The Strategic Baccarat Interface - I can't say enough about it!

[JimmyBaccarat]

This is to let everyone know that I have finally,... finally, got caught up inputting all of my shoes int the Strategic Baccarat Interface (SBI).

As of this writing, there are over 600 "live" shoes for the Sands Casino. I see that Dannyboy and CT70 have been inputting shoes on a regular basis. (That is not to say that others have not contributed.) I also see that there is over 300 shoes for 5Dimes and that there are almost 1500 shoes in total in the SBI.

For everyone so they have some idea as to why I think the SBI is so important....

4 or 5 months ago, I looked at Baccarat as a way for both myself and my wife could play.

Not knowing anything, even the rules of the game... intuitively it made sense to practice. The closest casinos to me are Moheghan Sun - Poconos (which has two tables) and Mt. Airy (which has 4 tables). As I sat there recording shoes, I thought to myself, "this is going to be a grind, but, you have got to do what you have got to do." Kevin Achatz had suggested buying 8 decks and dealing them out, which I started to do.

I then decided to make a trip to the Sands Casino in Bethlehem (twice as far away as the other two casinos) and it was like divine providence had stepped it. An electronic stadium with 4 tables going, around 100 tables and more importantly - Asians galore!!! Asians love Baccarat!!! So much so, the casino buses them in from New York. Even at a slow period like after they bus the people back to New York, you can easily find 30 or more tables still going and the Stadium never stops.

So I started recording shoes - easily 15 or 20 a trip. I figured out that I could walk around and look for shoes that had played 70 or more hands, stop and record what I saw until the end of the shoe. So, my bank of shoes started to grow.

Then Kevin Smith (the Administrator at BTC) came out with the SBI. Again... divine providence. I have learned that at times when something is saying "Hey stupid!!!" I had better listen!

I would be able to input all of my shoes and be able to replay them back as if I was at the casino. I had already a set of poker chips and could act as a dealer.

I think it was Oz who said that Pappa Joe and Norm would talk on the phone for hours going through shoes hand by hand.

Now, I sit with my wife and we both look at the computer screen (toteboard), play the shoes hand by hand using chips. It saves a lot of time over dealing cards.

Recording shoes is easy and it is so much of a time saver when it comes to testing out ideas. When the older pros say "hard work" I can appreciate what they mean. While "work" is still required, it is no longer "hard" work.

Access to the SBI alone is worth the price.

I just renewed my Quarterly Premium Membership. I view it as the price to pay for having access to the SBI. It is as simple as that. It is that powerful of a tool.

Would I think about cancelling my membership? In one word - NO!!!

It is a tool I use everyday.

Enough said.

JimmyBaccarat

P.S. This post was unsolicited.I pay to have access and do not get one red cent or bitcoin due to anyone having access to SBI either.

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by JimmyBaccarat

[ECD]

I cannot agree more Jimmy. I once would have argued the point because in my arrogance I thought that I didn't need Stats for Profit or Strategic Baccarat. I was right...and I was wrong. 

I was right in that I had reached the stage in my evolution as a player that I didn't need either of these learning tools to win at Baccarat.

I was wrong in that the use of these tools has improved my play out of sight and my Tote Board recognition is already beyond expectations... and for inexperienced players, your learning curve will be accelerated far beyond what we long-term players ever achieved. 

I seriously doubt that there is any player reading this post (with two exceptions) who can get near my average PA (Player Advantage) and certainly none from "The ForumThat Cannot Be Named" and all three of us make extensive use of Strategic Baccarat. I would suggest that if Strategic Baccarat is improving the play of Players who are already regular winners then anyone deciding that they don't need it has been drinking from the same Kool-aid bottle as Carlos. (if you get my drift)

To my knowledge...Strategic Baccarat is the best Baccarat Learning Tool on the Net and the only place it is available is right here on BTC. Keith asked for input on improvements from the players...listened to our thoughts and produced a near perfect Baccarat interface. BTC is going from strength to strength with no outrageous claims (read...Blatant Lies) about immediate success necessary. It's been a hard and expensive grind for him and kudos to him for following through with his vision.

[JimmyBaccarat]

Oz,

If I may ask....

Since your Master Class is coming up on the 25th, I know you probably have an agenda, but, if you would be so kind...

