Stanford Wong's Books

[DavidLillard]

So far, I've picked up 3 of them.

Because my head *hurts* when I even THINK about trying card counting, again, I find a LOT of his verbage useLESS - especially about NOT tipping the dealers.

If some of the higher paid dealers want to play semantic *games* with the IRS, LET'EM! I don't think the hard working, honest, LOW-paid dealers should be penalized. If, IMHO, the dealer has earned it and, especially, when I'm winning (which didn't happen at the regular tables this past weekend), then I tip. It's one thing to be frugal; and an ENTIRELY different thing to be just plain CHEAP.

As to his strategies: The tournament logic is good. This, I need to work more on. On card counting, I *believe* there are a some major flaws. One, Aces are anomalies; and should be counted seperately - NOT included with figures for the rest of the deck, at all! Two, the median card is SEVEN! This should be used to recalculate ALL statistics. Worked this out about 25 years ago (after taking a college level course in statistics and reading Uston's book); but, due to a stroke and other medical problems, I can't work my complete system, anymore. If I could, I'm sure I could rack up the WINS!

Feedback??

 

[DanMayo]

Point?

David,

I'm not sure what your trying to get at here?

Tips for dealers - I guess there are a couple of thoughts on this. If you are playing BJ purely as a form of entertainment then tipping all the time would be correct (IMHO). I'm not saying go hog wild or anything, I generally tip about same win or lose.

If you a advantage player you would probably tend to tip less to increase your expected value (EV). Or you would only tip as cover for your play or to get a favor from the dealer like dealing out one more hand in that deeply dealt DD game.

Stanford Wong - You have named one of the best in the field of card counting. Anything written by him is well founded.

Ace Removal - Yes many counts do talk about using an ace sidecount because of it's uniqueness. This does not make it manditory though in many level one counts.

Median Card is Seven??? - If you are talking about median or neutral card as far as effects of removal on the remaining composition of the deck, it is actually eight. See www.bjmath.com/bjmath/Stats/correl.htm for information on this. It is an article based on the late Dr. Peter Griffin works in the study of the math of blackjack. Dr. Griffin was the most respected mathmaticians to study the game.

Card Counting in Tourney Play - There is little advantage to count during tourney play since there are so few hands. Your mental abilities are much better spent keeping track of where you are at in regards to BR and position. IMHO you are better served in figuring out your optimal bets and the probabilites of someone making that hand verses what your hand has to offer.

Hope to see you in May.

Just my thoughts ,
Dan

 

[DavidLillard]

K+Q+J+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2 = 84 / 12 = 7 = the Neutral (median) card!

NOT 8 as you, and others say, when you DISregard the Ace, for *ALL* computations.

See??

 

[slim100_us]

Dave,

As far as Card Counting goes, Have you ever tried an Un-balanced count? I am currently using the K-O System, and I hear the Red 7 works very good. These two systems are pretty simple because you do not have to convert the running count to the true count. I am not so sure how accurate people are able to do this true count conversion anyway. I have read about the Hi-Low from Standford Wong, which is probably the easiest balanced count to use. I have also looked at Ken Uston's Advanced Point Count in his Million Dollar Blackjack book, All I can say is . I guess my question would be, is the extra effort that you put into these balanced counts really worth it, compared to a easy un-balanced system?

I do not count during tournament play. Like Dan said, I keep more track of BR*, and Chips.

See you guys at the next Tournament

Slim

 

[DanMayo]

Not the Same Thing

K+Q+J+10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2 = 84 / 12 = 7 = the Neutral (median) card!

NOT 8 as you, and others say, when you DISregard the Ace, for *ALL* computations.

See??

David,

What you have above is the median of the number set that really has nothing to do with how this card affects the game of 21 when it is removed from the deck.

"Neutral Card" in the area of card counting has to do with the "effect of removal" of that card from the deck. That is, have my odds of beating the dealer improved or have gotten worse based on the card removed. Will the dealer bust more or make a hand more with this card gone. "Neutral Cards" will have little effect in regards to removal on the house edge. Again another table which gives these values:

www.wizardofodds.com/blackjack/bjapx7.html

It is from these values that the card "Tag" or value to the player is derived. Those that have a positive effect of removal (making the players edge better) are given a positive tag (+1 or +2 depending on the count system) and conversly those that have a negative effect get a negative tag.

As you may have come accross before these values had been calculated many years ago by Baldwin, Roger; Cantey, Wilbert; Maisel, Herbert; and McDermott, James "The Optimum Strategy In Blackjack," in 1956 and then more recently applied to card counting in 1962 by Dr. Thorp in the classic "Beat the Dealer".

Since this time there have been many other great authors of valuable works to the field of card counting and other Advantage Play Techniques.

We'll be seeing ya at the tables,
Dan

P.S. Of course, this is all theory and I have not been able to apply any of it at the tables.