VEGAS DOWNTOWN (H17) SIX-DECK
67% DEALT 75% DEALT 80% DEALT
1-4 SPREAD 7/21/33 16/30/42 23/37/49
1-8 SPREAD 11/25/37 20/34/46 27/41/53
1-12 SPREAD 16/30/42 25/39/51 32/46/58

VEGAS STRIP (S-17, DAS) SIX-DECK
67% DEALT 75% DEALT 80% DEALT
1-4 SPREAD 21/35/47 30/44/56 37/51/63
1-8 SPREAD 25/39/51 34/48/61 41/55/68
1-12 SPREAD 30/44/56 39/53/66 46/60/73

ATLANTIC CITY (S-17, DAS) EIGHT-DECK
67% DEALT 1-4 SPREAD 16/29/40 1-8 SPREAD 20/33/44 1-12 SPREAD 24/37/48
75% DEALT 80% DEALT
24/37/48 30/43/54
28/41/52 34/47/58
32/45/56 38/51/62

For the common games above, you don’t have to add or subtract yourself—just look up the game in the chart and find the SPI value according to the conditions. Games not covered in these tables can easily be analyzed using the SPI chart. It should take you only a couple minutes to draw up a complete table for any common game. One word of caution: don’t forget fluctuation. Even a game that rates 200 points may be a big loser in the short run. (That’s the topic of the next chapter!)

• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part4 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part3 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part2 (0)

Let's use the SPI now to evaluate a sample game: Let's say you've just walked into a downtown Las Vegas casino. The tables are about half-full (with 2 to 4 players at most tables), and the games are being dealt from 6-deck shoes. After observing for a few minutes, you note that the dealers tend to cut off about one and a half decks, so about 3/4 of the cards are being dealt out between shuffles. The standard downtown Vegas rules are in force, so dealer hits soft 17, double on any two cards. Stepping into the coffee shop, you check the Index. Under 6 decks, with 2-4 players, you get 18 points. With 75% of the cards dealt, you add 9 points to this, for a total of 27. Since the dealer hits soft 17, you subtract 9 points, bringing you back to 18 points. With a 1 to 8 betting spread—16 points—the SPI would total 34 points, and even with a 1 to 12 betting spread, the SPI would only get to 39 points. You might also note that if you could play heads-up with the dealer in this game, the SPI would go up to 49 points, bordering on playable.

The Snyder Profit Index does not evaluate profit potential for those players whose cultivated "acts" allow them to use betting spreads of greater than 1 to 12 units. As for games that rate between 35 and 50, they will almost always turn a long run profit—but due to either the slight advantage or crowded conditions, earnings will be very slow. High stakes players may find games that rate in the upper thirties and forties profitable enough for their purposes.

Now let's use the SPI to analyze some commonly available games in this country. Single- and double-deck games are analyzed at shuffle-points of 50%, 67%, and 75%, and at betting spreads of 1-2, 1-4, and 1-8 units. The six- and eight-deck games are analyzed at shuffle-points of 67%, 75%, and 80%, and at betting spreads of 1-4, 1-8, and 1-12 units. Each entry has three numbers separated by slashes—for instance, the first entry (1-2 spread) for the 50% dealt, single-deck, Downtown Vegas (HI7) game reads -2/28/58. This means that with a full table, the SPI is -2 points; half-full, the SPI is 28 points; and heads-up the SPI is 58 points. So, unless you can play head-to-head with the dealer, and get away with using a 1-2 betting spread with a positive count, the game is a waste of time. You'll need deeper penetration or a bigger spread to make money in this game.

VEGAS DOWNTOWN (H17) ONE-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-2/28/58 8/38/68 18/48/68
67% DEALT
30/60/90 40/70/100 50/80/110
75% DEALT
50/80/110 60/90/120 70/100/130
RENO (H17, D10/11) ONE-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-22/8/38 -12/18/48 -2/28/58
67% DEALT
10/40/70 20/50/80 30/60/90
75% DEALT
30/60/90 40/70/100 50/80/110
VEGAS DOWNTOWN (H17) TWO-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-7/11/30 0/18/37 6/24/43
67% DEALT
13/31/50 20/38/57 26/44/63
75% DEALT
24/42/61 31/49/68 37/55/74
RENO (H17, D10/11) TWO-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-23/-5/16 -16/2/21 -10/8/27
67% DEALT
-3/15/36
4/22/41
10/28/47
75% DEALT
7/25/47
14/32/53

• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part3 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part5 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part2 (0)

The Snyder Profit Index does not evaluate profit potential for those players whose cultivated "acts" allow them to use betting spreads of greater than 1 to 12 units. As for games that rate between 35 and 50, they will almost always turn a long run profit—but due to either the slight advantage or crowded conditions, earnings will be very slow. High stakes players may find games that rate in the upper thirties and forties profitable enough for their purposes.

Now let's use the SPI to analyze some commonly available games in this country. Single- and double-deck games are analyzed at shuffle-points of 50%, 67%, and 75%, and at betting spreads of 1-2, 1-4, and 1-8 units. The six- and eight-deck games are analyzed at shuffle-points of 67%, 75%, and 80%, and at betting spreads of 1-4, 1-8, and 1-12 units.

Each entry has three numbers separated by slashes—for instance, the first entry (1-2 spread) for the 50% dealt, single-deck, Downtown Vegas (HI7) game reads -2/28/58. This means that with a full table, the SPI is -2 points; half-full, the SPI is 28 points; and heads-up the SPI is 58 points. So, unless you can play head-to-head with the dealer, and get away with using a 1-2 betting spread with a positive count, the game is a waste of time. You'll need deeper penetration or a bigger spread to make money in this game.

VEGAS DOWNTOWN (H17) ONE-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-2/28/58 8/38/68 18/48/68
67% DEALT
30/60/90 40/70/100 50/80/110
75% DEALT
50/80/110 60/90/120 70/100/130
RENO (H17, D10/11) ONE-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-22/8/38 -12/18/48 -2/28/58
67% DEALT
10/40/70 20/50/80 30/60/90
75% DEALT
30/60/90 40/70/100 50/80/110
VEGAS DOWNTOWN (H17) TWO-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-7/11/30 0/18/37 6/24/43
67% DEALT
13/31/50 20/38/57 26/44/63
75% DEALT
24/42/61 31/49/68 37/55/74
RENO (H17, D10/11) TWO-DECK
1-2 SPREAD 1-4 SPREAD 1-8 SPREAD
50% DEALT
-23/-5/16 -16/2/21 -10/8/27
67% DEALT
-3/15/36
4/22/41
10/28/47
75% DEALT
7/25/47
14/32/53
21/39/58

• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part4 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part5 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part2 (0)

To use the SPI, start by finding the column for the number of decks being shuffled together, then add and subtract points according to the crowd conditions, the shuffle-point, the rules, and the betting spread you intend to use. In estimating shuffle-points, the SPI offers four choices—50% penetration, 67% penetration, 75% penetration, and 80% penetration. Be conservative in your estimates; don't use the 80% value unless the shuffle point truly is quite a bit deeper than 75%. Remember, it's your money on the line, so proceed cautiously. In rating a game, use this barometer:

Above 50 a winner
0-50 table-hop only
Below 0 a time waster

Seek the game with the highest point value. If a game scores 50 or above, it will almost certainly provide a long-run profit for a card counter. In most cases, the SPI will accurately gauge the right game. In creating the SPI, my goal was to try and come up with an easy scoring system that would inform a player that his counting strategy in a particular game would yield at least a 1% advantage over the house, with enough hands per hour to make the game worthwhile. But do not attempt to use the SPI to discover your precise advantage as a "percentage;" the Index won't tell you that, as the crowd conditions automatically adjust the SPI for the increased hands per hour. If a game scores below 50 on the SPI, then you will probably not find it profitable to sit down and play. If you're going to play these games, you must table-hop to avoid negative counts.

