Any tips on estimating the remaining of decks

[BigJer]

You just look at it. It takes a long time. I probably don't have it down to one card but I'm fairly close proximity.

[Stealth]

Getting 6 or 8 decks and numbering them is a great way to learn to estimate decks and to sharpen your ability to cut should you ever venture in to sequencing or shuffle tracking. Be cautious of the fact that all cards are not of equal and consistent thickness and this may have a bearing on your estimate. Get decks from multiple casinos and do multiple experiments. Gamblers Book Store in old Vegas has lots for reasonable prices.

[Lamb]

My method has brought me to 3-5 card accuracy, which I'm ok with. Maybe when I try to get into shuffle tracking I won't have such a hard learning curve

[Orangechip2]

If I may share something from personal experience, I strongly advise against doing this if the casino drills holes through the cards. Buy six of these decks, bring them home, load 'em up into your discard tray and you'll see why you shouldn't practice with most of these "drilled" cards for deck estimation...

(Hint: Have you ever seen The Leaning Tower of Pisa?)


I've found that Bee cards are an excellent brand to practice with as many casinos tend to use them and the premium quality w/ the Cambric finish means they'll maintain their shape longer than the cheaper cards out there. You can order 'em on Amazon.com in packs of 12 or singles.

If a casino has a new bit, there will be very little done to the quality of cards. However I do know exactly what you are referring to; When the bit is dual as all hell it completely destroys the cards, same goes for cancelling dice. New drill bit = no issue casino using the same bit since opening day = box of confetti.

[Orangechip2]

Getting 6 or 8 decks and numbering them is a great way to learn to estimate decks and to sharpen your ability to cut should you ever venture in to sequencing or shuffle tracking.

+1

I will actually take this advice and propose it to a fellow teammate, this is the area he lacks most. My idea that I proposed to the OP was stack em', estimate em', count, divide, and adjust. Numbering your decks would save you lots of time and convenience.

[Shadowless]

Practice, practice, practice. Like others have mentioned, get decks of cards to practice visualizing what certain deck depths look like.

Since truncating is the standard, it's okay to be slightly off when estimating remaining decks for 6-8 decks.

For example, if the RC is 12 and there are about 2.5 to 3 decks remaining, dividing by 2.5 gives you 4.8 (truncated to 4) while dividing by 3 gives you 4.
In both cases, you arrive at the same true count since the number is truncated, so exact precision isn't necessary unless your indices aren't rounded in any way (for example the index of 2.4 for insurance for Hi-Lo double deck).

When it comes to a close playing decisions, always make sure that the true count meets or exceeds the index. For example, if the index is >= 3, don't deviate if the TC is 2.67.

If you're practicing for double deck, use quarter deck estimations, rather than half deck, for more precision.