Positively Losing At Blackjack

Exactly correct, Fran.

Bruce Rose

I just realized you are playing by the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. Rule #1 in fact. “Once you have his money, never, ever give it back.” 😁

Mike O'Dell

As you demonstrated, but not everyone seems to have captured, is that having the winning hand and not losing by minimizing the loss, are *not* the same thing. The House, however, tries mightily to focus every mark’s attention on winning winning winning because if they can do that successfully, they print money. You are playing your game, the mini-max game, while the Average Mark plays their game, the max-only game. And they die trying, to the House’s great delight. You are identified as “uncooperative”, to your delight.

Mike O'Dell

There are so many shoe-related factors. The number of decks in the shoe, how many hands/cards being played will trigger a reshuffle, the number of cards "burned" at the start of the shoe, and so on. Most casinos use mechanical shufflers for large shoes, though a manual shuffle may be requested (which I did when I wanted to eat a snack). A fresh shoe with new decks may also be requested. Not always granted, but it's always OK to ask. Dealers are highly trained to do proper shuffles, but in rare circumstances it is possible for players (or bystanders) to affect manual shuffles, to throw the dealer off their stride and make the shoe be significantly less random. This is one of the reasons I always do lots of talking at the table: It sets a baseline I can then use both strategically and tactically. When a flubbed shuffle is possible, it still takes a fair amount of play to determine how badly the shuffle was borked. And then there's the "Eye in the Sky": I've seen pit bosses hold their earpieces for a moment then come over and physically remove the shoe from the table, replacing it with another. It's all part of the game. I will also walk the tables at a casino to see how well the dealers are trained, how consistent they are, how closely they are monitored, and so on. But I'm looking more to avoid a sloppy house than for any advantage or opportunity. Poorly run pits are, well, the pits, and can suck the fun out of a table. I like houses where dealers get to stay at a table long enough to form relationships with the players, and where dealers will return to a given table fairly often. It is so much fun when an entire table gleefully welcomes the return of a favorite dealer. It's all entertainment, and we're playing with money! If you track all cards coming out of the shoe, as the shoe gets closer to the reshuffle point the "next card" odds will change depending on the cards you have seen. Put bluntly, cards that have been seen can't still be in the shoe! There are multiple systems that may be used to track the general state of large shoes, most of which have fun names like: "Dibble-Dabble", "Sweet-Sour", "Old Man" and so on. I only used the simplest systems that, for me, were "alcohol tolerant". I could "count" (track) every card in up to 4 decks: Beyond that I used "sense of the shoe" methods. There are betting strategies that go with the shoe state. For example, some houses/dealers will do a reshuffle when the shoe state changes too much, too quickly. For example, "too many" aces coming out too soon. If you track this, and learn to predict the conditions triggering a reshuffle, then you have a small window before that reshuffle to try to take advantage of the very slight change in the state of the shoe. More typically, I'm tracking the number of "wins" left in the show and adjust my bets accordingly. All these strategies take the size of your bank into account, but they're not "alcohol tolerant" for me, so I tend to drop to the table minimum when the shoe has too few "wins" left in it. You certainly can do "play, play, play", but it does require viewing your bank as an entertainment budget, rather than some kind of business investment. When things got exciting at my table, I'd switch to minimum bets and join in the fun. When I saw a real opportunity, I'd jump all over it, and actually say why I was jumping in. I wouldn't mention my tracking the state of the shoe, but instead blame other players at the table for "wasting all the tens" or something. Blackjack can be SO much more than beating the dealer or the house. When losing money becomes some of the best entertainment you've ever had, well worth the price paid.

BobC

Kenny Rogers wanted a taste of your whiskey but I believe his advice was pretty much exactly this!