THE SNYDER PROFIT INDEX
NUMBER OF DECKS
Ì 2 3,4 5, 6 7,8
Heads-Up +85 +50 +37 +30 +27
2-4 Players +55 +31 +21 +18 +16
5-7 Players +25 +13 +7 +4 +3
80% Dealt +35 +20 + 18 + 16 +14
75% Dealt +20 + 11 + 10 +9 +8
67% Dealt 0 0 0 0 0
50% Dealt -32 -20 -15 -13 -11
Early Surrender +55 +33 +26 +23 +21
Double After Splits + 10 +8 +6 +5 +4
Late Surrender +12 +9 +7 +6 +5
No Re-Splits -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
Stands Soft 17 0 0 0 0 0
Hits Soft 17 -15 -12 -10 -9 -8
Double Any Two 0 0 0 0 0
Double 10/11 Only -20 -16 -14 -12 -11
No Insurance -50 -34 -24 -20 -18
No Hole Card -9 -7 -5 -4 -3
(European)
1-2 Spread +20 + 12 +8 +6 +5
1-4 Spread +30 +19 + 14 + 11 +9
1-8 Spread +40 +26 +20 + 16 +13
1-12 Spread +50 +33 +26 +21 +17

Let's use the SPI now to evaluate a sample game: Let's say you've just walked into a downtown Las Vegas casino. The tables are about half-full (with 2 to 4 players at most tables), and the games are being dealt from 6-deck shoes. After observing for a few minutes, you note that the dealers tend to cut off about one and a half decks, so about 3/4 of the cards are being dealt out between shuffles. The standard downtown Vegas rules are in force, so dealer hits soft 17, double on any two cards. Stepping into the coffee shop, you check the Index. Under 6 decks, with 2-4 players, you get 18 points. With 75% of the cards dealt, you add 9 points to this, for a total of 27. Since the dealer hits soft 17, you subtract 9 points, bringing you back to 18 points. With a 1 to 8 betting spread—16 points—the SPI would total 34 points, and even with a 1 to 12 betting spread, the SPI would only get to 39 points. You might also note that if you could play heads-up with the dealer in this game, the SPI would go up to 49 points, bordering on playable.

• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part5 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part4 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part3 (0)

In 1981,1 self-published 1,000 copies of a little book titled Blackjack For Profit, and when I say "a little book," I mean little. The size was approximately four inches by five inches, and its 96 pages could easily fit into any man's shirt pocket with less bulge than a pack of cigarettes. Blackjack for Profit was actually my second book—my first, The Blackjack Formula, was also 96 pages and self-published, but I charged $100 per copy for that one.

Those two books, now out of print, initially made my reputation as a blackjack expert. What I revealed in The Blackjack Formula in 1980, which serious players were paying so dearly for, was the fact that the counting system in use was of less importance than the table conditions— the number of decks in play, the penetration (shuffle point), rule variations, and so forth. This was a radical idea back in 1980: system developers had been devising more and more complex card counting systems for almost none of them paid much attention to the games themselves, which were pretty much assumed to be equal.
The real eye-opener back then was the importance I placed on penetration, a game factor that had been ignored by virtually all of the best-known authors. I discovered its importance while reading a technical paper that had been published by the late Peter Griffin in 1975 titled, The Use of Bivariate Normal Approximations to Evaluate Single Parameter Card Counting Systems at Blackjack, which later became the core of Griffin's masterwork: The Theory of Blackjack (1979).

After I published The Blackjack Formula, which provided an algebraic method for estimating the expectation from playing any game with any counting system, I learned that bootleg copies of my formula were circulating in Las Vegas and Reno. Some players just didn't want to pay $100 for a 96-page book! So, I wrote an easier version of the book, which I titled Blackjack For Profit, which excluded most of the mathematics, but contained an even simpler method that virtually anyone could use to evaluate a blackjack game—"The Snyder Profit Index"—and I priced this book at a more reasonable $9.95.

