The Wizard Ace Five Count- For less than 6 decks?

Hey all,

I have a question about the Ace-Five count for use on say a double deck. It seems that whenever I try to use it, I either run up against the cut card and can't take advantage of the positive count for the current shoe, or I end up drawing a soft non-qualifying hand. I've tried to use a combination of Ace-Five with high-low and still get burned. My sample size is pretty small, maybe 15 hours of play of double deck, but I seem to do much better on a 6 deck shoe. Any thoughts as to using an easy system like Ace-Five for single or double deck?

BTW, the place I play at has two BJ games, double deck and six-deck:
6-deck: $5-300 3:2 H17, Double on any two cards, DAS, RSA, late surrender
2-deck: $25-300 3:2 H17, Double on any two cards, DAS, RSA, late surrender, face up!

Only wish they stayed on 17...

The Wizard's ace-five count is designed for a multi-deck game, but it can be quite useful on the double-decker with a bit more betting aggression, as you have less time to utilize the powerful counts. They will occur far more often, though.

In your double-deck game with very good rules, the removal of relatively few fives vs aces swings the game into a significant player advantage, compared to a BJ game of a higher house edge. A hi-lo count would obviously be even better, but it should be stressed that your game would be fairly easy to turn into an overall advantage situation using the ace-five count and aggressive betting.

Indeed, that ace-five is intended for use in a shoe game. I tend to that any counting strategy is more effective in a shoe game. Two-deck penetration is usually only 50-60%, which just isn't enough.

True, 50-60% is not enough. I didn't realize how bad double deck penetration generally is, I have played very little double-deck blackjack.

I should add to my above post that it would be more powerful in the double-deck if penetration is the same, but if it is lower (which 50-60 percent certainly is), a shoe game with a reasonable penetration and a slightly higher house edge will be far more profitable.

Also as I see now the house edge is not as low as I thought. For some reason, I was placing it around 0.2 percent. As it turns out, it is not far from the typical 6-deck Atlantic city game and liberal 6-deck vegas strip rules are better.

Quote: Wizard

Indeed, that ace-five is intended for use in a shoe game. I tend to that any counting strategy is more effective in a shoe game. Two-deck penetration is usually only 50-60%, which just isn't enough.

The place I go to probably gets about 75-80% penetration before shuffling. The Washington card houses have to compete with the Indian Casinos some how. At least all of them are non-smoking!

Thanks for your help. This is what I suspected, but definitely good to know.