M.: Card Eating.

[M.]

Is it wise to spread to two or three hands right after the shuffle and on all minus counts in order to "eat up" cards in negative situations? Then, in positive counts, we play one hand and spread "vertically", ie. increasing our bet and therefore seeing more cards in favourable situations. I want to make sure i'm not hurting my expectation doing this before i employ this method, described partly in MDBJ.

Thanks.

[Don Schlesinger]

> Is it wise to spread to two or three hands
> right after the shuffle and on all minus
> counts in order to "eat up" cards
> in negative situations?

Well, I guess I suppose it depends on how much you're going to bet on each of those two or three hands and how much you would have bet on the one hand, no?

Don

[Norm Wattenberger]

You would have to look at your exact situation. Specifically the number of players and the effect on penetration of playing multiple hands. However, it is difficult to gain a significant advantage via card-eating without a partner.

[G Man]

The best use you can do of it is by splitting your minimum bet (if you are not already at table min)on two or three hands in neutral and negative counts, then regroup on one hand and use your bet spread in positive counts. This is if you play hean-on of course. When playing with others, no need to eat up cards, they will do it for you. In this situation the strategy is reverse, you will want to play multiple hands in positive counts to "eat" these big cards.

[ET Fan]

Card eating is important if you feel constrained to give a certain amount of action on every round. Many pros feel they must bet a minimum of, say, $100 on every round, in order to justify the $1,000 bets later, to the eye in the sky. Yet, they feel comfortable with two spots of $50 each. In that case, card eating makes a lot of (dollars and) sense!

Eg., suppose there are three others at the table, with five rounds to go in a negative count. By playing two hands, you can almost surely reduce rounds remaining to four. EVx2x$50x4 is better than EVx1x$100x5 whenever EV is a negative number!

However, if don't feel constrained to play some particular minimum, then it's hard to construct a scenario where card eating "works."

In a plus EV, you spread to two hands in order to get more money out, before the cut card, with the same ROR. Conversely, in a negative EV, you might spread to two, if it helps you put out LESS money before the cut card.

ETF

[M.]

excellent!

thanks a lot.