Vegas bound. Any ideas?

Anyone ever tried counting cards? It's really not that hard to keep up.

 

I don't mind if people are playing dumb -- like never hitting a 16 no matter what -- as long as they are consistent.

But when people start arguing or you get drunks who can't figure out if they should stand on their 12 when the dealer has a King showing or whether they should hit their 19 when the dealer has a 6, I walk.

 

It's really easy, just assume the next card is always a 10 or a face. People should just play the percentages, the guy in Junkie's example would be an idiot regardless if he won that one hand. To hit on 16 against a 5 over the long haul that does not win.

I'm sure I'm like most, good runs and bad runs, I think the key is to stick to a betting pattern where you up your bets when you win a hand and immediately go back to the minumum when you lose a hand. Chances are you're still going to come out on the losing end, Casino's are open for a reason.

 

There is no betting pattern that changes the your long-term expectation. (except, of course, for card-counting)

 

Yeah, the whole bankroll thing is keeping me from being rich.

 

Imagine if, instead of a shoe, all the cards were scrambled up in a big pool and the dealer each time picked one out of the pool. It wouldn't matter who did what, because each time he's taking one out of the pool, and he could take any one at any time.

Well, a shoe is the same thing. They are in order, but since no one knows what order they are in, it doesn't matter.

I'm amazed by people who legitimately don't get this.

Now, if someone playing incorrectly bothers you just on principle, that's a different story. Then again, that's no different from saying you don't want to play next to someone who is fat or has bad breath or is picking his fingernails at the table. It may be annoying, but it doesn't affect your chances of winning.

 

\

You try to work a 1-10 bet spread ($100 one hand, a dime, the next),
and unless the pit thinks you're a total moron and/or unless there are
several utter fish playing at the same table and the house wants to
deal as many hands per hour as possible in order to drown said fish,
you're going to get shuffled up on, in a heartbeat.

Next case.

 

There's a charm to shuffletracking (following clumps of high-count cards),
but you have to know your shit, it's a lot of work, and not foolproof.

How much would you have liked to play in the 50's, knowing how to count,
and going up against all of the idiot pit people?

Would pay any price.

 

Vegas bound. Does it have a safe word?

 

The other thing about card-counting is that you have to do it perfectly and you have to do it over a long period of time. You can sit for 200 hands or so and play perfectly, while counting, and still lose because the cards don't fall your way.

There's almost no point in doing it if you are just a casual player who plays for a few hours on a weekend in Vegas. You aren't going to get in the volume of hands to ensure that your advantage plays out.