1.5 decks. NRS scales up the count and the pseudo decks to compromise between 1˝ decks and 6 decks. In this case, scaling up by 77%. A running count of -8.5 times 1.77 is -15 and 1.5 decks times 1.77 is 2.65 decks. So, we have a compromise of a starting count of +15 (-1.5 times the TZ) and 2.65 pseudo decks. In this manner, the true count at the start of the PZ is the same as it would be without scaling up the pseudo-decks; but the calculation into the PZ is more conservative.
Cut Poor Slug Out
Back to the original shuffle map. We have a Track Zone of 39 cards
on the left and a Play Zone of 78 cards on the right. Say the count in the TZ
is +10. We have excess low cards and want to get rid of them. So, we cut them
to the end of the shoe. How do we bet? Start up the NRS Calculator at
www.qfit.com/Book and you get the screen at the right. Select “Cut poor slug
out.” We have three fields to fill in. Shoe size is 6 decks. Play Zone size is
1.5 decks. When cutting a poor slug out, “Slug outside the Play Zone” is the
size of the Tracking Zone removed from play. .75 in this case. Hit Calculate
and we have 5.25 pseudo-decks and a multiplier of 1. So, our Initial Running
Count is the count of the TZ (+10) times the multiplier (1) or +10. We can
round the pseudo-decks from 5.25 to 5. So, we pretend that the number of decks
in the shoe is 5.
When cutting bad cards out, during play, we consider the Play Zone to be the cards we did not cut out. So instead of a PZ of 1.5 decks at the end of the shoe, we think of the PZ as the 4.5 decks at the start of the shoe. At the start of the shoe, the running count is +10; we divide by the number of pseudo-decks (5) for a true count of +2. We bet and play accordingly. Our TC will average +2 throughout the shoe thanks to the removed small cards.
© 2009 Norman Wattenberger
