Thorp's Memoirs

[Three]

Tthree, I agree with you. I am sure you could have taught him a lot if he would have just listened to you. Heck, I'm sure you could have taught him how to play the stock market.

Lets make sure no one ever gets any credit for anything unless it is something you spouted.

No I have made the same mistake that Thorp made. Not that I tipped off the casinos but I shared too much info to the public. I can relate to what Thorp did. My main beef was the opening line in the promo for the release of his memoirs that he invented card counting. He simply refined it. I hate when something is said that either indicates ignorance by the one trying to be an expert or assumes ignorance by the audience. I am sure I have been guilty of the latter in my learning process at some point in my life.

[Freightman]

No I have made the same mistake that Thorp made. Not that I tipped off the casinos but I shared too much info to the public. I can relate to what Thorp did. My main beef was the opening line in the promo for the release of his memoirs that he invented card counting. He simply refined it. I hate when something is said that either indicates ignorance by the one trying to be an expert or assumes ignorance by the audience. I am sure I have been guilty of the latter in my learning process at some point in my life.

It would be interesting to know how the original "case the deck" players evaluated games.

[Sonny]

It would be interesting to know how the original "case the deck" players evaluated games.

And how good their basic strategy was! That didn't get published until '57, right?

-Sonny-

[Freightman]

Can you imagine the pen enjoyed back then. I read stories of a dealer going having to shuffle in order to finish a hand.

Leading to premature something or other.

[Freightman]

And how good their basic strategy was! That didn't get published until '57, right?

-Sonny-

Though published and widely available, the average ploppy doesn't do much better.

I don't know about the observations of others - ploppy quality varies widely by city, from what I see - from poor to really lousy.

[Exoter175]

Can you imagine the pen enjoyed back then. I read stories of a dealer going having to shuffle in order to finish a hand.

You mean you've never had that happen to you before?

That happened to me in Dakotas more than once

[ZenMaster_Flash]

I know of a place that deals DD with good, but not great, rules.
They deal to the bottom. As friendly as a casino can be.
A Heat-Free house, one might say.
I do not play BJ where the Max Bet is under $500.
It is semi-convenient for a partner of mine.

[Freightman]

I know of a place that deals DD with good, but not great, rules.
They deal to the bottom. As friendly as a casino can be.
A Heat-Free house, one might say.
I do not play BJ where the Max Bet is under $500.
It is semi-convenient for a partner of mine.

Flash, to clarify - you have previously stated that your max bets do not exceed 1/2 of table max, so, you are saying that you do not want to play when your bets cannot exceed that self imposed marker. That being said, there are several locations where I have gone to table max p, where rable max was at or below $500.

As further clarity, I have seen , for example, many vegas locations where there is a huge differential between min and max bets allowed. My general areas of play do not have those ranges available and, according fly, I will go well over that 50% threshold.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

There is a reason, (although muddle-headed for the most part), where
the Casino Manager, listening to various idiotic bean counters, decides
that he is "managing risk" by keeping a modest range between minimum
and maximum table limits. This is especially so where the rules are good,
but the casino is small, and a 'lucky' patron can put a shift "in the red."

Betting Table Max is an automatic "choke point", so the shift manager and
Surveillance will follow their procedures making the patron an object of fear.

[mofungoo]

The early APs dealt hands from a single deck and developed a fairly accurate hit-stand matrix. They understood that extra tens in the remaining cards favored the player, and that was accurate enough to get enough of an advantage in those days. Doubling, particularly soft doubling, and pair splitting was not so accurate. Thorp used data collected on a high speed computer to develop a complete and accurate strategy based on the tens to others ratio.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

BJ in the mid 20th century was Single Deck, dealt to the bottom.
As the actual House Edge, unknown at the time, was negative, all
one needed to do was count the four (4) Aces and the four (4) Fives