ruswess

First, "I haven't heard from Ronny Fitch in a few months. Is he ok?" He moved up to the Bay Area. I have not heard much either. His new phone number is on his website. Next, "Me da Man? lol O.k. What other interesting thoughts do you have on my post above?" The most I ever won was $11,500 so you can just imagine how impressed I am with your good fortune. In order to win that kind of money you have to have the "balls" to put a great deal of money in the betting circle. That is what it takes. I have a friend that I have been posting about who wins fairly consistantly but he only bets red and green. He feels that when he plays black he will be noticed more and his welcome will wear out. There are cameras everywhere. Please describe your table entry and table departure criteria. How much of it do you think is intuition? Thanks

You da man!

Ellis said, "I'm not sure what you meant by "6 to 5 BJ"??? " We see a lot of single deck games on the left coast where blackjacks pay 6 to 5 instead of 3 to 2. Which is it where you play? The 0.05ers would argue that no strategy could overcome the 6 to 5 disadvantage. My friend says he can.

It would be interesting to hear from Carlos himself on his wins. It seems that table selection is extreamly important in his style of play. I have a friend who lives and plays in Las Vegas. I believe that table departure is his best trick. He plays four or five days a week. He always chooses new cards (fresh decks), never plays a stale deck. Says he only lost three sessions since the middle of December. His style of play does not draw any heat. He plays the card patterns and leaves the table when his intuition tells him to do so. What I find interesting is the fact that he has moved to one and two decks. He even wins at 6 to 5 single deck. After years of six and eight decks, he says it is an easy game and his experience overcomes the 6 to 5 disadvantage. What do you think?

This is usually what happens. When players enter a game that HAS developed a dealer bias' The DBR goes up and basic strategy works well for a while. Wait for the DBR to go below 20 before trying it, Russ

New cards are definitely best. I'm glad to hear you say that, Ellis. Be careful of the first shoe though. My best wins have all been with new cards. I never play stale cards anymore. Thats where you find card counters who are waiting to get back under the probabality curve from three sigmas out. Play clumping Stale cards are caused by a constant number or players at the table, playing the same strategy for many shoes, same dealer shuffling the same way and same discard pickup procedure. This causes a dealer bias that can sometimes be broken by changing the number of players at the table. Try it in your home practice. Wash clumping More predictable card reading caused by the initial deck preparation. The pesky play clumping has not yet developed but it will. Random cards Well unless you are playing random shufflers the nearest thing to random cards occurs in the shoes between the end of wash clumping and the beginning of play clumping. Where is that? When you start losing. Get out of the game unless two more olayers sit down and destroy the card rhythm. Russ

I have played this game a lot. The following are some of my thoughts. Watch out for that first shoe. It can be a killer. You will often have a lot of two card pushes with the dealer. Without the help those high cards normally give you, you have the disadvantage of playing with too many low cards. Look for this. You will notice that most people, for what ever reasons, do not want to open a table, but as soon as you open one, they will soon sit down. If this has been a table like the one described above the addition of more players may very well change the game into a breaking one. The rhythm of the game will obviously change. It can change a good game into a bad game as well. Some courteous players will ask if you mind if they enter the game. As a rule of thumb it really depends on if you are winning or not. You can always ask the player(s) to wait until the next shoe if you are in a hot game. Otherwise, hell yes, sit down, the water is great. I have even said this to a bystander to enter and change the game. As players enter the game, shoes three four and five may become very good games. As more players continue to enter, the game may stay good. Whenever the game goes bad for you try to start the process over at another table. Generally, IMHO, when the players at the table become many and constant dealer biases develop. Keep an eye, yours or your partners, on the other games that started in your pit at the same time as yours did. Often someone will play out the first shoe and quit. The second and third shoes could be very good. I would always rather start with that second shoe head up but they are much harder to find. Anyone else have thoughts on new cards?

To qoute Ellis, "Once you get everthing down pat its more fun than a barrel of monkeys and its hard to keep a straight face." It's not only hard to. You can't.

“The odd thing was that the sacrifice player plays close to even. I would like to really investigate this strategy further.†*************** I agree that it is a lot of fun and agree about the “Coma Cozy†player. It seems that any odd plays he/she does to change the rhythm of the shoe will cause the dealer to lose. In my experience it only works for a little while. The cards seem to always figure out what you are doing and they rearrange themselves to beat you after a while.

Most of the team play that I have read or heard about was done by card counters. I don't believe a lot of the winning stories that they have told about. There may be a better way than card counting. IMHO some of the team must be looking for opportunities for team play. Some of the team members would play more often than others and for higher stakes. The team would have to spend many hours together studying their strategy and learning how to identify possible winning games. They will need a large bankroll, a common understanding of the team strategy, and be able to trust each other. Every team member needs to be free to go to a certain casino town at the same time. These requirements may be insurmountable. You cannot make enough money in small games. I think the best opportunity for finding winning games and winning the required big money is in the high roller games. Cover is extreamely important. What else?