I’ve been writing columns about blackjack for more than nine years and I’m always surprised, myself, at how many new topics I find to discuss, even after having written 469 prior columns. It shows you how rich the game is, when seen from a state-of-the-art perspective.
But now, looking back, I also realize how many topics there are that cannot be covered properly in a short-form column. And you haven’t read about these in the past nine years. Yet they’re topics you need to understand in order to be the best player you can possible be.
And, now that I think of it, there are also topics I haven’t been able to cover in my four books in nearly 15 years of writing all their various editions.
What are they?
For one thing, neither I nor anyone else could possibly show you or cover or even research every possible card situation a blackjack player could see at every type of blackjack game, involving one, two, four, five (as in shuffle machine games), six or eight decks of cards.
You might recall that I showed you that there are 2 x 1063 number of possible card situations in dealing just 44 of 52 cards just in terms of card order – not even counting the additional permutations that would result if you looked at variables like the differing number of players there could be at the table. That’s the number 2 with 63 zeros following it.
Imagine how many possibilities there are in dealing all manners of card totals in all types of blackjack games. It’s mind-boggling.
So nobody can claim to have investigated every card situation. Just not humanly possible. Nor has anyone done it with a computer (nor is that possible – given the drawbacks of using a computer’s random number generator to simulate real-card blackjack action).
Other topics I cannot cover in a column:
How to analyze the cards in real time, with each card that’s dealt. That’s something that can only be done in a video or at a seminar. I’d quickly end up with an encyclopedic tome if I tried to describe this kind of thing in words. Yet card analysis is an essential skill in winning big at blackjack.
How the cards stay in a very similar order from shuffle to shuffle. This is a topic I can’t even cover in a book. I have spreadsheets from my several years worth of card shuffling research that could cover the floor of a small airport, showing how the cards changed in order from shuffle to shuffle, before they are dealt and as they are dealt (taking into account what cards each player received, given the way cards are dealt at casinos, with one card dealt to each player and the dealer before the second cards). To do so in a print medium would quickly grow tedious – for me and the reader. And it would require a lot of space because it would be graphics heavy. Yet the conclusions I drew from this research are important to understand if you want to play state-of-the-art blackjack. The conclusions I presented in Cutting Edge Blackjack. It’d be a lot harder to present in a short column and I haven’t yet attempted to do so.
My methods of identifying the players’ facedown cards at single- and double-deck games. And I could add the process I followed in creating these methods – that’s not possible to explain in a short column. Nor can I get into detail into my identification of various classes of facedown cards, which came after an intensive analysis of what kinds of cards players stand on in various card situations. Yet all of this is crucial to a player who wants to win big at single and double deck games. I can demonstrate some of this at a seminar but even then time constraints require that I do this at advanced blackjack techniques seminars only. Showing how this is done in real time is another topic that cannot be done in a column.
My shuffle tracking methods. Showing how each of the various types of casino shuffling procedures changes the order of the cards is impossible in a short column. That requires many graphics and preferably a real-time demonstration. Showing you how to predict what cards are where and how to cut the cards to bring back good cards and avoid bad cards is also something best done in real-time, although I was able to explain this well in Cutting Edge Blackjack. Nothing substitutes for real-time seminars and videos to show how incredible my techniques work, though.
How helpful my Probabilities and Imbalances Calculator is in showing you how to analyze the cards and discover how the imbalances on the table reveal important information from which you can profit at the casino. This, again, must be done in real time, given that the revelations the Calculator produces differ per card situation.
All of this, again, shows you the richness of the game of blackjack and why you must be proactive in seeking a complete education in the game if you want to become a consistent, big winner.
Have blackjack questions? Send them to rharvey2121@netscape.net. For more info see http://www.blackjacktoday.com.
