How hard is it to get random cards?

[Guest Ryun879]

Well I'll say this as a real player in AC for years. I don't know these guys who own this forum but until you played in AC you have no idea how hard it is to win at Blackjack. I'll tell you one thing I know for sure the cards in the blackjack games are not random as they say. There are endless runs of low cards and I have learned that to never double with an 10 or 11 as I always receive a low card on it. You can sit for hours upon hours and watch 10 and 12 low cards in a row. This has to have a negative impact on Basic Strategy. As an Avid Ken Uston Fan he even wrote about this in his newsletters

[ECD]

Well I'll say this as a real player in AC for years. I don't know these guys who own this forum but until you played in AC you have no idea how hard it is to win at Blackjack. I'll tell you one thing I know for sure the cards in the blackjack games are not random as they say. There are endless runs of low cards and I have learned that to never double with an 10 or 11 as I always receive a low card on it. You can sit for hours upon hours and watch 10 and 12 low cards in a row. This has to have a negative impact on Basic Strategy. As an Avid Ken Uston Fan he even wrote about this in his newsletters

Exactly right Ryun! I played AC full time for many years and I played with Ken Uston many times. Anyone who still thinks the cards are random has never played AC. The statistics I use in all four of my BJ manuals are actual casino statistics from A.C.

The closest to random you will ever see is new cards in the morning right after the card prep. From there the more the cards are played and the more players there are in the game the more the cards will clump up. You MUST have two strategies. One for random cards which we call the NBJ 3rd base strategy and one for clumped cards which we call the NBJ First Base strategy.

If you play all the cards the same way you will be demolished in AC just as Ken Uston was.

The trick is to learn how to use the non randomness of the cards to your advantage. This way, you can kill AC once you know which tables to play and when and how to play them.

I'm sure I was the most successful player ever in AC and all of my manuals teach you exactly how I did that. Traditional card counters don't have a prayer in AC. And perfect Basic Strategy will ensure that you lose perfectly. The same thing happens in 6 deck, 4 deck, 2 deck and single deck. But AC 8 deck exaggerates clumping making it far easier to see. Once you learn how to beat AC 8 deck, you can beat ANY BJ game ANYWHERE.

Edited November 9, 2010 by ECD

[aegis21]

Hello Everyone,

I just spent a couple of days last week in Milwaukee WI. for an engineering seminar. I did get to the Indian casino there two nights, last Wed. & Thursday night. I played low stakes blackjack for about two to three hours each night. I first looked to see if there was any baccarat tables and found one opened but full, taking note of that table and the game type, I proceeded to look for a decent game of blackjack. There were three tables I considered and choose the one with four players and third base open. I bought in for ten units and played several shoes to get a feel for both sets of cards. They used a blue and red shoe with shuffle machines. After the second shoe of each color was dealt I had a good feel for the clumping or non random sections of the game. I took a little heat from some of the players at first since I had made several no basic stategiy plays, but it wasn't long before I had the dealer breaking and we were winning. The funny side story of this first night was the pit boss came over to the table and picked up a third of the shoe from the discard tray, and proceeded to strip the deck in front of me. I asked what he was looking for (in a kinda of tourist/ignorant tone) He replied " I want to check and see that no one was altering the cards" I said oh, ok and continued to play. Of course he was the only one altering the cards! This continued for another 45 minutes and I decided to cash in for the evening. I did get a 36 unit win from the table and was thanked by the players who at first couldn't understand why I didn't double on every 11, but I hit those to a pat hand.

The next night was almost a copy of the first except the dealer was giving me a hard time. That was until I called her stiff and saw neutrals running with myself having a hard twelve. I called to the pit boss "doubling a hard twelve" yes I was "lucky enough to get an eight and the dealer broke getting a seven on a sixteen. I told her she should watch her deal more carefully, because everyone could see the hole card! After that she paid more attention to her dealing than my non basic stategy plays. I only won 23 units, a little tougher game overall and the table didn't do quite so well. Dealer didn't break as much as the prior evening. This would not be possible to do in a totally random game.

[MVSeahog]

John,

Very cool. Well done.

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[Guest wellodlerve]

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Edited January 10, 2011 by MVSeahog
Link removed

[Keith Smith]

Well I'll say this as a real player in AC for years. I don't know these guys who own this forum but until you played in AC you have no idea how hard it is to win at Blackjack. I'll tell you one thing I know for sure the cards in the blackjack games are not random as they say. There are endless runs of low cards and I have learned that to never double with an 10 or 11 as I always receive a low card on it. You can sit for hours upon hours and watch 10 and 12 low cards in a row. This has to have a negative impact on Basic Strategy. As an Avid Ken Uston Fan he even wrote about this in his newsletters

Thanks for writing that you are one of the few counters that read the KEN Uston newsletter and noticed that he indicated that clumping does exist and you can infact predict the cards. In his newsletter he noticed new card clumping or box order clumping.

