Originally Posted by
RollingStoned
I don't see anything wrong with learning basic strategy and keeping the running count at the same time, as the two are not correlated. If you were learning basic strategy and index plays, then that would definitely be wrong, because the two are correlated in such a way that you must understand basic strategy so that you know what the index play is/means.
To keep the running count, take a normal 52 card deck, shuffled of course, and drop one card at a time, face up. Starting at 0, count each card you see, until you get to the last card. You should end with 0. Accuracy is absolutely key. You'll speed up naturally. Once you get the hang of it, drop two cards at a time, and learning to "cancel" or "add" cards. (ie: two lows = +2, one low one mid = +1, one low one high = 0, one mid one high = -1, and two highs = -2)
Once you can count down a deck in about 30 or even 35 seconds, start working on deck estimation. If you can, buy 6 decks from your local casino. If not, buy 6 decks from Wal-Mart. Shuffle all the 6 decks together, really really well, so that you don't see the "lines" between the decks. Number each card with a sharpie, 1-312, where the #1 card is at the bottom and #312 card is at the top. (I'm assuming you're playing 6deck. If you're playing 8deck, then get 8 decks and number them 1-416[or however many cards are in an 8decker].) Stand the pile of cards up in a discard rack if you can afford one. If not, take an old box and cut it in such a way so make your own "discard rack"...basically a thing that has a corner in it so your cards don't go flying everywhere.
Take a piece of paper, and make a chart of how many cards are at each deck. For example:
1 - 52
2 - 104
3 - 156
4 - 208
5 - 260
6 - 312
0.5 - 26
1.5 - 78
2.5 - 130
3.5 - 182
4.5 - 234
5.5 - 286
Put cards into the discard rack, until you think you see about 1 deck. Take the top card, flip it over, and there's a number on it. Is it 52? How far off are you? Record it. What you thought you saw (52 cards), how many there really were (say, 58), and how many you were off by (+6). Now try it again, but with 2 decks. Record it, etc. 3 decks...four decks...five decks... If you want to get really good, try guessing half deck increments, although you shouldn't need to do that quite so early on.
Some say that might be a bit excessive for deck estimation....but you'll never actually know how good your deck estimation is until you try a drill like this. I tried it and realized how off I actually was in deck estimation (it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make me realize "I need to work on this!")
To figure out the TC quickly, practice a lot of division. Take twenty note cards and number them 1-20, or higher. Take 6 more cards and number them 1-6. Put them in two different piles. Pick up one card from each pile. Divide. Keep doing that until dividing any 2 is easy.
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