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FRONT PAGE - Back to THE ADVISOR PAGE Dear GameMaster,
My game has the following rules.
6 decks, 3.5-4 decks penetration, Dealer stands S17, Double any 2 cards,
DAS, up to 3 splits aloud but no resplit on aces (you get one card only when
you split them), no surrender.
Is my game beatable? If yes what should it be my betting strategy using
the Hi-LO count?
Dear Emmanouel,
Yours for winning, Hi Gamemaster, (1) I had my first losing session today ($75). Although I understand that
losses are part of the game and although I'm still comfortably ahead
($225), I noticed something quite disturbing today. The two most popular
blackjack tables here in the Philippines are the $5's and $7.50's (minimum
bet, local currency of course) and I seem to notice that I usually do quite
well at the $5's and very bad at the $7.50's. This in itself didn't bother
me too much except today when, playing a $7.50 table, I noticed that for
three straight shoes, we hit the marker (75% penetration) with the running
count at around +14. I saw a lot of 3's and 4's being dealt and I really
wonder if it might not be the case that some of the picture cards were
replaced with small cards. I lost around $140 during these three shoes
before switching to a $5 table and immediately recouping $65. This made me
remember another session when I left a $7.50 table down $90 (I was down
$150 at one point), went to a $5 table and went home after 30 minutes with
a $25 dollar profit.
Do you think there is some basis for my paranoia or am I just whining
because of my substantial lost today? (2) I usually bring 40 betting units with me and I try not to leave until I
have won anywhere from 5 to 15 units (depending on how long I've been at
the casino, i.e. I'd settle for 5 units if I had started out losing and
have had to spend 3 hours fighting to recover, while I'd go for 15 units if
I start out winning). Needless to say I'd have to quit if I lose the 40
units. So far it has worked just fine because I haven't had a losing
session until today, and today doesn't really count because I had an
engagement and had to leave early. BUT, there's this gnawing suspicion in
my mind that though the philiosophy has worked out fine so far there is
something fundamentally wrong with it because I am risking 40 units to win
5-15 units. I'd really like your opinion on this. Thank you very much for your help. Dear Solomon,
You are not risking 40 to make 5-15, because your results aren't absolute.
In other words, it's not a case of either winning 15 or losing 40. Anything
in between is possible and with the rules there, you should show a modest
long term profit.
The only way to avoid losses is to not play the game. You were due for a
bad day, hang in there.
Yours for winning, Our Mystery Dealer wrote...
Brenda, I love you for printing my reply as well as what you had to
say.
I'm impressed at your determination to get the truth out there. At
least
it adds credibility to what we're(your) trying to accomplish here,to
inform people on what they need to know to give them whatever
advantage
they can get into the insights of this business,to keep them
interested
because we're honest and offer them at least the truth as we know
it,so
when they come to Vegas,or weather they gamble in Barbados or over the
Gamemaster on the internet we can help them balance the scales a
little.All we have to give them is our word,and as long as it's
honest,and if it broadens their outlook on gameing to where they don't
feel like such an ousider looking in,but rather an informed insider
that's "in" on what's going on,and begin to see the bigger picture
that
we're not all just out to cheat them out of their money (after all,we
gamble too at the same tables and machined as you do),but rather to
give
them a little hedge,and a chance to test their intellegence with the
same information we have,and give them the best odds on a REAL shot at
these guys.
That's what the gossip is for,the more you can feel like a part of
all this (Vegas,Gambling in general)the beter you know the games,the
playing fields,the rules,and the main players the more
you'll feel in command of the facts,and in command of yourself,and
gambling sucessfully demands discipline knowledge,and above
all,confidence to deal with it al,l to know when you're getting over
on
them and vice-versa.
In other words "to know when to walk away,to know when to run"(I hate
that song already,but it does give great advice)
I swear Brenda, I come to these games totally astonished at the lack
of preperation, intellegence,lack of knowledge of the particular
game or
gaming rules in general(my next column honey remind me)lack of
conduct,(lack of class) and generally totally unprepared,just whip out
those $20 or $100 bills and a little while later,walk away shake
their
heads,say
"unbelieveable how'd you do that?"and of course my only answer is "I
didn't DO that,YOU DID THAT" and they scratch their heads and walk
away.
What this guy is obviously offering is a negative-progressive
betting system,called the Martingale system,it works for
21,craps,roulette,bach. you can read about it in the library,or I'm
sure
somewhere in the NET.The problem is,in order for it to work you need
alot of money and time and patience,and a casino that will let you bet
it for a few hours,and I don't know of one that wouldn't because if it
doesn't work once,if you get caught at the end of the
progression,which
is where everyone gets caught,you loose EVERYTHING and you're
shit-outa-luck unless you can afford to start over or take a few
hundred
(or more) loss,why? if you start cheap,say $10,than $20($30)than
$40($70) than $80($150) than $160($310) than $320($630)so if you loose
six hands in a row you're stuck $630 than what do you do?Lets say you
win the first 3 $10+$15+$25=$50,you're next bet is supposed to be
$40,loose and you're still ahead $10 but if you get it to the fifth
hand
and loose,you're actually going to tell me on the sixth hand you'd
actually be willing to bet $630 to win $10,and if you loose that one
you
hit most house limits and you're really stuck (try a $500 limit
house!)
P.S.Martingale died a rich man,not from this system,but from book
sales.
-The Mystery Dealer
Hi, BlackJack School teacher!
To begin with I live in Sweden, and here the gouverment has put up very
strict rules for the casinos on maximum bets and so on, so the conditions
we Swedes are playing at aren´t too good.
Here are the Swedish rules for Blackjack:
At my casino there are the following conditions:
Could you tell me the correct basic strategy for the circumstances above?
Please also give me an advise if I should play at all, are the conditions
too bad?!
Great thanks in advance, Dear Bjorn,
First, your English (you're right; it's really American) is quite good.
Thanks for the nice words about the site.
What do you mean by 'even money'? Does this mean a 'Blackjack' only pays 1
to 1? If so, the game cannot be beaten. If it means that you may take even
money when you have a Blackjack and the dealer is showing an Ace, is
insurance available with other hands?
If a Blackjack pays the normal 3 to 2, you can find the proper strategy for
your game by using the Blackjack Strategy Engine which is linked in Lesson 1
of my school.
Yours for winning, Erik Korpela-Andersen" korpela@post4.tele.dk wrote:
Hi, I have studied your "Las Vegas Show Schedule" with interest. We (me & my wife
and 3
kids at 12, 10 and 2 years) will be in Las Vegas about the 10-12th
of July.
Can you recommend what you would call the very best family show?
Erik Korpela-Andersen
Erik: Travelling with small children will give you plenty of
non-gaming activities. As far as SHOWS for
small kids I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Excalibur's Dinner Show featuring
Jouster's on Horseback. No silverware, you need not dress up as the
dirt is flying everywhere & kids LOVE IT!
$10 for an all day pass to dolphins, lions, elephants,
tigers at Mirage's newest addition "Siegfried & Roy's
Enchanted Garden". Very educational as well as enjoyable. You can
leave to lunch & get right back in to keep the enjoyment going.
Lance Burton ($35) at Monte Carlo is very good with children as is
Rick Thomas ($14) at Tropicana (afternoon shows) with magic.
FREE stuff: Volcano at Mirage, Pirate Show at TI, Luxor & Excalibur
have in-house shows with puppets &
singers. Circus acts in the ceiling at Circus-Circus
with a great upper floor arcade filled with games for prizes for kids.
Treasure Island also has a great kiddie arcade with great prizes & a
staff the teaches them to win!
Remember, hotels do have a great staff of professional babysitters you
can rent by the hour; so you & the wife can do a dinner & show
together & go gambling too.
As we say at The GameMaster, We teach you to "Enjoy
The Good Life", so have a great time!
Brenda Moran
Charles Hutcheson cahmah@yahoo.com wrote:
Brenda, could you help me again? I have been trying to find out the
status of the IGT Megabucks current jackpot. I logged onto IGT's site
once today, but when I clicked on "jackpots", nothing happened.
Later when I tried to get back to their home page, I could not even
access it.
I'll be in Vegas June 10-13. Plan to play a lot of blackjack in a
short time. While I am not normally a slot player, I read that the
Megabucks jackpot was over $16.5 million 2 or 3 weeks ago. With an
incentive like that, I could be lured away from the tables for a
little while. I keep watching the gambling news on "My Yahoo", but
have seen nothing recently. Has the big one been hit?
If I have my usual slots luck. It will be hit just before my plane
lands on the night of the 10th.
I am still enjoying all the good information I get from The Gamemaster
Online. Many thanks.
Oh Charles...... How dare IGT not allow you access, as I chuckle
typing this ;-). They receive 4 mil hits for jackpot info a day!!!
But right now I accessed it at 7:15AM EDT & megabucks is at
$16,443,233.47 & counting rapidly.
So I predict a $17 mil jackpot awaiting your arrival
& the rush as you fly to the nearest machine & maybe stand in line
awaiting a space with folks offering money to the players to vacate.
(It was unreal to watch last April at $15,800,000).
Brenda Moran
Since I discovered your site not too long ago, I have been printing
and reading all the articles I can find about blackjack. (I just
print everything I find and then sit back in my recliner at night and
read.)
In the July 1, 1997 article "I Am Not a Blackjack Fanatic" there was a
reference to the Ace-Five count. You gave strategy for the 6-deck
game. You then state: "You'll see that this isn't a bad count at all
and, in fact against a double-deck game, it can be very effective."
