Frustrated: Seriously, am I the unluckiest card counter there is?

[Winner]

You concentrated too much on penetrations. Good rules such as full ES or even just ES10 allow you escape from stiffs such as 14, 15, 16 against dealer face cards. Loss rebates help the bottom line, also buy-in match play coupons. My point is if you hate financial fluctuations like me, try finding better games which may have higher physical risk and you need to travel farrer but you may have better hourly rate justifying your scouting time and you will have lower ROR against good rules which means less losing streak.

[AutomaticMonkey]

> You concentrated too much on penetrations. Good rules
> such as full ES or even just ES10 allow you escape
> from stiffs such as 14, 15, 16 against dealer face
> cards. Loss rebates help the bottom line, also buy-in
> match play coupons. My point is if you hate financial
> fluctuations like me, try finding better games which
> may have higher physical risk and you need to travel
> farrer but you may have better hourly rate justifying
> your scouting time and you will have lower ROR against
> good rules which means less losing streak.

Wait you don't need better rules to reduce fluctuations. You can just bet less. If you find a game with better rules, you should be betting more. Better rules = higher win rate for a constant risk and better rules = lower risk for a constant win rate. Sure, surrender does reduce your variance a bit because you know exactly what the outcome of a hand is going to be when you surrender. But it isn't much better than just adjusting your betting ramp.

For example, I play a game with LS and without surrender, and my risk of ruin on both is exactly equal. I make more on the LS game. If I had an ES game available I'd be making even more. But travel is profit cut right off the top, and if I were to travel to Russia or someplace to play full-time, it would cut another $75K per year off my annual income, if you know what I mean. Most of us have lives besides blackjack, and most of us have games accessible to us that we are willing to play without complaining.

[Winner]

You are lucky to have a good job and can take financial fluctuation well. I divorced with grown up child can't take financial fluctuation and like travelling so I did what I did. I am propsing to Frustrated here an option. He can take or not take. I am only making $100K last year after expenses and taxes. Enjoy your good salary and extra income from the nice games you play at US.