Ace-Five file

In a previous post, there was mention of the Wiz's Ace-five method for playing Blackjack. Independently, I had also developed Ace-Five as a tool for beginning counters, and myself as a way to play for comps at the local Indian Casinos in the N.E. USA. I made best efforts to properly cite the giants whose shoulders I stand upon.

The noted exceptions to Basic are limited to close-calls that favor the Customer.
I counted differently, starting at -2, so that a score of zero indicates an even game.
There are 5 exceptions by score to Basic Strategy:

1) Surrender 15 vs. X at -2 or higher
2) Surrender 16 vs. 9 at -2 or higher
3) DD A2 vs. 5 at -2 or higher
4) DD A4 vs. 4 at -3 or higher
5) Stand on Soft 18 vs. Ace at zero or higher
OPTIONAL: Stand on 2-card 16 vs. X at -1 or higher IF NO Late Surrender

The 6th change is Stand with 3-card (or more) 16 vs. X (NOT a Basic Strategy change) as a compositional Change.

I introduced a wong-out based upon my scoring at -6 RC. This allows 70% participation.
For 6D S17 DA2 DAS NO-RSA and LS with 75% Pen, my simulations indicated about 0.165% Advantage.
Tossing in RSA helps greatly, and increases the Advantage to 0.25%.
The bet-spread is 1 to 4.

I used to own the website ace-five (dot) com for the period 2002 to 2007. This strategy was refined and proven by 2003 thanks to CVData and Norm Wattenberger, et al at qfit. It has always been offered free of charge as a tip of the cap for learning successful Blackjack.

A pdf file can be found at my hobby site www.am3-radio.us/Ace5.pdf

Thanks for the link. I just added a link from my "ace-five" page. I also dropped the "Wizard" from the title of my page.

Thanks very much for the link at the "Odds" site. Without internet access prior to 1998, I really didn't have an outlet to discuss the pros and cons of it. I stumbled upon 678 and CVData and tried both out with excellent agreement. With the faster computer bought in 2003, I could actually sim 2B hands rather quickly, but attempts at 10B usually caused a crash (Might have been W98 related), although a few runs made it. I have plans for building an off-line Quad core that could make extended sims, and getting the A5 count entered into Norm's database.

Mike, et al: you should try the rule-set present in the file and configure the chart, and betting strategy. All of the options are availible with CVData 3/4, and CVBJ can handle the 3-card rule with option Q. For a more realistic penetration of todays 6-deck game use the "Fair" option with 1/4 deck error. The answer will be different than written. Nonetheless, RSA is a very significant rule when applied.

One other important pair of sims can be run: first with the flat-bet and wong-out, and the second is without wong-out. These elucidate the strategy changes and effects.

Paul S.

This is really good stuff. Thank you very much.

I have the CVBJv5 so I I'll have to play around with it to get the Ace-Five set as a counting strategy. Of course, any helpful hints would be great.

Quick question. Does the Ace-Five work w/H17? Would a simple fix like starting the count at -3 work?

And one other question. In PA, since the Shufflemaster Blackjack virtual machines deal to players out of their own shoe, can the Ace-Five be massaged enough to work?

And now that I think of it, if the players have their own shoe, it stands to reason that the dealer has his own shoe...do you think there might be something workable here?

Now I know that there is no way to tell when the shoe starts and that this is a real obstacle (and probably insurmountable); just looking for any kind of edge.

Nearly all PA Shufflemasters claim to shuffle after every hand. There are still a few that say they shuffle 2/3 of the way through the shoe, but there is no indication when that happens.

Hey cclub79,

Finally made it into a PA Casino (despite the fact that I reside in PA) at Harrahs in Chester. People were rude, carpark conditions are insufferable, Shufflemasters are in the smoking area but besides that, we liked it.

Cause we won.

I doubt I'll ever go again. We won but playing the PA machines and our previous postings made me revisit the Ace-Five w/PA rules Shufflemaster.

I guess what I'm really getting at w/the Ace-Five is if it is possible to get some kind of indicator as to when to take insurance.

Probably not but this is the best place to ask.

I have been to Harrah's Chester only once, and it is the worst of the five PA properties I have visited. Parx, SandsPA, Mt Airy, and HollywoodPennNational are all much nicer. I just don't think counting is effective when you don't know when the shuffle happens in the 2/3 shoe machines (which are still dealing different shoes to each hand), and the other machines are shuffling every hand (with every hand coming from a separte shoe...might as well be an infinite deck).

I don't recommend A-5 for H17 at all. At best it will reduce the House Advantage... so that means betting 4 unit with a -EV... a big NO-NO.

Never use the method for any type of CSM method or every player gets a shoe. In short, NOT for internet use AT ALL. The one and only exception is single deck full-pay H17 DA2 DAS in which you can play 4-handed (NOT likely).

Configuring CVBJ/CVData takes a while, and should use its own master folder. Start with Basic Strategy, and make sure options are checked to indicate the count is a RUNNING count in all cases. Under Betting strategies the "Never raise a push or Loss" button should be checked. The Betting Strategy is a running count that starts at -6 and ends at +2. Zero and +1 are 2 units and +2 OR MORE must be 4 units (Check the rest of this chart by expanding it). 1 unit by default is $10.

The shoe is configured by card, penetration is listed as 91 cards from the back of the shoe, and check the 1/4 deck error option. This simulates real-world conditions better than the original 75% penetration used to verify the method.

Well I guess that settles it.

It's Basic Strategy until the Table Games arrive in PA and DE then it's on to REKO (but I still plan on programming Ace-Five into the CVBJ).

Thank you very much for the information.

You have been very, very helpful

I tried this for a few hands at a CA Indian casino.
It was easy to count but I didn't play long enough to see real results, I just won about half the increased bets.
I have one suggestion to make it even easier to use:
Start the count at 0, instead of -2.

Then,
The deck ends at 0, as with all balanced counts.
The bet increases suggested at the web link become *2 at +2, and *4 at +4, which I find easer to remember.
The changes you suggest all cluster at 0 or 2.

Overall, this is indeed the simplest counting method ever.

The Wizard's Method does this, and of course you're free to do that, but if using my chart, you have to add 2 to the values shown.
I formulated the scoring at -2 so that its easy to know when a player has an even game or advantage/disadvantage as -/0/+ strictly a memory aid.

GL&GG

Wow, a response from the inventor! I feel like bowing and going "I'm not worthy".
Actually, I just adjusted the start count in my head because it was easier to remember "bet *2 at +2, bet *4 at +4"
I did remember to add two to your indices.
It worked well at another Indian casino last weekend also. I was up after having a mostly positive shoe, then quickly agreed to leave when the next shoe started negative and my wife came over to see how I was doing.