For those interested in "Advanced" Counts:

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Yes, moses, I have virtually every book published on our game,
the majority of which are worthless, some of which are full of ...

[ZenMaster_Flash]

"like with T3s bucket idea"

"Buckets" are not T3's idea. It is programmer lingo for collected data on a simulation.

Simulations need to use VERY large sample sizes because of the rarity of certain situations.

e.g. if you want to know how Ace-Ace will fare against a dealer ACE at (Hi-Lo) T.C. -20

Even a powerhouse computer will need quite some time to find this occurring

often enough to have a Standard Error that is low enough ~ indicating TRUE statistical

significance. I prefer Combinatorial Analysis.

For the novice player, this is an uncommon hand ... at a sufficiently negative True Count

this hand matchup is a HIT, not a split.

Note that with RSA (Resplit Aces) that index is substantially lower.

Again, for the novice players, this is like a very high T.C. for standing on 8-8 vs 10

[ZenMaster_Flash]

O.K. Advanced players only. I understand. In a SD game,

as you play, your entire ramp is a spread of 3-1 or 4-1.

So much for Bet-Sizing !

What you may not understand is that Aces, side-counted

are valuable for PLAYING efficiency. In fact it is the most valuable

rank (in a normal DAS game) for splitting 9's vs 7 and 9's vs Ace

(worth the equivalent of 3 Face Cards) as well as doubling on 9's,

and Soft 17 and Soft 18. And, of course, your insurance decisions.

[Frank Galvin]

Side-counting an ace-reckoned system, in the method in the leather bound Professional Blackjack, requires that you not only count the ace in two manners, but also use a different set of indices. It is substantially more difficult than side counting Hi-Opt II or AOII.

Norm, do you know whether this infomation is in all 1980 or 1981 hardcover editions and printings? If not, would you please identify the edition(s) and printing(s) by number, if you know?

[Norm]

I have the first edition. I don't know when it was removed.

[Frank Galvin]

Is your first edition from 1980 or 1981? Finding many available on AbesBooks, but conflicting info as to year of first edition, not to mention printings.

Would you please check the year and printing of your copy. Thanks.

[Norm]

'81 leather bound. It was first copyrighted in '75. Maybe Don has that copy.

[Frank Galvin]

Thanks Norm.

[Frank Galvin]

Norm, can you provide the relevant page numbers? I have a seller with a 1981 First Morrow copy, but seller does not understand card counting, never mind ace side counting strategy. Perhaps if you could provide me identifying information, pages and chapter/section title, the seller could confirm that the available copy has the relevant information.

Appreciate your assistance.

[Frank Galvin]

Norm,

The seller I was communicating with actually is a card counter, but never learned Wong's Halves system. Just owns and operates books as an online book seller.

She advised that her 1981 hard cover copy is a revised version, but does not contain instructions on ace side counting. But she had a good suggestion. I should identify the ISBN number for the edition that contains the sought after information.

1. Would you please kindly provide the ISBN number from your 1981 leather-bound copy?

2. Second, do you know if this Ace side counting information is provided in the 1977 paperback second printing published by the Gamblers Book Club? It is comprised of 174 pages, and its ISBN number is 0911996818.

I appreciate any help you can provide.

[Norm]

ISBN 0-688-00818-6 Appendix C contains the indices.

I can e-mail the CV file containing these indices. Saving it to c:\ProgramData\qfit\cvbj will add it as a user strategy.

Instructions can be found at: Blackjack Side Counts under Ace Side Counting for Playing Purposes.

[Frank Galvin]

Norm, thank you on both fronts. I would appreciate your provision of that e-mail. Send it to my e-mail address you have on file.

[KJ]

I read through some of Mr. McGarvey's Faces & Aces (thanx to Flash for sharing) last evening, particularly the parts concerning Hi-lo. On page 45, Rob listed true count frequencies for a 6 deck game, which at first glance looked high to me. The next page, 46, started off with a comment “about 35% the time we will get a true count of +2 or better”, which caused me to take an even closer look at those TC frequencies.

Now there was no mention as to penetration, which greatly influences the true count frequencies, but he did mention in another section playing a six deck game with 1 deck cut off, with is pretty good penetration. So, I compared Rob's numbers with the numbers that I use, from Don's Blackjack Attack 3 and Norm's software and Rob's numbers are far different, in most cases 3-4 times higher. For example, at a TC of +5 Rob lists a true count frequency of 4.06, which is about 3 times higher than the 1.36 in BJA3?

I realize Rob in not here for us to question and and I suspect no one (flash) knows how Rob came up with these numbers. I am just trying to figure out if I missed something or misread or misunderstood something? One scenario that made a little bit of sense is that maybe these numbers were for a higher level count like Hi-Opt 2, which Rob covers later in the book, and his mistakenly used these frequencies in the Hi-lo section. I don't know? I just know I would love to get these kinds of true count frequencies. If I could, I would be retired by now.

Again, my intent is not to criticize Rob's work, but to understand and while he is not here to clarify, just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about his methods or what I may be missing or misunderstanding.