casino advantage

[MNKeeper]

^ yeah... I've been practicing the counting thing and I can almost get through a deck in 30 seconds, but not quite, I need some more work. But I tried counting in the casino this past weekend and I couldn't do it with the distractions (my friends kept asking me for advice, haha). I'm gonna keep working on counting so hopefully I'll gain an edge eventually.

Another few questions..... what do all the abbreviations mean? Like EV? N0? And what's voodoo and all this?

 

[sagefr0g]

^ yeah... I've been practicing the counting thing and I can almost get through a deck in 30 seconds, but not quite, I need some more work. But I tried counting in the casino this past weekend and I couldn't do it with the distractions (my friends kept asking me for advice, haha). I'm gonna keep working on counting so hopefully I'll gain an edge eventually.

Another few questions..... what do all the abbreviations mean? Like EV? N0? And what's voodoo and all this?

i never accurately timed how quickly i could count down a deck. i doubt if i was ever able to do it in 30 seconds but after a lot of practice counting down decks i did finally get to the point where i could count in a casino setting for six deck shoes with two or more players. i always did have trouble when it was one on one. after a lot of practice counting down decks i just found that i could do it.
EV means Expected Value. it's the amount of money you can expect to win or lose overall with respect to a given amount of money that you bet. the concept is statistically determined through computer simulations or can be calculated using (i think) probability maths and combinatory maths. EV is most always expressed as a percentage as far as i know. so it's derived and realized over a large number of trials. the results of the trials that it takes to get you to EV can be graphed out into what looks like a Bell Curve. your EV would be at the top of the curve and the deviation (positive & negative) would be on the lesser slopes of that curve. one standard deviation is about 63% of that curve on either side of the EV pinicale. you can expect to be within one standard deviation about 95% of the time so for a relatively small number of trials you know a range of values that you can expect to experience for your overall betting. so to realize Ev one needs to play a lot of trials. the more trials played in a consistant manner the closer your results should come to the EV.
N0 is derived from a formula. you can find out more about it at bjmath.com .
the way i understand it is that N0 gives you the number of hands you need to play for a given game, by a given method (counting, BS, BS deviations & betting) to get you to the point where your negative and positive standard deviation cancels out and you are likely to consistantly experience realization of EV.
voodoo is a term we came up with on this site to describe methods of blackjack play that are not scientifically or mathematically verifiable or proven.