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Re: Question on Unbalanced Counts

Posted by bluechip on 11 October 1997, at 3:31 p.m., in response to Question on Unbalanced Counts, posted by MathProf on 10 October 1997, at 4:13 a.m.

Martin,

We are recreational blackjack players -- red chip level -- and our trips to Vegas have been much more profitable (OK, we have a lot more staying power) since we started using the Red Seven Count described in Arnold Snyder's "Blackbelt in Blackjack." It's extremely easy to use and gets high ratings from the people who study these types of things.

We found a neat site put together by Norm Wattenerger that compares 17 counting, balanced and unbalanced. It gives the Red Seven a 98 percent rating for Betting Correlation, 53 percent for Playing Efficiency and 78 percent for Insurance Correlation. The comparable numbers for Uston SS are 99 percent for Betting Correlation, 54 percent for Playing Efficiency and 73 percent for Insurance Correlation. Pretty similar, but the big difference is in ease of use. On a scale of 10, with 10 being easiest, Red Seven rates a 7 -- the highest given to any of the systems. Uston SS gets a 5. Wattenberger says the ease of use ratings are strictly his personal opinion, but we believe anyone halfway serious about counting could learn and use Red Seven.

The ease comes from Red Seven being a Level One count (Uston SS is a Level Three, is it not?), not having to make true count conversions based on unseen cards (as with any unbalanced count) and having a limited number of strategy variations based on the count.

Of course, you asked about comparing Uston SS against balanced counts. You could find that at Wattenberger's site. Here's the scenic route: Go to Stanford Wong's BJ21 page (www.bj21.com) and click on the links. Go to Grinder's Warehouse. At Grinder's, go to SIMulations, then link to Norm W's CVSim.

If you haven't been to Wong's page, check it out. The Gambling, Vegas-Free and Misc-Free forums have excellent postings from several BJ luminaries, including Wong, Don Schlesinger, Michael Dalton and Bryce Carlson, as well as anonymous players who seem to know what they're talking about. We find it very instructional.

Hope this helps.

bluechip and jenkay

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