At Parker?s main, Wildcard claims among other things, that NMSE and darkened trays are aversive for the advantage player. Well, if the number of players will have no variation along the shoe, you can do the following under the mentioned circumstances:

NMSE plus darkened tray:

Example: 4 players

Penetration: 75%; 233 cards + burn card

Avg. cards per hand: 2.7

Avg. cards used per round: 13.5

Expected number of rounds: 17.26 = 18

What you need to do here is to keep a side count of rounds. (You can use your feet for this. See MDBJ and the way Ken used to side count aces. It sounds appropriate here)

E.g. You have on your right foot 7 rounds counted. RC = 12 ; TC?

7 * 13.5 = 94.5

Nearest half deck? Answer: 2 decks = 104 cards, thus

TC = 12/4 = 3

Take your bets out.

You should memorize the following numbers:

26, 52, 78, 104, 130, 156, 182, 208, 234, in other words, the half deck levels.

And also the number of cards used per round:

 
Head on: 5.4
2 players: 8.1
3 players: 10.8
4 players: 13.5
5 players: 16.2
6 players: 18.9
7 players: 21.6



We?re talking about making extra efforts here. No doubts, but nothing beyond and enthusiastic card counter. :-)

Sincerely,

Zf