As I try to learn how to read a shoe, I use the Strategic Baccarat Interface by using the "Play By Hand" feature. Each hand, even though I have only three choices - 1) Banker, 2) Player or 3) No Bet - I am always thinking of a reason as to why i would make the best choice. 

If you could, would you spend a moment or two going over how you use the Interface to help you make your best decisions? 

CT70 had said to practice by going through a shoe, then rework the shoe making notes and then sometime later come back to the shoe to see if you would do anything different and why. 

I realize "experience" plays a large part. The more experience, the more your subconscious has seen to be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. 

Oftentimes, i have no idea what I am looking for. Or maybe, to put it another way, I don't know how to use it as a research tool so that I can "find my own way" when it comes to reading the shoe.

It would be much appreciated.

By the way, when Kevin announced your doing a Master Class, I immediately registered for it. I am looking forward to it as I can imagine many people are. Even though Kevin likes to think that the best Baccarat player has yet to be found, (and no offense to Kevin), but, the best player is already right here on the BTC forum and if he wants to keep searching...well, then he will never find him because he is already here right under his nose! 

 

[ECD]

 

OK...This is what I do which doesn't necessarily make it the best method but it works for me.

STEP 1

I screenshot and saved to Dropbox the Tote Boards of every Casino played shoe on Stats for Profit (ignore the RG shoes because they won't help you) Not as bad as it sounds because there are only around 2300 real casino shoes. I have also screenshot the Tote Boards of almost all the shoes on Strategic Baccarat ...close to 4000 shoes all up which added to shoes that I had already saved gives me a substantial base to work from.

Initially though, 1000 shoes is a good enough base and doesn't take as long as you think. 

Pour over those Tote Boards till you have Red and Blue dots coming out of where the sun don't shine

Most players have an idea of a sequence of events that they commonly see and this is an ideal and fairly quick way to check it out. I split my stats into groups of 100 shoes and 500 shoes respectively. If you are on the money, the averages should be pretty close depending on how frequent the event occurs. Don't rely on 100 shoes only as tempting as it may be when you see what you are hoping to see. Baccarat is about consistency of events. 100 shoes will tell you whether your sequence is worth further investigation or just an idea worth dumping. A word of warning...Don't fudge the figures.

Check out length of opposite events...what happens when the opps are broken by a single run of 2+ or 3+...Do the opps continue on the side opp to the run or are the opps more likely to continue on the same side as the run or is there no real consistency on average.

Check 2'sMC and 2's LC on both sides and each side individually. 

Look for your SS Triggers ...RD1 Triggers...Selective OTB4L (only rarely does OT work on both sides at the same time) 

Are RMC (Recent Most Common) events stronger than overall SAP? etc...etc...etc...

You will frequently come across a sequence of events that is not what you were expecting and will either be worth betting or worth avoiding (one of those BAD bets that we don't touch with a barge pole) Every bit of research will tell you something...is it an idea worth pursuing...is it a seriously strong bet...a good bet...an ok bet... a nothing bet or a really BAD bet. No research is wasted.

STEP 2

Now, its time to put your research into practice...This is where Strategic Baccarat comes into it's own...Bring up the "One hand at a time option"  

Don't bother playing whole shoes yet...your object should be to get to +4 because once you hit it...no way should you ever go below zero. The object is not to lose and the winning will take care of itself. Once you hit +4...record how many wins and losses and look at how often you go negative first up and ask yourself the question "WHY" and move on to the next shoe. 

Don't worry about half unit starts at this point and stop playing if you hit -4 and record the shoe as a losing shoe. Recognise that the reason that the majority of players start with a negative bet is "impatience"...Don't jump in too soon...WAIT for an event that you know gives you the best chance of starting with a win.

Try to make your early decisions in the shoe from reading the Tote Board only...much quicker and will bring you up to speed with your Tote Board reading. 

That's enough homework for one night...pretty simple eh?...How hard can it be?

BTW: All future discussions on this subject should be taken to the Private Forum. 

I'm hoping to answer a few of your more specific questions on the 25th. I hope to do a Play by Play of a shoe that was posted on BTC by one of our Public Forum members that has been described as the perfect OTB4L and show that all is not as it seems. 

Edited January 15, 2018 by ECD

[JimmyBaccarat]

Thank You very much for that post Oz. 

