Hi-Lo and my story

[muckz]

Blitzkrieg think about back-counting a little more, be creative. Also, pick up BJA3, the first chapter is Back-Counting the Shoe Game. From what you're saying I think 30$ for that section alone would prove worthwhile.

[FalseCount]

Back Counting is rarely suspicious. Random casino visitors appear to do it all the time. Bouncing from table to table quickly, however, might draw a little more attention.

[Blitzkrieg]

I see the value of back-counting but it's just not my style of play. Sure I can do and employ it. Most of the tables in the houses I visited the BJ tables have a good amount of footage between them, the tables are not 2 feet apart from each other so there is no way that I'm going to back count 2 tables at once so I can forget about that.

From the scouting I did the other day the houses did a decent job by setting up their floor plans in a manner where two 6 deck games were NOT side-by-side. This has to be a standard operating procedure for many of the Big corporate casinos in bigger venues. However pitch games were side-by-side with NO MID-SHOE ENTRY, yep I noticed that. All of the houses also have the high limit slots or higher limit slots surrounding their table games and in particular, BJ tables. Smart set up by the house.

[KJ]

Not everyone likes to, or feels comfortable, backcounting. I myself don't care for backcounting and entering mid-shoe except, when I am already at one table. My normal method of play is to play off the top and exit aggressively. Part of this is that I do think backcounting can sometimes look suspicious in a non-crowded environment and subsequently bring attention. Dealers usually notice a player standing around, not that sometimes patrons don't just stand around, but dealers and even floor will notice them if it is not crowded. If you are an unknown you can pull off the 'just looking' routine, but if you are a regular as I am at many locations, it doesn't really fly.

Now, the reason that I find backcounting a second table, while I am playing at a different table so appealing is that it is a 'double positive' if I jump. I am not just exiting my negative or neutral situation, and I am not just backcounting and entering a positive situation, but I am doing both at the same instant. Double positive! And no, a double positive does not equal a negative, at least in this instance.

[ZenKinG]

No KJ. I chatted with him many months ago about learning when you are at your peak and eliminating playing when you are not to eliminate the possibility of errors. He was very insistent that he kept halves and an insurance count error free but was concerned about a big downswing after experiencing the positive side of variance. He eventually realized that he is human and rather than learning his daily brain cycles asked about simpler counts. I was not trying to make that point but the reasons so many like simple counts were discussed and the advantage of counting multiple tables or the ease of use in more advanced techniques was explained. He decided to go the simple route rather than learn his brains daily cycles of being sharp and taking a couple siestas without notice.

It was not where I was steering the conversation but his decision was based on the math we discussed and was where he took the series of conversations. Since then he has been practicing and eventually using HILO. Few pitch games are available in the region and they are not dealt deep and watched closely. For what he wanted to do HILO was a good fit and once I made him realize his negative turn which could be variance but may be from expecting his brain to operate a peak efficiency when it needs time to recharge and does it without him noticing. This latter fact hasn't changed but the piece of mind that the combination of that with a more difficult count isn't to blame has its appeal. But the decision was based on the fact that if he could keep Halves and an Insurance count at the same time accurately, as he insisted he could, would increase the return of HILO while skewing the count frequency played in a very positive way by counting down 2 tables at once. The affect of this on all the math of the game was discussed as he was thorough at asking questions.

It just goes to show you that people make up their own minds when given the strengths and weaknesses of both the human factor and the counts and how they can be used. All I was trying to get him to realize was we are human and make mistakes and our minds have their individual daily rhythms. He asked the questions about the simpler counts and I answered them as honestly as I could. Then he made an informed decision. I am not good at processing the passage of time but it seems like 4-6 months ago. That means it is at least that and probably longer.

This is all true and this conversation really helped me think about myself so i thank you a lot tthree. But I never actually used the insurance side count while playing halves in a casino, I was only able to use both, if it was heads up game, because that was how I practiced using it originally but once I sat at a table with multiple players, I wasn't yet prepared to use the ISC and halves so I quickly ditched that strategy. Also I have not been using Hi-Lo since we talked. I was still with halves, but just recently I began to think about it again and started playing with the sims, and hi lo, although performs worse than halves, it wasn't that far off, and I feel I can definitely make up for it with possibly less errors and of course now adding the backcounting of multiple tables into my skillset, that I was not able to do with halves.

Lastly, KJ, that post I made about "halves for life", I just hope you guys know when I'm sarcastic lol, because I know how much heat ive gotten for boasting halves all over this forum. In fact, all my posts ever made about halves were just to irritate and cause some humor in this sometimes dried up forum. Because like I said, I've learned a lot since joining this forum 2 years ago, and for me to write "halves is the best" "halves for life" witout being sarcastic or trying to add some humor, would be ignorant. I've learned any any count gets the money, some more than others of course, but in general it's the "least of your worries", as bigplayer has stated it perfectly many times

By the way *cough cough* ELITE is now .55. March is gonna be epic

[Blitzkrieg]

"Halves for life" baby! So your saying you were not as serious about the strategy as you thought you were? Sarcasm at it's finest. I hope March is not an epic fail ZK, may your Bankroll Beware the Ides of March.

[muffdiver]

Et tu Caeser!

[Blitzkrieg]

We'll see about that.

[steveistheman84]

And no, a double positive does not equal a negative, at least in this instance.

when does a double positive ever equal a negative?

[muffdiver]

Plus 1, plus -2 = -1

Disregard. Makes no sense!!!