I want to practie counting cards and basic strategy!

I have been using the machines at william hill bookmakers (u.k), as there is no casino in my town , it says its random but does not say how many decks are in the shoe. Does anyone know how many decks they use? Can I trust these machines?

If you want to practice counting you need to do it on your own with a deck(s) of cards, that way you can see in the end if your count was correct. Either deal the cards out like you are playing hands or turn the cards over one at a time as fast as you can without making errors.

You need to use real, physical cards so you can verify if your count is correct. Use a single deck, and if you are practicing a simple high-low, the count should be zero after you take off the last card. Take the cards off two at a time, because that is how you will see most of them.

Practicing basic strategy is easy--just deal yourself some hands, decide whether you would hit, stand, double, or split--and then check your decision against your basic strategy chart. DO NOT finish the hand, because what you care about is making the right decision, not "winning" or "losing".

Learnig to count cards for blackjack. Is really not that difficult depending on which count style u find works for you. Aways know when deck is low on 5s, and
when the deck is heavy with larger cards are in the players favorite. Hi-lo system might be better for starters then the KO counting. Find a BS chart will
help you along, and after 1 year you should give the house a run for the money..good luck..oh yeah get a real deck..

Quote: 40487

Learnig to count cards for blackjack. Is really not that difficult depending on which count style u find works for you. Aways know when deck is low on 5s, and
when the deck is heavy with larger cards are in the players favorite. Hi-lo system might be better for starters then the KO counting. Find a BS chart will
help you along, and after 1 year you should give the house a run for the money..good luck..oh yeah get a real deck..

Excellent advice

there are 8 decks, it is shuffled after every hand.

You can contact barcrest who make the games for any queries.

Quote: 40487

Find a BS chart will help you along...

There is no point trying to count till you know the BS chart by heart, and not just one, but BS charts for several rule variations. It's not optional.

I personally strongly prefer chart-at-once approach to flashcards, though, because you'll need to remember at least a dozen charts when counting and hopping casinos, and it's the finer detail that are harder to remember. Look at the chart, try to analyze its patterns, then draw it on a sheet of lined paper. In blackjack you can spare some time to think, on occasion, so first of all it's critical that you can at least always correctly remember the decision, speed comes with practice.

When you think you got it all right, test it by "playing" 100-120 hands (just deal a simple paper card with each two, record the decision, put it aside with the other 3 cards) while watching a movie and drinking beers or martinis. If you got less than 99% right, or didn't finish by the end of the movie, or can't retell the movie's plot correctly, or spilled your drink, keep practicing and learning the finer points. Just getting 98% right is not enough: a 2% strategy error rate can eat up all the edge gained by counting.
In the end same test can be applied to counting, except you need multiple decks, and you'll be dealing each out to 30-70% and recording the count, then comparing it to the actual count, all while checking the strategy decisions.

For the laughs you can try finishing the set-aside hands later (if you put them in orderly) and see how you did. If you do it 2-3 times, with same hands and even same deck stubs, you'll notice how massive the variance is.

But before that you'll need to learn S17/H17 charts, +1 charts and +3/+5/etc charts depending on the strategy.

Quote: P90

There is no point trying to count till you know the BS chart by heart, and not just one, but BS charts for several rule variations. It's not optional..

There are two "shorthand" approaches to learning BS charts, if you will be counting:

1. Learn only the BS variations that apply in positive/slightly negative counts. or..
2. Learn only the critical plays, as in those that change as the count moves across frequently encoutered numbers like -4 to +4.

Then after you learn those down cold, you can expand your repertoire. The idea is to concentrate on the most prevalent and the most important situations. You don't really need to know that you will be hitting hard 14 against a 4 when the count is -9 (knowing that wouldn't save you much money, because your bet would be minimum at that point anyway), or that you double on hard 8 against a 7 when the count is +13 (the situation never comes up).

Also, importantly, if you don't want to get noticed, don't play ABC. Don't start the shoe/deck with min-bet and progress by the book, except when training. Invent yourself some ridiculous betting system (like Fibonacci or 1-3-[7,2]-[11,4]-[19,6,1]...), then follow it, except skipping steps and selecting up/down turns to make your average correlate with the count. Since you *are* out to beat the house, it's much easier to make yourself look like a loon trying to beat the house with a pointless betting system than a party time gambler who just happens to enjoy spreading his bets 25 to 500 strictly for fun.

Great thread

Quote: jondon

I have been using the machines at william hill bookmakers (u.k), as there is no casino in my town , it says its random but does not say how many decks are in the shoe. Does anyone know how many decks they use? Can I trust these machines?

hitorstand.net is the best way to practice BS out there. You know instantly if you made an error. You can search online for counting practice. Several sites have different methods, try the one you like.

thank you.... jimmyfocker