At the local casino, a guy enters late into the shoe stating that he feels lucky for a Blackjack and bets $500. The player at 3rd base tells him that there is no way he is going to get a blackjack. The hand is dealt and the guy ended up losing his $500. He then asks the player at 3rd base why he had made that statement. The player tells him he was tracking the Aces and all the Aces had been dealt out already! Guy then says he wish he knew that before he bet $500!

This is what started me tracking Aces, but my question is do APs still stay in the game at lower positive counts if the Aces are gone, or just bet table minimum and finish out the shoe?

Personally I don't keep track of aces and see no point in doing so at a shoe game. Aces count as a low card for the play of a hand and a high card for the betting.

So a card counter announces to the table and dealer he's counting cards? I call BS on this story.

Yea, kind of fishy, but then again like people in this thread were saying, I don't think a card counter would keep track of Aces, there's not much point. So probably an amateur.

I played at an Indian Casino here in Michigan one time where an old guy was keeping the count and openly talking about it. After he made some nice change and left, I asked the floor why the didn't back him off, etc. Apparently for as good as he was blackjack, he was a terrible craps player lol.

There are some counting systems that don't count the aces in a primary count but use a side count of aces (e.g High-opt I and II, Omega II). These are most useful for single deck or double deck games. Also, they are more difficult and therefore increase the risk of errors, compared to simple counts like Hi-Lo.

Why doesn't someone just answer this incredibly easy question? Slightly positive counts are still, on average, disadvantageous if all the aces are out. As long as the ace is not valued much higher than the ten in that particular counting msystem.

Because it is an Indian casino -- where the count is always positive at the end of the shoe. In other words, a casino where the management can remove 10-cards from the shoe with no possibility of their being accountable to reputable gaming regulators.

I used to tell myself the same thing, but I've watched enough table setups to know better. All the cards are in the deck.

yah but think how sweet it would be to double down on 11 knowing u cant get that stupid ace

I would exit the above scenario and move on. Not because the lack of aces makes a mild positive count extremely negative, (it most likely is still above my normal exit point), but because it limits the advantage going forward and that's what I am really after. Sure the count could still rise significantly, but being made up of only the surplus of tens, rather than tens and aces, a good portion of the advantage I am seeking, which comes from additional blackjacks at the 3-2 payout, isn't there. I play a short session, hit and run style anyway, so this would trigger movement for me. Aces are already a part of my primary count, so when I side count aces, I am looking for that little bit of extra information, about the most important card in the deck. If you aren't going to use that information, in a case such as this, there is no reason to side count. Just use your primary count.