Have you written anything about strategy for Ace-Five against
double-deck? The 6-deck strategy obviously would not work.
I have been practicing a lot with the KO counting method and have been
doing quite well - especially against double deck.
Maybe I am just a lazy counter, but there are times, such as when I am
tired and not as sharp as I should be, that rather than quit playing I
would prefer to use a very simple count system. The Ace-Five would
seem to be about as simple as you can get. And if it is truly
effective against a 2-deck game, I would like to learn some strategy.
What do you suggest?
Many thanks for your great web site.
Dear Chuck,
The Ace-Five count does, indeed, give you an edge in a decent double-deck
game. Rather than restate everything here, go to "Grinder's Warehouse of
Sims" and check out the simulations he ran off the article you read. He'll
show you how a 1-5 unit bet can make a few $$$ for you.
The URL is http://members.aol.com/bjgrinder2/warehouse.htm/
Thanks for the kind words about the site and thanks to Grinder for an
excellent series of sims on the Ace-Five count.
Yours for winning,
The GameMaster
I wrote you earlier about the casinos that have the best blackjack rules in
Tunica. Well, now it looks like I may be going to Biloxi instead. Can you
provide me information on the best places to play single and multideck
blackjack in Biloxi please. Thanks for all of your assistance!! Keep up the
good work!
Thanks Again,
p.s. Do you think it would be worth the money to subscribe to the green or
black chip services offered on www.bj21.com?
Dear Michael,
There's a lot of good single- and double-deck in Biloxi. The best is
probably the President, but they bar a lot of players there, so use your
best 'act.' Other places have slightly better rules, but the penetration
isn't as good. Those are: Imperial Palace, Treasure Bay (maybe the best
compromise place to play; decent penetration & they don't sweat the action)
and the Palace.
I highly recommend you subscribe to the Green Chip page on Wong's site; I'm
a member there also. The Black Chip is worth the investment if you make
most of your $$$ from BJ, otherwise, it's of limited use.
Yours for winning,
I just read your two video poker tips and they are both absurd. What
difference does it make which 3 cards to the royal you would break up a
high pair or four to flush with? You must work for a casino to
recommend such things. Also your opening hand suggestion of holding
just the King of hearts and not the 10 of hearts, thus killing your
chance for a royal, also implies to me you are keeping the player from
getting the royal payout, and that you are favoring the casino. I would
never buy a book of yours suggesting such things. The casinos already
have the advantage over the player and your suggestions can only give
more advantage to the casinos. So, I think you work for a casino.
Randy
Dear Randy,
I'm sorry, but you are wrong about this. First, I don't work for the
casinos and secondly, every recommendation I make is verified as the proper
play by the mathematical expectation, a concept which, it appears, you do
not grasp. Holding a King alone (as in your second example above) does,
indeed, exclude you from receiving a Royal, but you're forgetting that a
Royal isn't the only hand a player can get. By cycling through all the
possible combinations which a player can get, s/he gains a better average
return by holding the King alone.
As for you purchasing any book I may publish, I'm sure you wouldn't; in
fact, I'm sure you've never read a book on the game, or we wouldn't be
having this exchange.
Yours for winning, Kenneth Pearlman Where do you get off
being(if we're to believe you)a cab driver,writing an accusation
article
on why dealers cheat.(according to you they cheat for the house,and
the
players.None of the casnos I've ever delt at or been on the floor
at,ever took an acounting of how much a partcular dealer wins or
looses,we're always on different limit tables,a dealer one night on a
$100 tabe could win or loose what another dealer on a $5 game doesn't
win or loose in a month.First,any dealer in a casino that can take a
few
hunderd dollars would be giving up a job,insurance,a jail sentence,and
never deal ANYWHERE ever if caught cheating or stealing.With zoom
cmeras
that turn 360degrees,zoom in on the date on a
dime,floormen,shiftbosses,other dealers,security guards,other
players,everyone's watching 24 hours and it's all on tape,you never
know
where the eyes are,so who the hell would cheat?(yes,you'll go to jail
even faster if caught cheating for the house,they would loose their
gaming licence)even the best dealers I've ever known,don't even know
how
to cheat,short of changing the cut off the back of a shoe,or changing
the shuffleSure dealers get cought stealing tokes,or trying to slip a
chip in their pocket,they're always caught eventually,and ALL casino's
prosecute cheats and theifs.The incident at the Foxwood Casino is BS
also,The only thing they were ever accused of doing was paying one
loosing hand when she complained enough.Even the crap about Sinatra
giving cab drivers $100 tips is BS too,You're talking 15,20 years ago
or more,what cab driver that you know ever drove Sinatra around?the
casinos always had a limo waiting for him,he never took cabs unless
you're talking back in the 60's maybe,I'm willing to bet there's no
cab
drivers left that drove 25-30 years ago.Any reply?
