Sorry if this has been discussed before ...
I know the Hi/Lo pretty well, though I tend to lose it in live play. Speed Count would be easier live. What's the major difference between these two?
Thank you!
Originally Posted by AnabelleT
Norm summed it up pretty quickly and accurately Annabelle. You might do a search on speed count on this board or BJInfo. If you want an easier count to use that is unbalanced try his REKO or KO. Then you won't have to worry about a true count/deck conversion. And there are lots of discussion threads on these on this site.
"Women and cats will do as they please, and Men and dogs should just relax and get used to the idea" --- Robert A. Heinlein
I haven't heard of speed count till this post, and I just looked it up. However I'd still like to leave my two cents.
If you can do hi-lo decently outside of the casino but not inside, your weakness is probably not being resilient enough to distractions. Hi-lo is the industry standard and will set you up for other counts.
The details of speed count aren't really fully explained, but it sounds a bit different than your standard counting system (since you're adding a tag to hands dealt rather than just individual cards). Also, it sounds like the intended user is someone who has trouble with regular counting. These two details make think that this might just be crutch that is better off avoided if you want to be able to improve. If you're only going to do one gambling trip in your life, and not count at all after that, then by all means, go for Ace-Five or Speed Count or any other easy to learn and do type count. On the other hand, if you have any plans to do more counting (even as an occasional, once or twice a month hobby), just work on your hi-lo.
This is all just my opinion though, take it for what you will. Good luck!
You tend to lose the count playing live? If that's the case, I'd think no matter what system you use, you'd be just as easy to lose the count. Keep practicing, you'll get there.
CVBJ is a great tool for practicing. Before using it, I thought I was perfect. Once I got it and started using it, I realized I wasn't as good as I thought.
I don't know much about the speed count, but IMO it seems more like a "lose less" system, while HiLo is a "win more" system.
"Everyone wants to be rich, but nobody wants to work for it." -Ryan Howard [The Office]
Speed Count is incapable of using playing indices to deviate from basic strategy. The system uses counter basic strategy instead of index plays. Speed count has been classified as a weak system in Modern Blackjack which means using will bust you before the trip is over half of the time compare to basic strategy where you bust 1 out of 100.
Reference: http://www.qfit.com/book/ModernBlackjackPage197.htm
Thank you, guys, I just need to really work on getting the Hi/Lo count down in live play. It's tough, I get distracted when a player talks to me, when the pit boss talks to me, I get nervous about marking the count with my chips and end up losing it. When I lose it, I abandon it, because I'm afraid I'll do worse with a wrong count ... or is a "close" count better than no count at all?
My basic strategy is flawless and I do pretty well with it, specially since I always like to leave the casino while I'm up. I'm not greedy, so when I'm a decent amount up, I stop and maybe play some slots with a few extra dollars for fun. I love playing Baccarat, too!
There's a few things you can do when you lose it.
A lot of time you might not fully lose the count, but may know that you've made a mistake. If the mistake is minor enough (like 1 or 2 RCs off, but not a huge TC difference) then I would just continue playing but keep a note of it in your head. Mistakes in betting strategy (based on a mistaken count), such as betting at step higher or lower than you should according to your ramp, don't really matter too much. Loss of SCORE in playing strategy is a bit more sensitive to a mistaken count but isn't huge enough to wipe out all your advantage (which mainly comes from betting anyways).
However, if you've genuinely just completely lost the count (as in, you have no idea what it is), you can always start counting from that point in the deck, but when you use your decks-remaining-divisor to calculator TC include the cards that were already put in the discard trade when you started. I would only recommend doing this if it's still early in the shoe (before 17% (1D for 6D), or at very most before 25% (1.5 for 6D)). While I don't have much doubt that this technique is valid, you'll probably have more volatility (someone correct me if I'm wrong) due to the fact that you aren't betting/playing based on the difference between the number of hi and low cards that are actually remaining. Instead you're betting/playing based on what will be remaining on average. You're playing on incomplete information, and the later in the deck you employ this technique the less information you're playing on.
If he's losing the count, I don't think restarting mid-shoe would be a good idea [even though it's valid].
There is no difference, starting play with 0 decks played or 1.5 decks played, except you're now [essentially] playing a game with sh*tty penetration.
"Everyone wants to be rich, but nobody wants to work for it." -Ryan Howard [The Office]
I agree that you're basically playing with less penetration but I beg to differ that that's the only thing that's different. When you start counting from the beginning of the shoe, your count reflects the actual difference between the number of hi and low cards remaining (not including the burn card). However, if you start mid shoe, there's no guarantee that the cards that have already came out are evenly distributed (ie. an equal amount of hi and low cards came out), although in the long run the cards already played pre-counting will approach evenly distributed. The 'actual' count and the count you keep will likely be different. Thus, you're betting using an average TC (average TC of every possible remaining composition you could have given the cards you did not see) to bet/play rather than what the actual TC may be. Also, it's noteworthy to point out that standard counting is already relying on the average of situations. As T3 mentioned, our advantage isn't always what our TC predicts, which is average advantage. For the most part our advantage is less than the average predicted by our TC. Also our playing decisions are based on averages per TC level. Different levels of decks remaining (w/ the same TC) will have different returns for the same decision. Also certain cards that are neutral to a system may have an huge impact on the decision, as well as certain possible compositions (since the eors interact with each other).
I am unsure what affect starting mid-shoe has on the statistics of your play, but I would think that at a very minimum N0 would be increased.
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