Deck estimation practice

[NB10]

What is the best way to practice deck estimation? Do you find the discard tray in CVBJ to be realistic enough or have you also bought decks to practice with?

[Stealth]

Get six decks of cards and number them from 1-312 with a magic marker. Then use a cut card to cut an arbitrary numbers of cards over and over until you can do it within +/- 3 cards accuracy.

Gamblers Book Store las vegas or their website for real casino cards.

Note cards can have very different thickness, some off by as much as 3/4 deck when compared. Be careful.

Having the wrong count is really bad, but having the wrong number of decks to determine TC is likely more prevalent and more dangerous.

[pilotzone]

Find a make shift discard rack, on the back side use some masking tape, mark off half deck measurements up to six or eight decks. Then put a bunch of cards randomly into the discard rack, and really try to size it up, then look at the tape on the back to see how close you are. A couple of hrs of that, and you should be a pro.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ZenMaster_Flash]

+1 for both poster's advice. Is that +2?

L.O.L.

If you have good vision, the learning

curve is shallow and short. You'll improve.

If you have nothing important to do ...

Practice the advice above. Keep it up.

Naturally, you go nowhere without 1

or 2 decks of cards in your pocket(s.)

[Freightman]

Also, understand that differently casinos use cards if different thickness. Further, if the house doesn't change cards frequently, then you also have to take deck expansion into effect. So, for practice in a specific store, get 6 decks if used cards, as previously mentioned, mark them 1 to 312, and start practicing.

Further, use that stores chips and see how many stacked to equal 1 deck, 2 decks etc. Then, make allowances for deck expansion........you should get the point.

[Freightman]

Also, understand that differently casinos use cards if different thickness. Further, if the house doesn't change cards frequently, then you also have to take deck expansion into effect. So, for practice in a specific store, get 6 decks if used cards, as previously mentioned, mark them 1 to 312, and start practicing.

Further, use that stores chips and see how many stacked to equal 1 deck, 2 decks etc. Then, make allowances for deck expansion........you should get the point.

A bit more on a variant of this point.
True on a shoe with a notch, more noticeable on a double deck shoe with a notch - observe the amount of pressure used by the dealer on the 2 decks, and note the difference in position of cut card on heavy pressure versus light pressure.

[BJPloppy]

All of the above, plus you asked a question about the CVBJ practice discard tray. It may not be enough by itself, but CVBJ is helpful in conjunction with the things mentioned previously. It can help with speed of decision making and how to look at the discard tray and sub-divide it in your mind.

[refinery]

Get six decks of cards and number them from 1-312 with a magic marker. Then use a cut card to cut an arbitrary numbers of cards over and over until you can do it within +/- 3 cards accuracy.

Shuffle and shuffle the cards over and over and then do this. If you do not, you will be able to see the breaks in the decks.

Arnold Snyder's Shuffle Tracking Cookbook gives great advice on how to set all this up.

[Jabberwocky]

Or use REKO-F and not bother.

[Tarzan]

Playing card thickness can vary, but quite often the same playing card company makes cards for multiple casinos. If you see (look on the Ace of spades) that the card manufacturer for the Stardust is US Playing Card Co. out of Cincinnati, Ohio and you have practiced and played with other cards from US playing Card Co., it's about .29mm thickness, the mid range of specs and you acclimate to it, etc.

Take six decks and gauge whole decks, making six stacks of 52 each. Take a single deck and split in half for two stacks of 26 each, in half again for two stacks of 13 each. Count out the stacks (or push them up to each other side by side) to see how accurate your estimate was. It doesn't take much practice to come within a card or two of the exact, 13, 26, 39, or 52 cards.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

Beware of Gemaco™ brand cards as they are perhaps the thinnest of all.

Significantly thinner than Aristocrat™ or Bee™ brands of playing cards.

Just yesterday, I was obliged to point out these factors to a PA player.

[cc12b]

Take six decks and gauge whole decks, making six stacks of 52 each. Take a single deck and split in half for two stacks of 26 each, in half again for two stacks of 13 each. Count out the stacks (or push them up to each other side by side) to see how accurate you estimate was. It doesn't take much practice to come within a card or two of the exact, 13, 26, 39, or 52 cards.

I built a "staircase" of cards, each step is 1/2 deck so when I look at that staircase know how each 1/2 deck increment look like. You can build 1/4 increment steps if you want.

[seriousplayer]

Beware of Gemaco™ brand cards as they are perhaps the thinnest of all.

Significantly thinner than Aristocrat™ or Bee™ brands of playing cards.

Just yesterday, I was obliged to point out these factors to a PA player.

How do you tell if the card brands are from Gemaco when the cards a played out? I did notice that some casinos uses cards that are thinner to thwart card counters. I hope in the future we will have the option to program cards thinness in Casino Verite so we don't have to go through the hassle of worrying that your deck estimation.