Final Points

Ø  It takes some time to scout out and analyze shuffles and some people do not count that in the overall calculations of profit per hour. On the other hand, some people find it enjoyable, and you cannot spend your entire life in a casino.

Ø  In all NRS calculations, I ignored zone purity discussed earlier in the chapter. That is, I ignored the fact that the running count probably has a lower magnitude than you think since the dealer does not shuffle perfectly. I doubt that this materially affects results with larger Track Zones.

Ø  Smaller zones are a much tougher problem. With large Track Zones, you do not have to watch the shuffle that closely. You need only see if the dealer is not grabbing substantially different numbers of cards than expected. With small segment sizes, you must watch the shuffle carefully and adjust for differences in the shuffle dynamically.

Ø  When you reach the end of the Play Zone, you must be aware that the border between the PZ and the remainder of the cards is coming. You cannot start a round in the PZ with a large bet when the dealer’s hit cards or your double down card will come after the PZ runs out. There are trackers who will attempt to make use of the fact that the later cards in a round come from a portion of the shoe with a different count. However, this requires extremely accurate observation of the shuffle and the current shoe.

Ø  Both counting the Track Zone in the current shoe as well as playing a Play Zone can be quite difficult. If you cannot handle both at once, but switch between tracking one shoe and playing the next, you must realize that the gain is diminished. One solution is to play with another tracker and assign different duties to each.

Ø  Some trackers use rotation of chips like a clock to help them remember the TZ counts.

Ø  Cutting bad cards out of play is at least, if not more, valuable as cutting good cards into play with a reasonable large Play Zone. It is also much easier and less error prone. This is the best way to get your feet wet at tracking.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger