A little bit of card counting online

At starluckcasino.com, their blackjack is 8 deck with 20% pen. That means 83 cards (rounded down), which works out to, what, ~12 hands or so? When bonus chasing, I flat bet a very small amount (small enough to get <1% RoR) for the entire WR. But would it be worth counting a 20% pen?

My initial thought is no, since I'd have to keep in mind that the system doesn't give any indication that it is shuffling. I'd have to keep track of the used cards myself (or exit and reneter the game if I lose track). AND I wouldn't be able to do anything above a flat-bet until I saw a RC of at least +8 in less than a few hands.

However, it might be worth doing this whenever I start a new session. Most of the time I won't get a +8 RC, but if I do, and I'm playing anyways, I might 5X my bet for the next few hands. It shouldn't seriously change my RoR, and as soon as the "shuffle" has happened, I'd drop down to flat-betting again.

the first thing that occurs to me is, how do you know that its not shuffling after every round?
with online blackjack this can be done in 1/50th of a second.

Masterplan said:

the first thing that occurs to me is, how do you know that its not shuffling after every round?
with online blackjack this can be done in 1/50th of a second.

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Good question, I should have mentioned. In the 'Rules' for the game, it says that they use 8 decks, and the decks are reshuffled after 20% of the cards are used.

halcyon1234 said:

At starluckcasino.com, their blackjack is 8 deck with 20% pen. That means 83 cards (rounded down), which works out to, what, ~12 hands or so? When bonus chasing, I flat bet a very small amount (small enough to get <1% RoR) for the entire WR. But would it be worth counting a 20% pen?

My initial thought is no, since I'd have to keep in mind that the system doesn't give any indication that it is shuffling. I'd have to keep track of the used cards myself (or exit and reneter the game if I lose track). AND I wouldn't be able to do anything above a flat-bet until I saw a RC of at least +8 in less than a few hands.

Click to expand...

I agree with your initial thoughts The card counting would not be worth the benefit at Starluck. If you were going to card count, I'd recommend software with live dealers such as Playtech, Ho Casino, Casino Webcam; or software that clearly indicates when shuffles occur such as Littlewoods. Note that the edge gained by card counting is likely negligible compared to the edge gained from quality sign-up bonuses.