[ECD]

Casinos CAN'T deal random cards. If they did Basic Strategy ALONE would beat BJ and the casinos would have gone broke a long time ago. Basic Strategy was mathematically designed to, and does in fact, beat Basic Strategy. Perfect Basic Strategy losers PROVE the cards are NOT random and they never will be.

If you play PERFECT Basic Strategy you will lose PERFECTLY. You MUST know how to take advantage of the non randomness of the game and know when to DEFY Basic Strategy. That is the ONLY way to win consistently and that is what we teach here.

Show me a traditional Card Counter and I'll show you a LOSER with a headache!

Edited January 17, 2011 by ECD

[henryduncan12]

Casinos CAN'T deal random cards. If they did Basic Strategy ALONE would beat BJ and the casinos would have gone broke a long time ago. Basic Strategy was mathematically designed to, and, in fact, does beat random cards. Perfect Basic Strategy losers PROVE the cards are NOT random and they never will be.

If you play PERFECT Basic Strategy you will lose PERFECTLY. You MUST know how to take advantage of the non randomness of the game and know when to DEFY Basic Strategy. That is the ONLY way to win consistently and that is what we teach here.

Show me a traditional Card Counter and I'll show you a LOSER with a headache!

Yes, good players must be following any best strategy to obtain best result.

Edited July 9, 2011 by Ellis

[Guest]

Yes, good players must be following any best strategy to obtain best result.

Right! The best, most random cards you are likely to see all day are the brand new cards in the morning right after new cards are introduced. Yet every BJ book in the world, except mine, tells you to never play new cards - to wait at least 2 hours.

Why?

Because they assume the card prep and shuffle will not be sufficient enough to un-clump the cards from their boxed card order and therefore the cards will be too clumped to be playable. They are afraid Basic Strategy won't work because of boxed card clumping of new cards.

This was probably true back in the '60's when these books were written, but it is definitely NOT true today. Today's card preps, hand shuffles, and shuffle machines are far better. Again, new cards are the best cards you'll see all day.

But, there is one other thing that randomizes cards making them highly playable and susceptible to Basic Strategy - head to head play.

Why? Because the cards are picked up the same exact way no matter who wins.

Therefore head to head play is your best option when you can get it. If the cards aren't random, they soon will be. AND as the cards randomize you will see your Basic Strategy hit rate climb higher and higher.

For this reason, I look for head to head games. I know it is just a question of time before I'm in position to clean out that chip tray. A word to the wise.

[Guest]

Thanks for writing that you are one of the few counters that read the KEN Uston newsletter and noticed that he indicated that clumping does exist and you can infact predict the cards. In his newsletter he noticed new card clumping or box order clumping.

Eons ago I put up a cheesy web-page entitled "Ken Uston on Clumping" (http://borisbj21.com/Page8/page8d.html). I believe I included all of his quotes. If I missed any let me know and I will update the page.

Boris

[Guest]

Ron!

How the hell are you?!?!?

[Guest]

WHAT Links?

[Guest]

Ron, you'll get a kick out of this:

I did a Bac seminar in Vegas last week. But Sunday I did a BJ seminar. The turn out was way more than I expected.

So after that I played some 2 deck BJ at a main Vegas casino I don't want to name.

Head to head the first shoe I lost ONE hand. Second shoe they brought in a new dealer. She proceded to deal seconds right from the start. Even after she knew I caught her (thanks to Keith) she continued dealing seconds. We left that casino for good. My appraisal: If you are going to hire a cheater, hire one with a brain!

OH, excuse me guys; I just needed to have a little conversation with a fellow pro.

[Guest]

Dealing SECONDS? I thought that went out when the mafia was ousted from Vegas!

If you can e-mail the casino name privately, I can have one of my Vegas spies follow up on it.

And I thought our only problem in Vegas double deck was the 6:5 Blackjack payoff!......

Hmmmmmmm.... AmaZing!

[aegis21]

Hey Ron,

How have ya been? Hope all is well and don't believe Ellis on dealing seconds, he just needs and excuse to lose one hand a shoe! lol

John

[Guest]

Ha, well I admit, I was oblivios and winning anyway. But both Keith and Ron D caught them from the isle. They had a better angle than I did. Well, at least that is what I told them. Now, back to my nap.