smgstevo said:
Tips for non counters, particularly on betting and when to and not to sit at a table would be good for me. I am aware of the long term house edge. :whip:
here's an idea of how to think of it.
low cards are:
2's, 3's, 4's, 5's & 6's
neutral cards are:
7's, 8's & 9's (these cards we just ignore)
high cards are:
10's & Ace's (you know in bj jack,queen & King are considered 10's)
for any full deck of cards you have just as many low cards as high cards. this is a symetrical condition.
now imagine that when a deck of cards is shuffled what happens. you can imagine that by chance the high and low cards may be perfectly mixed so that one follows another in order, or you can imagine that the begining of the deck might be heavily populated by low cards while the later part of the deck is quite naturally heavily populated by high cards. or it could be imagined vice-a-versa. and you could imagine that those high and low cards are dispersed in lots of various orders in the pack as a result of the shuffle.
ok but so why do we care?
because we know that when the remaining pack to be dealt is either symetrical with respect to low cards and high cards or asymetrically heavily weighted in low cards compared to high cards that we are at a disadvantage to the dealer. under these conditions we can expect to get less snappers, fewer successful double downs and not have the opportunity to make correct insurance bets.
but when the remaining pack to be dealt is asymetrically heavily weighted in high cards compared to low cards the opposite is true and we are actually at an advantage. in this situation we can expect to get more snappers, more successful double downs and have the opportunity to make correct insurance bets.
so but the thing is by gauging (more properly counting cards) the ratio of high cards to low cards seen as the dealer deals the cards we can determine if the remaining pack to be dealt is rich or poor in high cards. if we know the remaining pack is rich in high cards then we want to bet higher to take advantage of our chances for getting more snappers, successful double downs and winning insurance bets.
for orthodox counting there is a whole science as to how betting should be correlated to the various degree's of richness and poorness of the ratio of high cards to low cards. further there is a whole science as to how one goes about managing a bankroll according to risk and advantage as well.
essentially playing as you do, mainly basic strategy and maybe betting up on a whim, or using that 2-1-2-3... bets, you'll be better off leaving the table if you know the remaining pack is rich in low cards as compared to high cards.
probably you'd be best to not use the 2-1-2-3... bet thing all together and try and get more hands in when the pack to be dealt is rich in high cards.
