Blackjack 18 Illustrious Tells or Illustrious 18, That is the Question.

Hooray, Hooray!
As we speak, still no "Illustrious 18" or "18 Illustrious Tells" in Spanish 21 at least. The landscape of Spanish 21 is as pristine as anyone could wish for. Hurry up, before some dude comes along up to FXXX it all up.
Peace, No War!!!

 

"Illustrious 18 or 18 Illustrious Tells, That is the Question."
Easy, They are both. They work for you initially, but against you once you're hooked. And they work beautifully for casinos all the time.
Greetings! Welcome to the Secretive World of Double Agent.

 

A (quarter-century?) Report on Illustrious 18: Illustrious 18 has stunted counters' normal professional growth, impoverished its adherents, simplified casinos' job for identifying counters, and augmented casinos' profits.
From Fraternity of Illustrious 18 Adherents: !?%#@?
From Casino with Love: Good Job!

 

PUBLIC NOTICE
Through the power and duty vested upon me as the Political Commissar of the Imperial Czar of Blackjack Deviation Indexes, it is hereby decreed:

Any card counter who knowingly and willfully speaks of the benefit of learning blackjack deviation indexes beyond the top 18th of the Blackjack Deviation Indexes is guilty of the criminal offense of slandering by insinuation that the Imperial Czar was wearing no clothes when in fact the beloved Czar was weaning the newly designed emperor’s invisible new clothes, which offense is punishable by fine, imprisonment, public floggings and/or banishment to gulags where no casinos could ever be built.

This decree shall take effect immediately and shall remain in full force and effect till further notice.

Signed: ____________________________, Political Commissar; Date:________

 

Will you just stop dude.

The fact is that card counting is made up of two parts Betting correlation (bet spread with count or advantage) and playing efficiency (strategy change plays or index plays).

Back in the day of single deck blackjack, these two parts were close to 50/50 in importance and value in terms of money won. In the days of 6 and 8 deck shoe games, which most people play, it no longer is. With these shoe games, and worsening rules like s17 which added almost .2% to the house edge, it is like 80/20 what contributes to the actual advantage a player can get, the 80 being betting correlation. The strategy change or index play are just way less important and contribute less to overall advantage.

Mow of that 20% from index play, 80% of that comes from the top 18 plays. 65% from only the top 3 plays. So going above 18 or 20 really adds little. you can see how each of these plays diminishes in value after 18 or 20.

AND on top of that, the most known index plays are a tell, when casino personél see a player playing a hand one way one time and another at a different time. They don't even have to know what the correct play is, just seeing it played different is the tell.

So a player giving up the index plays after 18 or playing card counter basic strategy (where play doesn't fluctuate) or giving up all strategy change plays and just playing basic strategy, isn't giving up that much. A minority or the minority. And in return he is avoiding some of the bigger "tells" of a card counter.

Now you or anyone else that decides they want to squeeze every penny out of index plays.....go for it. Just know that it is not adding all that much. You can cherry pick and post data compounding and all that. In The real world of play, it doesn't add that much.

 

Deeply ashamed for being too stupid to see Imperial Czar's invisible new clothes. What is the color of Czar's new clothes today? As green as $$ bills?

722% potentially in 20 years "doesn't add that much." Gee, my 401K is so Fxxx-Up.