Data by Depth

Why is depth important in Blackjack?

The first hand after a shuffle is not that much different for a card counter or Basic Strategy player. As we travel more deeply into the shoe, the game becomes more interesting. Let us take a quick look at different depths before we start talking about penetration.

The deeper the dealer has dealt, the more cards we have seen and therefore the more information we have about the remaining cards. However, the main reason that the depth improves our advantage is the increase in count range. At the start of a shoe, the count is always zero unless the dealer shows burn cards. The advantage is negative. At the start of the second hand in a shoe, there is a small chance that the count has increased enough to raise your bet. The deeper we travel in the shoe, the more likely the count is out of the ordinary presenting an opportunity to raise the bet.

In this chart we see the range of possible true counts by section of a six-deck shoe in quarter-deck increments. We can see that the range increases in both positive and negative directions. We have no information at the start of the shoe. Later a positive count is an opportunity to increase the bet and a substantial negative count signals time for a bathroom break.

www.qfit.com/book/z63Chart.gif

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger