A good start is always to read (and then quote) the actual text
21forme said:
Shad - sorry I missed you. I was there Tuesday.
My first live play with Sp21. I played BS with bet variation only. I wasn't ready with indices, and as a matter of fact, I reworked the inidices I'm going to use. In the book, Katarina suggests using indices from -6 to 0, ignoring the splits and doubles, to create an "I18 of Sp21." I believe this is a poor choice. First, why memorize a bunch of negative count indices, where you'll have a minimum bet out, if you're playing them at all? Second, why ignore the splits and doubles?
What I did is I created a spreadsheet of indices from -4 to 0, including splits, doubles, and LS. This gave me 18 indices for regular play + 4 LS indices. I'm working on memorizing them, and it's easier if you think about it that as the count rises, the index play becomes more like BJ BS, as there are more 10's present.
In AC yesterday, I backcounted into one shoe and stayed for 2 more, one of which went significantly positive. I spread from 1 hand of $25 to 2 hands of $200 with no heat. As a matter of fact after a $2K win from the 3 shoes, the PC congratulated me. Most players were idiots, playing the "match the dealer" bet and groaning at me as I made proper Sp21 BS plays, such as hitting 14 v 2 and not splitting 6's against a dealer 3.
Some of the rules are pretty neat, such as after splitting A-A, and getting another A, I split again. Also, I did one double down forfeit (like Surrender, but after a double), where I doubled on a 7-4, drew a 5, and the dealer had an 8 showing.
On page 91, I explain how to abridge your indices to the Illustrious 18, using exactly the same algorithm as the I18 for Blackjack uses. That's why it's called the I18. I didn't make up the idea of using I18, and I didn't make up the algorithm. I copied it from Blackjack. Obviously, the value of an index depends on your bet size at that count. It is not possible to work out an I18 unique to each person's betting style, so a generalised one is done for the "play-all" playing style. Obviously, if you don't play at non-advantageous counts, you don't have to memorise those indices.
Splitting indices are not valuable to the player, relatively speaking, compared to other indices, because split hands are quite rare. Note that we still use BS splitting strategy in the I18. This is mathematically proven by Don Schlesinger, whose work I quote. If your hunch tells you otherwise, you obviously value intuition over science, which begs the question, why play any strategy at all?
Doubling indices, however, are very valuable.
Nowhere does it say use -6 to 0, and forget doubling.
What it does say is:
Delete all indices outside the -6 to +1 range. (cf Blackjack I18 uses -2 to +5.)
Delete all indices for splitting pairs (i.e. use BS for splitting pairs. The same thing is done for BJ I18).
Delete all indices for soft hands (just like for BJ I18).
For hands of 11 or less (i.e. doubling indices), delete all indices less than -3 (cf BJ, where the I18 uses doubling indices greater than 0 and less than +4).
Therefore, you are left with all your doubling indices between -3 and +1 inclusive.
Delete all surrender indices less than -4 or greater than -1 (cf BJ I18 which deletes surrender indices less than 0 and greater than +3).
For redoubling, delete indices for 5 and 6.
Obviously, BS is used at neutral count.
I understand that it is easy to read something, and remember something other than what was written, but if you are going to go on a public forum, it doesn't look that good to be misquoting books.
