Can anyone explain what happened the first night? Can anyone give me any advice on what I should have done or do?
Story:
Personal Background [beginner card counter, soaking up everything like a sponge and still doing naked handstands and jumping jacks to increase my chances of winning through advantage play (it's a joke to illustrate that I am listening and filtering everything no matter how ridiculous it sounds to help improve my play)]
Trip Background: I went to a Casino town for two nights where I played tables with 6 deck, no surrender, etc (best rules in the area of what I saw). First night I went to Casino A and second night I went to Casino B.
Some conditions for the story:
1) This only deals with when the count was moderately positive.
2) I don't think there was any cheating going on.
3) I have a relatively good memory.
4) I rarely drink. I have drank 3 times in the past two years.
5) I reviewed my plays and I played for the most part correctly (playing hands, indices, betting).
6) Mostly 4 or more players at table with 6 deck, no surrender, etc.
1. First Night
First night was at Casino A. I spread my bet accordingly and of course raised and lowered my bet according to the count. I kept losing hands regardless of the count high or low (the rest is about losing hands on high counts). I could not figure out why I kept losing and still cannot figure out why.
What I did notice was that when I started to keep track and trying to figure out why I was losing, something peaked my interest. I would lose around 7/10 hands (positive count) and never in the three hours of playing got a single blackjack. I reviewed my plays, indices, and betting, and I still to this day cannot figure out why I lost for so long. What I also noticed (and the point of this post) that during high counts, people around the table were for the most part winning or losing gradually with good hands while I continually had crap hands. I noticed that when the count was high, I very frequently received 14s, 15s, and some 16s. The people playing around me on these high counts would be getting at least 19s and 20s and a few blackjacks.
What I observed pretty much went like this: first base first card got a 10, second player first card a 10, my first card is an 8, fourth player got a 10, and it continued. Then dealing to first base again, first base second card is 9 (total 19), second base second card is 10 (total 20), my second card is 6 (total 14), etc. This continued for the duration of the whole three hours with few good hands. Essentially it became me playing to the best of my ability (playing the hands correctly, betting, indices, etc.) while also heavily hoping that the dealer would bust (which was seemingly the only way I could win when playing the hands and with indices). I kept playing thinking that if I played my hands and betting correctly, I would eventually start winning a little. During the three hours, I switched tables multiple times and the same thing happened over and over again. I rarely got a better hand than 18 as compared to the other players around the table. I never knew I could get so many bad hands consistently and I never knew I could get so many bad hands when the count was high while others would be getting good cards while I was getting crap cards.
Eventually, raising my bets accordingly with the high counts but getting crap cards (even playing the hands correctly with indices) destroyed my available funds for the trip as I kept losing the hands. That night I was really down mentally and chips. I quit after three hours because I was afraid I would lose everything if I continued to play.
2. Second Night
Second Night was at Casino B. At the beginning, it was the same story, continually getting 14s, 15s, and 16s. Then after the first shuffle of six deck, it changed. I was still losing steadily but not with me getting crap cards 7 out of 10 hands. Instead I felt like I was losing because of variance with everyone losing and winning playing hands. I bet accordingly and although I lost, it was not solely on crap cards and 7 out of 10 losing hands while everyone else seemed to get good cards on high counts as in the previous casino.
3. Conclusion
Little to say, I went back to the hotel room and now back at my home to review my plays of both nights but looking a lot on the first night. It seems to be that I played correctly for the most part in betting and how to play hands with the indices etc.
I just can't explain why I kept getting crap cards on the first night which seemed like there was a personal thunderstorm over my head while there were sunny blue skies on the others.
Can anyone explain why I had such a bad run and getting crap cards for the large majority of the first night? Can anyone also give some advice on how to deal with this stuff? Was it merely a bad run or is there something else involved here that I am not seeing? Can someone also give me any advice of table positions (first base is better than third base)?
Thanks for the help.
Bookmarks