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Card Counting Team Play-Maximize Your Win
Team play in blackjack is a concept that should be explored by every advantage player. Although winning at card counting can be very lucrative team play done correctly can be even more lucrative.
Let’s look at team play and what it means. By definition, it means two or more card counters pooling their resources and talents for the common goal of making money counting cards.
There is one huge benefit to team play that we need to discuss. Bankroll…
This simple concept is what makes team play so appealing. Simply stated, If you have a $5000 bankroll your big bet would be $33.33, according to the Money Management chapter on our website.
But, let’s say you and two friends form a team and you all have $5000, you now have a $15,000 bankroll and each of you can use your individual $5,000 as if it was $15,000. This gives each of you the playing power of a $15,000 bankroll. Your big bet would now be $100.This alone is enough reason to form a team.
This concept involves each player going out on his own and playing his own sessions.
Because of the money involved the teammates must be friends and they must be honest otherwise this team will be doomed to failure. Trust is the key factor in team play. The other factor is ability. You must be able to determine your teammates card counting ability and help each other improve.
After all, you wouldn’t want someone on your team that plays badly and loses more than he wins.
Compensation also becomes an issue. Does each player keep his own winnings. I don’t think so. Whatever plan for payment the team decides on must be adhered to. Suggestions…
On payoff day…there must be an agreed upon payoff day. Pool the profits. Then turn in your expenses… you should have agreed on what expenses are to be repaid.
Pay each player for his expenses, then split the profits using a prearranged formula. The one I like is to divide the profit into two equal parts. Each player will receive an equal share of the first half. The second half will be paid by the hours each player has logged.
Let’s do a theoretical split. There are four players. They decide to split the profits on the 1st of each month. On Jan. 1st they pool $17,000 in profit, quite a tidy profit. All players turn in their expenses. There are $1000 in expenses leaving $16,000 to split four ways. Pile 1 has $8,000 to be split equally, so each player receives $2,000. Pile 2 also has $8,000 to split according to hours played.
Player A played 40 hours
Player B played 60 hours
Player C played 45 hours
Player D played 55 hours
Add all of the hours together and you get 200 total hours then divide 200 hours into $8,000 to determine the hourly rate. That’s $40 per hour. Now multiply each players hours played by 40 to determine their pay.
Player A’s Pay is $1,600 for the hours played plus $2,000 for a total of $3,600
Player B’s Pay is $2,400 for the hours played plus $2,000 for a total of $4,400
Player C’s Pay is $1,800 for the hours played plus $2,000 for a total of $3,800
Player D’s Pay is $2,200 for the hours played plus $2,000 for a total of $4,200
Again, I must stress that each player must be honest and trustworthy otherwise the team will not last long. Honesty and trust are, by far the biggest reasons for teams failing.
4 Tips to Winning Double or Nothing Tournaments
Double or nothing tournaments are much different than normal poker tournaments because they have a very unique payout structure. In a double or nothing tournament half of the players in the field double their buy-in and half lose theirs. The fact that so many players cash combined with the fact that there is no difference in prize amount between first place and the last casher means the strategy for these tournaments is very unique.
Tip 1 Play Tight in the Early Stages of the Tourney At this stage of a double or nothing tournament you want to play very tight and only play big hands. The less experienced double or nothing players will likely be playing a lot of hands and you want to let them. If you do find a good hand you should play it aggressively in order to keep from allowing your opponent to suck out on you.
Tip 2 Maintain Your Stack through the Middle Stages In the middle stages of a double or nothing tournament the blinds will start to increase and you will need to steal blinds on occasion to maintain your stack size. You cant have your stack getting too small at this stage because you want it to carry you through the later levels.
Tip 3 Survive the Late Stages In the late stages you should just be focussing on surviving. At this point there will be about two-thirds of the field remaining which means there will only be a few more busts before you cash. If you have a big stack at this stage you should just hold onto it and not risk any chips when you dont need to. If you have a short stack you will want to compare your stack size to the other short stacks and if you are in a non-cash position you should get aggressive and try to gain some chips. If you need to get aggressive you should try to use your position to your advantage and you should also attack the blinds of the medium sized stacks. These players with about an average stack at this point will be wanting to fold their way into the money and you can take advantage of this by stealing their blinds.
Tip 4 Avoid Coin Flips in the Early Stages In double or nothing tournaments it is best to avoid coin flips in the early stages because they are negative expected value. This is simply because if you lose the coin flip youre out of the tourney and you lose the buy-in, whereas if you manage to win the coin flip you just have double the amount of chips and you arent even guaranteed to cash. This theory holds true only because the top prize you can win is only double your buy-in and by winning the 50% coin flip you havent even guaranteed yourself this cash.
Double or nothing tournaments are a grind and once the non-experienced players go out in the early rounds it all comes down to who can best adjust in the late stages and get the cards when they are needed.