I reprinted Blackjack for Profit numerous times over the next decade as I worked on a revised and updated version. In 1991, the infamous Oakland Firestorm destroyed my computer and all my backups of the work I had been doing (along with my house). In 1993, when I sold the last copies of the last printing of the book, I never reprinted it. Since then, the book has been out of print and unavailable at any price.

I've learned, however, from various blackjack players that bootleg copies of "Chapter Seven: The Snyder Profit Index," taken from that book, were circulating in Las Vegas and elsewhere, just like the Blackjack Formula, because the book was simply impossible to find, and many card counters still found the Snyder Profit Index, or SPI, to be a quick and convenient game evaluator.

Many pros today have computer software for evaluating game expectations with pinpoint accuracy, but for average players who find themselves faced with myriad table conditions, the SPI will almost always point you in the right direction. The SPI, which works by adding and subtracting points for favorable and unfavorable conditions, should be viewed as an approximate gauge rather than a precise evaluation, as there is no simple way to analyze a blackjack game precisely. The SPI will do for practical purposes, however, as it classifies games as either winners, time wasters, or losers. (In the SPI Chart below, I have revised a few of the values for better accuracy.)

• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part5 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part4 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part3 (0)

The final table condition you must consider is the depth of the deal prior to reshuffling. This factor makes no difference whatsoever to basic strategy players, but for card counters, penetration is hugely important. It is usually the major factor in determining whether a game is beatable via card counting or a waste of time. The deeper the penetration, the more profit potential for the counter.

When I published my first book, The Blackjack Formula, in 1980, many players were skeptical of the weight I gave to the effect of deck penetration. I received numerous letters from players who simply could not believe that there's any great difference in profitability between a single-deck Reno game with 55% penetration and one with 65% penetration. "10% is only five cards!" one player wrote to me. "Yet your formula shows the advantage almost doubling with the same 1 to 4 spread. That's impossible!" Other card counters, who were playing 4-deck downtown Vegas games with 70% penetration and 1 to 4 spreads, were incredulous of my claim that such a small spread, with such poor penetration, left them with barely a tenth of a percent advantage over the house.

These days, any decent book on card counting will tell you that penetration is the name of the game, but before 1980 no one knew! None of the books on card counting had ever mentioned the importance of deck penetration before.

The general rule is this: The shallower the penetration, the larger the betting spread you must use to beat the game. With a bad set of rules and poor penetration, you may not be able to beat the game with any spread.

In most single-deck games, you can't win big unless more than 50% of the cards are dealt out between shuffles—with Reno rules (double 10/ 11 only and dealer hits soft 17), make that more than 60%. There are two main reasons for this: One, most single-deck games have poor rule sets; two, you generally can't get away with a very big spread in single-deck games. With 2-deck games, you'll want at least 65% dealt out. (But don't even bother with a 2-decker when playing Reno rules.) With 4 or more decks, a bare minimum of 70% of the cards should be dealt out. Most shoe games, in fact, are best attacked by "table-hopping," i.e., leaving the game entirely on negative counts. Regardless of the number of decks in play, a 10% difference in penetration will make a huge difference in your profit potential: A 6-deck game with 85% penetration (about 5 decks dealt) is vastly superior to a 6-deck game with only 75% penetration (about 4 1/2 decks dealt).

As a basic guideline, I rate penetration as being either good, bad, or unexceptional. Regardless of the number of decks in play, bad is less than 67% dealt, unexceptional is 67-75% dealt, and good is 76+% dealt. This may be overly simplistic, but even if that's all you know, you still know a lot more than many guys who think they know blackjack cold. The ability to choose a good game, based on profit potential, is the most powerful weapon of the professional card counter.

• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part5 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part4 (0)
• Blackjack – The Snyder Profit Index Part3 (0)