how to play a small BR

[horse_johnson]

Kewljason, I've been following your posts for a while and I have to say I am very impressed with your work.

I can only say my screenname is tongue-in-cheek. Hah.

I live in the Midwest and play at joints that almost exclusively cater to low-roller ploppies. Haven't seen any NMSE signs at the low-stakes tables I play. Some places around here might have a $25 table with NMSE, but I probably wouldn't bother backcounting that one anyway.

I always jump in, and sure, it pisses off the ploppies and even the dealers. Just listen to Jay-Z and brush your shoulders off. Sometimes it helps to act crazy and superstitious when doing this.

If I was playing at higher stakes, or if longevity was more important to me, I doubt I would get away with this behavior.

EDIT: I should add one thing. Even without a NMSE sign, I really don't think I could get away with this (and indeed, have not really tried) at a 2D table.

 

[ohbehave]

When I play 6D shoes, I never play a single negative count. Ever. I will sit and watch forever and only play a tiny fraction of hands when the count is high enough. There are better players than me who can do any number of things to justify playing through negative shoes, but I'm just a straight up counter, and a poorly bankrolled one at that, so I spend at least 80% of my time watching. I buy in, decline to play, sit back, put my feet up on the chair next to save a couple spots, and pretend to watch sports. Then I come in when the count goes up. What are they going to do? Sweat my $35x2 action? Fine. Whatever.

Lately I ran into an unbelievable streak of good luck and won about 10 "large" bets (here it was 3 hands of a quarter apiece) in a row during consecutive shoes. Those were the only hands I played. The pit began to form a small audience in front of me and every one of them was staring. It takes a special kind of jerk to sweat a kid playing three hands of ONE MEASLY QUARTER as a max bet at a six-deck shoe game. But anyway, I pocketed my quarters at the shuffle, hightailed it for the exit, changed my shirt in my car, came back a half hour later, cashed in my chips, and after a break at the bar I was playing the next shift.

God thats one of the funniest things I've read. :laugh::laugh: So true though of the life of a small time AP.

 

[caramel6]

when backcounting 8 deck shoe become useless?

Dear AP!

Due to a small bankroll I play like this: actively backcounting mostly 8 deck shoe (European rules, double any 2 cards, split and resplit no limit, no surrender.) I bet only when tc 2-3 (Hi -low). There are many tables in a place where I play, so I can easily make table hopping . A problem is to knoe when a deck become sort of irreversibly negative, in other words, how big running count should be to establish that it is unlikely that shoe ever become poditive and move to another table. In my experience shoe could become positive even during last deck!
sorry for my Englishm do hope someone will explainn me that, kind regards,

"If anyone has a general estimate of what would still yield around $5 an hour I'd appreciate the input."


Here's a quick sim result. Six decks, S17, DAS, deal 4.25/6.0. Use KISS 3.
Running Count...........................Bet Size
4 or less at 1.5 dealt decks...........wong out
...5 thru 8.......................................5
.......9....................................... ...10
.10 thru 19......................................5
......20..........................................10
......21..........................................15
......22..........................................20
......23..........................................25
......24..........................................30
......25..........................................35
......26..........................................40
..27 & up.......................................50 (occurs 4% of the time)

Hourly win = $5.50
Median Hourly Swing = $106
EV = +0.62%
Average bet = $9
Session Stake = $500
Chance to lose $500 within 300 hands = 6%