need some help with true count

I just started practicing hi lo count and doing ok keeping the running count.

However, when I look at the remaining deck tray, I have a hard time

estimating the actual remained deck to be played in order for me to

get the true count. Is there any website that has any pictures

that can help me guess better how many decks are in the deck tray?

Just buy a few decks of cards and estimate that way. It will be more accurate than pictures, too. Worked for me.

Should I get these then?

Those things are so cheap, they might be thinner than the ones they use in the casino.

To be safe, I'd just buy a few used decks from the gift shop in the casino.

I look at the cards right after a fresh shuffle. Look half way down and there's your 2, 3 or 4 deck point depending if you're 4, 6 or 8 decks. From there you should be able to estimate where 1 deck is for a 4 deck game and 2 decks are for an eight deck game. For a 6 deck game just divide that half into thirds for 1,2 and 3 decks. After a little practice it becomes second nature. If you go into a casino to play you can just watch a few tables as they put freshly shuffled cards into the tray and sharpen up your estimating. It also works after a shoe when they top of the discard tray with the undealt cards before taking them out to shuffle.

Thank you guys for the help.

Quote: gamingbler

Thank you guys for the help.

Not sure how much this will help. I would get a few decks of cards and practice cutting exact numbers of cards off. It seems difficult, however its not, after a while you can even look at a someone cutting and tell exactly how many cards they cut off. This will help you estimate the exact number of cards and decks left.

In all seriousness, the exact TC really doesn't matter. All you need is to realize that a RC of > 15 is needed in the early parts of the shoe (very rare) in order to have a small advantage, while a RC of 10 (much more common) toward the end offers a high advantage. Snyder's "red 7" strategy ignores TC by modifying the count scheme with a slight off-balance count. I bring that up not because it is better or worse than Hi-Lo, but because he emphasizes that a RC - at any time - of 12 will improve your starting disadvantage (of about -0.5%) by 1%.

Long story short, forget about the TC and focus on being able to keep an accurate RC while talking to the dealer, laughing with other players, and ordering a drink from the waitress -- all the while playing perfect BS. And wait for the RC to exceed about 10. If you're about halfway through the shoe, then start betting more.

With Hi Lo you need to convert to a true count.

Quote: arcticfun

In all seriousness, the exact TC really doesn't matter. All you need is to realize that a RC of > 15 is needed in the early parts of the shoe (very rare) in order to have a small advantage, while a RC of 10 (much more common) toward the end offers a high advantage. Snyder's "red 7" strategy ignores TC by modifying the count scheme with a slight off-balance count. I bring that up not because it is better or worse than Hi-Lo, but because he emphasizes that a RC - at any time - of 12 will improve your starting disadvantage (of about -0.5%) by 1%.

Long story short, forget about the TC and focus on being able to keep an accurate RC while talking to the dealer, laughing with other players, and ordering a drink from the waitress -- all the while playing perfect BS. And wait for the RC to exceed about 10. If you're about halfway through the shoe, then start betting more.

If you're going to ignore the TC, then just switch to an unbalance count and be done with it. Red 7, KISS III, KO (or REKO); all of them will get the money and will be more accurate than using Hi-Lo with your rules of thumb above. You would probably still get the money, but you want to make at least the most important strategy deviations (16v10, insurance, 12v2 and 12v3, etc.). Those would be tough with just a Hi-Lo RC and a vague idea of where you are in the shoe.

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You'd make more money raising your bets with the TC and playing BS. That gives you 70% of the gain from card counting.

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