Thursday, August 23, 2012

Using a Replenishable Bankroll


Establishing a bankroll can be one of the toughest obstacles a new blackjack player has to overcome. It does not matter how skilled the player is if he does not have the capital to back him up.

While individual bankroll needs will vary based on the house edge of the game, along with the skill of the player, a standard bankroll of 1,000 units will be a good estimate. If a player is planning to play the $10 minimum tables, he will need a $10,000 bankroll.

For your average, beginning blackjack player, this amount may seem insurmountable. Luckily, the player can use a replenishable bankroll.

With a replenishable bankroll, the player will only need a fraction of the bankroll, as long as they have an outside source of income to regularly contribute to the bankroll.

For example, let us say a player has $1,000, but the minimum table in the player’s area is a $5 table. The player would normally need $5,000 to play on this table with a reasonable risk of ruin. However, the player can contribute $150 a week to the bankroll. This means that in approximately 27 weeks, the player will have the full $5,000. It could be a little sooner, or a little later depending on how well he has been doing in blackjack.

During this time frame, the player plays as though he has the full $5,000. The cards do not care if a player is playing with five $1,000 bankrolls, or one $5,000 bankroll. A downside to using the replenishable bankroll happens when a player busts their initial bankroll, and has downtime while replenishing the bankroll back to an acceptable level to begin playing again.

An advantage for the player is the increased profit from playing with a larger unit, along with the ability to begin play much more quickly.

For anyone worried about protecting their bankroll while in the casino, here is a pretty clever belt that can be used.  Enjoy!
 
 

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

10 Step Blackjack is Now Available on Your Kindle!

 10 Step Blackjack on Kindle


For those on the go, 10 Step Blackjack is now available on your Kindle or any other Kindle ready device!  Take advantage of Amazon Prime and borrow 10 Step Blackjack for free or purchase it at its reduced Kindle price!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Victor Insurance Parmater for Hi Opt II



For those unfamiliar with the Victor Insurance Parameter, it is explained here.  The Victor Insurance Paramater is a useful way of determing whether to take insurance or not, and it does not require any true count conversion.


Reasons To Use the VIP



The VIP eliminates any errors on estimation while increasing any ace neutral, balanced count's insurance correlation by around 2%.



All it takes is comparing your running count against the number of unseen aces.  With that information we know that the VIP only works with Ace neutral counts (or counts that count the Ace as 0.)  I've found the VIP is more useful for double and single deck games, as it becomes more difficult to remember the different points as the number of Aces in the deck increases.



I have went ahead and figured out the points for the popular Hi Opt II count, and will list them below.


Hi Opt II Double Deck VIP 


7 Aces Left - Running Count of 9 or above
6 Aces Left - Running Count of 8 or above
5 Aces Left - Running Count of 6 or above
4 Aces left - Runing Count of 5 or above
3 Aces left - Running Count of 4 or above
2 Aces left - Running Count of 3 or above
1 Ace left - Running Count of 2 or above
0 Aces left - For "no unseen Aces," insurance should be taken on ANY positive count; even +1 is sufficient. -- Rich Victor  (Thanks Rich!)
Hi Opt II Single Deck VIP

3 Aces left - Running Count of 4 or above
2 Aces left - Running Count of 3 or above
1 Ace left - Running Count of 2 or above
0 Aces left - For "no unseen Aces," insurance should be taken on ANY positive count; even +1 is sufficient. -- Rich Victor

These numbers are figured out by using the formula:


Running Count divided by 7/6 (Hi Opt II Threshold Value.)


If anyone would like this for any other number of decks done, let me know and I will post them up.

Edited 8/31/17 to reflect correct information.