There is no reason to deal with decimals, so the numbers have been rounded to integers. Here is the plan. Whenever another player’s cards are unseen, use the table to create an adjustment count. That is, if the player has a pat hand against a dealer ace, then the adjustment count is -2. If another player stands at three cards, add 1 to the adjustment count. We now have -2+1=-1. When the play gets to you, you will have a running count and an adjustment count. Combine the two and create your true count. You now have a count that has been adjusted by inferring the count of unseen cards. Once you have finished play, you must then back out the adjustment and return to the original running count so you can then add in the real counts as the hidden cards are flipped over by the dealer.

Results

What is the gain from all these machinations? Normally we would have a SCORE of 20.5. If we could see all the cards, we would have a SCORE of 41.2. Counting by inference, in this situation, gives us a SCORE of 27.3. This is a gain in win rate of 33%. Essentially, we have gained one-third by making educated guesses. 

Simplification

This sounds rather complex. But we can, at least, simplify the table. On the next page, you will find the percentage of units bet in each of the situations defined in the strategy table.

 © 2009 Norman Wattenberger