Gladstone: Counting systems

[Gladstone]

Hi!

What's the difference between 94 Hi-Lo, Basic Hi-Lo and Complete Hi-Lo? Which one is the best and is there something special about them?

I spend all of my time playing shoe blackjack, either 4 or 6 decks. I play around 100 to 150 hours each month. Should I switch to Complete Halves or is Hi-Lo just fine? I count the so-called 94 Hi-Lo for some time now.

How much would I gain by switching to Complete Halves considering no playing-or-betting mistake either using Hi-Lo or Halves?

Given a 4-deck DAS S17 3-split hands No replit Aces No Surrender 5-cards burnt Double any hard or soft hand and double any 2 cards, let's say a bankroll of 15000 and playing 150 hands/hour counting 94 Hi-Lo with 4 other players:

Minimum bet 5, maximum 250, what's the best spread for 50$/hour playing 2 hands? What's the RoR?

Minimum bet 10, maximum 500, what's the best spread for 50$/hour playing 2 hands? What's the RoR?

Let's say I play alone now, my winrate will increase significantly, right? What about the RoR?

Thanks for your help.

[Dancer]

> Hi!

> What's the difference between 94 Hi-Lo,
> Basic Hi-Lo and Complete Hi-Lo? Which one is
> the best and is there something special
> about them?

> I spend all of my time playing shoe
> blackjack, either 4 or 6 decks. I play
> around 100 to 150 hours each month. Should I
> switch to Complete Halves or is Hi-Lo just
> fine? I count the so-called 94 Hi-Lo for
> some time now.

> How much would I gain by switching to
> Complete Halves considering no
> playing-or-betting mistake either using
> Hi-Lo or Halves?

> Given a 4-deck DAS S17 3-split hands No
> replit Aces No Surrender 5-cards burnt
> Double any hard or soft hand and double any
> 2 cards, let's say a bankroll of 15000 and
> playing 150 hands/hour counting 94 Hi-Lo
> with 4 other players:

> Minimum bet 5, maximum 250, what's the best
> spread for 50$/hour playing 2 hands? What's
> the RoR?

> Minimum bet 10, maximum 500, what's the best
> spread for 50$/hour playing 2 hands? What's
> the RoR?

> Let's say I play alone now, my winrate will
> increase significantly, right? What about
> the RoR?

> Thanks for your help.

Hi Gladstone,

100 - 150 hours of BJ a month is a lot of BJ. If you're playing that much with a $15,000 bankroll, you can't afford to be asking questions like the one's I've highlighted in your note. With all the inexpensive simulation software available on the market today, even mildly serious players (with far smaller bankrolls) can easily justify the investment.

How do you know you're not wasting your time, or worse, playing a losing game? You never even mentioned penetration. That's far more important than any of the minor rule differences you noted.

Do yourself a huge favor. Play a little less, and spend the difference with a solid simulation program like Norm's CVData/CVCX. In a few minutes, you'll learn the answer to all these questions and hundreds more you haven't even thought of yet. You'll be a far better player, and your bankroll will thank you.

[Norm Wattenberger]

> What's the difference between 94 Hi-Lo,
> Basic Hi-Lo and Complete Hi-Lo?

These are just my terms. Basic HiLo uses the indexes in the old hard cover version of ProBJ. '94 HiLo uses the newer ProBJ truncated indexes. (Hard to believe that's ten years ago.) Complete HiLo uses the absurd number of indexes in the apendix of the old ProBJ.

Serious Blackjack Software

[Parker]

You're playing to a 15K BR, 150 hours/mo, $500 max bet, and you don't have anything like CVCX or BJRM2002?

I think it is time you joined the 21st century.

For less than one max bet you can have a state-of-the art software suite that will answer every single one of your questions, along with many, many more.

CVCX is intuitive, easy to learn and use, and reasonably priced.

[Magician]

> What's the difference between 94 Hi-Lo,
> Basic Hi-Lo and Complete Hi-Lo? Which one is
> the best and is there something special
> about them?

So you have CVBJ. That's a good start but you should also have simulation and betting software.

> I spend all of my time playing shoe
> blackjack, either 4 or 6 decks. I play
> around 100 to 150 hours each month...
> How much would I gain by switching to
> Complete Halves considering no
> playing-or-betting mistake either using
> Hi-Lo or Halves?

If you play that much, halves may be a bit of a strain, even if you can play it perfectly. Mathematically you might win 10% more (guessing) but if you end up playing 10% fewer hands per hour or 10% fewer hours per month, obviously it's not worth it.

> Given a 4-deck DAS S17 3-split hands No
> replit Aces No Surrender 5-cards burnt
> Double any hard or soft hand and double any
> 2 cards, let's say a bankroll of 15000 and
> playing 150 hands/hour counting 94 Hi-Lo
> with 4 other players:

150 hand/hour with 4 other players does not sound right.

> Let's say I play alone now, my winrate will
> increase significantly, right? What about
> the RoR?

Your win per hour increases if you play more hands per hour but your RoR stays the same.