You are teaching someone (Me) to fish and not just giving me fish to feed me for one day. That is what I want and need - learning how to fish for myself.

I had my suspicions about 100 shoes being a good representative sample size. I had settled on 300 but was still not sure. I am glad to see you use 500 shoes.

Unfortunately, I was not able to have access to  Stats for Profit. But, no matter, I now have 500 shoes in the Strategic Baccarat Interface for my use (Yipee!!! and I'll be adding more!) and for anyone else contemplating getting a membership, they know it is there for them to use too. (Actually over 1400 in total so far in the Interface.)

Once again, greatly appreciated  

[ECD]

The 500 shoes are just for starters...Hopefully, the next 500 provide similar stats...and the next 500 and the next. Sometimes,  I think that a certain sequence of events is even more successful than I had hoped only to come back to the field in the next 500 (which can be a touch soul destroying after all that work) but it is still information that I can use. There is no such thing as wasted time when it comes to research. 

[JimmyBaccarat]

I see I am not the only one who never sleeps because we have Baccarat on the Brain! 

"That's enough homework for one night...pretty simple eh?...How hard can it be?"

I guess that is the price one must pay...  

 

[avion]

1 hour ago, ozscouser1 said:

There is no such thing as wasted time when it comes to research. 

That is SOLID BACCARAT GOLD, thank you Oz.  

[ECD]

3 hours ago, JimmyBaccarat said:

I see I am not the only one who never sleeps because we have Baccarat on the Brain! 

"That's enough homework for one night...pretty simple eh?...How hard can it be?"

I guess that is the price one must pay...  

 

Just a thought...When checking your Stats, look at one sequence at a time. It's easier, quicker and you avoid mistakes. (at least most of them)

Another big mistake (which it sounds like you are guilty of) is to be making too many bets. I expect to be betting on average slightly less than 50% of hands...sometimes more in an easy to read shoe and sometimes much less in a difficult shoe. That means that 50% of Hands are not good bets and there lies one of the really big problems with "Mechanical Negative Progressions"...They FORCE you to make BAD bets...That is beyond stupid... 

The top players on BTC do not use Negative Progressions and if you require a NP to win at Baccarat then your bet selection sux. I can give you a cast iron guarantee that there is not a single Baccarat Player on the planet betting every hand whose PA gets even close to mine and if they say different...they are "pulling their pud". (I had to explain that saying to Norm...but I think that you get my drift) 

While I am on the subject of Negative Progressions...The majority of NP aficionados strongly advocate "Table Selection" in order for them to win. I mean seriously... Have you ever heard anything so stupid?...You have an unbeatable system that only works well if you choose the right table. I could get my dog to crap on my scorecard and if I chose the right table, I would still win. The top players on BTC have no need of "Table Selection" because we play what we see.   

 

Edited January 15, 2018 by ECD

[Dannyboy]

Hello @ozscouser1and @JimmyBaccarat, I am on Strategic Baccarat Interface all the time. It is the most incredible tool that I have ever used. I second

the notion that SBI alone is worth the price of monthly membership. You get to input shoes that you see in the casino and replay it on SBI. It shows

you the tote board and it has a running OR and OT count.  It also breaks all the stats into graphs and you can replay the shoe hand by hand as if you 

were in the casino.  This forum gets better and better with all these guys sharing their years of experience with us. There is so many helpful players that

the list would be too long to mention. I would never think of canceling my membership the knowledge inside this forum is just too

valuable.  Beat the casino member for life.

Danny A. 

 

[mabudppf]

On 1/15/2018 at 4:29 AM, ozscouser1 said:

iggers...Selective OTB4L (o

 

[canuck50]

Hello.  I am just trying to understand why the Big Bead shows results for many one or two shoes in each grouping, and nothing for the majority of the rest?  Am I doing something incorrectly?  Thank you.

[ECD]

1 hour ago, canuck50 said:

Hello.  I am just trying to understand why the Big Bead shows results for many one or two shoes in each grouping, and nothing for the majority of the rest?  Am I doing something incorrectly?  Thank you.

I only use the "show one hand at a time" function and it works a treat (and I am the most non Geeky person on the Forum) Not sure what you are doing wrong but I suggest that you ask specific questions on Stat Bacc on the Private Forum or PM Keith.