Unfortunately, I do not have good news to report. I lost another 2.5k at the tables today playing regular blackjack (6D, D9-11, DAS, no surrender, pen 90%). I was spreading $15 to 2x$125 - conservative by my standards, and playing heads-up.

I lost 2k in one shoe, on a stretch of 15 max bets of 2x$125 (i.e. thirty hands) in which I did not net-win a single hand. The true count was +6 or over during that stretch. It fell after this stretch, suggesting excess aces and tens WERE dealt out. I did not NET-WIN a single hand (out of 15) during this stretch. There were a few pushes, and some doubles/splits which all failed. Most of the time I got stiff hands or weak pat hands against a dealer ten or an ace. Insurance bets also failed each time.

Rather than ranting, I will analyse the numbers and ask the audience for constructive criticism.

I plugged my numbers into Blackjack Risk Manager and found the following results:

- The chance of losing $2500 within a 300-hand session was approximately 1.52 percent.
- So that is pretty bad.

Over my past 25 sessions, I am now $950 in the hole. This includes a stretch of -$4800 over my last This was a mixture of Australian Pontoon (which has a slightly lower house edge) and the aforementioned blackjack.

I have not changed or altered any of my betting patterns. I simply play according to the indices and bet with the count.

Concerningly, virtually all of my losses were incurred at the max bets. Prior to tonight, I actually had two very good sessions, although most of the money was made with the moderate bets. There were virtually no max bet opportunities then. I would say that when a max bet opportunity was available, I have been running at around -25%. Most impressively all my big split/double hands are failing.

I plugged my monthly numbers, and found that in fact, the chance of me having this result or worse was 22%. So while my numbers are bad, they are not outside the realms of possibility.

The problem is I am suspecting there's something systemically wrong with the shuffling that's causing me to lose all the big hands. During this month I have yet to win a hand with two max bets expanded into multiple splits and doubles. The dealer never busts these or always draws to beat me.

My own feeling is that I should continue to plug away, simply because the math has been shown to never fail in the long run. I am still overall ahead career-wise and I do not feel bored or lacking in motivation. But I will say that it would be nice for once to not always be on the left end of the Gaussian curve.