We were discussing this on Wong's site and I wanted to know what you guys thought about it. There was the discussion that whether or not counting was helpful in tournaments. I said it was, it's a good indicator for when to make your move and bet bigger, and for strategy variations for hits and what-not, but someone else made the point that it's more distracting than helpful, what do you guys think?
The Count or Lack of it If you lose the count during a BJ Tournament you have in most situtions done yourself a favor.Its one less thing you need to keep track of.Your big bets need to be made at specific times not just when the "Count" is good .Money Mangement and playing your position is far more important than the "Count".If you are good enough to keep the "Count"+ side count of aces,and keep up to 4 different bankrolls in your head without your computer crashing go for it............All the AP's that are crossing over to tournament play keep in mind this is a totally different game than what you have been playing.You are playing against the other players not the casino.I know you will understand this.If we could only get the "Narrow Minded" Tournament Directors to realize this it would make for a beautiful world.All Tournament players should be able to walk into a casino with their head held high.We have done nothing wrong.Tournaments are held to find out who is the best,right now for the most part they are held and if the "Narrow Minded" think you are to good you are shown the door.These marketing directors were hired to bring people in their casino doors.The general public wants to come to Las Vegas and beat the best players and if they do they will talk about it forever and if they lose they will still talk about who they had a chance to play against. and at what Casino it happened at.Now that Blackjack Tournaments are getting TV coverage , if the marketing directors drop the ball on this one they have only themselves to blame. p.s. Someone tell the marketing dept.that the prize money won in tournaments comes from players entry fees.It's not even the casino money that is won .How much do they pay these people? Someone call the stockholders !
I agree I usually start a round counting, but when we get to about ten hands from the end, I've stopped. Even in the early hands, it's pretty pointless. About all it ever does for me is get me in trouble by encouraging too much early risk if the count gets high. I generally try to just use the information for playing strategy, but temptation is a powerful thing. Late in the round, there's no debate for me. As Joe warns, I can't keep 4 or 5 bankrolls in my head and still count. So out it goes. If you don't have enough to think about late in the round, I'd say you're still not seeing the depth of tournament blackjack clearly. As for Joe's other points, very true.
Thanks alot guys That's what I was wondering. I actually started out as a tournament player but am moving into the realm of advantage play and was curious as to whether or not I should bring those skills to the table with me.
