Kiosk,

Many thanks for your lengthy and well-reasoned responses.

Your reply-posts have been most valuable to me.

As to your last paragraph in particular, and as to my personal best-strategy in general: Wouldn't you agree that as a beginning player, I might just as well hone my skills primarily in AC until I have a bigger bankroll. Then, facing better games in LAS, it should all come easier. (19th C. Russian general Suvorov: "Train hard, fight easy."

That being the case, how about this overall spread strategy at $5: 1-20 if losing, 1-100 if $500 ahead (instead of stopping at any win of $500). [Naturally, I've had $500 weekend wins and weekend $500 losses both; at which point, at either end, I stop.] My counting itself and BS play now seem good; still working on BS deriviations on count. I think of this to (a) reduce risk of ruin and at the same time (b) allow for larger overall expectation. Any thoughts on this?

By the way, it's nice to have mentors around. It's a lonely game out there at the tables.

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> When I reported on the Resorts game last
> month on the Green Chip board, it was
> $10-500 limits and the tables were about
> half full on a saturday afternoon. I noted
> that a lot of people passed by and watched,
> but few people actually sat down to play.
> There might have been a few people who knew
> about the bad 6:5 naturals payout, but i'd
> say the majority of people had never seen a
> face down, hand held 21 game on the east
> coast before, and had no idea how to play
> properly.

> I'm not surprised that they may have lowered
> it down to $5 minimums, given that they
> couldn't even attract a full table at $10.
> But this game is virtually useless for
> someone trying to make money via card
> counting, or any other system for that
> matter (never mind that Resorts hits on soft
> 17, takes no hole card and does not allow
> wonging mid-deck on top of the 6:5). This is
> strictly a "fun" game and I would
> "play" it only at Resorts as the
> three Trump stores were demanding $25
> minimums on my last visit.

> You might be missing the point of my first
> reponse to you in this thread. If you are
> serious about trying to make money at
> blackjack in the long term, then you cannot
> get by spreading 1-20 units with a $500
> bankroll on a game that has a maximum SCORE
> potential of about only 20.00-25.00. Your
> risk of ruin is too high in that you will
> tap out more often even while playing a
> positive EV condition. Believe me, if a good
> game ever popped up on the east coast, I
> would be ready to commit $10-20K minimum
> from my savings to give it a shot. But the
> sooner you can accept the reality of the
> math involved, the better. Save up more
> money, practice your skills, and hit a real
> game in downtown vegas or tunica.

> Atlantic City is the second largest gambling
> jurisdiction in the United States - both
> Trackjack and CBJN definitely cover all 12
> casinos on the boardwalk and marina. If I
> was to give unbiased opinion about both
> sites, I'd say that CBJN updates its data
> more diligently, but Trackjack is much
> easier to read and arrange the actual
> results. Most people I'd gather would want
> to combine info from both lists to make
> their final playing decisions.

> AC is only dealing single deckers because of
> the increased house edge of the 6:5 payout.
> They have no reason whatsoever to improve
> the odds on their shoe games, because
> counters can't realistically beat them and
> the affulent northeast ploppies who throw
> down black chips without ever picking up a
> blackjack book will pad their profits for
> years to come. Even if someone decides to
> start real 3:2 pitch games in this area, I
> doubt they will have decent enough
> penetration for any AP to take advantage of.
> Just be glad that CSM's have stayed out of
> new jersey up to this point.

> You can try plugging in some numbers at the
> www.bjstats.com site. Typical AC rules would
> be 8 decks, depth "good" (1.5/8
> decks), S17 DAS. with a 1-20 spread and
> Hi-Lo I18 Fab4, you're looking at an EV of
> 0.99% over the course of approximately
> 44,313 hands of play. does that sound like
> your $500 can handle that? probably not.

> Look, there are a lot of people who go to AC
> every weekend with $500 thinking they are
> going to win some money. But most of those
> people are playing slot machines. However,
> compared to the strategy that you're
> proposing, at least their money and playing
> time will last longer.