Editor's Note: After checking the facts we decided to end the short run of "Rear View Mirror on Las Vegas". Dear GameMaster, Placement of the cut card can be anywhere; those shufflers are random. If
playing alone, do not play two hands, since that chews up more cards than is
compensated for by your extra bet. (I'm assuming you're a counter.) With
other players at the table, spreading to two hands when the count is up is a
good maneuver.
If you are not a counter, there is no advantage whatsoever in spreading to
two hands at any time. In fact, by doing so, you're increasing your loss rate. Yours for winning, Hi GameMaster, If your version of surrender is 'early' (the dealer does not check to see if
s/he has a blackjack, you should surrender 16 against a 9,10 or Ace.
Standing with a 16 against a dealer's 7 is a serious mistake; by hitting you
will lose
40.8% of all the money bet in those situations, by standing, you'll lose
48.1%. Standing with a 16 against a dealer's 8 causes a loss of 51.3%,
whereas hitting trims that to 45.4%. I like to upset people at my table,
since they might leave and I'll get more hands per hour with fewer tables.
Just watch your back on the way home. (2) There is, of course, a significant element of luck in blackjack. All
the card counting and basic strategy in the world couldn't deal with a
naturally bad draw. (i.e. even with a count of positive 20 I can't do
anything if I'm dealt a 17 and the dealer gets 2 kings) I've had sessions
where I started out losing 10 hands in a row with the count turning
positive and me increasing my bets. Those swings are definitely out there.
Of course, the theory is, the hands will eventually even out as you play
more and more hands. My question is: The computer simulations that are the
bases for blackjack strategy run for (if I'm not mistaken) at least a
million hands continuously. We humans, of course, cannot hope to play
continuously for anything approaching that number of hands, so isn't it
possible (even if it's not plausible) that you might hit a slump where
everytime you sit down you hit a losing streak (most experts will tell you
to limit your losses for a single session)? Is there really a total
bankroll level that will protect you in case of a prolonged losing streak?
Thanks for your help. In answere to your second question. We run millions of hands in simulations just to make sure our figures are
accurate. If you have an overall edge in a game of more than 1%, you'll
make money before you die (see #1 above) and a bankroll of 1000 units (table
minimum) will get you there. BUT, you must first make sure that the game is
beatable. If you'll tell me all the rules, the number of decks, the
penetration (# of cards seen before the dealer shuffles) and your betting
spread, I can tell you what the odds of your success are. Yours for winning,
Here are some interesting comments from Skip skipfromla@yahoo.com on the subject of our Mystery Dealer. The Mystery Dealer is right here. Brenda,
I found it. (The Mystery Dealer) Wow, you’ve got so much good stuff here I can see how I
over looked it. Your Mystery Dealer put out some good basic stuff but
could have gone on a bit more about money management (mm). I think
that mm is a big part of being an effective player. When I taught
basic gaming and gambling to players these “rules” would be the first
thing on my agenda:
1. Know the mechanics of the game. In other words, know how the game
is played. Know all the bets on the table and the things you, other
players or the house can do that affect your play.
2. Know the best bets for your money, that is the odds against
winning as opposed to the pay off.
3. Know how much you can afford to lose and don’t play if you’ve
reach that number. If you are going to gamble for three days, split
up your available gambling funds into three parts. If you lose the
entire day’s funds the first hour, have a shrimp cocktail or go to a
show but no more gambling until the next day.
4. Know and use good money management, i.e., when to increase and
decrease your bets. Stick with it and don’t wimp out. I’ve seen lots
of people play BJ and correctly double down on a $5 bet but, after
they win a little and work their way up to $20 bets, not double down
on the same cards because now it’s $20 and not $5. If it’s a good bet
for $5 then it’s a good bet for $20.
5. Know when to quit. Most people never get ahead and quit when they
are empty. For some reason a lot of people who do get ahead quit
while they are still winning. Why? Winning streaks are few and far
between. Press it for all it’s worth and if you keep winning, keep
playing. When you start to lose it back (how much is up to you) is a
good time to quit playing.
6. Take it easy on the “free” drinks. The casinos give them to you
because they don’t make any money while you are walking to and from
the bar. The “free” drinks are there to keep you at the table or
machine and to loosen you up. Don’t feel you have to drink an
alcoholic beverage. The CWs will bring you a coffee or soft drink as
quickly as they would a beer.
7. (optional because it doesn’t affect the outcome of the games) Be
nice to everyone, players and casino employees alike. It would make
for a better casino experience for all if everyone did this.
After this I'd show how the "rules" apply to each game (craps and BJ).
Nothing guarantees a win but if you stick to these “rules” when you
win, you will win more and when you lose, you will lose less.
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