Tag Archives: count

Multi Action Blackjack

March 21, 2018   Game guide   No comments

Multi-Action is a great game for counters. Don’t let the game intimidate you, it is identical to blackjack except that you play 3 hands at once against the dealer which enables you to get a lot of money down on the table. It’s important to play your hand just like you would on a regular blackjack table. The casinos must have a huge hold on this game because the ploppies chicken out on their hands and are so afraid of busting they won’t hit a lot of the hands they are supposed too. You can make all the strategy deviations you want without taking flak from the players or without drawing attention from the pit. Hopefully your game is OBO. Pay attention when the dealer plays her hand because of the different mechanics of this game you can forget to count her second or third hand out of habit from counting the regular tables.

One flaw with the game is that they only let you SPL1 to make two hands. This costs the player approx. .05%, the casino is not trying to screw you on this play, there just isn’t enough room on the table for your bets. You want a fast dealer on this game to get the most benefit from it, in theory you will play 3 times the hands per hour. Plays like insurance can slow this game down to a crawl if you have 3 bets of $25 then you need to make change for 3 piles of $12.50. I’ve noticed a lot of ploppies won’t insure depending on their bets because of always having to make change. Players burn out quickly on this game so there is a lot more buying in. I just wish more casinos would start using this game. Don’t just use the table when the others are full, make it your starting point.

Sizing your bets correctly is important in this game, so if you are playing 3 spots of $100 remember it is not one bet of $300 but 3 individual bets of $100. So make sure you are not accidentally overbetting. You have the option of playing 2 or 3 hands. If no one on the table is playing 3 hands the dealer will only draw twice. This fact can be manipulated to make the dealer eat up more cards during negative counts.

An AP might also want a slightly different advanced strategy from regular blackjack for the sake of decreasing variance. Example: you have a high count, and your max bet on 3 of your spots. Your hand is 15 vs. dealer 10. The count is not quite high enough where you would stand on 15 vs. 10, but close.

Read More

The Easiest Blackjack Card Counting System

January 29, 2018   Game guide   No comments

I personally recommend using the Red Seven or KO Count card counting systems. They are basic systems that perhaps are the second easiest to learn. By using an easy system you sacrifice some potential advantage. However, a simple system counted correctly is better than an advanced system played incorrectly. Plus, with a simply system you can play a fast paced game, playing more hands per hour. All statistical advantages require time to bear fruit, so the more hands you play the better.

So what is the easiest system? That is the Wizard Ace/Five count system. Be warned, it is easy but not for the faint of heart. It attempts to counter the accuracy loss by using large bet spread. Any card counter must increase his bet when the odds are in his favor in order to beat the house. The difference between the minimum wager (played when at a disadvantage) and the maximum wager (played when at the maximum statistical advantage) is the bet spread. The Wizard Ace/Five count has a maximum bet potentially as high as 38 times the minimum. That means if you a $10 minimum, you must be prepared to wager up to $380 on a single hand. You must also have the bankroll to support that high of a spread.

Card counters are normally identified by their bet spread. With such a large bet spread, you may think the Wizard Ace/Five count may quickly get you spotted as a counter. On the contrary, the Wizard Ace/Five system is so basic; you are unlikely to get identified as a counter.

In addition, the Wizard Ace/Five offers little advantage. The system can be used recreationally just to gain comps from sustained playing time, but will offer little value beyond that.

So what is the Wizard Ace/Five? The system uses only 2 point values. Any five card played is +1. Any ace played is minus one. That’s it. You keep a running count starting at 0 and looking for fives and aces only. In addition, there is no “true” count, so you do not need to divide the running count by the number of decks remaining. With a 75% penetration, stand on soft 17, late surrender and re-splitting aces you can get a 0.22% advantage using the recommended bet spread.

The five card is an important card because it will not bust the dealer hitting a 16 and makes a 17 out of 12. Therefore the five is important. The ace on the other is beneficial to the player. Ace and Shuffle tracking exist just to track aces.

Now the painful bet spread. You bet the minimum wager on any zero or negative running count. For a positive count, you bet 2 times the minimum times the running count. This can potentially lead to a spread of 38 times the minimum assuming a six deck shoe. If you were to assume that all fives were played (4 cards per deck and 6 decks per shoe) and no aces played, the highest bet could be 48 times the minimum (24 x 2). I have heard that in simulations of a billion hands, the spread never actually got higher than 38 times. You must bet the proper spread in order to take advantage of the positive signal. Reducing the bet spread reduces your edge. The average bet in simulation is 2 to 3 times the minimum wager.

Read More
« Older posts
Newer posts »