urgently need card counting help

[tomdemaine]

I have never counted cards before and have no idea how to do it but if I have a 6 deck shoe and I can record exactly what cards have been then surely there must be some way to consistanly turn a profit. assume a casino with a 6 deck shoe where i can take in a notepad or better yet a piece of computer software to log and analyse all the hands played. anyone know of such a piece of software? How would I make money from this?

[slickpoppa]

[ QUOTE ]
I have never counted cards before and have no idea how to do it but if I have a 6 deck shoe and I can record exactly what cards have been then surely there must be some way to consistanly turn a profit. assume a casino with a 6 deck shoe where i can take in a notepad or better yet a piece of computer software to log and analyse all the hands played. anyone know of such a piece of software? How would I make money from this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Using a computer to count cards is illegal. If you were caught you would be arrested and face serious jail time.

[tomdemaine]

I'm not suggesting taking a computer into an casino it is more in the way of a mental exercise. ie if you had a perfect memory and knew exactly waht cars had been how would you approach the game

[stigmata]

google?

[playersare]

even the most astute card counter has at most a 1-2% advantage over the house in the long run. despite knowing exactly which cards have come out so far in a shoe, there is still a lot of variance with the remaining unseen cards.

[tomdemaine]

I was thinking something like this (made in Excel)
http://free.hostdepartment.com/t/tomdemaine/blackjack/blackjack.doc

[CORed]

Even using a pencil and paper would violate many "device" laws, and I can't imagine that any casino would allow you to use it. It also would be pretty difficult to keep up if you have to write everything down. Casino blackjack games usually move pretty fast. If you want to count cards, you need to learn to do it in your head. Before you even think about counting cards, you need to know basic strategy cold (although you could use a card for that. Just be sure you have one that's accurate. Sometimes the basic strategy cards sold in casinos aren't correct). Also, you should be aware that you need big bankroll to count cards. If you are thinking of counting an online blackjack game, forget it. Most are shuffled every hand, or at least shuffled frequently enough to make counting useless, and even those that don't shuffle every hand don't tell you when they shuffle.

[CORed]

You can certainly program a computer to determine the optimum play given exact knowledge of the cards that have come out. However, in a six deck game this would rarely differ from the play you would get using a hi-low count with strategy indexes. In a single deck game you could gain a significant advantage this way. In a six deck game any advantage you can get is moslty from bet spread, with strategy helping only a little.

[TeenerBall]

Very good point.

Also, I tend to avoid blackjack if I can't find a single or 2 deck game.