J.L.: Don, or anyone! - question about Unbalanced Counts

[J.L.]

Hey all,

is it true that Balanced counts are more accurate in their Betting Correlation, and that Unbalanced counts tend to deteriorate with multiple decks. For example, it was Brett Harris, i think, who recommended that all Uston SS users converted to true count mode, especially when playing 6 or 8 deck games. I prefer Unbalanced counts over anything, no matter the level, it's the true count that gets me. Am i giving up much due to this bias.

In my case: UBZII versus Zen in 2-deck games, and Uston SS or K-O versus RPC in 6-deck games. How bad is the damage?

Thank you so much.
Justin.

[Norm Wattenberger]

Betting Correlation, Playing Efficiency and Insurance Correlation are all lower than the commonly used theoretic numbers when you are not true counting. That said, unbalanced strategies are still surprisingly powerful. To see the differences in SCORE between the strategies that you mentioned, see the SCORE Calculator.

[Karel]

I understand the possible difficulty with TC calculation. However, this is most likely due to the assumption that one needs to calculate the TC precisely. This is not the case, especially with unbalanced counts.

I would recommend to use very approximate TC conversion. For example, a 6 deck shoe could be though as 3 thirds, where in the first part we consider 1/3 of the RC, then 1/2 of RC, and RC at the end. This very simple and approximate TC calculation will, nevertheless, yield 90% or so of the value of precise TC calculation.

Regards,

Karel

> For example, it was
> Brett Harris, i think, who recommended that
> all Uston SS users converted to true count
> mode, especially when playing 6 or 8 deck
> games. I prefer Unbalanced counts over
> anything, no matter the level, it's the true
> count that gets me. Am i giving up much due
> to this bias.