal to the still-full table. He called for the floor supervisor and asked if he could go ahead and shuffle. She looked at him with derision and said, "We don't change the shuffle. Go ahead and deal." Of course, the result was that he ran out of cards and had to shuffle and we had to play the hand over. In any case, I much prefer playing there than another local casino that uses a continuous shuffling machine. I have never had a winning session there. CJ
Oops...and thanks Oh, and thanks for the recommendations, Ken! My cat is 'helping' me and I hit send before I was finished. CJ
