Blackjack isnt like poker, you dont go on your instincts to get the best result…..not once…..not ever. The only time that instincts ever come into play with advanced Blackjack is in the area of avoiding detection. At times I could feel when I was being watched, whenever I got that feeling then I always stopped playing immediately.
The problem with card counting and using advantage play methods in the UK is that although there are about 130 casinos (figure may have changed recently), the number of companies was very small. Grosvenor Clubs, Stanleys, Stakis (now Gala) and London Clubs probably accounted for about 75%-80% of the casinos in the entire country at that time.
So if you were spotted in one casino then your details could have been passed to as many as 20-30 casinos in a very short space of time. Also casinos share information as well and especially casinos in the same city as they tend to cover each others backs with that sort of thing.
But with basic strategy then there is literally no room for instinct, if you are not using proper basic then your decisions are wrong plain and simple. There would be no point in me replicating basic strategy here because there are so many different types of basic that one could literally fill an entire book with them.
Basic shifts with what differences there are with regards the rules variations. It still isnt terribly common even in 2009 to see accurate basic. In fact seeing accuarate basic was one of the surest ways of spotting a counter as someone who had taken the time to learn basic usually went the whole nine yards and leant a counting system as well.
Also most counting systems basically do the same thing. Most balanced counting systems find high card segments at roughly the same time so even if you were say versed in the high / low and no other counting system, you could still spot someone using a different system quite easily like the Wong or Uston or Revere systems for instance.
But once you learn the mathematics then instinct and hunches are a thing of the past…..or at least they should be.
see you soon
Carl
