Kasey: Counting Error Rate

[Kasey]

I started learning the KO Preferred count last November. I have been practicing nearly every day, but I am still making a fair number of mistakes and I wondered if anyone had some advice to reduce my error rate.

Here are the various practice methods I use:

1) I count down 1 and 2 decks. I do this 1, 2 and 3 cards at a time. It takes me 19-26 seconds to count down a deck. I can't remember the last time I made a mistake doing this.

2) I also lay out an entire deck on the table at once in "hands" and count the entire table at once. This takes me about 20 seconds. I occasionally make errors canceling out cards this way, but not often.

3) I practice with the MKE practice deck, running through it against each dealer upcard and keeping the count as I go.

4) I practice with PDA software that tracks my results and error rates. I practice against 1,2 and 6 decks with a variety of rules.

5) Whenever I practice, I try to have something noisy and distracting going on in the background to simulate a casino environment.

Here are my error rates from the practice software:
Hands Played: 16106
Wrong play: 60
Wrong insurance: 10
Wrong size bet: 74
Total Errors: 144

This means I am making some kind of mistake on almost 1 percent of my hands, which seems very high to me.

Here are the kinds of errors I have noticed myself making:

1) When the count makes a very large swing on a single hand, I forget to change my bet size.
2) Sometimes I count a card backwards. It?s always a little card.
3) When I have to make an insurance decision, sometimes I forget the count in the process. Oops.
4) I play too long and start making mental errors. These usually come in clumps. At least this is easy to fix. As long as I quit after an hour I will be fine.

Does anyone have suggestions for decreasing my error rates on 1, 2 and 3?

Thanks!

[Don Schlesinger]

> 1) When the count makes a very large swing
> on a single hand, I forget to change my bet
> size.
> 2) Sometimes I count a card backwards. It?s
> always a little card.
> 3) When I have to make an insurance
> decision, sometimes I forget the count in
> the process. Oops.
> 4) I play too long and start making mental
> errors. These usually come in clumps. At
> least this is easy to fix. As long as I quit
> after an hour I will be fine.

> Does anyone have suggestions for decreasing
> my error rates on 1, 2 and 3?

This isn't a very controlled experiment, because, if you alleviate number 4, how do you know that 1, 2, and 3 won't correct themselves in the process?

In short, most errors come from mental fatigue, and fatigue, in turn, comes from playing long sessions, which is NEVER a good idea, under any circumstances.

Try not playing for more than an hour at a time without a break, and I'll bet the other errors decrease, as well.

Don

[Baddog]

Take Don's advice to the bank. Try this - at a pace of 1 deck/100 seconds - what is your error rate? Find the fastest rate at which you make NO errors. Practice at a pace 1D/(rate - 5 sec) until that rate is zero - n etc. Like hitting a speed bag at boxing - slow until the bag flows - then gradually speed up. Next thing you know - you are Rocky. Music - money - dames. Life is good!

[Kasey]

I taken both of your suggestions, practicing for shorter intervals and slowing down my play and my error rate is dropping for all the types of mistakes I listed.