Ouchez: I will no longer double 11 in big counts

[Parker]

As host/moderator, it is my job to maintain the standards around here. In a few short months we have grown from nothing to one of the most popular blackjack websites on the Internet. Newbies come to this website to learn the game. Our goal has always been to maintain a high signal/noise ratio, and apparently people like it, so I shall continue to do so.

> I am referring to a dd game that is dealt
> almost to the bottom with regularity which
> puts me in certain situations on a regular
> basis that most players rarely get a chance
> to experience, hence the thoughts on
> strategy deviations that you claim are
> vodoo.

This is not what your original posts stated.

> Would you not surrneder a 12 versus a dealer
> high card in a very high count with few
> cards left when you have a max bet on the
> table? I would and do, not that I like it,
> but at times a sound move.

I would surrender a 12 vs a dealer 10 at about a +15 true count, which is where it is indicated (Hi-Lo). Remember, with surrender you lose half your original bet, so it is not the correct play unless your chances of winning are less than 1 in 4.

Since with a count this high you are unlikely to be dealt a 12 in the first place, you will probably find yourself in this situation about once a year, making even learning the index pretty much a waste of time.

> Would you not just hit an eleven in a high
> count with 4 aces left and few cards
> remaining and the dealer with a strong card
> up? This is a simple risk averse move with a
> max bet out, don't like it, but at times the
> right move.

Oh, we're keeping an ace side count now? This is not what you said in your original post. There you said, "I will no longer double 11 in big counts in any dd or sd game unless I am facing a dealer 6 or less!" Hardly the same thing!

> I do not view these as unsound moves by the
> numbers I may be facing.

If a playing decision is a mathmatically sound one based on the count and any other information about the undealt cards that you may have, then it is the correct decision. If it is based on personal experience, hunches, anecdotal evidence "the flow of the cards" etc., then you are merely throwing away EV.

If you post mathmatically unsound strategies on these boards, you may rest assured that I and/or others will call you on it.

[Ouchez]

[Cardkountr]

First let me say that I had no intentions of disrespecting or attacking Ouchez personally, my apology if he took it as such.....it was his ploppyesk views which were in question. Actually by chronologically listing his remarks, it was my hope that upon seeing them together listed in one post that he would see how unsound those views are and hopefully make him a better player by adopting correct playing strategies as dictated by the mathmatics of the game.

As an example, for him or anyone else to say they will no longer double an 11 in a big count unless the dealer has a 6 or less showing, defies all mathmatics or for that matter logic. As counters, we salvatate waiting for an opportunity to double on a max bet when we have the advantage. To justify not making the proper play by claiming that you always pull an ace on a doubled 11 or that you always break when you hit a hard 12 etc, have no place on an advantage board where other less experienced players will read it and may be lead astray. Not correcting this faulty thought process does a disservice to the new players genuinely aspiring to learn the game.

I have survived and prospered logging in over 30,000 hours at the tables, counting and tracking, by putting the money out there as called for and always playing the cards according to my mathmatical advantage. There simply is no other way. Guesswork or superstitions have no place in this business, nor do you deviate from proven strategies regardless of what amount you have bet simply because you "remember" a particular hand where it didn't work.

May all the dealers blackjacks occur while you're in the bathroom!!

Card.

[Milk Man]

You Make a good point. And Mystake Lake doe not allow bathroom time. You have to wet yourself for advantage or wait till the next shoe.