Zach: Couple of Questions

[Zach]

Hey Guys-

SD was against me last night and I just wanted to clarify a few minor things before I go back. (I am pretty sure the answers are in BJA but I can't seem to find my copy )

How much cash do you bring to the casino for one round of play? Ie how many max or min bets? Right now I am bringing about 20x (sometimes 30x) 1 unit. Is this pretty standard? My bankroll is about 300x

Which leads to 2nd question: if the count is high, and you lose your initial buy in, do you whip out enough cash to make a max bet?

Can someone tell me the likely hood of these hands?
6d, hi low, AC rules. 1-1.25 decks left, last hand of the shoe. High running/true count, in the range of +7-10. (Once the yellow card came out and my hands were finished I stopped keeping track). I have a 20 and an 11, dd to get 19. Dealer showing a 4. Hole card is a 9, next card an 8 for 21.

Same rules, count etc.
Dealer showing a 6. I have 20 and 8. Double down and get an Ace for 19. Dealer flips out a 5 from the hole and then a 10 for 21.

For both of these double downs, I pulled out additional cash from my wallet to get as much money onthe table as possible - but I lost both. I'm 99.97% sure I did the right thing, but just wanted to make sure.

Thanks.

[phamtom]

welcome to the wild world of cardcounting ,it can try your belief in advantage play,it will make you talk to yourself , and make you want to burn your books and play keno ,but fear not just keep shoving it in , and one day you'll get into the longrun and laugh about days like yesterday ,untill it happens again ,and again .all you can do is put your money in when you have the best of it and try not to throw up.

[Don Schlesinger]

> SD was against me last night and I just wanted to
> clarify a few minor things before I go back. (I am
> pretty sure the answers are in BJA but I can't seem to
> find my copy )

It's not like it isn't big enough to find! :-)

> How much cash do you bring to the casino for one round
> of play? Ie how many max or min bets? Right now I am
> bringing about 20x (sometimes 30x) 1 unit. Is this
> pretty standard? My bankroll is about 300x

You need to define "one round of play." Are we talking about an hour? A day? A weekend? And, do you want to be virtually certain not to run out of cash? Or, will you accept 10% chance of losing it all? 20%? You see the problem? Different strokes for different folks.

> Which leads to 2nd question: if the count is high, and
> you lose your initial buy in, do you whip out enough
> cash to make a max bet?

Yup. Over and over and over again. Until you either completely run out of every penny on your body, or you throw up -- whichever comes first. :-)

> Can someone tell me the likeliood of these hands?
> 6d, hi low, AC rules. 1-1.25 decks left, last hand of
> the shoe.

Nice cut, for A.C. :-)

> High running/true count, in the range of
> +7-10. (Once the yellow card came out and my hands
> were finished I stopped keeping track). I have a 20
> and an 11, dd to get 19. Dealer showing a 4. Hole card
> is a 9, next card an 8 for 21.

If I'm playing, roughly 99%! :-) Seriously, there just is no sense in wanting to know. It happens ALL the time!

> Same rules, count etc.
> Dealer showing a 6. I have 20 and 8. Double down and
> get an Ace for 19. Dealer flips out a 5 from the hole
> and then a 10 for 21.

It's only a matter of what suit the ten is. :-) The rest is a given.

> For both of these double downs, I pulled out
> additional cash from my wallet to get as much money
> on the table as possible - but I lost both. I'm 99.97%
> sure I did the right thing, but just wanted to make
> sure.

You did the right thing. The dealer did the wrong thing. :-) When your original two hands turn into NINE, through splits, resplits, and doubles, and your highest total is 18, and the dealer hits four times for 21, with a TC of +10, write back and let me know. Because, I've already been through that one! :-)

> Thanks.

You're welcome. Just understand that playing correctly and winning are often simply not correlated!

Don

[drumz1]

As has already been stated, welcome to the world of Standard Deviation.

Having said that, I will tell you that the instances you mention will happen again, so don't think that it is a rare occurance.

I've had the exact same thing happen to me, as have just about every AP I know, and it has a way of making a person question in his/her mind if they did the right thing.

You played the hands correctly, but the law of SD checked in at the most inappropriate time, which happens more often than you would think.

It's just the nature of the game, I guess, but you did the right thing, IMO.

Regards,
drumz1

[Zach]

Thank you Don, Phamtom, & drumz1 for the prompt responses.

My latest session was much more successful!

Good Luck,
Zach

> As has already been stated, welcome to the world of
> Standard Deviation.

> Having said that, I will tell you that the instances
> you mention will happen again, so don't think that it
> is a rare occurance.

> I've had the exact same thing happen to me, as have
> just about every AP I know, and it has a way of making
> a person question in his/her mind if they did the
> right thing.

> You played the hands correctly, but the law of SD
> checked in at the most inappropriate time, which
> happens more often than you would think.

> It's just the nature of the game, I guess, but you did
> the right thing, IMO.

> Regards,
> drumz1